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Researchers find cool method to break in to encrypted drives

posted onFebruary 25, 2008
by hitbsecnews

A research team at Princeton University has found a method to break into an encrypted hard drive to access protected information.

The method involves freezing the DRAM or Dynamic Random Access Memory in a computer. Freezing the memory can be easily done by spraying the memory chips with the cold canned air found in duster spray. Researchers said in a report published on Thursday that doing this, allows the chip to retain data for minutes or even hours after the computer is out of power.

Software used to encrypt hard drive information stores security keys in the computer's DRAM memory. After freezing the chip, Hackers are able to access the key information by restarting the computer and copying the memory contents with a simple program. The keys can then be used to access the hard drive.

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Encryption

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