Question re diskette data security

[Jim Choate]

On Thu, 14 Dec 2000, David Ross wrote:

>   Any suggestions as to how to read the contents of a standard 1.44
> MByte floppy disk while it is inside a paper & bubblewrap diskette
> mailer?  What about a CDROM in a similar mailer?

Interesting question.

>   No fair just opening the envelope, since we are going to assume that
> the mailer is sealed in such a way as to make it obvious to the
> recipient that it was opened in transit.

Fair.

For the magnetics I'd use a SQUID array. You couldn't use any sort of NMR
because of the intense magnetic fields. They'd wipe the disk. Though 
resolution may be an issue even for the SQUID's. I've only played with one
and it was lab, not industrial (ie $$$$), quality.

For the CD I'd probably use some sort of NMR at a high scan frequency (ie
higher resolution) and create a 3D map of the geometry of the CD (ie where
are the edges and where are the bubbles). Then I'd import that into a
AutoCAD and use AUTOLisp to overlay a standard template. Then the AUTOLisp
routine could deduce what recognizable filesystems were on it. From there
it could convert it into a dd sort of image. This would get more
complicated for multi-layer disks.

Note that using AUTOLisp doesn't bode well in the speed deamon department.

>   Let's say that we're not real concerned if the snooper finds out
> what's on the diskette, but we do want to know _absolutely_for_sure_
> whether or not the snooper does know what's on the disk.

So the technique must be repeatable? Or do you mean what would be the
mechanisms to verify that it had in fact been snooped (ie we know
'somebody' snooped it)?

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