Self-destructing SSD seems like a horrible idea waiting to happen

Brian Ambrozy 21 May, 2012 at 9:19pm ET Article published in Tech

Here comes the dangerous part

We get a lot of press releases across our news desk, but once in a while one of them really makes you sit up and say, “What the actual fuck?”

From today’s “What the actual fuck” department, we have the RunCore InVincible SSD.

RunCore’s SSD is like many other SSDs on the market. They make MLC and SLC drives in a variety of sizes and configurations. Their newest drive, however, totally sets them apart from every other SSD manufacturer out there.

The drive is called the InVincible. It is designed to operate in a wide range of extreme temperatures (-45c to 95c or -49F to 203F). That’s pretty neat—but here’s the killer feature (literally): it features physical self-destruct capability.

This is seriously some spy-movie shit. The InVincible has two destruct modes: Intelligent Destruction and total physical destruction. No, seriously: the drive burns itself up. Smoke comes out, the chips crack, and it’s just done. In the demo video, the rep backs away from the drive, initiates physical destruction, and you can see smoke pouring out of the drive. She later opens it up to reveal every single NAND module is shattered.

Now, if life were a movie or a spy novel, you would want to imagine that a device like this has a giant red button you can push to self-destruct it. I’m pleased, therefore, to report that the RunCore InVincible SSD has exactly that: a giant red button that makes the drive self-destruct. This seems like a terrible idea.

Wait? Push the Red one?

The terrible idea part? The drive has two buttons, on wires: the green initiates the Intelligent Destruction mode, which uninitializes the drive, but leaves it physically intact, and the red? Well, bye-bye multi-hundred dollar drive. Putting the buttons right next to each other, and just casually hanging them off of a wire just seems ill-conceived. What could possibly go wrong?

I can only picture two use cases for physically destroying your drive: You’re in the military, or you’re a child pornographer.

Either way, if this seems like something you’d want (and not just to troll your friends), you can find more info about the RunCore InVincible SSD on the RunCore website.

Comments

21 May 2012 ~ 9:31pm CrazyJoe Security!! With two exclamation marks!!
21 May 2012 ~ 9:32pm ardichoke There are plenty of reasons to have this... most of them involve storing sensitive data and having to make absolutely sure it's erased before you decommission a drive. You'd be glad if a company that stores your credit card info were to use these when they get rid of drives.
21 May 2012 ~ 9:34pm CrazyJoe The smoke means it must be really hot!!
21 May 2012 ~ 9:39pm GnomeQueen Considering how fragile digital information is to begin with, I can't sign off on this. Heh.
21 May 2012 ~ 9:58pm RootWyrm Well, this is great for it's intended application - defense systems. (AKA "military hardware in combat zones and hostile countries.")

Right until somebody says "hey, go ahead and wipe that for reinstall" and they press the wrong button 7,500km from the nearest Microcenter.
22 May 2012 ~ 4:41am erichblas2005 This is something anyone with general electronic knowledge can do. All it is a short burst of 12 volt.
But what if an idiot accidentally hits the red button.
22 May 2012 ~ 9:59am one234h At the minimum, there should be a cover over the red button which the user needs to flip in order to press.

Yeah, if you're using this, you're either fighting bad guys, or they're coming for you.
22 May 2012 ~ 10:14am CrazyJoe When she backed away from the drive I was expecting more fireworks. I am dissappointed.
22 May 2012 ~ 10:25am Tushon I'm assuming this would be integrated into a computer case with a safety cover of some sort.
22 May 2012 ~ 10:58am ardichoke I'm assuming the final model won't have the buttons permanently attached... it will probably be something you have to hook up yourself either when you're building it (if you want it there and waiting) or when you want to wipe/destroy the drive.
22 May 2012 ~ 11:12am NiGHTS Out of curiosity, does something like this exist for HDDs?
22 May 2012 ~ 11:17am AlexDeGruven As long as the green button and red button use different connectors. Would be too easy to swap them accidentally and suddenly the green button lets out all the smoke.
22 May 2012 ~ 11:37am QCH And that PC is VERY close to falling off the desk. I was hoping for some flash or magnesium flare...
22 May 2012 ~ 12:57pm ardichoke
Out of curiosity, does something like this exist for HDDs?
Sure, it's called a drill press... or thermite. The way this works is by overvolting the individual chips causing them to physically burn out. Overvolting a standard HDD would probably just fry the circuitry and/or motor leaving the data intact.
22 May 2012 ~ 12:59pm NiGHTS I understand that much, but there's currently no HDD that will self-destroy the platters?

