Re: Exploding chips could foil laptop thieves.

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: John Q. Public <tpublic () dimensional com>

On Fri, 18 Jan 2002, InfoSec News wrote:

|Forwarded from: Jay D. Dyson <jdyson () treachery net>
|
|-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
|
|Courtesy of Cryptography List.
| 
|Exploding chips could foil laptop thieves
|19:00 16 January 02
|Duncan Graham-Rowe
| 
|A new way of making silicon explode could mean anyone trying to use a
|stolen laptop or mobile will be confronted by this message: "This machine
|is stolen and will self-destruct in ten seconds ... ". 

I don't want one.  It's bad enough when your friends make fun of you
in a chat room/email list/irc whatever when you leave a teminal open.  
I know guys that would initiate this destruction for fun.

Then again, what about the next "deadly" virus?  Unless Bill is
serious about this security 'thing' we'll soon be dealing with a virus
that spreads around and melts computers with this Mission Impossible
upgrade.

Now, something that provides an electrical shock to the user could
come in handy.  We've already got apps like PC Anywhere, VNC,
Timbuktu, etc that allow a tech support person to watch what a user
does on his PC in real time. You can tell them over and over, but
thick users will still make mistakes.

Perhaps a jolt of encouragement will prevent some of the ignorant
mistakes made in the enterprise these days.  It would sure make the
gaming industry boom.  Oh, and I suppose it could be used to deter
thieves and console hackers as well.

.nhoJ



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