[ImMoRtaL]

There comes a time in every hackers life where they get paranoid. In a world where some poor guy can be arrested and serve 10+ years
because the lawyers, juries, judges and general public dont understand the technolgy or the conditions of the laws applying to that
technology. Take someone like me, who has countless ammounts of information on their PC. If for whatever reason something stupid happens
and my computers are confiscated just the topics Im interested in (computer security, hacking, etc) are probably going to be used to fuel a
media campaign to smear my name and turn public opinion against me, regardless of my innocence... and it aint hard either:

"Hacker arrested in NY, Feds charge he could start WWIII, and planned to do so"
some expert says my files were heavily related to "encryption, hacking and phone hacking" and that I visited "underground websites" etc.
See what Im saying? The label hacker these days seems to equal "evil intent" to the general public (ie. non-hackers)

Well then, what if you dont want that to happen?

As you may or may not know, deleting data from a hard drive doesnt mean that it isnt recoverable. Formatting the drive doesnt mean the data
isnt recoverable. Hell, even throwing the drive in a campfire doesnt assure the data cant be recovered as the efforts of Jeremy Kaplan (PC
Magazine executive editor) and Ontrack Data Recovery showed.

Hmmm. so how do you make data non-recoverable? Can it be done?
Well, yeah. For example, Peter Gutmann came up with a method of making data recovery more difficult by writting over the disk several times with random useless bits of info.

Hey, great.. but you know what? When a federal agent is kicking down your door they usually arent gonna wait for your 35-pass overwrite to
finish running. They aint gonna buy you ice-cream on the way downtown either.

So whats a paranoid hacker to do?
Inside a hard drive there are plates, each holds billions of tiny magnetized bits. Why are the bits magnetized? To explain it as simply as
possible, the ones going one direction of polarization represents 0's while the ones going the other way are 1's.. so as long as the original magnetic orientations are the same, generally someone can recover a block of data. However, if something were to scramble those magnetic orientations or physically damage the plates the data is lost forever.

Now we're getting somewhere!

Just to note, when I mentioned physiclly damaging the plates, I mean really damaging them. Opening the drive and taking a hammer to the
plates or drilling holes through them, or shredding them into tiny strips, you get the idea. That takes time too... even if you have the hard drive out of the case and easily accessable and have a 15 pound sledge hammer next to your desk and are capable of crushing the drive into a paper thin wafer in one shot it still isnt going to be enough time to execute your data destroying moves if that hollywood door busting scenario were to take place.

So heres my little setup.
create a powerful electromagnet and attach it to the drive or around it. Hook up said magnets power source to a panic button. Ok, so it
sounds like a pretty bad ass James Bond type setup, but how do I do that?

First off, you have to create the electromagnet. Actually, logic insists you learn at least the basics behind electromagnets before you attempt to build one.

Whats an electromagnet?
Its based on the fact that if you run electric current through a wire, you create a magnetic field.
Pretty much all an electromagnet consists of is a core (for example an iron nail) some insulated copper wire wrapped around the core, and that wire attached to a battery. what happens is electrons go from the negative side of the battery to the positive side through the wire.

In doing so, the core is magnetized. Remember though, the magnetic field is only there as long as the juice is flowing. Also know that in this particular case, we're going to use AC in leiu of DC.

Heres a parts list as well as some things you should know about each part:

Wire:
solid copper wire is ideal, as it can handle the most current within economic reason.
the more wire, the stronger the magnetic field.
the further the wire is from the core, the less effective.
the wire must be insulated, or it can short and do nothing.
wire must be coiled around core in same direction (current must go in one direction @ time)

core:
must be made of material able to hold a magnetitic charge.
the thicker the core, the stronger the magnetic field (the core is what becomes the magnet)
a 'soft' iron core is ideal.

current:
We're gonna use AC, due to te fact that we want to increase the voltage easily and also @ 60hz, AC reverses direction 60 times per second, meaning polarity reverses 60 times a second.
Remember when I said that as long as the original magnetic orientations are the same the drives data can be recovered? Well, switching the polarity 60 times a second is going to fix that.
Also:
the more the current, the more heat generated expodentially. (x^2)
ex.
you run 1.2V and record the heat.
2x current = 4x heat
3x current = 9x heat
4x current = 16x heat

heat can melt insulation of wire... but by then the deeds done.
heat can soften core to an extent, resulting in greater magnetism to a small degree.

