USB dead drop
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The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. (October 2012) |
A USB dead drop is an anonymous, offline, peer-to-peer file sharing network in public space using a USB device.
Typically, a USB flash drive will be mounted in an outdoor brick wall and fixed in place with concrete.[1] The name comes from the dead drop method of espionage communication.
The first USB dead drop network, of five devices, was started in October 2010 in New York by Berlin-based artist Aram Bartholl,[2] a member of New York's Fat lab art and technology collective.
Everyone is invited to drop or find files on a dead drop by directly plugging their laptop into the USB stick in the wall to share files and data. Each dead drop is installed empty except a readme.txt file explaining the project.
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Wireless dead drop [edit]
Following this concept, wireless dead drops are being created.[3][4][5]
Pros and cons [edit]
Publicly and privately available points give anyone the ability to save and transfer data anonymously and free of charge. Such offline networks are vulnerable to the following examples of threats:
- Physical destruction: anyone can destroy a dead drop using pliers or a hammer, by high voltage from a static field, with high temperature from a blowtorch, or other methods of physical force.
- Software destruction: anyone can erase all of the data by deletion or drive formatting, or by encrypting the data or the whole drive and hiding the key.
- Espionage: anyone can intentionally or unintentionally infect it with malware such as trojan horse or keylogger.
- Disclosure: anyone can disclose the location of a private dead drop by shadowing people and publishing coordinates in a public place.
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ How to make your own
- ^ "Dead Drops: Bizarre new artwork embeds USB sticks in buildings". Mail Online. 3 November 2010. Text " Mail Online" ignored (help)
- ^ "PirateBox".
- ^ "WIDROP".
- ^ "Wireless drop".
External links [edit]
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