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Security

Intrusion Detection For Your PC Case 213

Posted by Hemos from the gotta-catch-'em-all dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "Ryan du Bois, from genbukan security (aka red0x), has created a chassis intrusion detection system for your computer box: the actual physical case. He also wrote a paper describing three separate implementations of this CIDS system: Contacts, Pressure switchs, and a PLA (programmable microchip). Included in his paper are complete designs for the first two and a promise for the last to come soon. Definitely worth a read. The paper is available in many formats including OpenOffice 1.0, HTML , TEXT and a Tarball of them all. You can also obtain the signatures as well as his Automated Security Tools Project, of which this is a member."
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Intrusion Detection For Your PC Case More

Intrusion Detection For Your PC Case

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  • Nothing New (Score:2, Informative)

    by thelizman ( 304517 )
    Dell Optiplexes could not be opened without tripping an internal warning that would flash on screen at reboot. You had to reset the bios based warning using a password to turn it off. Packard Bell and Compaq also did this years ago (I had a Compaq 286sx with an internal detection system which used a mercury switch)

    Oh yeah, FIRST POST BIATCH.

  • This is new? (Score:1, Redundant)

    by UnifiedTechs ( 100743 )
    I remember a plug for an intrusion detection system on my old 486's.

    • Re:This is new? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Jucius Maximus ( 229128 )
      I agree. Old news indeed.

      I remember reading about systems in old issues of PC Magazine or such where, if the case was opened incorrectly, something inside would explode and cover everything inside with paint, thus making the computer parts un-sellable on the reller's market. The crook would leave your box behind and you could still get at your HDD to recover your data.

  • This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by No-op ( 19111 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @11:48AM (#3722336)
    Pretty much all standard business desktops have intrusion detection devices, as well as bios hooks to inform higher level software apps that it has been tripped. Most server cases have this as well- a whole slew of my compaq racks here have them, and they tie into our management system. Mind you, they lock as well, so I'm not as worried- they have solenoids! *THUNK*

    I can't imagine someone cobbling together something that has existed forever is news...
    • Is it just me or this is a complicated device to replace the old pieces of tape trick ?
    • All of Dell's desktop machines come with a version of this as well, if the case gets opened it will display a warning to that effect every time you boot the system, unless you disable the message.

      Kintanon
    • A-Bombs have existed for quite some time, but if someone cobbled together a DIY nuke, it would sure be news.

      Allah Bomb President!

      *ahem*

      Yeah, DIY is always cool, especially if you're the first to do it. If Mr. I-don't-want-anyone playing-inside-my-PC's-case isn't cool, could someone show me someone else (a geek, not an assraping corporation) who beat him to the punch, plz?

      • Re:This is news? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Cramer ( 69040 )
        Thing is, he's not first to do it. Hundreds of people have done what he's done. Only none of them are wasting sourceforge space for their pre-school tinkering. I'm sorry, but that's all this is: a five year old discovering the door switch on the cloths dryer.

        If you want to see real CIDS, go talk to people who make and use military encryption devices. (shake some of them too hard and they electrically self-destruct -- they erase their tiny little brain.)
        • (shake some of them too hard and they electrically self-destruct -- they erase their tiny little brain.)

          The device, or the people that use them?
        • If you want to see real CIDS, go talk to people who make and use military encryption devices. (shake some of them too hard and they electrically self-destruct -- they erase their tiny little brain.)
          And some devices erase the tiny little brain of the intruder as well.
      • A-Bombs have existed for quite some time, but if someone cobbled together a DIY nuke, it would sure be news.


        I wouldn't recommend using one as a way to tamperproof your PC though. The radiation causes parity errors.

    • Yes, but I wonder how tamper resistant they are--

      We are talking about the case here-- an IDS is in a physically compromised environment-- how easy would it be for a knowledgable and determined attacker to reset, disable, or otherwise circumvent?

  • Compaq has had this... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by peterdaly ( 123554 ) <{petedaly} {at} {ix.netcom.com}> on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @11:48AM (#3722338)
    Compaq has had something like this for years. Not only that, they have an internal case lock which can be activated/deactivated remotely, or in the password protected bios.

    A special tool from compaq is required to defeat the lock...or a drill. But anyway, it can keep track of when the case is opened I believe.

    I have seen, but never used the feature, so I don't know the specifics.

