1. Use a GSM yammer to prevent self-destruction by SMS.
2. Steal the laptop and get out of the range of the token quickly to prevent self-destruction via the token. I could not find how drive and token communicate but you can probably jam it, too, for example Bluetooth.
3. Keep the battery charged to prevent self-destruction by low battery level and set up a femto cell - without connection to the real GSM net, of course - to prevent self-destruction by GSM starvation and SMS.
Now you should at least have all the time you need.
Well, that at least sets a minimum financial barrier. The main problem with that plan is that you'd have to know that your target has this kind of protection beforehand.
They also sell devices called Data Security Protocol Switches (DSPS) which completely prevent your method from working.
"A Signal Proximity (SP) option means that any registered AutothysisDSP computer hard drive that leaves the vicinity of the DSPS signal will automatically self-destruct. This protects against theft and someone walking out the room with a computer. Likewise if a jamming of the DSPS signal is tried in an attempt to thwart the security protocol the registered DSPS hard drives will self-destroy."
Ok, now I wonder: couldn't you harass people using this technology by jamming the DSPS signal until they give up on it and choose something else? I bet that these hard drives are costly enough so that it becomes a problem fast.
The people who use these devices fall under two broad categories: those who operate within the law and those who operate outside of it. In the former case, any jamming can be solved by a call to the FCC to the effect of: "Someone has been operating a jammer near our office. We think it might be a van parked nearby with the license plate 123456." In the latter case, any jamming could mean that the authorities have caught on to them and that they should start destroying all physical evidence. The drive would serve as a canary, so to speak.
> GSM Starvation Period – You can specify a period of time in hours that if the Drive cannot access a GSM service within this time period then the Drive will self-destruct. This protects against the removal of the GSM service in an attempt to circumvent the security features of the Drive.
you forgot one, and it makes jamming more difficult.
Not really- I believe the phone home feature requires a signed key. Its not just listening for a "destruct" but also a time-based, signed "nothing to report sir, continue"
In that case self-destructing chips seems total overkill. Everything beyond simple full disc encryption seems - at least to me - only to make sense if you expect a sophisticated targeted attack.
If you are Mike the Megavillain, then the protection this sort of set-up buys you is from Fred the FBI officer who raids your volcano lair for some other purpose, and bags your laptop as part of a general sweep for evidence without really knowing much about technology. By the time Charlie the CSI gets to it, there's nothing left to recover to reveal your even-more-nefarious plots.
Yes you are right with regards to encryption. However, law enforcement agencies nowadays make sure to freeze devices like telephones in order to prevent them from locking/logging out. In case of (desktop) computers that are turned on, they make sure to splice the cables and hook them onto batteries in order to preserve their on state. I assume they are also aware of things like this self-destructing drive, but I am not sure what their attack vectors are. Most likely they just beat you until you tell them the code.
In case of traveling with sensitive data however this system is pretty good. Normally you'd be forced to give up the encryption passphrase, but when the data is destroyed there is nothing to give up.
This is all very neat, but it appears these folks haven't heard of X-ray microscopy - I don't see why, with a sufficiently high resolution scan, you couldn't see the physical state of the NAND switches on the chip, without opening the packaging, or doing anything else to trigger it.
16nm gates, 10nm resolution achieved - this is probably "good enough", although would require some work as the resolution is barely better than the NAND cell size.
Although you could remedy this by wrapping the thing in lead, within the case - which maybe they have. Be interesting to see the RoHS statement.
2. Steal the laptop and get out of the range of the token quickly to prevent self-destruction via the token. I could not find how drive and token communicate but you can probably jam it, too, for example Bluetooth.
3. Keep the battery charged to prevent self-destruction by low battery level and set up a femto cell - without connection to the real GSM net, of course - to prevent self-destruction by GSM starvation and SMS.
Now you should at least have all the time you need.