Self-destruct button on PC?
How can I implement an emergency mechanism on my PC that, when activated, irreversibly destroys sensitive data and renders the system unusable? The idea arose from concerns about potential security risks such as theft or hacking, which could cause important business or personal data to fall into the wrong hands. Are there existing technologies or products that enable such self-destruction? If not, what technical solutions would be conceivable, and what would I need to consider (e.g., legal aspects, security, potential implementation risks)?
I'm not super tech-savvy, but the idea has been on my mind. Where do you start with something like this? Can I buy a button like this somewhere, or would I have to build it myself? Maybe this is totally paranoid, but I'd feel safer. What do you think?
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So I wouldn’t install a self-destruct button and you don’t even need it, there are free encryption software like Veracrypt, which you can easily install and secure your data with it. If there’s someone stealing your computer, it’s impossible for him to get there and if someone hacks you, then who is faster, you or the hacker. But if your self-destruct button is the same, if it has the data before you can press the button or depend on your Veracrypt container, you’ll have bad luck, otherwise if the data is encrypted at the time, no hacker will get there.
If you want to go quite sure because it is online banking or whatever data, buy a second computer like laptop, encrypt the data with e.g. Veracrypt (or Bitlocker if you have Win Pro version) and use it only for access to a few important pages.
The easiest thing is to encrypt sensitive data.
The best solution would be 2 PC’s:
You have two separate systems.
It would also be possible to connect an external hard drive:
This would be a bit more convenient, but it is no longer 100% separate:
A possible virus could determine this at the time and then spread to your external.
…or is it out of the fear that the search for the house is coming because illegal things are on the computer.
There were numerous reflections on how to make everyone unusable at once, e.g. with a strong magnetic field.
With a strong magnetic field, you can’t tear today. Thermit Charge on the computer ignition, but then the house burns.
On the other hand, brain 1.0, a reasonable AV and possibly a hardware firewall helps.
Not in private or Business environment. In business, you work with an immediate interruption of the complete network traffic for affected systems, in the worst case you go completely offline.
You need to consider how to quickly and irreproachably destroy the installed disk. To do this, you have to do a lot of effort, because even hard drives from the ruins of the WTC towers could still save data.
Ne Charge Thermit on or equal to the hard drive that is screwed to one of the 8 pin plugs in the power supply makes just that
I just don’t understand why you don’t just encrypt the disk or switch to a cloud service that a Yubikey uses
Explosive material would probably be safer and easier, as the data can almost always be recovered in case of deletion.