Wonder
Sign up
Log in
Research Outline
Prepared for Zach H. | Delivered September 24, 2019
Dead Man's Switch Examples
Review your project details
Goals
To provide additional information on when and how dead man's switches have been used for journalism, media, and/or activism, and information on the various systems or methods for these
View less
Early Findings
Julian
A
s
s
a
n
g
e
released multiple “insurance files” to serve as a dead man’s switch in case he died. These involved
d
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
r
s
getting a primary encryption code, and then needing another key to unlock the file, which would be released upon Assange’s death.
WikiLeaks
also had dead man’s switches as related to its existence- if anything happened to WikiLeaks, the second code would be released, similar to the one related to Assange’s safety.
These files were
tweeted by WikiLeaks
, and labeled as ‘insurance’.
There was also discussion that when celebrity Isaac
K
a
p
p
y
died, he
had a dead man’s switch
, however he
o
u
t
t
e
d
several celebrities as having involvement with sex crimes prior to his death, and no new information came to light
following his death.
However, the celebrity did tell a friend that if
he met an untimely demise
, he had something in action to release a series of events he didn’t describe specifically.
Dead Man’s Switches are being
used in Pennsylvania prisons,
which are less related to actual death and more to releasing a distress signal if a guard is incapacitated.
One website offers a Dead Man’s switch in case of Rapture. The site called,
“You've Been Left Behind”
offers a service where if subscribers are ‘
r
a
p
t
u
r
e
d
’ and do not answer notifications, messages left for friends and ‘
n
o
n
-
r
a
p
t
u
r
e
d
’ loved ones will be delivered.
An additional Dead Man’s Switch is
Kill Cord,
an P2P based application.
Platform
Kimono
also offers similar features, but is less of a dead man’s switch and more of a time capsule that is activated upon passing.
Other app
s in addition to those listed in the previous report include WeCroak,
i
W
i
s
h
,
A
f
t
e
r
n
o
t
e
, and BeRemembered, all which trigger messages upon a user’s death or fail to respond to notifications for an assigned
p
e
r
i
o
d
o
f
t
i
m
e
.
Other
amateur DIY ideas
include using a triggered time switch,
T
w
i
l
l
i
o
API, and a scheme using GPG, a command line tool with features for
c
r
y
p
t
o
g
r
a
p
h
i
c
s
and integration with other applications.
View less