Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: Heyenezz on February 11, 2012, 03:19 am

Title: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: Heyenezz on February 11, 2012, 03:19 am
A poster suggested adding a dead man's switch to the forum as a security measure. What is that?
Title: Re: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: LexusMiles on February 11, 2012, 03:25 am
You should have asked that poster :p

Its a fail safe usually.

So for example, if the forum admin doesn't complete some special command at the end of each day, the forum goes down with a warning, or self deletes or something.

It could be so many things in any different context.
Title: Re: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: Heyenezz on February 11, 2012, 03:33 am
You should have asked that poster :p

Its a fail safe usually.

So for example, if the forum admin doesn't complete some special command at the end of each day, the forum goes down with a warning, or self deletes or something.

It could be so many things in any different context.

That's a good idea. Perhaps when activated, an e-mail could be sent to each user's Tormail address (each user would at this point be required to use a tormail address for SR) informing him/her that the SR forum has been compromised.
Title: Re: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: LexusMiles on February 11, 2012, 03:45 am
Can you link to the original thread...

I don't see the context in which it has any use.

Security?

What can a rogue admin do to the forum in a covert way?

There's no personal info here so what is there to actually lose/gain?
Title: Re: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: Habitat on February 11, 2012, 04:18 am
Can you link to the original thread...

I don't see the context in which it has any use.

Security?

What can a rogue admin do to the forum in a covert way?

There's no personal info here so what is there to actually lose/gain?


the OP was referring to a thread earlier today. that OP asked if anyone has been arrested because of SR, and if so, they haven't they come on here to warn all of us fine and sexy silk roaders of possible trouble  :P

and then someone else suggested that venders should have a mandatory dead man's switch in case this scenario happened - to warn the rest of the wolves.

if you ask me, not a bad idea. maybe have one big mass PM to all of his/her customers or something.   
Title: Re: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: LexusMiles on February 11, 2012, 09:31 am
Oohhh vendors with a deadmans well that is indeed interesting. Cheers for the background  :]
Title: Re: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: watmm on February 14, 2012, 01:14 pm
Another example was the (now defunct) Wikileaks insurance file.
Should Julian Assange go missing or Wikileaks not be able to continue operations, the password for the file is released and along with it all unredacted documents.
Title: Re: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: Silk Road Encounter on February 15, 2012, 01:47 am
Is there any way to install a deadman's switch without the cooperation by SR?

This seems like a very good idea.
Title: Re: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: FiveSeven on February 15, 2012, 02:50 am
Is there any way to install a deadman's switch without the cooperation by SR?

This seems like a very good idea.

About as much chance as me being able to edit your posts  ::) . Silk is the admin, so he has executive control.
Title: Re: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: orbitalics on February 15, 2012, 03:55 am
Megaupload couldn't.
Whats stopping the feds from shutting SR?
Title: Re: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: Silk Road Encounter on February 17, 2012, 01:34 am
Is there any way to install a deadman's switch without the cooperation by SR?

This seems like a very good idea.

About as much chance as me being able to edit your posts  ::) . Silk is the admin, so he has executive control.

Hushmail closes the account after 3 weeks of inactivity.  Is this any different from a deadman's switch?  Also, does anyone know if the email correspondence is destroyed within the closed hushmail account?  (Provided it wasn't previously under government surveillance)
Title: Re: What's a Dead Man's Switch?
Post by: blueangel on February 17, 2012, 01:51 am
Is there any way to install a deadman's switch without the cooperation by SR?

This seems like a very good idea.

You could do one separate from SR that sent out an email(s). A daily cron that runs a script to see if a file was touched, else email, for example.