There has recently been some discussion on UKcrypto of a hypothesised eavesdropping-safe boot CD containing OS & necessary software to get encrypted IP links to a (predetermined?) safe site. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.fairbrother/ The "won't be able to import files" and so on sounds familiar from a long time ago. Isn't this the case in the maximum implementation of the old coloured book standards? (Too boring to look it up) Also I'd like to see a "multi-platform CD that users boot from" that would work with OC, Mac, Sun etc... Ken first few lines:
Moot! is a cryptosuite designed to avoid RIPA pt3 and govermnent access to keys/plaintext in general. All storage is in an offshore data haven.
Moot! is designed to consist of a multi-platform CD that users boot from. It is designed to be hard to emulate in software.
It's also open-source, free if I can get enough help, or at least cheap, and I plan to publish the security designs and ask for comments and suggestions (and help!) before actually implementing anything.
It works sort of like this: in the box (on the CD): w/p, spreadsheet, database s/w etc: crypto package: comms s/w eg TCP/IP, modem and ethernet drivers etc.: minimal operating system: no local storage