4 ms·

> Sometimes it's best to just take control of the physical layer and call it a day. If you want to stop your every day user from plugging in USB drives then th

> Sometimes it's best to just take control of the physical layer and call it a day. If you want to stop your every day user from plugging in USB drives then this is probably all you need to do. In a scenario where you're concerned about insider threats with even a minimal level of computing knowledge, you have to lock down the BIOS and the OS layer as well. "Oh the IT guy put epoxy in the USB ports, guess I'll just take the case off and plug into the USB ports on the motherboard"

Florin_Andrei 10y ago
Well, of course this doesn't give you a get out of jail free card. You still have to pay attention to the other layers in the stack. This is only about paying attention (or not) to the physical layer directly (as opposed to handling physical security indirectly in higher layers).
jonathankoren 10y ago
You can also cut the traces or epoxy the internally ports as well. It's not hard. It's just about what level of threat do you want live with. I imagine you could always defeat this by cutting through the epoxy or gently sanding the board to put probes directly on the traces, but then again security is all about depth. I have a friend that worked at LLNL and she used to talk about secured laptops having their USB ports epoxied and the traces physically cut on the camera and microphones to help secure them. I think even the wifi and bluetooth were disabled as well. After hearing these stories, it made me chuckle at Zuckerberg's masking tape.
WalterBright 10y ago
For a hardened PC, the first thing I'd do is burn the BIOS into ROM. Read Only Memory. ROM cannot be infected.
digi_owl 10y ago
Case intrusion sensors are a thing. And i swear i have seen cases with loops for padlocks.
- jagger27 10y ago
  Padlocked cases are common on school computers.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    Yeah i should have suspected. Have not set foot back there in ages though. Thinking about it i guess schools may be some of the most hostile computing environments in civilian life.
    - Florin_Andrei 10y ago
      > Thinking about it i guess schools may be some of the most hostile computing environments in civilian life. Long time ago, I've briefly managed an environment like that. It was crazy. Kids are really good at breaking stuff in creative ways.

Florin_Andrei 10y ago

Well, of course this doesn't give you a get out of jail free card. You still have to pay attention to the other layers in the stack. This is only about paying attention (or not) to the physical layer directly (as opposed to handling physical security indirectly in higher layers).

jonathankoren 10y ago

You can also cut the traces or epoxy the internally ports as well. It's not hard. It's just about what level of threat do you want live with. I imagine you could always defeat this by cutting through the epoxy or gently sanding the board to put probes directly on the traces, but then again security is all about depth. I have a friend that worked at LLNL and she used to talk about secured laptops having their USB ports epoxied and the traces physically cut on the camera and microphones to help secure them. I think even the wifi and bluetooth were disabled as well. After hearing these stories, it made me chuckle at Zuckerberg's masking tape.

WalterBright 10y ago

For a hardened PC, the first thing I'd do is burn the BIOS into ROM. Read Only Memory. ROM cannot be infected.

digi_owl 10y ago

Case intrusion sensors are a thing. And i swear i have seen cases with loops for padlocks.

jagger27 10y ago
Padlocked cases are common on school computers.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Yeah i should have suspected. Have not set foot back there in ages though. Thinking about it i guess schools may be some of the most hostile computing environments in civilian life.
  - Florin_Andrei 10y ago
    > Thinking about it i guess schools may be some of the most hostile computing environments in civilian life. Long time ago, I've briefly managed an environment like that. It was crazy. Kids are really good at breaking stuff in creative ways.