As much as I object in principle, it's an interesting technological puzzle. I've been wondering about a hardware-based solution:
* A fuse that when broken reduces the cost of cracking the security from 'impossible' to something an organization with large resources, such as the FBI, can do in a day.
* When the fuse is broken, a message is displayed to the user indicating it. At least, the device might not boot, tipping off the user that something is wrong.
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It would meet these requirements (am I overlooking any important ones)?
* Nobody could mass-crack the devices. To crack it, you would need the device in your possession and a day of significant computing power.
* It would require a significant investment of resources, so it wouldn't be done for trivial issues.
* Users would know when their device has been cracked: It would have to be out of their possession for 24 hours and they would be notified.
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The question is, could such a thing be implemented in a way that it couldn't be hacked (without great difficulty)?
* A fuse that when broken reduces the cost of cracking the security from 'impossible' to something an organization with large resources, such as the FBI, can do in a day.
* When the fuse is broken, a message is displayed to the user indicating it. At least, the device might not boot, tipping off the user that something is wrong.
_
It would meet these requirements (am I overlooking any important ones)?
* Nobody could mass-crack the devices. To crack it, you would need the device in your possession and a day of significant computing power.
* It would require a significant investment of resources, so it wouldn't be done for trivial issues.
* Users would know when their device has been cracked: It would have to be out of their possession for 24 hours and they would be notified.
_
The question is, could such a thing be implemented in a way that it couldn't be hacked (without great difficulty)?