[plug] message/output of wipe command?

[Daniel Pittman]

William Kenworthy <billk at iinet.net.au> writes:
> On Thu, 2008-11-27 at 10:07 +1100, Daniel Pittman wrote:
> ..
>> 
>> Also, the author of that utility is rather paranoid, to the point I
>> wonder that he or she doesn't just go back to using stone tablets or,
>> perhaps, living in a mud hut in the jungle with nothing more
>> sophisticated than a vine around:
>> 
>>      I hereby speculate that harddisks can use the spare remapping area
>>      to secretly make copies of your data.  Rising totalitarianism makes
>>      this almost a certitude.
>> 
>>      [...]
>> 
>>      Don’t trust your harddisk.  Encrypt all your data.
>> 
>>      Of course this shifts the trust to the computing system, the CPU,
>>      and so on.  I guess there are also "traps" in the CPU and, in fact,
>>      in every sufficiently advanced mass-marketed chip.  Wealthy nations
>>      can find those.  Therefore these are mainly used for criminal
>>      investigation and "control of public dissent".
>> 
>> That surely is some serious paranoia: my computer, every single
>> component, is under the control of the Jovian lizards ^W^W government,
>> who actively use this control to manage "public dissent".
>> 
>> Oh, well.  People, can't live with 'em, can't feed em to the Jovian
>> lizards ^W^W government mind control security drones.
>
> Serious, yes.  Justified - yes.

Are you seriously claiming that the author is justified in believing
that every single major chip developed and provided to the mass market
includes a sophisticated backdoor used to control public dissent?

> Look at the stories of people who take storage into the
> US. (smartphones, laptops).  They take them away, out of sight for
> "copying".

Now, wouldn't that be kind of redundant if the preceding claims were
true?  Once the government have complete and absolute control over every
component of every circuit in your system they don't really need to fuss
around copying data at the border, since they already have access to it
at will, right?

> Encrypted data - give us the keys, no - go back, your not coming in.

Sure.  If they were really interested then rubber hose cryptanalysis is
just as effective now as it was a year ago. ;)

> Do they put some "gifts" of their own in there at times - undoubtedly.

I have a lot less issue with this claim, though I doubt it is as
prevalent as your comments tend to imply, than with the claims of the
author of wipe.

> There are also stories that chipset manufacturers have the capability
> to build spying into the actual chipsets - enough truth that the US
> Mil is seriously evaluating if its actually being done

Sure.  It is absolutely possible for this to happen; Ken Thompson
established that decades ago, in a great deal more detail.

http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html

There is a world of difference between "have the capability" and "every
chip has these, and every (rich) government knows about and uses them",
however.

The further claim, that it is used for "investigation" and "control of
public dissent" are ... a step further than the much smaller claim that
this capability is deployed in every chip from every manufacturer,
everywhere.

> So if you have anything commercially sensitive, or legally sus, wipe
> is a godd idea.

Not really.  If you believe the claims of the author are true then you
would have to be the greatest fool on earth to trust wipe — because you
have just established that you believe it cannot possibly, under any
circumstances, protect you in the slightest.

Personally, I think that taking appropriate precautions is a very
sensible move, but that wipe (other, perhaps, than on partitions) is
unlikely to be one of them.

Subscribing to the rather ... broad claims of the author of wipe, not so
much helpful in the real world.

Regards,
        Daniel