On 12/17/12, Mark Andrews <marka@isc.org> wrote:
In message <34925.1355780734@turing-police.cc.vt.edu>,
On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:28:28 -0500, Peter Kristolaitis said:
Yeah... degaussing rings consume a lot of energy you shouldn't need to consume. If you _must_ be able to protect data from extreme physical threats: keep it encrypted end to end at all times, and concentrate on Information assurance for the key itself, and making the equipment tamper resistant, to prevent eavesdropping, for example: by incorporating computer chassis into the support structure of the building, with, EM shielding, plate steel vault doors and relocking mechanisms; just as you'd want to safeguard other physical valuables. Encryption keys are short, and easy to store on small tamper-resistant smartcards, which can be burned up or erased in a second by a low voltage circuit; possibly one triggered automatically if the incorrect PIN is entered, or the correct 3rd or 4th (easily accidentally lost, or left at some other place) SIM Card/Micro-sim shapped parts containing enough other shares of the encryption key aren't inserted in a partner module shortly after powerup. As long as the crypto algorithm was sound, reliable destruction of the key should make the data as hard (or harder) to be recovered, than if media had been degaussed.
And of course, there's this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vxEimC3HME
I suspect you would fine that such a ring would illegal as it is a potential "man trap". There are reasons hospitals have big warning signs around similar equipment used for medical imaging.
Mark -- -JH