How would you implement a dead man's switch?

The most non-intrusive foolproof method I can think of is spite-induced action:

1. Get a pacemaker with Zigbee mesh network connectivity
2. Implant a small device into your wrist that vibrates if your pacemaker is ever disconnected from the network (in which case, run NOW to your nearest safehouse)
3. Should the vibration continue for longer than 5 minutes, a vial of cyanide from a hollow tooth explodes into your mouth allowing you to spit it at your nearest enemy (should one be around)
4. The bursting of the hollow tooth sends a signal to a remote server, which triggers the eject command on a server, causing the CD tray to come out.
5. A confused sysadmin will bitterly get off his chair, and go inspect the server, whereupon he will see the paper instructions embedded in the CD tray, and read them.
6. Assuming his latvian is good, and that he's familiar with caesar cyphers, he will decode the message that will lead him to a youtube URL where he will post the following comment "Jose I slept with your mother."
7. One of the subscribers to the youtube channel is your friend Jose, who will read the comment, spit out his coffee, and then immediately call you.
8. After about a week of no response, he uploads the contents of that USB stick you gave him with the instructions to "never upload this ever under any circumstance" out of sheer spite.

Edit: Here, I made a diagram of the whole thing

stateDiagram-v2
    direction TB
    
    state Internet {
        state "Wider Zigbee Network" as WiderZigbeeNetwork
        --
        state "Youtube" as youtube{
            state "MuckBang
            <small>Wasabi Challenge</small>" as video1
            state "A Cat's Guide to Vomit
            <small>By Remington Steel</small>" as video2
        }        
        state "Remote Server" as server {
            state "Server
            <small>CD-Tray</small>" as cdtray
            state "SysAdmin
            <small>Some Latvian Dude</small>" as terry
        }
        --
        state "brazzers.org" as brazzers
    }

    state People {
        state "Jose" as jose {
           state "Youtube Subscriptions" as subs
            state "Phone" as josephone
            state "Coffee" as cuppajoe
            state "USB Stick" as usb2
        }
        state "You" as you {
            state "Pacemaker" as pmaker
            state "Wrist Implant" as wrimplant
            state "Hollow Tooth" as htooth
            state "USB Stick" as usb1
            state "Phone" as youphone
        }
        state "Enemy" as enemy {
            state "Random Person" as rando
        }
    }

    [*] --> pmaker : Insert next to heart
    pmaker --> WiderZigbeeNetwork : Maintain connection
    WiderZigbeeNetwork --> wrimplant : Vibrate for 5 mins if connection lost
    wrimplant --> htooth: Explode after 5 mins vibrating

    htooth --> cdtray: Send "eject"
    htooth --> enemy: Spit cyanide
    cdtray --> terry : Decode the paper in the CD tray
    terry --> video1 : Comment about Jose's mother

    video1 --> subs : subscribed to
    video2 --> subs : subscribed to

    subs --> cuppajoe : Spit out when reading insulting comment
    cuppajoe --> usb2
    cuppajoe --> josephone

    usb1 --> usb2 : Years ago - Give USB stick with instructions to never upload
    josephone --> youphone : Call to complain but get no response
    usb2 --> brazzers : Upload USB contents out of spite

The real answer: hire a law firm, entrust them with your documents, write into your will what you want to happen with them, and then go on about your business.

Encrypt secret. Post it publicly. Configure a web server to email the private key to any number of addresses if you don’t log in every week.

There are very few situations where a dead man's switch would have helped these whistleblowers.

Once they have gone public and are at risk of being "suicided" they should have already released everything they knew. Sitting on it after already going public in any way only helps if the goal is to blackmail or extort the company, rather than to expose the company or protect others.

A lot of people have latched onto the idea of a dead man's switch (and I get it, technical solutions are fun to create), but the only part of the scenario it would help is before the whistleblower goes public, while they are still gathering information and haven't yet been discovered by the company. Even then, it wouldn't protect them from being killed, it would only ensure that the partial work is released in case they were discovered and prevented from finishing it.

If you really have secrets, you shouldn't have a dead man's switch.

You should have released it all on day one.

"What makes them keep you alive then?"

It's not like corporations are going to get punished for killing you regardless.

Just a scheduled email that you need to cancel every 24 hours.

The fuck kind of information you sitting on there!?

Making the existence of the switch public is often something you don't want. It allows others to do troubleshooting in advance. It also destroys your reputation with many people who might otherwise work with you.

If you are content to keep things secret, share the documents with several different friends or law firms in several different countries along with conditions for release. Don't tell them or everyone who all has the documents. That sounds relatively simple.

