Interesting story about “The Curious Case of Dmitry Golubov” at Washington post’s Security Fix. I’m not so interested in the cybercrime boss details – but this device called the “Raskat” – has anyone heard/seen this thing?
“As for his computer, he is right no evidence was found because he had cooked all of his loose media in a wok,” Hilbert said. As for Golubov’s computer hard drive? Hilbert said Golubov erased it with a type of electro-magnetic pulse generator known by its Russian name, “Raskat.”
Golubov doesn’t dispute that he owned a Raskat at the time, but he says he purchased it online to resell it at a local market for a tidy profit.
“In the past in Ukraine it was risky to keep all company contract and clients data on computers,” Golubov said. “At first — tax inspection can confiscate computers, at second — competitors can stole them and take over businesses.”
Golubov said it was members of the law enforcement task force who used the Raskat to fry the data on his hard drive.
Here’s what is online:
Eraser.ru
Product page.
14 thoughts on “Electro-magnetic pulse generator aka the “Raskat””
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Don’t have anything illegal on your computer.
@Captian Obvious if you read the article it seems like legality didn’t matter…
“In the past in Ukraine it was risky to keep all company contract and clients data on computers,” Golubov said. “At first — tax inspection can confiscate computers, at second — competitors can stole them and take over businesses.”
If you haven’t committed a crime you have nothing to hide.
Don’t encrypt or destroy your data, thats what a terrorist would do!
Wow, I know we are talking about another country here, but aren’t you, in effect, criminalizing the Right to Privacy? Whether it’s customer data or my laundry list, I’ve got a right to keep it private. (in the USA, hopefully after “W” is carted away)
Old One
P.S. The “Raskat” seems to be a bulk mag eraser, the type of which we used to bulk erase mag tapes in the good old days.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t a strong degaussing coil do the same thing?
1) Remove Hard Drive from computer
2) Visit neighbor’s house
3) Insert Hard Drive into Microwave
and
4) Claim it was a freak accident *shifty eyes*
Degaussing coils do indeed work, it’s just a matter of field vs. coercivity of the platters. The toughest HDD’s out there today are 5000 Oersted perpendicular media, requiring at least 7500 Gauss to erase the data. Not quite sure how this “Raskat” works, it just isn’t big enough to house a coil of sufficient size along with the capacitors and other assorted electronics that go along with a pulse style degausser. By the way, “Purduecer”, sticking a hard drive in the microwave will not alter the magnetic pattern on the drive platters, your data will still be recoverable.