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Ross Ulbricht had his laptop snatched by an undercover FBI agent while he was using it. This kill cord might have saved him some grief.

mirimir 7y ago
Indeed. Better, perhaps, would be to trigger wiping the LUKS header and deleting the boot partition.
- segfaultbuserr 7y ago
  The hard question is how to put an easy-to-use self-destruction mechanism in an existing machine (only the NSA can make a customized machine), and, at the same time, ensure the safety of the self-destruction mechanism. A self-destruction button is a safety risk if it can be triggered accidentally or maliciously, on the other hand, a secured self-destruction button is a safety risk if it's too hard to trigger. The NSA laptops have two buttons on one side of the machine, to destruct crypto keys, one needs to open a cover and press two buttons simultaneously. It's a pretty good self-destruction button. But you cannot find it in your laptops. Or perhaps you can design your kill switch like the Russian nuclear Dead Hand - the automatic nuclear retaliation mechanism is only armed if a safety switch has been explicitly switched on, in peacetime, the switch is turned off to avoid an accidental nuclear apocalypse. But remember to arm the switch every time you travel with your laptop became a question.
- dbtx 7y ago
  If your /boot is on a USB drive and you set up with detached header then the disk can already be 100% random data. On the down side, that USB drive is not very deniable and the system can't be set to destroy it since you probably don't keep it connected. Still, you could boot the machine at home, put it to sleep, leave /boot at home, and wake it up whenever you've reattached this kill cord. If you absolutely need to be able to reboot, use kexec (in theory).
0kl 7y ago
Better opsec would have saved him some grief as well. Before even touching on his habitual use of coffee shops near his residence to run the Silk Road... > The connection was made by linking the username "altoid", used during Silk Road's early days to announce the website, and a forum post in which Ulbricht, posting under the nickname "altoid", asked for programming help and gave his email address, which contained his full name. By the time the FBI was watching him and had connected his name to I don’t think there’s a lot that he could have done to avoid arrest.
- mikeyouse 7y ago
  Aside from the much better idea of, you know, not keeping a journal of all of your incredibly illegal activities and attempted hits - this may have actually prevented the government from accessing said journal. He was definitely going to be busted in either case but it could've shaved some years off his eventual sentence.
- zelly 7y ago
  He would still have gone to prison no matter what (the government can make up evidence), but they may not have been able to seize his Bitcoin without stealing his laptop.
  - H8crilA 7y ago
    Does that matter with a double life sentence.
    - ta999999171 7y ago
      No clue how prison works? Do watch a few documentaries. Money's important inside.
      - monadgonad 7y ago
        Bitcoin on the outside is hardly "money"

mirimir 7y ago

Indeed. Better, perhaps, would be to trigger wiping the LUKS header and deleting the boot partition.

segfaultbuserr 7y ago
The hard question is how to put an easy-to-use self-destruction mechanism in an existing machine (only the NSA can make a customized machine), and, at the same time, ensure the safety of the self-destruction mechanism. A self-destruction button is a safety risk if it can be triggered accidentally or maliciously, on the other hand, a secured self-destruction button is a safety risk if it's too hard to trigger. The NSA laptops have two buttons on one side of the machine, to destruct crypto keys, one needs to open a cover and press two buttons simultaneously. It's a pretty good self-destruction button. But you cannot find it in your laptops. Or perhaps you can design your kill switch like the Russian nuclear Dead Hand - the automatic nuclear retaliation mechanism is only armed if a safety switch has been explicitly switched on, in peacetime, the switch is turned off to avoid an accidental nuclear apocalypse. But remember to arm the switch every time you travel with your laptop became a question.
dbtx 7y ago
If your /boot is on a USB drive and you set up with detached header then the disk can already be 100% random data. On the down side, that USB drive is not very deniable and the system can't be set to destroy it since you probably don't keep it connected. Still, you could boot the machine at home, put it to sleep, leave /boot at home, and wake it up whenever you've reattached this kill cord. If you absolutely need to be able to reboot, use kexec (in theory).

0kl 7y ago

Better opsec would have saved him some grief as well. Before even touching on his habitual use of coffee shops near his residence to run the Silk Road... > The connection was made by linking the username "altoid", used during Silk Road's early days to announce the website, and a forum post in which Ulbricht, posting under the nickname "altoid", asked for programming help and gave his email address, which contained his full name. By the time the FBI was watching him and had connected his name to I don’t think there’s a lot that he could have done to avoid arrest.

mikeyouse 7y ago
Aside from the much better idea of, you know, not keeping a journal of all of your incredibly illegal activities and attempted hits - this may have actually prevented the government from accessing said journal. He was definitely going to be busted in either case but it could've shaved some years off his eventual sentence.
zelly 7y ago
He would still have gone to prison no matter what (the government can make up evidence), but they may not have been able to seize his Bitcoin without stealing his laptop.
- H8crilA 7y ago
  Does that matter with a double life sentence.
  - ta999999171 7y ago
    No clue how prison works? Do watch a few documentaries. Money's important inside.
    - monadgonad 7y ago
      Bitcoin on the outside is hardly "money"