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Build Your Own Electronic Key Card Lock

Posted by michael on from the friday-night-build-your-own-series-continues dept.

edBX writes "GideonTech.com has a new guide up on how to make your own electronic lock using a key card. Built using a phototransistor, infrared-emitting diode and a few ICs, they are able to turn on their computer using a punched out phone card."

2 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Just a thought... by GMC-jimmy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why isn't there a "Build your own" section like "Ask Slashdot" or "Apache" ? Maybe even a "Slashdot How-To Guide" could turn out useful.

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    Free your mind - Flush your toilet
  2. Re:USB Keycards? by dasunt · · Score: 5, Informative

    Linux Disc Encryption Howto

    What it is: A method of encrypting a hard drive, and using a USB key-drive device and passphrase to decrypt the hard drive at boot.

    Why: To protect computers (especially laptops) from unauthorized access to the hard disk. Bios passwords, login passwords, and the above slashdot story do not prevent the hard drive from being removed from the machine and the data read in another machine.

    How it works: The laptop's drive is AES encrypted. At boot, the computer needs the key drive with the passkey and the matching passphrase to transparently decrypt the drive. It keeps a copy of the passkey and passphrase in memory, so the USB drive may be removed after booting. It only decrypts the files that it is using, so if power is lost at any moment, all data will remain protected.

    Why its cool: Its high quality encryption, OS tools, and protects your laptop's files from being accessed if its stolen. What more do you need?

    ( IMHO, way more deserving of a slashdot story then a simple electronic hack that can be bypassed by anyone with electronics knowledge. )