igargoyle

The Encrypted Suitcase

Imagine this: you're an informant with really really sensitive data. You have an algorithm that the NSA wants for themselves, in the right person's hands it would cause a revolution, but in the wrong person's hands it could lead to an era of tyranny.

You need to get your data to your contact. You have his key, but you can't be seen with him. At any moment you could be stopped, searched, or even killed.

This is where JanusBox comes in. It looks like a suitcase, except for a subtle vent on one side, but the payload isn't dead trees, it's a linux server with a very sophisticated system for keeping your secret data secret.

For starters, the system uses two VIA PadLock Mini-ITX C5Ps with hardware entropy and AES 128/256 - some wicked fast encryption. Secondly it has 700 gigs on board that use an AES256 cloop xfs. For all this encryption, you have a pass phrase with optional USB root plug keys using cloop XFS encrypted partions. AES 128 or 256 can be used with keying via SHA256 or 512 respectively. Finally the case features a padlock to discourage any kind of physical access.

For moving your data, two 32 Cardbus 802.11 slots allow you to make that encrypted transaction to your contact securely without ever coming too close. For even more security, an AES IPSec IP over Firewire cross-connect is provided.

But no encryption is secure if you also have your keys with you. This is where the really cool feature comes in- the Dead Man's Trigger.

Right under the handle of the suitcase lies a very important button. When pressed it forces your encryption keys out from it's volatile memory, as well as resetting both motherboards simultaneously, thus rendering the AES256 hardware accelerated partitions inaccessible. At this point, you can hand over the suitcase, and be confident that all you'll be releasing is pure entropy.

The creators, coderman and goldy of JanusWireless, are so confident in their design that they're taking it to this year's DEFCON with the SSID "hackthisidareyou". If they can can withstand a conference of eager hackers, it will likely stand any major attack.

JanusBox Hardware specs:

2 x Mini-ITX C5P with hardware entropy and AES 128/256.

4 x IDE HDD for 600G of AES256 cloop xfs.

2 x 32 Cardbus 802.11 slots.

2 x mini-PCI.

2 x PCI; quad port ethernet bridge and 16bit PCMCIA.

2 x VIA media ports (Dolby 5.1 SPDIF, SVideo, sound, etc).

AES IPSec IP over Firewire crossconnect.

Violence is Awesome!

<Zybl0re> get on up
<Zybl0re> get up
<Zybl0re> get on up
<phxl|paper> and DANCE
* nmp3bot dances :D-<
* nmp3bot dances :D|-<
* nmp3bot dances :D/-<
<[SA]HatfulOfHollow> i'm going to become rich and famous after i invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet

Thanks Ash!

Magnetic Implants

Magnetic Implants are something I've heard about before, and interest me since it seems like a low tech way of extending our senses, a common desire of cyborg-enthusiasts. One of my friends has an implant like this; they're good for party tricks, as well as detecting magnetic fields.

In one sensory incident, I was walking out of the library, and I sensed the inductive anti-theft device. I have walked in and out of dozens of libraries hundreds of times, and never once have I thought about the magnetic fields passed through me to prevent me from stealing a book. I have been intellectually aware of the mechanism, but never paid attention until now. Another time I opened a can of cat food for my girlfriend’s pets, and I sensed the electric motor running. My hand was about six inches away from the electric can opener, and I was able to sense where the motor was inside of the assembly. Again it brought my attention to a magnetic source that I understood intellectually, but would have otherwise been unaware of. I feel I am one step closer to fully grokking the reality I inhabit. [Todd M Huffma]

[ Link via del.icio.us ]

Cyberflesh (Dis)Orders

Just found this strange article on going Cyborg... not really sure what to make of it yet.

Cybernetics reveals an organism cross-cut by inorganic life - bacterial communication, viral infection, and entire ecologies of replicating patters which subvert even the most perverse notions of what it is to be 'having sex'. Reproduction melts into replication and loses its hold on the pleasuredome. Climax distributes itself across the plane and the experience becomes a plateau.

Even in the absense of full simstim, technical cybersex is well advanced: the hardware is fetishized, the software is porn, and vast proportions of the telecommunications system are consumed by erotica. But there are only the most overt - and maybe least interesting - examples of a general degeneraton/disintergration of 'natural' sex. As hard and wetwares collapse onto soft, far stranger mutations rouse the sexual scene. The simulation of sex converges with the deregulation of the entire sexual economy, the corrosion of its links with reproduction, and the collapse of its specificity: sex disperses into drugs, dance/trace; androgyny, hermaphroditism, and transsexualism become increasingly perceptible; paraphilia, body engineering, queer sex, and what foucault calls "the slow motions of pleasure and pain" of S&M - already "high technology sex" (Califia, 1993: 175) - proliferate.

[A. Gargett]

I don't agree with everything the author is getting into, but I do like the meme-ridden writing style. Certainly it makes a good read even if you disagree with it.

[ Link via del.icio.us ]

Your Train Has Arrived

Discussed before here.

[ Link ]

Cyborg Flash Animation

evangineer writes:

[Here's a] flash examining the potential of bioelectronic implants, nanotechnology, smart clothing, computers and telecommunications for creating cyborgs in our lifetime.

I watched this flash animation without sound, and it was pretty interesting. Could be good for explaining the benefits of medical implants and nanotechnology. Also seems to touch on the concept of a singularity.

[ Link via del.icio.us ]

dDrive: Bluetooth "Tooth" Implant?

Someone out there aparently is building a 512MB of memory, Bluetooth-enabled, "tooth".

This bluetooth drive is called dDrive, and is designed to store medical records, security clearances, and other important information. I'm not clear if this is a hoax or not, but interesting concept nevertheless. I couldn't seem to find anything on google to back up this story unfortunately.

[ Link to Gizmodo. ]

Man Says No to Implants

Oh yeah, that guy is Bill Gates.

"One of the guys that works at Microsoft ... always says to me 'I'm ready, plug me in,"' Gates said at a Microsoft seminar in Singapore. "I don't feel quite the same way. I'm happy to have the computer over there and I'm over here."

As one /.'er says:

Well Bill... Resistance is futile.

[ Link to boring Technology Review article (via /.) ]

Zap away the Pounds

I'm not a big fan of "get slim quick" plans, but I *am* a fan of devices that electrocute people! Here's an implant that uses electrical impulses to make the body think the user is already full. If I weighed another 250 pounds, I think I might consider such a device.

The technology, by Transneuronix, comprises a matchbox-sized pacemaker implanted into the abdomen, linked to electrodes in the stomach wall.

However, it would not work miracles and the user must still eat a healthy diet and do exercise, they cautioned.

The device works by triggering the nerves in the stomach that are involved in digestion.

These tell the brain that the stomach is full so the individual feels as though they have already eaten even though they have not.

[ Link to BBC article via Boing Boing ]