    -Pete
  • Why? This seems like a bit of overkill as compared to, eg, a lock.
    • what's worse, think about it- how many of us actually have our cases CLOSED?
      locks don't help when you got the side off and a fan pointing in on the processor.
      • I don't think the intrusion detection system is aimed at your market level. This is not even an average /.'rs level.

        This is one of them corporate IT bigwig thingys where the extra expense of an ID system is only a small part of the cost of the overall system itself.
        • heh, take the parent's sig as a response to yours.

          there was no need for you to reply to that guy.
          • Nah, but when you get right down to it - what's the point of replying to anything on /.?

            Somedays, you just gotta point out that someone's being an idiot. It may be blindingly obvious, but hey, we're all bozos on this bus.
  • People have been able to do similar things for years. Theres other companies out there right now (dell for instance) that have a warning that pops up saying that the case was removed. Theres also other cases you can buy that have the ability to do the same.

    If you wanted to it wouldn't be incredibly difficult to wire up a contact to the inside of your PC case. Using that dry contact you could either trigger an alarm (audible or visual) or just write out a timestamp to a log.

    Just imagine... Someone cracks open your PC and a 175Db alarm sounds. Seems like a good idea to me! :)
    • Someone cracks open your PC and a 175Db alarm sounds

      Or just hook the PS to the case body...with a transformer to boost that 12V line up a tad...

      Of course, you'd then fry the shit out of everything IN the case, but you'd know if it was opened!
  • Either this individual has too much time, or has been asleep for the past few years.

    Since when has anyone actually needed a security system on their case?
    • "Since when has anyone actually needed a security system on their case?"

      Some years ago I was working as a tech in a university as a co-op student. I learned that there were semi-common problems for people to break open the blank 5.25" panels on the front of the cases and reach in and grab the RAM and CPU. And this was on boxes that where physically secured onto the desks.

      This is one reason why security on system cases is necessary.


  • Compaq, Dell, IBM...they all tell you when someone's opened the case, removed memory, added hard drives, etc etc....

    C'mon!

  • What a bunch of Rubes!... Goldberg, that is (Score:4, Insightful)

    by L. VeGas ( 580015 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @11:51AM (#3722364) Homepage Journal
    All you need is tamper-evident tape [tamper.com].

  • Moderation (Score:3, Insightful)

    by twoflower ( 24166 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @11:52AM (#3722373)
    I have moderation points, but it won't let me moderate the story itself as "pointless" or "redundant"

    It's really too bad when the people running the site know less than the people reading it.

    Twoflower
    • everyone keeps saying that this is a REAL site for REAL journalism.

      Since when did journalists know more about a topic than the majority of readers? ;-)
      • "everyone keeps saying that this is a REAL site for REAL journalism."

        I've never heard/read anyone make that claim. Usually it is quite the opposite.

    • Re:Moderation (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by Lord Omlette ( 124579 )
      Slashdot: News for Nerds

      Below that, they should have a little disclaimer: Please leave all pretentious wanking at the door. You can pick it up when you leave. Thank you.

      Most of us Karma Whores (I use the power of .NET to Karma Whore for me, I'm cool!) at least take the time and care and love to post the URL to the previous Slashdot story that's identical to the one we're complaining about. Since you included no url, you have no valid reason for the story to be redundant. Since you gave no reasons for the story to be pointless, I'm guessing you have none.

      Your mods would have been metamodded out of existence.

      Jackass.
      • his point is this story has been redundant for years. offices had these things in the 80s.

      • I doubt if /. ever did a story on the 8086 coming out, but that doesn't stop a story on it being WAY OLD NEWS.

        If you're Lord Omlette then I think the eggs should have been allowed to live! ;) heh heh, I'm a bitch.

        graspee

    • The reason why so much redundant/pointless/dated/superfluous BS in the way of stories is posted here is that the /. editors long ago abandoned the practice of reading the submitted links and checking for duplicate submissions. Instead, they rely on regurgitating the same motifs, over and over, ad nauseum. Like this case mods story. I won't waste my time posting the redundant links. Anybody with a heartbeat and a /. ID under 500000 knows how used-up this topic is.
  • ..because it gives us four different ways to slashdot them!

  • what I learned from the movies (Score:4, Funny)

    by Marco_polo ( 160898 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @11:52AM (#3722380) Homepage
    is that we need lasers set up in an inefficient pattern surrounding the box itself.

