In this week's episode of the Teardown Sessions, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh talks with Michael Altfield, the creator of BusKill, a USB kill cord for your laptop. They discuss wide-ranging topics such as OpSec, privacy, FOSS, Linux, and security. You'll also learn about the importance of open hardware to security and privacy and get a look at what it's like to be a first-time manufacturer.

Playlist

00:38 Crowd Supply news 05:04 Introducing Michael Altfield 06:45 An overview of Buskill and a look at its origins 08:55 Video demonstration of Buskill 11:02 Michael's blog and the impetus for creating Buskill 13:11 The journey from idea to prototype to hacker project to mass prod 14:50 Who's using Buskill? 15:55 The importance of accessibility, so the hardware can protect the less tech-savvy. 18:56 Audience Question: What's the longest cord available for Buskill? 20:20 Why open hardware is especially important to security 22:56 Open hardware and the need for a paradigm shift away from artificial scarcity 23:40 Building hardware that's verifiable is not just important for security, it also aligns with Michael's personal values 27:05 Designing a 3D printed cable 29:01 A tour of the Buskill repos 30:02 Buskill live demo! 31:40 The importance of simple, multi-OS compatibility, especially Qubes and TAILS. 33:30 Tour of Buskill's config and software 34:46 A look at the LUKS header-shredder 36:28 Forensics of the self-destruct feature and a look at the code behind it 42:43 Audience Question: Do any of the scripts disable USB ports? 44:42 Maker Plea: put in a PR, help us out! 45:20 The Buskill team and contributors 47:52 Audience Question: What type of device to Buskill enumerate as? 49:12 Some of Michael's influences, role models, and inspirations 51:05 About future and side projects, plus Buskill's future dev plans 53:30 The experience of being a first-time manufacturer 59:20 How to address the issue of "interdiction" for Buskill? 1:02:11 Audience Question: Any prospect of making the connecter and housing transparent? (A real-time community contribution to development!)

Links & Resources

• Buskill on Crowd Supply https://www.crowdsupply.com/alt-shift/buskill
• Buskill repo on GitHub: https://github.com/BusKill
• Open Source Ecology project: https://www.opensourceecology.org/
• Blog post LUKS self-destruct feature (see 40:22): www.buskill.in/luks-self-destruct/
• Qubes OS: https://www.qubes-os.org/
• TAILS OS: https://tails.boum.org/
• Teardown Sessions home page: www.crowdsupply.com/crowd-supply/the-teardown-sessions

Twitter: @helenleigh, @crowd_supply, @michaelaltfield

About this Week's Guest

Michael Altfield is a software engineer, writer, security expert, and privacy advocate. He is since a tireless supporter of the free software movement and has contributed to several FOSS projects--including Open Source Ecology, Wikipedia, phpList, BusKill and Coviz.

About Crowd Supply and The Teardown Sessions

Welcome to The Teardown Sessions, a series of interviews and hands-on learning sessions with Crowd Supply creators, staff, and lots of special guests. Crowd Supply is the crowdfunding platform of choice for engineers, hackers, designers, and idealists. We help them with the funding and support they need to deliver respectful, thoughtfully crafted, open source hardware to their delighted backers.

Come on by and see what our creators are making: https://www.crowdsupply.com.

Join us on Discord to chat with Crowd Supply creators, staff, and the community at large: https://discord.gg/mAgtHAw

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#opensourcehardware #hardwarehacking #crowdfunding #opensource #hardware #teardown #maker #hacker #electronics #crowdsupply #manufacturing #supplychain #opsec #killswitch #privacy #security #self-destruct #LUKS #Qubes #TAILS #LINUX #FOSS

Video is licensed CC BY-SA. Attribution: Helen Leigh and Crowd Supply.