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

This one works if you are an inbox-zero sort of person. Write a script to send yourself an email daily. Have another utility look for your reply. If you go too long without replying, have it trigger whatever other emails/actions you would like to happen.

Nice try Boeing.

My lips are sealed

Give the encrypted file to one person, the key to another and do not keep either yourself. They exchange them if you die.

It doesn't make any sense. If you are a whistleblower is because you already published the information. They are not killing you so the information does not get revealed. They are killing because you already did.

The whole point in being a whistleblower is to release the documents. Why would you tell everyone what's happening and not provide the evidence? After you release it, there's less chance of being harmed, and your job is done besides showing up to court.

Depends on your background and industry.

If you work in IT, and are technically adept, you can...

1. Store said files on a proton drive or mega.nz drive set to be only accessible to read by those who have the unique URL.
2. Create a small server with a cron job that every 24 hours sends you a text message to a Google Voice number accessible anywhere with internet connectivity and you have 60 seconds to reply otherwise the cron job will craft a premade email to all international news agencies as well as government agencies responsible for the control of this issue, along with links to download the information.

Pretty easy if you don’t work for google.

1. Upload everything to a google drive.
2. setup inactive account manager
3. add all the news agencies you can get a hold of, government offices, police etc.
4. make sure it’s read only access.

If they want to silence you they have to 1. Know about your account. 2. Keep it active.

I used to build automation tools (shudderVBAshudder) that the "proper" technology wouldn't be bothered to make. Over 15 years I had over 200 tools built out. I had tied all my code to a single file that I would use to keep everything updated. I had imagined in so many ways of setting up a dead man's switch to start slowly corrupting and degrading everything or to just implode everything... Would have worked except our company got bought out and everything became useless and I got laid off lol. Got a nice pay check out of it

Set up several solar powered raspberry pies with cheap iot SIM cards, each will check a vm in the cloud or at home for a key. If the key isn’t present or can’t be reached they release the info. Could have several servers to store keys to check. Everyday you enter a code to prevent the key from being removed.

The hardest part would be how to trigger the kill-switch periodically without showing it to your adversary whilst keeping it easy. Having your device queried directly would be a dead giveaway. My idea without involving people would be as follows:

1. Set up a program that syncs files to a remote third-party cloud
2. Sync it to a directory that frequently changes when you use your device (your docs, for example)
3. Have a server that queries the third-party drive for that synchronised directory
4. If there are no changes, trigget the alarm

But since this plan relies on the secrecy, it's kind of ruined now. That, and I think your threat model is a bit too extreme.

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

A muckracker does.

One issue from a legal/prosecutorial point of view (even assuming there is a willingness for the government to prosecute) is that the rules of evidence require authentication of documents. In the case of a whistleblower, they are themselves a witness and can authenticate (that is, attest to the genuine nature of) any supporting documents they bring in. If a whistleblower is killed, even if the government has the documents the whistleblower intended to authenticate, it becomes a lot trickier to use.

Well there are various services that let you disclose info to certain people upon death. examples: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-prepare-your-digital-life-accounts-for-your-death

So you could create those and send them to various journalists or whoever you think would be interested. Then ensure in your will that they are notified of your death. Will them a small object or something.

Tbh I think the concept of a dead man switch is fantasy. You always hear about them in place but then nothing happens when the person dies.

Has there EVER been a dead man switch that worked?

Well, you'd need to send a message to some people that you know would care, when you die or are kidnapped.

There are plenty of services for sending any sort of message.

You'll send the data with a private key and hand out the paired public key before you die. That way any tampering with the data will be obvious to the receiver.

I'd just send a link to the data. For example store the data on Proton drive with a share link.

Now you'd need to detect that you're dead or kidnapped. You could have a timer of say a week or a month, and whenever an email or message is received it resets it. You could also send a warning message to yourself before it goes off, so you have a chance to deal with errors such as an email not arriving.

You'd need a 2nd service to check if the main service is running. Or perhaps it just replies once you send it a message once a day or week or month.

You'd also have to make sure that your reset message to the service is secured. Most likely it will be as long as it isn't absolutely obvious, like you japping on about it at work. But one idea would be to use a proton mail address and keep a pin lock on the app. If you want to go the extra mile the email should also contain something only you can know.

Quite frankly I don't think they'd even expect you to have any such system set up and they wouldn't hack you before you're dead. But maybe I'm wrong. If you really suspect that you'd need someone who is specialized in infosec.

I'd say go look for an existing service that can do this entirely via email, I'd bet it exists already. Otherwise you need to be able to code a bit or find a coder.

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

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.