At this point, this tutorials specifics can be adjusted to meet your needs.
All you really need to do at this point is decide what your power source will be. I suggest using your Pcs existing power supply. Its already there, not conspicuous, and easy enough to take one of the 12v. ports and use an inverter/transformer to up the current to what you desire in AC.

There are obviously different ways to run the core over/around the drive as well. The beauty of whatever way you end up deciding is best is that the computers case and many hard drives have many places to mount the core, be it screwed, wired, glued, whatever. I ended up making a
core that resembled something like a "W" which connected to the outside side of the case bay where the drive is secured, across the top of the drive, back again and down the other side. How you choose to run the core is up to you, may I just suggest using one long core and bending it to your needs per drive/bay rather than creating a core that "branches" as to ensure that you wrap the wire in the same direction.

Once the electromagnet is mounted to your specifications, its time to run the converter/taransformer and switch. Safety is priority! Heres the part where you can get shocked, hurt, or inadvertantly fry your drive. Dont do any of those things, ok?

Make sure the power to the supply is completely disconnected. Take one of the unused 12V power ports from the power supply, and cut the plastic port off. The general rule is:
Black = ground
RED = 5V
YELLOW = 12V

Dont count on this to always be the case. Refer to the manual or manufacturer of the specific power supply you're dealing with to be sure.
snip the inverter/transformers input section and wire it accordingly. How exactly again depends on the models and specific situation you're dealing with. Also, splice off it with another 2 wires that arent connected

this is really easy to do, but a serious pain in the ass to explain without real pictures... which I do plan on adding. So.. if you are reading this, please be patient, I will add pics, and if you arent reading this, then there are pictures and you're in.

this is the wire to your switch, which will connect the circuit from the PCs 12V power supply, convert the current to AC, jack it up to whatever your transformer is (I used 75 watts continuous, 150 watts peak) and then power your electromagnet and make the data on your drive completely unrecoverable. yay.

I capped the red, and wired in the ground and 12v into the inverter-transformer combo in accordance with its manual, and when getting to the AC outlet on the other side of the inverter and not being a master electrician, called a friend of mine who happens to be. Rather than cracking open the plastic shell I ended up splicing the head of an extention cord to the electromagnet unit itself... dispite my friends advice to "be
careful" "use my head" "get me another beer" and "why dont you just tape a shitload of M-80's (big explosive fireworks for those that dont know) to a rocket engine?"

You can see why we dont have our engineering degrees.

Anyways, with the wiring all about ready to go you just have to run the wires you spliced from the 12v port before the inverter and run it to a switch of your choice. There are some really cool switches out there. I even saw one that was a turn key. awesome. Take a trip to a local hardware store or radio shack and go shopping for the one you want. I used a "Staples Easy Button" someone gave me as a joke. (Admit it, its funny. Hell, it could be a commercial... feds kick in door, see hacker @ computer... Feds yell "freeze!"... hacker hits easy button, then raises hands over head slowly...)

please note though that at no point have you plugged the PC back in yet. The switch is wired, the inverter/transformer is wired, the power supply is wired, the magnet is wired. Now grab your handy fire extinguisher, take a deep breath, say a quick prayer and plug her in.

Nothing sizzling? Nothing sparking? Thats a good start.

Leaving the case open for the time being, boot up and check it out. Let it run under observation for a few hours, just to play it safe.

Once you're satisfied your place isnt going to burn down, pop the case back on and sit back secure in the knowledge that you can wipe that sucker in the flick of a switch


By Jc_tv@hotmail.com

[chickenselects]

try one of these:

http://www.gaussboys.com/ndfeb-magnets/D7626.html

[ImMoRtaL]

that might be too big

[killswitch]

or you can take a hammer to your hard drive and computer...

[ImMoRtaL]

As it said but if FBI comes in they wont w8 for you to do that now will they?

[itami]

Wow....isn't that a bit overkill? I don't think too many of us here are so paranoid we want to destroy our HD.

But...LMFAO at the easy button!

[ImMoRtaL]

I'm sure some of us with a lot of shit on our comps would need it someday... especially if we want a job at the FBI lollllllll

[itami]

Hmm...can you still use the HD though?

[John]

wow thats crazy!