is language I normally associate with a B-rated thriller or when someone happens to wander into a mine field. Now, I have a different connotation. Researchers at the Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University, broke the encryption system on a hard drive by freezing memory chips.
Putting the freeze on a DRAM chip from an inexpensive can of compressed air caused the chip to temporarily hold data, including the encryption algorithm used to unlock scrambled data on a disk. Once the chip was frozen, researchers isolated the encryption keys from the chip's memory and used them to access the encrypted data on disk.
Granted, this exploit would require physical access to the machine. But at the rate laptops wander away from their owner, not a difficult task.
The lesson to take away from Princeton is to use another factor when encrypting data on your hard drive such as a USB hardware key or a secure identification card.
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