Think the data on your laptop is fairly secure? You might want to think again. Scientists have discovered a way to trick the machine into giving up its data, even encrypted data, with the encryption key. It’s all to do with what’s know as volatile memory. It’s part of the random access memory (RAM), and until very recently it was believed that data was only retain in the volatile memory for a few seconds when the computer was turned off. Now they’ve discovered that’s not the case; it’s actually possible to keep and retrieve that data – including valuable encryption keys for up to several minutes, according to the BBC. Professor Edward Felten of the University of Princeton said, "It was widely believed that when you cut the power to the computer that the information in the volatile memory would disappear, and what we found was that was not the case.What we have found was that the encryption keys needed to access these encrypted files were available in the memory of laptops. The information was available for seconds or minutes. The real worry is that someone will get hold of your laptop either while it is turned on or while it is in sleeping or hibernation mode." When in those states the laptop might not be running, but data is stored in RAM for it to get to work quickly. If a hacker were to cut then re-attach the power, they would have access to the memory contents. Also, if the computer is cooled, the retention time becomes much longer. The advice given is that the best way to protect data on your laptop is to shut it down fully some time before being in any situation where the computer could be vulnerable.
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