Re: Stego-empty hard drives... (fwd)

[Michael Hohensee <mah248@is9.nyu.edu>]

Jim Choate wrote:
> 
> Forwarded message:
> 
> > Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 16:05:30 -0400
> > From: Sunder <sunder@brainlink.com>
> > Subject: Re: Stego-empty hard drives...
> 
> > What's this bullshit, eh?  Just overwrite the BIOS roms in your machine to
> > return all zeros for the sectors you don't want to show them.  Have some
> > special passphrase you have to type in while in the BIOS setup program to
> > deactivate this.  Most newer notebooks have flash upgradeable ROMs anyway.
> 
> What's this bullshit, eh?
> 
> I wonder how you propose to answer the question:
> 
> "Sir, exactly why are you typing that sentence into the computer at this
> time?"
> 
> Now we have not only given them probably cause but clear evidence for a
> prior intent to commit a crime. Even if your hard drive is clean they're
> going to bust your ass.
> 

I believe that the idea was to set it up so that BIOS defaults to
HD-hiding mode.  When you're taking your laptop through customs, you do
nothing while the machine boots up, the doctored BIOS does its thing,
and everybody's happy.  When you want to get at the stuff on the rest of
the HD, you reboot and type in your passphrase.

Presumably, one wouldn't do this in front of a customs official. :)