Software Dead Man's Switch

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.

Comments

Flaw?

[Deanasc]

OK wouldn't this be a moot point if my enemies get my computer offline before the switch is thrown. A better way would be for the software to run off something like FIDOnet with no single weakpoint. Just my 2 cents.

login script

[xpurple]

I've got my laptop set to format the drive (yes | rm -r /) if I don't login every so often. Currently it's set at two weeks (I don't reboot much). I don't see this causing any issues, and it makes me feel better.

So far so good :)

Note that this gets around the annoying having to do something special to make it work. I'd login anyway :)

Safe Deposit Box

[SparkyTWP]

I think I'd rather just get a safe deposit box and make instructions to have it opened after my death. Inside would be instructions for emails, postings, etc...

Then you know you wouldn't have to worry about accidentally tripping the program if you went on vacation.

You'd still need an encryption program for files though if you don't trust anyone with that, but that's not a big deal.

Accidentally encrypting data is no big deal, accidentally sending off final emails with very personal messages is a whole other story.

Re:Question...

[clary]

Hehe.

Actually, maybe the poster was serious??? I could imagine putting the cron job on one of your main servers or workstations, easily found by "THEM." The dead-man's switch would be on some less obvious machine, in another location. When "THEY" rush in, unplug, and cart off all your machines, "THEY" unknowingly turn off the cron job.

For the most delicious irony, the most wily of you might find some way to host the dead-man's switch on one of "THEIR" machines!

Spooks turning machines on/off...

[ArtEnvironment]

Uhm... NO.

If you turn a machine on (or off.) you change the state of a machine, and thusly, destroy potential evidence.

If they're dropping into your place secretly to install a 'bug' program or hardware piece, then they might turn it on or off..

But, if they just want your data they won't even use any of your hardware to get it, but will just remove your drive and then clone your drive.

Even the local police know that one, I doubt the NSA would be so stupid.

A much easier, less risky, more effective solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Have someone you trust, like your wife, your sister or, if you're alone on the world, a lawyer flip on the 'switch' when you're dead.

There must be someone you can trust more then your ability to check in every now and then.

And if there isn't, I truly pitty you, but you can hire a lawyer to do it.
And no there is no conspiracy between the lawyers and the government.

Wordsworth: "birth is but a sleep and a forgetting

[Anonymous Coward]

Like you're going to care if "they" get your files when you die.

You don't take any more with you when you leave this world than you brought with you the day you came.

This whole attitude just pisses me off

[uptownguy]

Actually, getting caught was just bad luck for him, not a mistake.

{rant}

The mistake was in doing something WRONG -- setting up a system ahead of time to cause DAMAGE to the property of someone else is WRONG. Once you stop working for that company, you have no right to do bad things to their systems. Actually, when you DO work there, you don't have a right to do bad things to their systems. You still don't have a RIGHT to the information that is on their systems. My GOD, the arrogance of programmers/system admins who feel that it is their network to do with as they please. Unless you are the one signing the check each week, that is...

Vandalism is vandalism. I get pissed when the punks down the street spraypaint a fence and mess up what is a beautiful neighborhood. I get pissed when someone with a big ego and a bigger sense of entitlement comes up with a way to vandalize the property of their former boss. It is sophomoric, unethical and just plain wrong.

I can see the case for security on a personal system. A laptop. A privately owned workstation. I am all for freeing information and sharing what we know. Knowledge is power. Open source is good. Preaching to the choir, there. But...

The direction that a subset of our community seems to take... this gleeful boating about destroying the private property of another... the idea that might makes right... well, let's just say it pisses me off and does a disservice to the community.

{/rant}

If you feel a need to do this....

[Fencepost]

If you feel a need to screw your coworkers like this if you quit/get fired/whatever, you're at the wrong company. Quit now before you do something stupid and vindictive that's likely to mess up your life, because if you feel like that now even if things improve you'll never really be happy there.

If you can't grasp that, grasp that most companies that inspire this sort of feeling are the large impersonal ones that are likely to survive, and that eventually they may figure out what you did at which point you're screwed for the rest of your life and they're minorly inconvenienced. Not worth it.