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JJay
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I'm not super familiar with LUKS, but I guess the key is stored in the header?
Edit: I'm starting to like this idea. battoussai114 is a certified genius 
[Edited on 7-8-2017 by JJay]
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Cryolite.
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Whatever is wrong with just a lab desktop computer with an encrypted linux partition? If you are worried about law enforcement, just shut down the
machine or reboot it into something innocuous.
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JJay
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It depends on what you're doing. If they're willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars cracking your passphrase, they can get into your
partition. But getting into it without the master key stored in the LUKS header is tremendously more expensive.
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Cryolite.
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Three points: First, what sort of operation are you running if you think the government is willing to put that sort of money towards breaking into
your hard drive?
Second, if you choose a sufficiently good password, I don't see how it would be possible to recover the data in a reasonable amount of time. And in
the very least, the password is only in your head, while the detached luks header is on some form of digital media somewhere...
And third, this is all moot if the machine in question is powered on in any form. Recovering the data from RAM should be straightforward for law
enforcement should they desire.
[Edited on 7-8-2017 by Cryolite.]
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JJay
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That's a lot of money, but it's not that much, really... if you think about it, they often spend $60,000+ housing each prison inmate per year. I'm
guessing each FBI special agent costs the government $100,000+ per year. Are you doing anything that would motivate the government to have an FBI
special agent track you full time for a year?
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j_sum1
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Nope. Are you?
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JJay
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No. It would be a complete waste of their resources.
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phlogiston
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It is surprising to me that JJay should have to justify wanting to encrypt his notebook.
It is not unreasonable to assume that anything stored on a computer connected to the internet can be accessed by others.
As Snowden once said: “Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't
care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”
We have all seen and experienced how peaceful amateur chemists doing perfectly legal things can be treated by friends, neighbours and the authorities.
Encrypting your digital labbook at least allows YOU to control who you want to share it with, and when.
[Edited on 8-8-2017 by phlogiston]
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"If a rocket goes up, who cares where it comes down, that's not my concern said Wernher von Braun" - Tom Lehrer |
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karlos³
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I always reply to the "I´ve got nothing to hide", with "neither have I, but I still prefer to have curtains on my windows".
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JJay
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I've received three private messages in response to this post, and I'd just like to be very clear that I don't want to receive any U2U messages
containing jailhouse lawyer opinions or containing sketchy links to privacy software I've never heard of. This is not the first time I've received
such communications, and I recognize their hallmarks. But perhaps the member who has been sending me these curious opinions (who has not yet posted on
this thread) can just post some of them here and we can have a respectful discussion of them.
[Edited on 9-8-2017 by JJay]
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j_sum1
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Quote: Originally posted by karlos³  | | I always reply to the "I´ve got nothing to hide", with "neither have I, but I still prefer to have curtains on my windows". |
Thanks for succinctly stating what I attempted to communicate here (first main point.)
The question then comesdown to what kind of curtains you need. I think a digital format requires thicker curtains than a paper format does -- for the
same reason that a city apartment needs curtains more opaque than an isolated rural farmhouse.
But if we are having a discussion about kevlar-reinforced lead curtains with biometric locking mechanisms and Mission Impossible-style self destruct
modes then we have possibly lost sight of what a lab journal is for. This is science after all. It is open pursuit of knowledge and not espionage.
If a neighbour or stranger is reading about my chloroform production then the question I want answered is "what the hell are they doing on my
computer?" and not "how can I prevent them from reading my lab journal?"
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Melgar
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I like drawing molecule diagrams, which isn't easy to do on a computer in a way that it's encrypted very well. So I just add unreactive functional
groups to my molecule diagrams if and when my reactions start entering legal grey area. Then I just learn the name of the new hypothetical molecule
and refer to it as such in my notes. I've dealt with DEA and ATF chemists before. They tend to have precursor lists memorized, and have a huge blind
spot when it comes to anything not on their lists. If you're being investigated by a real chemist ever, it's probably already too late for you.
[Edited on 8/22/17 by Melgar]
The first step in the process of learning something is admitting that you don't know it already.
I'm givin' the spam shields max power at full warp, but they just dinna have the power! We're gonna have to evacuate to new forum software!
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JJay
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| Quote: Originally posted by Melgar | I've dealt with DEA and ATF chemists before. They tend to have precursor lists memorized, and have a huge blind spot when it comes to anything not on
their lists. If you're being investigated by a real chemist ever, it's probably already too late for you.
[Edited on 8/22/17 by Melgar] |
I always suspected that you worked for the feds
I've found that most chemists have some blind spots. Chemistry is a rather vast field. I suspect that with DEA and ATF chemists, their major concern
is with the law rather than with what you might potentially be doing with some designer drugs. A chemist might suspect that I'm making amphetamines
with benzyl alcohol, for example, but I couldn't be arrested for having some. But something like a description of "acetylchloroform" would still be
suspicious to a casual guest, and it wouldn't really make a lot of sense in my notes anyway.
The three letter agencies would have a very hard time getting into my lab notebook but could probably crack it with sufficient resources. I would
decline to voluntarily let them into it on the grounds that it is my right to do so, but in some jurisdictions they can demand to be permitted access
to encrypted drives and so forth.
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Melgar
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More like, idiot roommate called the fire department before he called me when he found a box from Sigma Aldrich with "Danger, explosive" written in
the side. It snowballed to the point of me getting pulled out of work, having my car searched, my room ransacked, then the street I lived on closed
off for most of the day. All for a hundred fucking grams of 2,4-dinitrophenol.
I was questioned by several agencies, and the ones that asked the chemistry questions were the DEA and ATF. For the record, the DEA guys were massive
assholes, and the ATF guys were surprisingly pleasant. I actually kind of enjoyed talking about chemistry with the ATF guys. They asked me if I'd
ever made HMTD or TATP, and I said I never had because they were too dangerous. I did admit to making small amounts of ETN and nitroglycerin years in
the past, which they didn't seem too concerned about. The DEA guys on the other hand, just would not get off the topic of meth, never mind that the
only similarities between meth and 2,4-DNP is that both have benzene rings and both can be used to lose weight.
The US Marshals and the FBI were dicks at first, but then were nicer once they realized I wasn't a terrorist.
The first step in the process of learning something is admitting that you don't know it already.
I'm givin' the spam shields max power at full warp, but they just dinna have the power! We're gonna have to evacuate to new forum software!
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