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from the This-phone-will-self-destruct-in-five-seconds dept.
Papas Fritas writes:
"Reuters reports that Boeing has unveiled a smartphone that deletes all data and renders the device inoperable if there is any attempt to open its casing. 'The Boeing Black phone is manufactured as a sealed device both with epoxy around the casing and with screws, the heads of which are covered with tamper proof covering to identify attempted disassembly,' says a letter included in the FCC filing. 'Any attempt to break open the casing of the device would trigger functions that would delete the data and software contained within the device and make the device inoperable.' Boeing's Black phone will be sold primarily to government agencies and companies engaged in contractual activities with those agencies that are related to defense and homeland security. The device will be marketed and sold in a manner such that low level technical and operational information about the product will not be provided to the general public. 'We saw a need for our customers in a certain market space.' says Boeing spokeswoman Rebecca Yeamans."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by EvilJim on Thursday February 27 2014, @09:10PM
it'll only take one failure before the trigger is exposed, whether it be light sensor (open in a darkroom and tape the sensor), reed switch (open next to an old HDD magnet) or physical switch (use dremel to cut away a hole in the case leaving a portion over the switch) it will only be hours/minutes before the NSA is hardware backdooring these.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by SMI on Thursday February 27 2014, @10:36PM
I find IronKey's solution [ironkey.com] (page 4) to this interesting:
"Protecting against physical access: ... some cryptographic chips use a metal mesh cladding that acts as both protector and sensor, and an automatic self-destruct function that is set in motion whenever the mesh senses it has been compromised. Within those drives, if a hacker tries to physically open up the device and peel off the epoxy coating to get to the semiconductor die directly and read the memory inside the smart card chip, the chip when powered up, will sense that the surrounding metal mesh has been tampered with will render the chip non-functional."
(original typos not corrected)
(Score: 1) by EvilJim on Thursday February 27 2014, @10:47PM
Hmmm, interesting indeed... to hack one of these devices wouldn't piggybacking onto the chip be easier that opening it to interface (how I don't yet know)? or are we talking about something that encrypts at a hardware level here? would the most value be in retrieving data from a device? or inserting hardware to provide a backdoor/data capture so you can pick up future conversations/messages?
(Score: 2) by Khyber on Thursday February 27 2014, @11:55PM
Oh fucking please. It's gotta be an electrical signal they're using for detection. Fucking easy to figure out and bypass.
Man can make it, man can break it. Try again Boeing, when you understand this.
Destroying Semiconductors With Style Since 2008
(Score: 1) by weilawei on Friday February 28 2014, @01:36AM
You raise a valid point--what is within the power of one fool to do is also within the power of another (and sometimes to undo what another fool has done). Cryptography, security, even the continued evolution of species will always be this sort of arms race. Despite the seemingly treadmill aspect of it, it happens because it's part of a natural, ongoing competition to reproduce and continue to exist.
(Score: 2) by zim on Friday February 28 2014, @12:41AM
because they don't want to be spied upon by their hardware.
(Score: 1) by EvilJim on Friday February 28 2014, @12:49AM
you cant tell me the NSA doesn't want to know what the other customers are talking about can you? they're not the only ones this is targeted at.