For as much grief as everyone's giving it, I see a smart product exploiting a niche market.
22 May 2012 ~ 1:08pm ardichoke I've never seen a self-destroying HDD. Thus why people have done things like building thermite packed cases... well, also it's just cool to see a computer go up in a thermite fire.

I'm not giving it any grief. I think it's a neat idea albeit for a very niche market.
22 May 2012 ~ 1:11pm Tushon
I understand that much, but there's currently no HDD that will self-destroy the platters?

For as much grief as everyone's giving it, I see a smart product exploiting a niche market.
http://www.deadondemand.com/products/enhancedhdd/ light on details though. I agree that it is a niche product for niche market and kinda chuckled at the military or CP generalization, since I see that being a flag for the CP programs now.
22 May 2012 ~ 1:26pm Soda To be fair, there are a few times where I eventually just am so fed up with a computer part that when I replace it, it's worth more to my mental sanity to destroy it than it is to sell it. So...I can't knock the big red "die bitch" button. Maybe it should just have a cover or confirmation.
22 May 2012 ~ 2:06pm AlexDeGruven For a spinning disk, you'd have to find some way to crash the heads while maintaining motion on the platter. IIRC, this would be almost impossible to do intentionally, as a head crash is generally part of another physical failure, and simple "remove from case and smash with something heavy" operations tend to be much quicker and more effective.
22 May 2012 ~ 2:12pm NiGHTS
... the military or CP generalization, since I see that being a flag for the CP programs now.
Yeah, for clarity's sake I meant the military market and not the CP one. It's an interesting product.
22 May 2012 ~ 2:31pm Cliff_Forster Impractical, yet kinda cool. I'm not sure what to make of it?
22 May 2012 ~ 6:25pm Winfrey They need retinal scans and voice activation and dual switches requiring unique keys and a randomized encrypted key only accessible from a satellite orbiting the moon.

Otherwise some random broom handle might randomly fall on the doomsday switch and then all your data is BOOOOMMMMMM!
24 May 2012 ~ 1:39am midga It'd be fairly trivial to replace the button with a keyed switch.
24 May 2012 ~ 6:53am Siebje Did anyone else notice how that PC is just waiting to fall off the table
25 May 2012 ~ 11:12pm Tim They should have gotten who speaks proper English to make the video. It's great for destroying data but what if you press the red button and then think "OH WAIT THERE'S ONE MORE THING I NEED TO SAVE FROM THIS DRIVE!!!!! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!! ?
25 May 2012 ~ 11:20pm shwaip
They should have gotten who speaks proper English to make the video.
#irony
26 May 2012 ~ 2:23pm Canti
but what if you press the red button and then think "OH WAIT THERE'S ONE MORE THING I NEED TO SAVE FROM THIS DRIVE!!!!! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!! ?
It gets destroyed.
28 May 2012 ~ 9:20pm AlexDeGruven No need to think about it. Pressing the red button is your final action with this drive.
29 May 2012 ~ 6:23am Jokke I wonder how many insurance claims and lawsuits would follow should this product become available to the common, less computer-savvy user.
29 May 2012 ~ 11:26am midga
I wonder how many insurance claims and lawsuits would follow should this product become available to the common, less computer-savvy user.
I would hope they would make it obnoxiously clear that

IF (RED_BUTTON == 1) THEN
{
YourDataExists = 0;
ThisDriveIntact = 0;
PossibilityForRepairOrRecovery = 0;
}

Lawsuits might ensue, but there would be little ground for them to stand on. That is, of course, assuming there's no chance of the button accidentally pressing itself...
29 May 2012 ~ 11:39am AlexDeGruven I would hope that they have some kind of breakaway tab within the button that is a clear indicator that the button was pushed. If the drive is fried and there is no indicator that the button was pushed, then they might have a case.

Kind of like the fire-alarm pulls.