    • It doesn't work. People will just dangle from the ceiling, use an aerosol spray can to see the lasers, then put a mirror between them, then use a skinny robotic arm with a periscope to access the computer.

      Happens to me all the time. pesky spies
      • You don't have to use aerosol sprays to see the laser beams because they're VISIBLE!! Geez, don't you watch movies AT ALL?! ;-)

        (note to those of you who don't get sarcasm - yes I know you can't see laser beams. But you can in the movies. That's my point. So you don't have to respond to say that you can't see laser beams. Thank you.)

  • More important things to worry about (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fatwreckfan ( 322865 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @11:52AM (#3722384)
    As interesting as this is, I'd be more worried about someone actually stealing the machine than opening it up for components. Even in a office environment, who is going to check each machine to make sure the employee using it didn't crack it open to swipe some RAM?

    Why not just use a chain to the desk which locks the case shut? Then you're safe in both cases.
    • With decent remote management software, there's no need to go visit computers individually. It should be easy to configure it to alert someone if something suspicious happens to a machine (cover removed, installed RAM amount decreases, etc.).
  • Its been done for a while by HP [hp.com] expecially in the Vectra Line of pcs.. I have a few Kayak's and Vectra's, using their DMI/WMI Clients they detect the intrusion detection and even will report it to a central server like HP Toptools. If I'm not mistaken it will even report changes in system states (stuff removed/added) etc.. it stores it in the bios area I think, or atleast in flash.. it'll keep it even after the bios battery has been removed or reset.. (and ofcourse with no power).. I think even some asus boards support this.. anyone know of support outside of HP/Compaq?


    ~slak

  • Classified Processing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by delphin42 ( 556929 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @11:53AM (#3722388) Homepage
    I used to work for a defense contractor where many of our computers were used to process classified information. Besides controlling access to the room in which the computers were located, stickers were placed over all the access points to the internals of the machine. The stickers were signed and dated by the security officer when they were placed and if one was broken, the computer had to be carefullly inspected before it would be returned to operation. Needless to say, employees were enouraged to report wear on stickers before they were completely broken, to avoid having to throughly inspect the innards of the device for bugs.
  • My bios has support for case intrusion but I've never tried to implement it. I'm using a MSI KT333 (ARU version) motherboard with AMI bios.

  • Something more low-tech... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Silverhammer ( 13644 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @11:53AM (#3722393)

    Howsabout a good old fashioned thieves knot [rcarchive.com]?

  • I'm a little slow here, but what is to keep an intelligent intruder from resetting the software that tells you an intrusion took place?

    I'd feel better will tamper-evident tape, but maybe I don't understand this system.
    • "I'm a little slow here, but what is to keep an intelligent intruder from resetting the software that tells you an intrusion took place?"

      If the intruder is smart enough to know how to do this, they will go after big corporate targets with expensive boxen, and not your personal machine.

  • that i'll notice my house/business/server room broken into first.. Ok, let's assume that it doesn't matter at home... Let's say your business has legitimate security concerns for servers... The computer room should be secured with cameras, magnetic locks, security, etc.. is there a need to take this down to the individual computer level? If someone is sophisticated enough to break into the server room, they probably have the resources to get around the alarm on the case...
    • It makes a lot of sense when you consider that most of computer theft is perpetrated by employees of the company.

      Slashdot requires you to wait 20 seconds between hitting 'reply' and submitting a comment.

      It's been 19 seconds since you hit 'reply'!

  • I've worked with a number of PC's that have chassis intrusion detection. Admittedly, it's a simple switch connected to a register that can only be reset in passworded BIOS.

    This guy is writing like it's news or something. I read the brief file, and it looks like he just figured out what I first saw years ago.

    And also, the classic phrase:
    if you don't have physical security, you have no security at all.

  • 'hackers' chastity belt (Score:3, Funny)

    by paradesign ( 561561 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @11:54AM (#3722401) Homepage
    this seems kinda funny. First 'hacker' makes case mods so you can see al of his frilly internals. then he puts on a system so you cannot touch or have access to them. this is strangely reminiscent of the lingerie / chastity belt scenerio, see... no touch. see... no touch.
    • Back in the sixties, rumor has it that men tended to view their motobikes as something of a sexual nature, perhaps equating it with a woman.

      They cared for it, they made it beautiful, they rode it, they rode it, they rode it...

      This comment on chastity belts brings back to light the much debated issue of the hacker's liaison with his computer. He cares for it, makes it beautiful (case mods), sometimes prefers it naked (no case), install the latest software (XP) and then it crashes and he gets screwed, screwed, screwed...

