Erasing data with thermite ...and other theoretical mods

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Qtip42

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A few years back, the forums had very interesting and mostly funny threads about destorying hard drive data. For those that weren't a part of the thread, people blurted out all kinds of wacky ideas to destory hard drive data. I haven't seen a thread like that in years. So I feel compelled to start a thread about theoretical modding and maybe pump some life back in to the modding forum :D

So here's your topic: In the wake of the government wiretapping scandal and the clamp down on terrorism (and piracy for that matter). How would you set up a computer if you knew ahead of time your house would be raided by a government agency and your computer confiscated?

What precautions would you take? Would you build an off-site rig that was wired through a dummy computer? Would you weld your case to the ground, weld on some armor, and make it completely unmoveable/inaccessable? Maybe it'd weigh too much to move? Maybe make a fully self-destructing computer?

What's your fancy schmancy idea and how would you mod the case?
 
thewhiteguy said:
If you knew they were coming just don't break the law.
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This is to promote mod discussion, it doesn't matter if it happens or not.
 
I like the thermite idea :D

Well, I would make all the hard drives external so that I could remove them and run. The computer would have a timer and would automatically self-destruct a minute after removal of the main hard drive. It would be large and probably extremely heavy, and secured down so noone could move it or open it.
 
I have sharks with frickin' lasers attached to their heads trained to melt my hard drives, in case of fascist invasion. I also use Western Digital drives, thus assuring the eventual crashing and destruction of my data. :D
 
I would throw the drive(s) into a volcano.

volcano.gif



and this was posted in the HD Data Destruction thread. Pretty cool.
 
You have a volcano in your house? :D

The hardware shredder is a good idea. How would you put that on your case? I'm thinking a shredder could be modded underneath the case and if you have a 30 second window, hit a big red shred button to have it completely tore up.
 
Qtip42 said:
You have a volcano in your house? :D
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of course. I built my house around the volcano, just so that I would have easy access once the black helicopters arrived.
 
Having a house on a volcano like that automatically makes you a supervillain, I believe. No wonder the black helicopters are coming for you.

As to the shredder idea: the drivers won't be ready in time for Vista. :D
 
sledgehammer.

FBI: "FBI GET DOWN ON THE GROUND"
me: "*slam* *crunch*"
FBI:"what are you doing!?"
me: "just gettin a work out in, *SLAM*"
 
First, I'd have it backing up my harddrive to a secret location. Then, I'd have a big red button that when pressed, the top of the case dumps out alot of thermite. Then, I'd also have it rigged to where if anyone forces it open.. it explodes and kills them. I'd also have pictures off Stalin everywhere, just to piss the fascists off. :p
 
si0dine said:
http://www.datadev.com/harddiscdrive.html
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Model HD-2000 Hard Disk Drive Degausser
NSA- and DoD-approved degausser for security erasure of hard disk drives
$13,995.00


There's something about them being NSA and DOD approved that makes me feel uneasy about them. Like the NSA has ways to still get the information but will approve it for general use to the public. They're tricky that way you know?
 
You would just dump in thermite? do you have any idea what thermite actually is?

If you are going to build a self-destruct i'm freakin paranoid mod, you would have to go with an armor plating theme, around the outside with big interlocking sliders an massive padlock assembly to lock the case up. Inside you would use rubber mounts and springs to suspend a copper cage (faraday cage) that would suspend the motherboard/video/sound and hardrive in. Then pointing at the hard drives some magnesium road flare holders so as the flare burns gravity pulled it tword the drives at a tilt or angle. Then up on the top of the case some sort of handle held down with breakable plastic pins that said "don't break in case of liberal sycophant invasion" that when pulled would ignite the flares.

Over the wire off-site xfers are not a good method of securing your stuff, if they are coming for you then they most likely have your connection routing through a packet analyzer and mirroring anything you might be trying to dump.
 
would be better just to use an electric ignition for those flares..

speaking of... what about a few clusters of highest power/longest burning model rocket motors? would be very easy to ignite.
 
MiG29TangentBoy said:
I have sharks with frickin' lasers attached to their heads trained to melt my hard drives.
Click to expand...

