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Software Dead Man's Switch

Posted by timothy on from the take-short-vacations dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "DaisyMan over on ArsWare has come up with a software based Dead Man's Switch that will, if you don't 'check in' every so often, post a message (presumably about your demise, but whatever you wish) to various message boards, send email (maybe that incriminating evidence?) to your friends, and encrypt specified files on your computer so that 'they' can't have them. Paranoia? Yeah, but they really _are_ watching you ..." Update: 06/22 12:57 GMT by T : The idea isn't new, but recently sparked a New York Times article.

4 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Re:NY Times registration by ZaneMcAuley · · Score: 4, Informative


    http://www.majcher.com/nytview.html

    Just use this NYTimes user generator :D

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    ----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
  2. A more effective one by Fencepost · · Score: 3, Informative
    Though their website is sappier than I would've believed possible, "Loving Pup" has a service along these lines for folks in the US. They aren't looking for notifications, they get the death notifications (by SSN) from the US government; when your SSN is listed they send the email messages that you'd set up in advance. Of course, they also charge an annual fee ranging from $12-24.

    If nothing else, it's certainly safer in terms of vacations.

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    fencepost
    just a little off
  3. Good in theory, Bad in practice by 1g$man · · Score: 5, Informative

    IIRC there were so many false alarms on the ArsTechnica forums from this thing that the moderators will lock any Deadman Switch posts on sight.

    It's an interesting idea, but it's way too easy to forget it's running, go on vacation, and then come back and find your hard disk wiped. Not to mention a forum filled with ArsTechnica loungers weeping over your passing, only to be bitter to find out you've tricked them...

  4. fastest way to destruction by dattaway · · Score: 4, Informative

    Make sure you format once to quickly start a new filesystem, repeated by a destructive badblock test to finish off the lost data between the inode maps. Just to be safe, scramble the boot sector and randomize the partition tables. That ought to make recovery a bit more difficult.

    /sbin/mkfs /dev/hda --ooops, formatted the whole drive as a filesystem, not a partition. Scrambled the partition table and the user's data all in one step. Ooops. Sorry.

    /sbin/badblocks -fw /dev/hda --forces write testing on a mounted filesystem with assorted patterns of data. Truely evil.

    The first step ought to take a few seconds. The second will continue to munch away until the deed is complete. Since all data will be gone, no ill will from upset mourners.