McAfee was also smart and savvy enough to use blockchain AND create an automated deadman's switch to troll Google News for "McAfee dead" and release it automatically.
The reason all these deadman's switches haven't panned out isn't because they didn't exist, it's because it's really hard to make one that can't be found out and shut down before anybody gets the message.
If you have to reset it every few months they just monitor your traffic and find it. If it's checking a particular twitter then they beat it out of you and shut down the account. If you remember where the server is they beat it out of you and go turn it off.
But McAfee was so paranoid he may have even had like a suicide tooth or way to die before they could torture it out of him - or his brain may have been so fried from bath salts he couldn't remember where it was. So this could likely pan out.
You can easily make a deadman's switch that works based on sending a message to one of a few servers that will reset a timer that goes off if you don't, which would then executes a script doing whatever you want.
It's extremely difficult to detect since you can host it anywhere, on multiple servers that communicate to each other, and respond to it from anywhere, like an internet cafe or VPN. You can even host it on one of the clouds like Amazon. It's not like they will know what you are doing, and the activity will be so minimal it will look like a developer testing something.
So they put you in prison for 6 months so you have to contact your lawyer and tell him how to reset it or your dead man's switch becomes a hangman's noose and you're killing yourself.
Imagine how you would create a dead man's switch that you did not ever have to do anything with - no reset, no service payment, nothing - for 10 years at a time and would spill the beans a week after you'd been killed.
But you could just program it to wait longer, it depends on what you are expecting. You could have it require a signal every 6 months, or year, or five years, or ten. Of course then you run into the challenge of making sure it is still available.
You can't actually program something to wait until your death unless you are wearing something that can monitor your vitals (which is its own problem), so requiring a signal that only you know as a sign of life is the next best thing.
Imagine how you would create a dead man's switch that you did not ever have to do anything with - no reset, no service payment, nothing - for 10 years at a time and would spill the beans a week after you'd been killed.
Other than software, the best way to do that is a person you trust.
You can't actually program something to wait until your death unless you are wearing something that can monitor your vitals
You and I can't because we're not famous.
McAfee just needs a bot that searches Google News for "McAfee suicide" and some threshold. In a sense you could say that all reporters are the 'switch' part of the deadman's switch.
McAfee was also smart and savvy enough to use blockchain AND create an automated deadman's switch to troll Google News for "McAfee dead" and release it automatically.
The reason all these deadman's switches haven't panned out isn't because they didn't exist, it's because it's really hard to make one that can't be found out and shut down before anybody gets the message.
If you have to reset it every few months they just monitor your traffic and find it. If it's checking a particular twitter then they beat it out of you and shut down the account. If you remember where the server is they beat it out of you and go turn it off.
But McAfee was so paranoid he may have even had like a suicide tooth or way to die before they could torture it out of him - or his brain may have been so fried from bath salts he couldn't remember where it was. So this could likely pan out.
They'll do whatever they can get away with because they don't have a normal conscience like everybody else has.
You can easily make a deadman's switch that works based on sending a message to one of a few servers that will reset a timer that goes off if you don't, which would then executes a script doing whatever you want.
It's extremely difficult to detect since you can host it anywhere, on multiple servers that communicate to each other, and respond to it from anywhere, like an internet cafe or VPN. You can even host it on one of the clouds like Amazon. It's not like they will know what you are doing, and the activity will be so minimal it will look like a developer testing something.
So they put you in prison for 6 months so you have to contact your lawyer and tell him how to reset it or your dead man's switch becomes a hangman's noose and you're killing yourself.
Imagine how you would create a dead man's switch that you did not ever have to do anything with - no reset, no service payment, nothing - for 10 years at a time and would spill the beans a week after you'd been killed.
He still had access to his twitter account.
View this from the DS side.
You know JM has a deadman's switch, and you don't want it to go live.
He's finally arrested.
You make damn sure he has a way to keep his switch active. Like, making sure he has daily access to the internet.
Bonus points if you track all of his activity for a year to identify his switch.
Kill him as soon as you figure it out.
(I don't believe for a minute that he's dead. Of all the people on planet earth, John is the one most likely to fake his death to escape a prison.)
But you could just program it to wait longer, it depends on what you are expecting. You could have it require a signal every 6 months, or year, or five years, or ten. Of course then you run into the challenge of making sure it is still available.
You can't actually program something to wait until your death unless you are wearing something that can monitor your vitals (which is its own problem), so requiring a signal that only you know as a sign of life is the next best thing.
Other than software, the best way to do that is a person you trust.
You and I can't because we're not famous.
McAfee just needs a bot that searches Google News for "McAfee suicide" and some threshold. In a sense you could say that all reporters are the 'switch' part of the deadman's switch.