LOL
My wife wants this as her sig quote :D

Me, I would build a degausing ring into the center of the doorframe. Nothing leaves the secure room intact. If the Feds came busting in to take the PC's, lifting one of the cases would trigger the degausing ring in the door frame, and POOF.......empty drives.
 
Thermite obviously, if you could rig up a good ignition system. Just keep little cups of thermite powder (it's a powder, kids) with permanganate on top...adding a drop of glycerin to that causes igntion at a temp. high enough for the thermite to ignite. You can't put it out easily either. Poof, data gone!
 
jawajedi said:
You would just dump in thermite? do you have any idea what thermite actually is?

If you are going to build a self-destruct i'm freakin paranoid mod, you would have to go with an armor plating theme, around the outside with big interlocking sliders an massive padlock assembly to lock the case up. Inside you would use rubber mounts and springs to suspend a copper cage (faraday cage) that would suspend the motherboard/video/sound and hardrive in. Then pointing at the hard drives some magnesium road flare holders so as the flare burns gravity pulled it tword the drives at a tilt or angle. Then up on the top of the case some sort of handle held down with breakable plastic pins that said "don't break in case of liberal sycophant invasion" that when pulled would ignite the flares.

Over the wire off-site xfers are not a good method of securing your stuff, if they are coming for you then they most likely have your connection routing through a packet analyzer and mirroring anything you might be trying to dump.
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That's the kind of response I was looking for...detail!
 
we all know that this thread was created because qtip works for the nsa, kgb, cia, fbi, gru, and other three letter secret agencies, and they are out of ideas on ways to prevent hard drive destruction of criminals and warez.


Simple. gigabyte i-Ram. pull the battery.


or for disk-based storage, press a button, hard drives fall out of hotswap bays, down into a chamber of burning thermite, which then dumps it into a volcano filled with sharks with lasers.
 
SarverSystems said:
Just put all your data on a MAC, and watch em try and figure it out.
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I lol'd. Better yet though, store your data on SCSI disks and watch them cut themselves horribly on the terminators.
 
Simple. Raid0 of 240 disks, then drop exactly half of them into a volcano. Not any half, every other disk. So disks 1,3,5,7, etc.

Watch.
 
the funny thing is there are people, somewhere out there, that have setups like this, super secure, thermite rigged, but they'd obviously never expose themselves, it's like an admission of guilt right there :p as for that thermite, man after watching those videos I wouldn't ever want to come close to the stuff, if it can burn through through thick steel like it was butter, just imagine what It would do to your body :eek:

a lot of what's been suggested is all fun and jokes, but I would really be interested (as I'm sure the OP would) to see some realistic suggestions.. I mean all we are talking here is destroying those couple of platters, which are made of glass if I'm not mistaken (?), perhaps if you could successfully open your HD in a clean room, install some explosives inside, if you could even find any room in there, attached to a detonator. Then you wouldn't have to deal with destroying the casing. The platters would shatter into millions of pieces.. Not too practical I guess and too much risk in getting dust/dirt inside
 
I live less than 1 block from a steel mill hook my pc to a catapult any one bust down my doors triggers the cat pc flys and lands in some 2800 degree liquid steel they wont ever get my info

Naw really any one ever watch oceans 11remeber the emp bomb they put nere the lights to knock out the eletricity in vegas build one inside my pc any one opens it it will go off and erase anything in there or would have a shotgun shell with birdshot aimed @ my drives and open the door the wrong weay it goes off and hahhaa 20+ holes in each platter there not getting anything of my drives
 
I like the degausser in the door frame idea is cool but it depends on how long it takes to degauss the drive and if it can be done while inside the case still.

I think it would be totally cool to have a dummy computer hooked up with a fresh install of xp. Then have the cables go through the wall and back out to the monitor a few feet away. Since they're behind the wall, you can have another comp hidden in the wall also. To get access to the "real" comp, you'd have to pull a book on your shelf which activates the monitor switch (KVM?). They definitely wouldn't find it on the first raid. You'd then have time to have it removed.
 
I think what you all are talking about is just wrong, first your talking about doing something Ilegal, second what your discussing is very dangerous.
Destroying Evidence is just flat out wrong and should not be discussed here, and that is what your talking about!
I really can not believe this thread has not been locked yet. However I do feel that talking about securing your data from thieves or other unwanted intrusions is fine, but you are clearly not talking about that.
 
