[3251] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Computer hard disc scanning by HM Customs & Excise
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Nobody)
Tue Aug 25 19:11:19 1998
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 14:36:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Nobody <president@whitehouse.gov>
To: I.Brown@cs.ucl.ac.uk
CC: vin@shore.net, dcsb@ai.mit.edu, cryptography@c2.net,
cypherpunks@algebra.com
In-reply-to: <35E2F679.35C393BE@cs.ucl.ac.uk> (message from Ian Brown on Tue,
25 Aug 1998 18:38:02 +0100)
>involves booting the system from a "scan disk". These disks are
>supplied sealed from the manufacturer (who they would not name), the
>* They would not discuss any technical details of the scan "for
>operational reasons", but given the size constraints of a floppy disk
Ignoring the obvious issue about laptops that don't have floppy
drives, this seems like an opportunity for a suitably motivated hacker
to have some fun. Just set up your laptop in any of several ways so
that when ctl-alt-del is hit, the system *appears* to boot the floopy
in question. But instead it squirrels a copy to hard disk, encrypted,
of course. Then it would repeatedly say "disk error, abort, retry or
ignore?" until the customs guy gives up. Or, if you've run Norton
Wipedisk recently and are sure you have nothing to hide, you could
then let the disk boot and run normally -- just to lower suspicion.
In either case, you could later disassemble the disk in question and
write a full report (anonymously, of course) to the net.
Bill
