I wish I had this laptop

Hi:

My secure dream laptop has following characteristics:

1. All IDs -- such as the MAC address [including that of the wireless
adapter] -- are totally dynamic. When the laptop is offed, these IDs
disappear without leaving a trace. When the laptop is switched on, new
IDs are generated.

2. The only ROM is mask-programmed ROM, as well as optical ROMs [CDs,
DVDs, etc.]

3. The only RAM is a hypothetical form of volatile RAM chips in which
all info is completely lost in 100th-of-a-second-or-less after the
laptop is turned-off. Even theoretically there is no way to recover
this data unless one completely re-powers before 100th-of-a-second
after power-off.

4. The wireless adapter has the longest range allowed by law

5. The OS is Macintosh and is installed on ROM chips

6. Chips of the hypothetical RAM listed in #3 substitute for the HDD

7. The is an optical-disc burner that is compatible with all formats
of optical discs [such as DVD-R, CD-R]

8. The radio transmitter [used for the wireless internet access] is
unidirectional and can beam the radio signal toward the wi-fi access
point without transmitting in any other direction

9. The clock skew of my system varies such that clock-skew-
fingerprinting would be a totally-useless technique to those trying to
identify my computer.

10. All parts of the laptop -- excluding the radio transmitter,
receiver, and antennas -- are tempest-shielded.

11. There is no malware [e.g. rootkits] installed in any of the ROM
chips.


Regards,

Green Xenon

In article <c9d628e0-44e5-498e-b37f->, GreenXenon <> writes:
>Hi:
>
>My secure dream laptop has following characteristics:
>
>1. All IDs -- such as the MAC address [including that of the wireless
>adapter] -- are totally dynamic. When the laptop is offed, these IDs
>disappear without leaving a trace. When the laptop is switched on, new
>IDs are generated.

That'd be just great. Have you ever seen the havoc that multiple, same
Ethernet (MAC) addresses can cause?

Back in the day, I worked in a DoD lab and some low-bidder provided NIC
cards for some of the PeeCees proliferating in the lab's pencil pushing
departments. Network storms then took down virtually every system that
was connected to the backbone. I took great pleasure introducing each
and every one of these PeeCee NIC cards to a 4lb. slegdehammer.

--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

http://www.quirkfactory.com/popart/asskey/eqn2.png

Read all about their schemes and adventuring. It's well worth a fee. So roll
up and see, how they rape the universe; How they've gone from bad to worse.
Who are these men of lust, greed, and glory? Rip off the masks and let's see.

GreenXenon <> writes:

> Hi:
>
> My secure dream laptop has following characteristics:

The usual market mechanisms which spit out laptops do not work this way
(and they're all very much the same these days). If you would care to
build and sell such a laptop you'd find you could not sell these things
for the money needed to build them and your company would go bankrupt in
no time at all.

Anyway, I would like to have these features (as well as some others),
too. Have you tried to contact the FSF (or others) about such an idea?
They just *might* be interested. Not with OS X, though. If you change
your requirements to have an open-source BIOS and some free Unix on it,
who knows? There might be enough geeks interested in such a device. The
time is right for such a thing and cheap hardware is abound, actually.

Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

On May 19, 1:25*pm, Jochem Huhmann <j...@gmx.net> wrote:


> The usual market mechanisms which spit out laptops do not work this way
> (and they're all very much the same these days). If you would care to
> build and sell such a laptop you'd find you could not sell these things
> for the money needed to build them and your company would go bankrupt in
> no time at all.


Why would this hypothetical laptop be so expensive?

In comp.sys.mac.apps GreenXenon <> wrote:
> My secure dream laptop has following characteristics:

My old Commodore 64 had most of the things on your list...

--
K.

Lang may your lum reek.

In article
<c9d628e0-44e5-498e-b37f->,
GreenXenon <> wrote:

> 5. The OS is Macintosh and is installed on ROM chips

How would you upgrade it?

