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'Vanish' Makes Sensitive Data Self-Destruct
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports on new software called 'Vanish,' developed by computer scientists at the University of Washington, which makes sensitive electronic messages 'self destruct' after a certain period of time. The researchers say they have struck upon a unique approach that relies on 'shattering' an encryption key that is held by neither party in an e-mail exchange, but is widely scattered across a peer-to-peer file sharing system. 'Our goal was really to come up with a system where, through a property of nature, the message, or the data, disappears,' says Amit Levy, who helped create Vanish. It has been released as a free, open-source tool that works with Firefox. To use Vanish, both the sender and the recipient must have installed the tool. The sender then highlights any sensitive text entered into the browser and presses the 'Vanish' button. The tool encrypts the information with a key unknown even to the sender. That text can be read, for a limited time only, when the recipient highlights the text and presses the 'Vanish' button to unscramble it. After eight hours, the message will be impossible to unscramble and will remain gibberish forever. Tadayoshi Kohno says Vanish makes it possible to control the 'lifetime' of any type of data stored in the cloud, including information on Facebook, Google documents or blogs."
Dear Alice,
Do you want to go to the dance with me?
[ ] YES
[ ] NO
Love,
Bob
(Message will self-desctruct 1 minute after dance starts.)
I think corporate VPs have been using this tool for years, with the delay trigger set to "0".
End anonymous moderation and posting on
...everything disappears off there pretty quickly already.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
This is actually a good idea. Now just add it to sms's, so I can "cancel" all the text messages I've sent to my ex the night before :)
I wonder how I could adapt this to conversations my wife has with me, since she reminds me of stuff I said 20 odd years ago?
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
After eight hours, the message will be impossible to unscramble and will remain gibberish forever.
Most of my messages are gibberish to begin with. No scrambling needed!
If you buy the Vanish++ package, you get an additional package of superglue, to glue the printscreen button stuck.
You should suggest it to gmail. After all, they already have a way to change the timestamp of the e-mail you sent so it looks like you sent it earlier than you did, why not just delete e-mails you've sent no matter where they are!
Finally, an article in my area of expertise. Now this is likely to earn me +5 insightful, interesting and everything else.
So, why is Vanish useful to us?
Well... [BEGIN VANISH]u5vw7b658we77kw4657865v87zb68e7y678ctr63or63o7t6ox9587x4ygfiouhx .lwaje .og8unl98nst.oby487rw;zbv5l936tlisd rnzsche.ldnj ekqb;wv4ioa
eo84yre kl76v5los79y6to89xep89x7e4v6eotyl9e84lbvr8xy76ebl9txevl9r8
ygnl8odvr,i8xeyvti8seybvto eby5tli8xevynlr8n776vsot7vnl9xe84nyu
aowpibtulieut,iwvy,o39u dryswrl9uzfna484ytlo8cwjnlv ig78wfp9cnusgl8w
3n4aly8u
ur.,zwjsehg f,vhlfiawvutileuklrla wucbtrqil37ctlasehjctn;laiwuerciluqw3ybt
ow875ntliu awu[9c57st8nzwci4ycrnhseu6go38ny cfukbtw347v6f5o93vsb
y to9y347icr yisuryctw 37bt6l9s38 ucr,ugbvt6o8w 3nyu.oulv87vg[END VANISH]
I think we can all agree with that.
Nick.
No disrespect, but...
woah... courtesy? You must be new here. You were supposed to say "Why don't you RTFA, you mouth-breathing buffoon." I realize that it's Bruce Perens you were responding to, but this is Slashdot. We have standards here!
My MAXTOR drives have been doing this for years.
I just spent the last 5 minutes trying to activate that feature. Well played, CannonballHead, well played.