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

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!