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Delete Data On Netbook If Stolen?
An anonymous reader writes "I have just moved overseas on a 2-year working holiday visa and so I picked up a netbook for the interim, an MSI Wind U100 Plus running WinXP. I love it to bits. But as I am traveling around I am somewhat worried about theft. Most of my important stuff is in Gmail and Google Docs; however, I don't always have Net access and find it useful to gear up the offline versions for both. Ideally I would like to securely delete all the offline data from the hard drive if it were stolen. Since it is backed up in the cloud, and the netbook is so cheap I don't really care about recovery, a solution that bricks it would be fine — and indeed would give me a warm glow knowing a prospective thief would have wasted their time. But it's not good if they can extract the HD and get at the data some other way. All thief-foiling suggestions are welcome, be they software, hardware, or other."
set up a scheduled task to wipe the drive unless you cancel it. Then don't forget to cancel it.
It's the only way to be sure.
There is probably room in the case for a few ounces of C4 explosive, and a detonator. You might have a hard time getting it through customs though..... and you had better never drop the thing so the detonator goes off!!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Carefully paint over the letters on the "T" and "E" keys with polonium-218 laced paint, then just remember to wear gloves when typing unless your name is something like "Frank" and your password is all digits.
Including the owner!
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Right now! No thief will ever get your data if you destroy it right now!
Oh you wanted to use it in the meantime. Well that's different...
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
The answer to your problem is whole disk encryption, not trying to delete the data.
Feh. Your so-called answer does not include the word 'thermite' or the phrase 'earth-shattering kaboom'. And you call yourself a geek?
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
come on! this isn't tagged with 'thermite' yet? Consider me disappointed...
Where's the ka-boom. There was supposed to be an earth shattering ka-boom.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
the part where the original poster said "Running WinXP" may not have made it all the way in.
I despise answers that randomly suggest competing products without really answering the question. It's like "My lawnmower won't start" and "Well, if you had goats, then you could feed them a different feed to make them more motivated." Try to advertise less and answer the frakking question more, MMkay?
If your lawnmower doesn't work, one answer would be: try goats.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
I wish I could make it deliver an electric shock, explode the battery or maybe a dye capsule, emit a foul-smelling and nauseating gas, or make a 911 call and report a fire at its location. Something along those lines. I don't expect thieves to be caught, so I want to somehow cause them harm directly.
I once designed a car security system that would have stood a good chance of killing the driver. I heard a lot of arguments about why that was a bad idea, but I don't buy any of them to this day. If you try to steal my radio you're in for a shock and will need a tetanus shot. I don't care much for thieves starting with whether they survive the attempt to steal my stuff, and ending there too, I suppose.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Adding a home made thermite device to a computer is not highly recommended. The nice people at airport security check might mistake your computer for improvised explosive and delay your flight.
For safe and secure disposal of hard disk I recommend installing an extra lithium battery from a certain manufacturer. The LHDDU (Lithium Hard Drive Disposal Unit) is both legal and functional as proven numerous times in Internet video clips. Just remember to keep the laptop on the table, not in your lap while using it yourself.
>Get a seagate momentus FDE and do pre-boot authentication.
>encryption is done in hardware, on the drive, viola.
Seagate momentus disks use string instruments for data encryption?
You don't have kids, do you ?
You just gave a recipe for disaster :)
Sneak teach kids Algebra using a game
nah... they'll just think it's windows 7 :p
Moot. The word is moot.
If you make more mistakes of that magnitude, you may be muffled and mutilated with a maddened moose.
Just be thankful there's no way of cramming buttered toast into a netbook.
Meta will eat itself
I would have recommended 10 grams of C4 explosives linked to a USB deactivation key for ultimate satisfaction, but you might have a few problems at airports....
Participatory Governance : The only feasible option for a real democracy, where everyone really does have a say.
Easy solution.
Install a Sony battery.
Ka-boom.
http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/11/lithium-ion-laptop-battery-explosion.html
P.S: It was made by a Gnome, so it might explode before it gets stolen.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
You've obviously not had a 4 year old play "Sandwich maker" with a laptop.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
The correct answer is truecrypt for Windows XP then simply encrypt the drive and voila! No password no data. But I can't think of any other way to totally brick it and still have it legal to travel with. After all customs tends to frown on C4, even if all you are doing is trying to teach thieves a valuable lesson in respecting peoples property.
Of course if you really wanted to make them suffer you could keep a small DOS partition and have it set to load in case of incorrect password and then use a batch file to play slides of Goatse and Tubgirl and maybe a few choice selections from 2 girls one cup, while playing a wav file of that damned annoying frog full blast on endless loop, but I think you may risk getting arrested for crimes against humanity. But I'm sure after the thief was done throwing up and washing out his eyes with bleach a valuable lesson would be learned.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
boom goes the dynamite.
Or use an Apple notebook. Their products are constantly bursting into flames and exploding.
I have it on good authority that neither one of them is actually a real cowboy or a taco. They built this house on LIES!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
... you don't have kids, do you?
No, they stole the Space Modulator. That's what causes the KABOOM!
Billie Mays took it with him.