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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. Whole Disk Encryption by seifried · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The answer to your problem is whole disk encryption, not trying to delete the data.

  2. Identity Theft or Physical Theft by MountainMan101 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If it's physical theft I would think they would bin the HDD or sell it "as is" without even looking at what's on it. Bricking it doesn't do a lot, you'd probably just replace the HDD anyway.

    Identity theft is more worrying. Why not encrypt the HDD with something like Fedora / Ubuntu offers - ie an encrypted /home or MyDocuments. That way the laptop won't log on for the thief.

    1. Re:Identity Theft or Physical Theft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If a thief grabs it, they would inevitably tuck it under their arm (walking around with an open netbook would slow them down and make them easier to spot). So set the netbook to shutdown when the lid is closed.

  3. Re:Encryption by man_ls · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Whole-Disk AES via TrueCrypt is only BARELY above the "acceptable" threshold on a Core Solo. I cringe to think what it'd be like on an Atom. A better bet would be to use a container-hosted TrueCrypt volume, and set your My Documents folder into that volume.

  4. Truecrypt + fake account by dargaud · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As others will have already said: use truecrypt. In addition, use two account: yours with a password, and another one (visible from the login shell) without password. Put a script in it that wipes the disk if anybody logs in it.

    --
    Non-Linux Penguins ?
  5. Slow News Day - WTF? by mcrbids · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google: windows encrypted drive + "I'm feeling lucky".

    Here's what I got:

    http://www.truecrypt.org/

    I'm OK with "Ask Slashdot" being used to gather the collective experience of the techies that like to hang out off-hours here at /. - but.. this?!?

    Something that could be addressed by a moment or two spent at Google or even (god's sake) Bing is a WASTE OF HITS. But maybe that's the plan - get droves of angry techies to bitch about the lameness of the stories, delivering ad impressions?

    Crazy like a fox?

    I'm on to you, Cmdr Taco, if that is your real name!

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
  6. Maybe I don't understand something... by jalet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    but if you care about confidentiality of your datas once your laptop is stolen, and at the same time you store most of your datas on servers owned and administered by someone who is not you (the Google company in this case), then maybe you should think twice about what you do.

    --
    Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
  7. fencing by reiisi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All the more reason to use a Linux or BSD based OS.

    To the average thief or receiver of stolen goods, a netbook running an alternate OS is as good as bricked.

    --
    Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
  8. fencing (repost) by reiisi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    To the average thief, and to the average receiver of a stolen netbook, if the netbook boots an alternative OS, it might as well be bricked.

    --
    Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
  9. Re:Quick'n'easy by Mistlefoot · · Score: 3, Insightful



    And while at Custom's, have the border guard try to log in to your computer. Have him "access" the second account, delete all the data and then discover that you find yourself in some foreign court charged with destroying whatever it is they claim you destroy.

    I do believe there have been cases in the US where people have been compelled by the courts to produce encryption keys for data on laptops they have tried to carry past customs. The poster does want to do this for protection while traveling "overseas". I wouldn't suggest entering some countries and claiming you just had a script delete everything on your harddrive - when their customs tried to log - but "you have nothing to hide - honest".