> 8. The radio transmitter [used for the wireless internet access] is
> unidirectional and can beam the radio signal toward the wi-fi access
> point without transmitting in any other direction

How would you know where to aim it? How would it be aimed?

--
Check out the Hot Cocoa Party
<http://www.hotcocoaparty.info>

On May 19, 3:41*pm, Robert Haar <bobh...@me.com> wrote:


> On 5/19/10 3:00 PM, "GreenXenon" <glucege...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi:
>
> > My secure dream laptop has following characteristics:
>
> > 1. All IDs -- such as the MAC address [including that of the wireless
> > adapter] -- are totally dynamic. When the laptop is offed, these IDs
>


> "offed" ? *When it is killed, what matters anymore?


"Offed" as in the power is turned off. Dynamic IDs provide greater
anonymity than static IDs. In this hypothetical laptop when power is
cut, these IDs are permanently and completely lost such that even the
most advanced theoretical technology cannot recover them.


> > 5. The OS is Macintosh and is installed on ROM chips
>


> What happens when Apple releases a bug fix for a security problem? DO you
> have to wait for physical distribution of a new set of ROM chips through
> trusted channels?


On a comp without NVRAM there is actually less security concerns than
that with NVRAM.

You do have a point, but I feel my dream laptop would be more secure
because any malware that enters the laptop by any method -- such as
the internet -- will completely disappear as soon as I turn off the
power.


>
>
>
> > 6. Chips of the hypothetical RAM listed in #3 substitute for the HDD
>


> So you have no long term storage on the laptop? No data? Or do you burn a
> new CD every time one byte changes in a data file?


Depending on the data I either forget about it or store it on the
internet. This laptop is meant for extreme security and secrecy. I
want an easy way to totally and permanently eliminate the data in RAM
so that is why I don't want an HDD or any non-volatile RAM for that
matter.


>
> > 11. There is no malware [e.g. rootkits] installed in any of the ROM
> > chips.
>


> How do you know?


I don't. I just wish for it to be that way. That's why I call it's a
"dream" laptop.


> Even if you could get one at a reasonable price, I don't think you would
> really like using it. I know I wouldn't.


Why not?

One of the purposes of this hypothetical laptop is to be as anonymous
on the net as possible while still being on the net. Other purposes

In
news:449f7bad-cae7-4334-9e06-,
GreenXenon typed on Wed, 19 May 2010 16:23:11 -0700 (PDT):
> You do have a point, but I feel my dream laptop would be more secure
> because any malware that enters the laptop by any method -- such as
> the internet -- will completely disappear as soon as I turn off the
> power.

That is the way my computers with Microsoft EWF works.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Windows XP SP3

GreenXenon <> writes:

> On May 19, 1:25Â*pm, Jochem Huhmann <j...@gmx.net> wrote:
>
>> The usual market mechanisms which spit out laptops do not work this way
>> (and they're all very much the same these days). If you would care to
>> build and sell such a laptop you'd find you could not sell these things
>> for the money needed to build them and your company would go bankrupt in
>> no time at all.
>
> Why would this hypothetical laptop be so expensive?

Because it would have several unique features and these things are as
cheap as they are because they're basically all the same inside (apart
from different cases and stickers). You'd need to get a unique design
fabricated and this is expensive.

Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In news:C819FD8B.4962D4%,
Robert Haar typed on Wed, 19 May 2010 20:41:47 -0400:
> People who are professionally paranoid about computer security don't
> allow Internet connects and no removable media. Everything is is a
> physically secured room, preferably a Faraday cage with no windows
> and independent power.

I have been running Windows on a number of machines since 1993. I never
had a virus yet. There are sharks in the ocean too, I saw one of them
once. And I was alone scuba diving (which is something you should never
do they say). And he saw me and I saw him and he split really fast away
from me. So I guess I should be more scared of sharks, eh?

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Windows XP SP3