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Delete Data On Netbook If Stolen?

Posted by kdawson on from the grab-brick-smash-window dept.

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."

10 of 459 comments (clear)

  1. a hack by binford2k · · Score: 5, Funny

    set up a scheduled task to wipe the drive unless you cancel it. Then don't forget to cancel it.

    1. Re:a hack by RsG · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's a TERRIBLE idea... Like, HOLY SHIT terrible.

      Then your threshold for terrible needs adjusting. I'm sure I can think of something worse than what the AC suggested :-P

      For example: a small thermite charge, proximate to the hard drive platter. It's fused to go off if a particular peripheral isn't detected upon boot-up; you keep the peripheral "key" with you, perhaps attached to your regular key-chain. A thief tries to boot, and BOOM (okay, thermite doesn't "boom", but you get the idea) - no more HDD. Or netbook. Or whatever it happened to be on top of. Bonus points if the thief happens to have it on their lap at the time.

      Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you propose a terrible idea. Compared to this, a full disk wipe sounds positively safe and reasonable.

      (IMPORTANT: If anyone out there is stupid enough to take this suggestion seriously and implement this obvious deathtrap, I cannot be held accountable for any loss of property, organic damage or Darwin award nominations that result.)

      --
      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    2. Re:a hack by YourExperiment · · Score: 5, Funny

      The OP says he's moved "overseas" so presumably some day he'll be travelling back to which ever country he came from

      Not necessarily, he might have moved out of the U.K.

      (No flames please, I'm British :)

  2. On a netbook? by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 4, Funny

    The laptop is as good as bricked to anyone who gets it.

    Including the owner!

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  3. Take to it with a hammer! by syousef · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
  4. Re:Whole Disk Encryption by grcumb · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  5. Re:Whole Disk Encryption by mjwx · · Score: 5, Funny

    Feh. Your so-called answer does not include the word 'thermite' or the phrase 'earth-shattering kaboom'. And you call yourself a geek?

    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.
  6. Re:Whole Disk Encryption by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?

  7. Re:Whole Disk Encryption by Krneki · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  8. Re:Whole Disk Encryption by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.