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How would you implement a dead man's switch? (reddthat.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

84 comments fedilink hide all child comments

After reading about the "suicide" of yet another whistleblower, it got me thinking.

When working at large enough company, it's entirely possible that at some point you will get across some information the company does not want to be made public, but your ethics mandate you blow the whistle. So, I was wondering if I were in that position how I would approach creating a dead man's switch in order to protect myself.

From wikipedia:

A dead man's switch is a switch that is designed to be activated or deactivated if the human operator becomes incapacitated, such as through death, loss of consciousness, or being bodily removed from control. Originally applied to switches on a vehicle or machine, it has since come to be used to describe other intangible uses, as in computer software.

In this context, a dead man's switch would trigger the release of information. Some additional requirements could include:

No single point of failure. (aka a usb can be stolen, your family can be killed, etc)
Make the existence of the switch public. (aka make sure people know of your mutually assured destruction)
Secrets should be safe until you die, disappear, or otherwise choose to make them public.

Anyway, how would you go about it?

(page 2) 34 comments

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

A whistleblower doesn't need a dead man's switch as they'd just release the document.

A muckracker does.

[–] qaz 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You may not be able to collect more if you publish everything at the start

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

True that...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

A whistleblower is likely to have access to sensitive data or other forms of leverage not directly linked to whatever they're whistleblowing on. Of course this sort of insurance policy would be useful to them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I think its useful for situation where I'm in process of collecting evidence, so I can keep tge switch just in case I get caught in the process but at least the evidence so far can be public

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

I don't know what's скороварка on English, I guess it's an easy rice cooking and heating device that can be set on timer. Buy one, then disassemble it and see where heating elements of that thing are. Tape them on you hard drives, better if they are SSDs, set the timer, put it into a wall socket and leave. If you are of adventurous kind, do the same with microwave's transmitter, pointing it out of the box, but be cautious as fuck because this shit can cook your balls or head in seconds.

or, better yet

You know that most MBs have special contacts for power\reset buttons? You can do two circles to them, one is for you to power up the system normally from some secret button and one from a normal button is to trigger some funsies with things easily triggered by current or heat, like dry gunpowder. So when some ABC agent would try to power up your machine, some funny thing occurs.

and if you are worried about it being disassembled in their lab, print big stickers that stick components to their slots, like OEM fuckers do, and then put cheap razorblades under them near the edge of said stickers. That's a lifehack nazis and then punks used to deny their posters from getting easily ripped off.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

An automated SMS message to activate something or something
As Back-up, automated email that is checked if received or not (in cases where no mobile connection but there is internet)
Final Back-up, none of the two maybe, radio that disables the mechanism for 48 hours just incase

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