Diablo2K said:
Destroying Evidence is just flat out wrong and should not be discussed here, and that is what your talking about!
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First of all, it is all fun and games. A hypothetical question is all that was mearly asked here. And there is nothing wrong with discussion of hypothetical theories.

Second, and most importantly, it is only evidence AFTER they get their hands on it, prior to that it is private property :D
 
Diablo2K said:
I think what you all are talking about is just wrong, first your talking about doing something Ilegal, second what your discussing is very dangerous.
Destroying Evidence is just flat out wrong and should not be discussed here, and that is what your talking about!
I really can not believe this thread has not been locked yet. However I do feel that talking about securing your data from thieves or other unwanted intrusions is fine, but you are clearly not talking about that.
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So... say that this fascist state was mass murdering people, and genociding :insert race:. You were running an "underground railroad" type of operation rescuing these guys to freedom, if they got ahold of your HDD then it would fail. it still bad to disobey the law? Were just having fun seeing what the best way to secure your data from fascists would be.. don't be jealous your idea isn't good :p
 
Diablo2K said:
I think what you all are talking about is just wrong, first your talking about doing something Ilegal, second what your discussing is very dangerous.
Destroying Evidence is just flat out wrong and should not be discussed here, and that is what your talking about!
I really can not believe this thread has not been locked yet. However I do feel that talking about securing your data from thieves or other unwanted intrusions is fine, but you are clearly not talking about that.
Click to expand...

Should I....should I lock my own thread?
 
Well, the point actually wouldn't be to destory your data.. because that would be pointless. You still would want a backup copy of your own data somewhere secret that nobody would find. I don't know where that would be, but get creative. Second, you would not have a clue to if/when someone was going to raid your house for "hard drive content" lol.. The government is pre-occupied with too many other things than being focused on 15 year old little Johnny Sonofabitch downloading warez in his basement. Now on the other hand, if you were some awesome high tech internet robber who was hacking closed-loop banking systems, or stealing gov't files, I could see the need for such a system. You might need more than one person working with you in other parts of the world as well that you could send the data to.. then you would just have to worry about getting your own self out of the whole mess. If they actually caught onto you, that means they most likely have a great case to convict you with, so destroying data wouldn't mean a thing. They would have server logs of you accessing their data. Nobody erases ALL their footprints and is that good.. well, there might be a select few, but its pretty rare. If you actually had to destroy a hard drive, melting the entire thing would be probably the best option. Shredding the HDD can still leave pieces of the platter in tact, and the gov't experts of data retrieval are amazing. Just from little shreds of a hard drive platter, they might be able to pick up some index files of what the HDD contained, or even parts of small recoverable files. A while back I was reading about it in a magazine article. If you tried hiding the hard drive, you better pick a dam good place, because someone is bound to find it.
 
Well lets keep this to "modding" discussion rather than "blow it up" or "send it here", I like hearing how to armor plate the case or build a case into the wall similar to a safe, etc.

I only bring it up because it's a fun hypothetical. Besides what if a hacker wants me to build a case for him that is made for such a thing? :D
 
Techx said:
I wouldn't ever want to come close to the stuff, if it can burn through through thick steel like it was butter, just imagine what It would do to your body :eek:
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There is a parking deck on the way to where I work... A dude mixed a HUGE batch of thermite in a shed on the roof. The result? A car-sized hole from the top to bottom floor :eek:

Another good solution to this would be to keep the hard drive in a "clean" chamber, then in emergencies, you could press a button or smash the top of the chamber to release fine-grain sand into it. The drive would continue spinning, causing instant destruction of data.
 
I think it would be more interesting to see what people's answers would be if the goal was to somehow retain the data for future retrieval/use while still keeping it away from the Fascists.

Ideas?

 
I think I would have to build my computer into a solid block of cement. Then put this block in a wall of my house with vents, fans and power the only thing leading to it. A cat5 cable the only thing coming out of it. then just for the hell of it I think I’ll have a big red button that is linked to a large amount of explosives at the earths core. When they come to raid me they wont be thinking about my computer in the cement :p !
Don’t stress I'm not a terrorist.


P.S good job on the fun post. Haven’t seen a post like this in years. :D

Drac
 
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