Self-destructing external hard drive

[Gadsden]

A friend of mine ran this past me.. I was able to find the ensconcedata drives (which looked very cool, but expensive) but could not find what he is talking about. Anyone have any ideas? Sounds like a cool toy...

Background: I listened to a presentation earlier this week about a law enforcement raid that happened in the Ukraine about a well known person in Cyprus. Without going into details about this person or the raid, this person had a very interesting device. This device was either an external storage unit or a cube computer with a removable hard drive bay (about the size of a shoebox). Either case, he was able to push a button on a remote (like a garage door or panic remote) and it would perform some sort of low level format and wipe out all the data on the hard drive. He had these remotes throughout the place he was at. The person that gave the presentation said these devices were extremely popular in the Eastern European underground community. He said they could be purchased for approx 300 (Dollar or Euro, I couldn’t make out the currency). I’ve done many searches on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines to find anything about this, but have found nothing. Someone emailed me about a product from http://www.ensconcedata.com/ that had a chemical that would be sprayed directly onto the platters, but those cost 1K and up depending on the size. Whatever this is, that I saw, was around 300 Dollars or Euros.

[erehwon]

A friend of mine ran this past me.. I was able to find the ensconcedata drives (which looked very cool, but expensive) but could not find what he is talking about. Anyone have any ideas? Sounds like a cool toy...

Without knowing more, I would say its some sort of degausser that is flipped on when TSHTF, I don't care what information was on the drive, I wouldn't want to add manslaughter charges if one of the investigators had an implanted heart defibrillator fry at the same time your drive did.

I've heard about the Ensconce Data drive deletion on the fly, and there is another company offering something similar, but I can't find their URL. BitMicro came up when researching this problem in an in-house project we were working on, please bear with the cut and paste job from their website...

Erasing disk data beyond recovery requires that each storage element be cycled repeatedly five or six times, which takes a considerable amount of time. As a result, BiTMICRO® developed and patented securErase®, a firmware utility that erases all traces of data (except wear leveling statistical data) on each block of non-volatile memory efficiently and effectively. securErase® is fully compliant with the remanence security requirements of the U.S. DoD, NSA, Air Force, Army and Navy.

When used in combination with PowerGuard® II Erase mode, securErase® is executed as soon as the system powers down and automatically resumes the erase procedure upon power up. On a disk with PowerGuard® III in Standby mode, securErase® may be executed by either depressing the external push button or by toggling the 3-way mode select switch from Standby Mode to Erase Mode. If for any reason the erase process fails to complete, securErase® automatically resumes the erase procedure upon power up.

The standard erase facility (via a SCSI/IDE erase command) is provided in all BiTMICRO® Flash disks.

I have no idea how much BitMicro wants for their drives, I didn't get that far in exploring the prices, I hope all of this helps.

[Gadsden]

Thanks for the reply, but unfortunately that was all I have to go on. I would love to find more info on this though, it looks like a cool toy to have. Anyone have ideas for a do-it yourself system? I assume an encrypted drive would do almost as well.. if the drive was powered down or removed the data would become unreadable w/o a password, accomplishing the same goal of making the data on the drive unusable to a third party.

[Nikita]

goal of making the data on the drive unusable to a third party.

Why dont you build a strip inside your door frame that when carrying a hard drive (or anything) thru it it will erase the magnetic data?

But there are plenty of ways to meet your goals: disable swap space, use flash drive, pgp, there are also mini emp's you can buy, token keys, hiring zombies to gaurd your home with the promise of goverment brain meat.

[Demon Furor]

Most of the time, if the the FBI has enough evidence to get a warrant and take your computer, they already have enough evidence to prosecute. What is on your computer will just build onto the case.

[GBHis]

Why dont you build a strip inside your door frame that when carrying a hard drive (or anything) thru it it will erase the magnetic data?

But there are plenty of ways to meet your goals: disable swap space, use flash drive, pgp, there are also mini emp's you can buy, token keys, hiring zombies to gaurd your home with the promise of goverment brain meat.

Yeah, nice idea :)

.... "D'oh! My phone! Where are all my numbers?
D'oh! My social security card! Why can't I go to the hospital?
Arh! Crap! My iPod is broken.... Bu-huuu..."

[Voltage Spike]

.... "D'oh! My phone! Where are all my numbers?
D'oh! My social security card! Why can't I go to the hospital?
Arh! Crap! My iPod is broken.... Bu-huuu..."

I can't tell how serious you are, but I feel compelled to say...

Most phones do not store the numbers in magnetic memory. A United States social security card is paper and should not be affected by a magnetic field. Most iPods these days use non-magnetic storage methods.

Even neglecting all that, a magnetic strip, no matter how strong, is unlikely to make the drive unrecoverable. It may, however, piss off the lab guy who is forced to pull off the data.

[GBHis]

This wasn't serious at all...

In my country, social security cards DO store some kind of data on a magnetic strip.

The iPod wont' be better after passing a magnet-strip, anyway...

Before actually screwing it up, you need to create some sort of shifting magnet-*place/space/force* [can't remember the english word)
Electric magnet would do best?

It could however be cool to have a electro-magnet that could be turned on and off with a remote...
When the feds were coming to get your stuff (or examine your computer, bringing their tools on a harddisk/usb-stick/diskettes) they would get screwed? At least the diskettes :)

This is whole idea of destructing your harddisk remotely is strange... If you wiped your disk remotely when the cops were to look at it, you would get a year or two for destroying evidence?

[skroo]

It could however be cool to have a electro-magnet that could be turned on and off with a remote...
When the feds were coming to get your stuff (or examine your computer, bringing their tools on a harddisk/usb-stick/diskettes) they would get screwed? At least the diskettes :)

This is why you do forensic investigation from non-magnetic, read-only media wherever possible :)

This is whole idea of destructing your harddisk remotely is strange... If you wiped your disk remotely when the cops were to look at it, you would get a year or two for destroying evidence?

Likely not, if it were in that state before they got there. At that point it's just junk, and as far as I'm aware there's no law against sticking broken hardware in a computer if you really want to.

[Mother]

The way I'd homebrew this would be to have a two-stage mechanism.

First, a high-Gauss discharge circuit, i.e. permanently charged capacitor and coil system, would give a nasty magnetic shock to the drive. There are Phillips caps that can hold over 600 Joules (6300uF at 450V).

Secondly, the closed container would feature a high-temperature incineration system, right now two ideas come to mind, magnesium and model rocket engines.

The whole thing could then be triggered by a remote, thus effectively killing your drive, and making data recovery quite hard.

Good luck, and make sure you've had all the children you want before attempting the above :)

Cheers,

Mother

[skroo]

First, a high-Gauss discharge circuit, i.e. permanently charged capacitor and coil system, would give a nasty magnetic shock to the drive. There are Phillips caps that can hold over 600 Joules (6300uF at 450V).

Jesus. That'd be enough to start a fire on its own without...

Secondly, the closed container would feature a high-temperature incineration system, right now two ideas come to mind, magnesium and model rocket engines.

Thermite. The capacitor above may make a good igniter, but I wouldn't want to rely on it in a pinch. Thermite's a bitch to get going.

Good luck, and make sure you've had all the children you want before attempting the above :)

And that nobody lives below you who would object to molten slag at about 4500degF dripping through their ceiling, though if you've gone this far irate neighbours are probably the least of your worries.

[Mother]

Something to get the ball rolling:

http://www.textfiles.com/humor/thermite.ana

Why it's in the 'humor' section escapes me...

Mother