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News RunCore launches InVincible self-destructing SSDs

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by brumgrunt, 17 May 2012.

  1. brumgrunt

    brumgrunt What's a Dremel?

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  2. The_Beast

    The_Beast I like wood ಠ_ಠ

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    I just found the drive for my pron

    [​IMG]
     
  3. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    The top rated comment on that Youtube video gave me an internet chuckle.
     
  4. longweight

    longweight Possibly Longbeard.

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    I want one.
     
  5. mclean007

    mclean007 Officious Bystander

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    Mr. Glitter, your new paedo-drive has arrived.
     
  6. Ending Credits

    Ending Credits Bunned

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    I remember when the big chip manufacturers had this function on their CPUs. :D
     
  7. Kernel

    Kernel Likes cheese

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    Surely with that cable solution, it should work on any SSD or does that just send a signal to a hardwired component on the board
     
  8. Tangster

    Tangster Butt-kicking for goodness!

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    That shuttle PC they hooked it up to is very, very close to the edge of the desk.
     
  9. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    That's their system for destroying data on spinning drives: repeatedly drop the PC off the edge of the desk...
     
  10. PureSilver

    PureSilver E-tailer Tailor

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    Looks to me like the only 'custom' bit of this is the wiring - surely if you supplied any SSD with that wiring (which supplies an unsurvivable amount of current) it would be similarly cooked?
     
  11. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Current isn't something "supplied" by a wire, but demanded by a device. You could connect an SSD to a 5000A supply, and it wouldn't do the slightest bit of harm (aside from being woefully inefficient.)

    Putting RunCore's cable onto a typical SSD will do nothing. The InVincible SSD has hardware inside which listens for the press of the killswitch and then demands vast quantities of current to fry the hardware.
     
  12. 3lusive

    3lusive Minimodder

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    That's awesome. I love niche products.
     
  13. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    Awesome idea, though I won't be having one.
     
  14. Ending Credits

    Ending Credits Bunned

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    ...what?
     
  15. AmEv

    AmEv Meow meow. See yall in 2-ish years!

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    He's just nervous about kids wondering how to turn the computer on, and end up simultaneously pressing BOTH red buttons.
     
  16. mclean007

    mclean007 Officious Bystander

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    He won't be having an awesome idea :D
     
  17. mclean007

    mclean007 Officious Bystander

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    Agreed. You could deliver a large over-VOLTAGE to any SSD and likely brick it by fritzing the control chips and/or power regulation circuitry, but you'd have no guarantee of having killed the NAND. A determined attacker with enough resources and time (e.g. a governmental intelligence agency or a rival big corporation) could theoretically transfer the NAND chips to another device and read their contents.

    You could achieve a more robust solution with fusible links in the NAND circuit design itself, which would mean you'd need to perform some very delicate microcircuit repair surgery to get at the data, and that makes the challenge of recovering the data for even the most well-equipped and skilled attacker somewhere between exceptionally difficult and impossible, but the data would still be there. RunCore appears to have gone further than this by packaging the NAND chips in a device which, when a killswitch condition is detected, draws a current large enough to destroy the chips with heat - it looks like the chip packaging itself is cracked. The flash cells themselves will be destroyed, with no way to recover the data at all, much as if the whole drive had been incinerated.
     
  18. Ending Credits

    Ending Credits Bunned

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    I was more worried because it seems like half their market has just vanished :D
     
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