      I guess if they had porn on bikes we'd never had gotten this far.

  • What I would like to contruct some time (don't know how difficult it is tho) is a intrusion detection system that works on air pressure. after turning on the system air is pumped into the case (which is air-tight) randomly to increase the air pressure to a random value (should only be known to the hardware in the box and not readable by the computer or whatever). now, measure the pressure inside with a sensitive air pressure sensor. when the case is penetrated in any way the sensor would register the change in pressure and send the intrusion signal.
    since the pressure inside is unknown it would be nearly impossible (depending on the sensitivity of the pressure sensor) to put the case in a pressured box with exactly the same pressure.

    any reasons why this is an impossible or crazy thing to do ??
  • I guess you can't expect much better in news from an AC. Maybe posting news should be restricted to users that are logged in. Has anyone seen useful articles from an AC before? Just curious.
  • ...before the *AA pushes to have all new PCs sold with some setup like this, so we can't screw around with the internals and get around their precious digital "rights" management hardware...

  • My IDS... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bonker ( 243350 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @11:57AM (#3722429)
    Gracie, the gray tabby cat sleeps atop my PC case. If her bed is disturbed... and I do mean in any way... she cries for days on end. She can't be consoled. I have no choice but to hunt down the man what tried to jack my HDD and present his head to the cat like she does when she brings me mice.
  • Well, I could wrap a case in duct tape and *detect* an intrusion by checking if anyone had cut back the tape... or rig it with C4 and listen for loud exploding noises. But I would think that intrusion *prevention* or good chassis access control would be a more useful technology. Or case mod, as it were.

    -ks
  • i use an indescrete piece of scotch tape, if the seal is broken, it's been tampered with!
  • Hmm nice idea, tho I generally prefer lock-down cases where gaining physical access requires either the key, or breaking something.

    IBM used to (and I imagine still does) build thier rs/6000 cases this way. The thing that always pleased me most was the use of a Medeco biaxial lock & key. Medeco's are effectively not pickable, in contrast to virtually all other pin-tumbler locks.

    I don't know what other vendors use this or similar methods for the cases. the usual 3-4 pin lock incorporated in all the other cases I've seen (including some pretty expensive ones from Compaq / HP) were trivial to open. Even the use of mushroom pins is not going to be proof against a reasonably skilled intruder.

  • Dell computers and other computers have been doing this for some time in an attempt to disallow the 'ultimate' rootkit: a screwdriver and basic knowledge of PC Building.

  • Great intrusion detection (Score:5, Funny)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @12:01PM (#3722462) Homepage Journal
    Leave a fake grenade, with the pin pulled and the spoon held down by the outside of the case in the computer.

    Identify intrusion by the stain on the floor.

    For bonus points, replace the fake grenade with a real one.
  • Dell or would that be phoenix has had this for a while. Basically its a small sensor over the chasis and cover. When set in the bios, it will detect if the cover was removed and tell you upon bootup. Some models even featured an audible alarm.
  • This is pretty old stuff.. Nice idea for retrofiting an clone case.. but still whats the big deal, pretty old news..
  • Doesnt rreally work if you turn the power off before opening the case. Of course you may have another alarm for this, but it doesnt help you know whether the case was opened.

  • Take a single hair, wet it in your mouth, and place it across the crack between the removable side panel and the rest of the case. Anyone trying to break in will not see a single hair - or think anything of it if they do - and you'll know whether someone has cracked it open.

    And it costs nothing.

  • G4 Towers (Score:3, Informative)

    by krugdm ( 322700 ) <slashdot&ikrug,com> on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @12:06PM (#3722491) Homepage Journal

    I like the system that Apple has put into their G4 Towers. There's a spring-loaded clip with a hole in it that pulls out of the back of the case. You can slip a cable/padlock/whatever through this which prevents the clip from springing back into the case.

    When the clip is out, the EZ-flip-down-door on the side of the case is locked, preventing unnoticable intrusion.

  • The best option I saw was a fiber optic strand pulled through the case and the desk it was installed in. When the case was removed (or possibly tampered with) the fiber was broken. You could rig it with an alarm or a watch dog. Beware though, the cheap version using plastic optics rather than a good length of 62.5m MMF or 10m SMF. The plastic fiber gave many false positives. The ends wouldn't fit right so jiggling the case caused the LED light to be disrupted. If you're protecting nice Sparcs or SGIs, this is the answer for you. Don't skip on this though. You get what you pay for.
  • Two words ... BIG LOCK...

    if its not removed they can't get the case open
    ...

    its a lot cheaper and simplar then this system...

