smithju@motcid.UUCP (Justin A. Smith) (07/03/90)
tony@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu (Anthony Olejnik) writes: >I'm interested in finding out about PC security keys. >Apparently, they're HW/SW products which provide security for PC users. The only hardware Pc security product i have seen used a card that plugged into one of the PC's expansion slots. The card interfaced to the hard disk an encrypted the data on the disk. there was also a box on a cable that the user could put their card into. they then had to type a pin number. this system allowed booting from the HD, it also still worked when booting from floppie. The system was still secure even if the pc was dismantled, because the data on the hard disk was encrypted it could not be read without using the special card and the pin number. Hope this helps, Justin Smith -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Justin Smith SYSOP- Orange Crush BBS (708) 359-5379 24 Hours USRobotics HST14400/V.32 Email UUNET smithju@motcid.uu.net INTERNET motcid!smithju@chg.mcd.mot.com
grege@gold.GVG.TEK.COM (Greg Ebert) (07/04/90)
> >tony@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu (Anthony Olejnik) writes: > >>I'm interested in finding out about PC security keys. >>Apparently, they're HW/SW products which provide security for PC users. > I've seen a gizmo which plugs onto the parallel port. It must use some sort of a psuedo-random number generator. I never had the time to hook up a logic analyzer to the beast and try to 'unlock' it, but I'm sure it can be done. You could also try writing some programs to poke at it; the parallel port is 100% trivial to play with. Basically, you get it with expensive (read: overpriced) SW. You can copy it to your heart's content, but can only run it on one machine at a time. You can still use a parallel device with thing attached. If the manufacturer has half a brain, they poll the thing frequently to make sure you don't remove the plug after SW load and thus run the SW on another machine. Oh, I should have mentioned this: the 'buttplug' is encased in epoxy so the more resourceful hackers can't simply copy it. Even if you get inside, it's probably got a PAL or two with erased numbers and a blown security fuse.