Re:Researchers crack open malware that hid for 5 years
by jonathankoren on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @05:27PM
(#12257821)
You can also cut the traces or epoxy the internally ports as well. It's not hard. It's just about what level of threat do you want live with. I imagine you could always defeat this by cutting through the epoxy or gently sanding the board to put probes directly on the traces, but then again security is all about depth.
I have a friend that worked at LLNL and she used to talk about secured laptops having their USB ports epoxied and the traces physically cut on the camera and microphones to help secure them. I think even the wifi and bluetooth were disabled as well.
After hearing these stories, it made me chuckle at Zuckerberg's masking tape.
Re:Researchers crack open malware that hid for 5 years
by Florin_Andrei on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @04:28PM
(#12257476)
Well, of course this doesn't give you a get out of jail free card. You still have to pay attention to the other layers in the stack. This is only about paying attention (or not) to the physical layer directly (as opposed to handling physical security indirectly in higher layers).
Re:Researchers crack open malware that hid for 5 years
by digi_owl on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @06:48PM
(#12258244)
Case intrusion sensors are a thing. And i swear i have seen cases with loops for padlocks.
Re:Researchers crack open malware that hid for 5 years
by jagger27 on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @07:40PM
(#12258442)
Padlocked cases are common on school computers.
Re:Researchers crack open malware that hid for 5 years
by digi_owl on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @08:13PM
(#12258613)
Yeah i should have suspected. Have not set foot back there in ages though. Thinking about it i guess schools may be some of the most hostile computing environments in civilian life.
Re:Researchers crack open malware that hid for 5 years
by Florin_Andrei on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @08:41PM
(#12258723)
> Thinking about it i guess schools may be some of the most hostile computing environments in civilian life.
Long time ago, I've briefly managed an environment like that. It was crazy. Kids are really good at breaking stuff in creative ways.
Re:Researchers crack open malware that hid for 5 years
by WalterBright on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @05:57PM
(#12258002)
For a hardened PC, the first thing I'd do is burn the BIOS into ROM. Read Only Memory. ROM cannot be infected.
If you want to stop your every day user from plugging in USB drives then this is probably all you need to do. In a scenario where you're concerned about insider threats with even a minimal level of computing knowledge, you have to lock down the BIOS and the OS layer as well. "Oh the IT guy put epoxy in the USB ports, guess I'll just take the case off and plug into the USB ports on the motherboard"