How would I prevent people from formatting my system ?

pparks1 said:

Again, physical security is of the utmost importance. Leave a machine in my presence and I guarantee that I will be able to wipe out the drive. Bust the case open, plug the hard drive into another machine, low level format tool like DBAN and it's gone.

You seem to speak from experience It is a case of "Gone in Sixty Seconds"

...I was thinking...why bother trying to format...

If you are wanting to format another person's computer...normally you don't care what happens to it...use an industral magnet on the drive

Zidane24 said:

pparks1 said:

Again, physical security is of the utmost importance. Leave a machine in my presence and I guarantee that I will be able to wipe out the drive. Bust the case open, plug the hard drive into another machine, low level format tool like DBAN and it's gone.

You seem to speak from experience It is a case of "Gone in Sixty Seconds"

...I was thinking...why bother trying to format...

If you are wanting to format another person's computer...normally you don't care what happens to it...use an industral magnet on the drive

yep one of more ingenious ways to unformat a disk...:)

pparks1 said:

Zidane24 said:

You seem to speak from experience It is a case of "Gone in Sixty Seconds"

Nah...it's just that physical security is everything. People always think that Linux boxes are uber secure, but generally with a boot disk and less than 1 minute you can be sitting at the console with root access. It's nearly impossible to secure a machine if a person can gain physical access.

yeah although you still need virtual security
if possible you can prevent a format by software through a hard drive password (not a BIOS password) this will deter someone from being able to access the drive....
although a physical attack is almost (such as the one mentioned using a industrial magnet) impossible to stop if you are using a laptop (a ssd might be a something to think about since its not as susceptible to a magnetic attack like a HDD)...
and if they have actual access to the HDD itself then all bets are off...

Totally agree with pparks1..Physical security is a must.. If someone wanted to harm your machine they will most likely do harm with it by physically being there..And like the posts before said that you can boot into a Live CD such as Ubuntu and now have access to the hard drive(s) and copy files to a USB drive .. by not installing anything! and then just take the disk out and restart it and it looks like nothing even happened..

A BIOS password helps but it only slows them down..If they really wanted your data they will find a way..(they always do)

Kinda scary..

That was just one of the examples, If you are able to put a Live CD such as Ubuntu in the machine and start it. You now have full access to that machine.You can do anything you want to it..format it, take data off it, destory it..etc.

That is what I was going off of..sorry if it was off the subject.. :)

pparks1 said:

Zidane24 said:

You seem to speak from experience It is a case of "Gone in Sixty Seconds"

Nah...it's just that physical security is everything. People always think that Linux boxes are uber secure, but generally with a boot disk and less than 1 minute you can be sitting at the console with root access. It's nearly impossible to secure a machine if a person can gain physical access.

Speaking from a Villians point of view, I would not take the trouble to format a HD. I would just steal the whole laptop. That is like someone breaking into your car, starting the engine, putting the car in neutral and burning up all of your gas. Most crooks will just steal your car.

bigmck said:

pparks1 said:

Zidane24 said:

You seem to speak from experience It is a case of "Gone in Sixty Seconds"

Nah...it's just that physical security is everything. People always think that Linux boxes are uber secure, but generally with a boot disk and less than 1 minute you can be sitting at the console with root access. It's nearly impossible to secure a machine if a person can gain physical access.

Speaking from a Villians point of view, I would not take the trouble to format a HD. I would just steal the whole laptop. That is like someone breaking into your car, starting the engine, putting the car in neutral and burning up all of your gas. Most crooks will just steal your car.

So true...unless someone is trying to prank you...

bigmck said:

pparks1 said:

Zidane24 said:

You seem to speak from experience It is a case of "Gone in Sixty Seconds"

Nah...it's just that physical security is everything. People always think that Linux boxes are uber secure, but generally with a boot disk and less than 1 minute you can be sitting at the console with root access. It's nearly impossible to secure a machine if a person can gain physical access.

Speaking from a Villians point of view, I would not take the trouble to format a HD. I would just steal the whole laptop. That is like someone breaking into your car, starting the engine, putting the car in neutral and burning up all of your gas. Most crooks will just steal your car.

or if all they want to do is sabotage or delete IP (of course we dont know that)...

bigmck said:

pparks1 said:

Zidane24 said:

You seem to speak from experience It is a case of "Gone in Sixty Seconds"

Nah...it's just that physical security is everything. People always think that Linux boxes are uber secure, but generally with a boot disk and less than 1 minute you can be sitting at the console with root access. It's nearly impossible to secure a machine if a person can gain physical access.

Speaking from a Villians point of view, I would not take the trouble to format a HD. I would just steal the whole laptop. That is like someone breaking into your car, starting the engine, putting the car in neutral and burning up all of your gas. Most crooks will just steal your car.

Hahahhaa good call, good call.