RutSum

How To Keep Your Data Safe On A Stolen Netbook/Laptop

So I was reading this interesting story on Slashdot, and amidst the usual (Score:5, Funny) comments, I could find loads of amazing ideas to actually protect your data in case your netbook/laptop gets stolen.

The thing with physical theft is that the thief has physical access to your hard drive, and so if their intention is to steal data, they can pop out the hard disk from the machine, and then use a variety of software/hardware/machine based methods to scrape off your personal data from it. This leaves you with only 2 options – either make the hard disk inaccessible to the thief (can be achieved by rigging it with C4, and a remote detonation device), or a much easier way – encrypt the data.

For this, the most suggested tool to use was TrueCrypt, which is a free and open source on-the-fly encryption tool for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It encrypts your partitions transparently, and has a very amazing feature of plausible deniability where you can create a hidden volume to show to someone who is forcing you to let out the password at gunpoint. Check out the link for more juicy details.

One of the smarter commenters suggested that no matter how smart the thief may be, if its data they’re going after, they use basic easier methods first to try and hack into the system used by machine’s owner. This being the case, one can create 2 accounts – here’s the interesting part – 1 for normal usage, and another fake account. Password protect your normal account, and keep the other account open for all. Then rig the fake account with a script to automatically wipe out everything on your normal account (doing this is much easier than it sounds) or if you’re even more paranoid, then completely shred your hard disk. Clever idea, but flawed.

Other things that I got to know was the existence of things such as AbsoluteSoftware’s Lojack for Laptops. Its sits in the BIOS and allows you to remotely monitor the usage of your laptop, delete data on your hard drive, and may even help you recover a stolen laptop. It has the advantage of being impervious to hard drive formats or replacement.

Another interesting suggestion was made, which was flawed as it was dependent on the thief using the machine along with an internet connection, but was very interesting anyway. I’m quoting the comment here as it is -

1. Set up multi-boot config.
2. Create a bootable partition that has enough OS on it to run the drive and network, name it something interesting like ‘Confidential’.
3. Get the BIOS flash utils for your netbook, create a corrupt bios image that will still pass muster enough to install.
4. Set up a boot time process on the netbook that does a ‘wget’ from a web site that you control. If it gets a file, quietly flash the BIOS with what it downloads.

If you ever get ripped off, move the nasty BIOS image to the file location on your web site and bask in the glow of pure wickedness…

You can test this with a valid BIOS image, but don’t look at me if something terrible happens, you’re playing with fire here.

All these should be more than enough to keep your data safe from a possible data mining thief.

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