  • Useless, useless, useless (Score:5, Insightful)

    by marxmarv ( 30295 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @12:07PM (#3722507) Homepage
    This "design" is completely obvious to anyone the least bit skilled in the state of the art, and frankly doesn't add much information at all. There's ZERO reason you would need a PLA for this project when 7400 series TTL has many available multi-input OR gate functions. What's worst, none of this works anyway because all you need to do is unplug the PC or otherwise disrupt the power to the gate or PLA to break into it (the normal state is, after all, active low).

    So what we have here is some fourteen year old with his own "security" organization, a metric buttload of super glue and an utter lack of clue who writes a frankly useless article so that he can pretend he's important whilst slinging around big acronyms like "PLA" and "VHDL" when the tools they represent are useless to the task at hand. In other words, a snake-oil salesman.

    -jhp, smacking down dim-bulbs everywhere

    • Right on the money. How'd this waste of bits sneak through? Doesn't he know that all the VC has dried up?
    • You don't even need logic gates -- if you've got two or more (100's of) switches, you can put them in parallel (Normally open contact switches) or series (Normally closed) and any one of them will trigger the alarm.

      The only reason to add logic would be to latch an intrusion during power-off. But, I suspect that the motherboard already does that (could be wrong-that's the obvious question he should have answered).
  • When the world was shook up by the news about security holes in laptops, I was happy I ran Apache.

    Now that the world is shook up by the news of hackers breaking into PC towers and desktops, I'm happy I have a laptop.

    Now let's hope my manufacturer fixes any holes in my laptop as quickly as the Apache people came up with their patch...
  • I'm trying to figure out why this is news. I mean, find a contact switch and throw it on the connector. Why does this take 3 different formats of 'documentation' to say that?

    I figured there would be something more interesting, like creating a whole subsystem that could figure out what more than just "case open". I figured there'd be something like using the serial port to talk to this system, and perhaps using the mb connection to let it know that there was an event to look into. HOW disappointing!
  • Nope, I'm going to sound like I'm so smart that nothing seems new to me. Ah, somebody wrote up a description of how to make your own detection system. Wait a minute, alarms using pressure switches have been done before!! Geez, can't they work spooky interaction into it or something?

    Damn. This must be a slow news day if I can't be entertained by a a description of what is involved. No siree, I wouldn't want to learn anything. If Compaq and Dell can build stuff into their systems that sounds the same, then it isn't worth me knowing about. Hmm my computer doesn't have one of these. I guess I never thought about that when I built my own computer. Pity, I don't have an intrusion detection system.

    Oh I know, I don't need one! My friends all shout 'First Post!'.
  • seen it on dells for years
    and more recently motherboards comming with jumpers/connectors for such intrustion dection switches on the case.

    not really much news hear.

    maybe if he did something cool with his like make it shock the hell out of who ever was attempting to access the case with out authorization.
  • OK, your case is comprimised. So what? What are they going to do, remove your hard drive while the power is on? Attach remote listening devices inside your case, so they can listen to your disks spinning?

    If a thief breaks into your computer room they're going to hit the power switch. Then, if they don't carry away the entire computer, they'll open it up and remove what they want. AFTER the CIDS has been power disabled.
  • For those overclockers that don't close their cases out of fear of overheating!

  • So Basically... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ribald ( 140704 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @12:29PM (#3722653)
    ...some 15 year old kid noticed the CI connector on his motherboard, his chassis didn't have a microswitch to connect it to, so he superglued one on. Then he comes up with an idea to make it sound complicated, throws in some acronyms (for devices/protocols that would make it _very_ much more complicated than needs be), invents his own security company, and offers to license some code to run it for a small fee. Brilliant.

    If you can't tell from all the other posts, this has been implemented for a great number of years on nearly all business-grade desktops, usually accompanied by a provision for a physical lock.

    If this kid actually gets someone to buy into this and pay him to license his "software", I've gotta give him at least a little respect. At least he's not the one paying for it.

