Some businesses and professionals need an extremely secure OS lock, that even the best of the best can't crack...

[Joel Rees]

Welcome to the real world, Linda.

(Sorry to be so blunt. Computers are not magic.)

On 12/26/11, Linda McLeod <lindavaldeen at fastmail.fm> wrote:
> I lost the encrypted login PW for one of my many hd's, and found that I
> can easily over-ride to restore it if I do a little cracking with
> codes.. The data was easily found in a Google search, which means that
> an encrypted OS isn't really a locked OS..  So I'm wondering how can we
> have sure-fire fool-proof crack-proof keys that maintain a private
> corporate computer totally safe and private from the crazy world's
> bullying and messing..?

Freedom hurts sometimes.

The only real safe thing to do is lock the stuff that you can't afford
to be cracked in a safe.

> Do you suppose a flash drive can somehow made to be the only key that
> opens an OS..?

Flash drives are by no means less unsecureable than the rotating disk
kind. Electron microscopes are not that expensive, either, even when
the ecrypted flash drive manufacturer sort of gets it right.

Encrypted flash is primarily useful for the legal angle of
deniability. Think DRM. (Well, officer, I did the best I could!) They
can also be helpful when the data on the drive is personal, but not
valuable, and the person finding the drive is just a curious teenager
who does not know how to use a soldering iron.

> Can there be layers of keys in a key..?
> I.E.: ones multi-layered PW might be something like:
> "18erty
> 239de
> frosset  (for this one the user must wait "5-seconds" of no keyboard
> activity before being keyed in)
> 18
> su78
> ddhe"

That's a very common not-good-idea that people turn to. Complexity by
itself solves very little. And it often makes even more problems.

Joel Rees