At 05:06 PM 7/17/96 +0000, Deranged Mutant wrote:

1. Confiscate computer (along with physical drive) with duress-capable encrypted file system; 2. back up the encrypted sectors; 3. reverse-engineer file system driver to figure out how the duress-key works, if there are multiple keys, where data is stored; 4. make sure you've rubber-hosed or subpeoned all passphrases or keys; 4a. if the system destroys data, you've got backups ("Very funny kiddo; now give us the real key...") 4b. even if there are two filesystems, the attacker will want access to both, just to make sure...

It has long occurred to me, considering the size and low power of the typical 3.5" hard drive compared with the size of the typical house or apartment, that it might be an interesting project to remotely connect such a (hidden) drive to your computer using a reasonably surreptious link that is difficult to trace. Say, an IR optical link, a single bare (unjacketed) optical fiber, a LAN with hidden nodes, or a similar system. Maybe an inductive pickup. In any raid, they'll have to decide what to take, and chances are very good that they won't find every hidden item. Jim Bell jimbell@pacifier.com