    --Ribald

    • Chassis Intrusion detection isn't all it's cracked up to be anyway. Unless you hook it up to some sort of paging device, so that the moment the box is opened you are notified, the person is going to have what they need/want by the time you find out that they were ever in there. Kinda reminds me of the stupid bios messages on boot on the machines here at work "Warning: Case was previously opened" or something.

  • Don't worry, Microsoft already takes care of this. (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Don't worry about it if you have Windows XP.

    1) If someone breaks in and doesn't change anything inside, you don't care.

    2) If someone DOES break in and change anything in the hardware configuration, Windows XP will think it is no longer running on the same computer and stop working until you contact Microsoft for a new activation key.

  • I'm not going to care about case security until somebody comes up with a badass-looking bug-zapper inspired case mod.

    "Geeks!" she exclaimed, "...all they ever think about is hex!"
  • Hook these intrusion systems up to a noxious/poison gas canister in your server room, a la my car stereo. Now THAT''s security.
  • Howcome this gets filed under "security"? It should be under "hardware", or "funny, laugh already".

    People keep abusing my profession, next time I tell them I'm a security expert they're going to ask me if I can please go and close the door...

  • ... that OpenOffice 1.0 has been used as a file format for widespread distribution in two recent stories (including this one). It may not be widespread among the wider herd, but it's easy to tell someone they can read the report with a *legal* free download.

    Though I'd still prefer that LaTeX was the standard document distribution format, but then I'm a die-hard ;-)

  • It gets better (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Nyarly ( 104096 ) <nyarlyNO@SPAMredfivellc.com> on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @12:54PM (#3722833) Homepage Journal
    From the article:
    "I could not find any DMI applications for linux, so I have no way of testing it to see if it worked..."
    So, beyond the dubious importance of this "design" - which begins with setting up copper contacts on the case and moving on to pressure switches - he can't give us any results because he doesn't have a utility to check the register.

    That's classic.

    Two bits says this made it to the front page because he mentions he's running linux on his "CIDS."

  • Geez, I built a security system for my room with a relay, a buzzer, a battery and a couple of hunks of bare wire when I was 10 years old. I should write it up, maybe I can get on /.

  • Why not just buy (Score:2, Interesting)

    by harborpirate ( 267124 )
    A case with a lock on it? [supermicro.com] - You'll have to crack into it without a metal cutting saw.. and thats gonna be noisy and take some time. (Not to mention leave a mark.) Note also that most manufacturers sell cases with BIOS level intrusion detection built in if you want it.

    I applaud the efforts of junior MacGyvers, but if you really want to be secure, there are obviously better solutions.

    Speaking of computer security, that reminds me of the time when the CS department at the University I went to got a bunch of brand new lab machines. They all had intrusion detection, which we CS dept. admins thought was pretty cool. We told the campuswide IT guys that we needed them secured in place. They dragged their feet on it. A month later, the CS department threw a Lan party in the same building (though not in the same room) and some enterprising students used it to cover the theft of 4 of the new lab machines. Security wire and cameras were in the room within a week. As far as I know the stolen computers were never recovered. We took small solace in the knowledge that the computer beeps at them and displays a brief annoyance message now before booting the OS. That is, as long as they opened the case and didn't flash the BIOS.

  • Bond (Score:2)

    by isorox ( 205688 )
    Anyone seen any bond movie where he sticks a hair over the door to see if was later opened? I guess not. Dibs on patent!

  • Another option (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RadioTV ( 173312 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @02:02PM (#3723306)
    I work at a large public university and I admin an unmonitored lab. This is what we came up with.

    We used a home security alarm system modified to connect to the computers. We mounted a switch inside the case that would open when the case was opened. We put the correct resistor in series with the switch (home security alarms don't just measure continuity, the also measure resistance) and connected it to a RJ45 jack on a blank slot cover. We mounted a plate to the monitors either by replacing a screw with a security screw kit (you can't remove the screw without removing the cable run through it) or using industrial super glue. Loop the security alarm cable through the monitor plate and the lock hole on the back of most computers, connect it the RJ45 jack and arm the alarm. If someone disconnects the cable or opens the case, a 125db alarm sounds in the room and an automatic call is placed to the campus police.

  • locking seals (Score:2, Informative)

    by sparkamatic ( 572298 )
    The company I work for makes seals mostly used in the tractor trailer business for securing trailer doors similar to hotel bar fridge seals. They are numbered and are a use once and throw away item. I find they work really good at securing PC cases.
  • Who'd want to break into your case anyway?

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Get hold of portable property. -- Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations"

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