How would you implement a dead man's switch?
How would you implement a dead man's switch?
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?
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The most non-intrusive foolproof method I can think of is spite-induced action:
- Get a pacemaker with Zigbee mesh network connectivity
- 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)
- 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)
- The bursting of the hollow tooth sends a signal to a remote server, which triggers the
ejectcommand on a server, causing the CD tray to come out. - 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.
- 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."
- 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.
- 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
State Diagram
(with mermaid source)
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 spiteThis reads like a modern day SysAdmin Rube Goldberg machine; I love it
Worthy of being submitted to The Register as a sysadmin story
LEMMY GOLD ahahahaha
Woa, I was reading this as the Edit federated in and it refreshed. Trippy.
I love it!
Wallfacer Diaz?....
Eh?
Oh, just a silly reference to the sifi series "Rememberance of Earth's Past" by Lui CiXin. A character, Manuel Rey Diaz, makes a convoluted dead man's switch device in order to attempt to defend against an impending alien invasion. Incredible series, highly recommend 😁
Oh! Ive read that trilogy, I love that standoff he has when it looks like he's about to kill himself. Didn't make the connection
