Portable Padlock Program

Inspiration

Technology theft is a growing and often overlooked problem circulating through public atmospheres. Many cyber security solutions focusing on securing a system or data over a network, while physical security often takes a backseat in comparison. If a thief can get physical access to a system, they have complete control over it – could you log out of your email, your bank accounts, or your company VPN quickly enough to stop a computer thief from doing damage? Leaving a computer unattended and unlocked for just a couple seconds risks your entire digital life. Snatching computers is not only a problem at local coffee shops but also in important facilities such as hospitals and police stations and we wanted to design a solution that addressed all of these needs in an easy-to-use program.

What It Does

Portable Padlock Program is a Linux-based application that prompts audio warnings and shuts down the current user account if the host system is being taken, prompting the plugged in USB drive to be removed. The user has a specific USB drive that when removed from a defined system, the system will log out of the user’s account and give an audio warning. The warnings range from prompted sayings like “Warning! Warning! I’m being stolen!” to “The person carrying this laptop is a thief!” and is high in volume. When the said USB is plugged back in, the system logs back into the specific user’s account. There is also a desktop icon that when run, the user is prompted to put in their password and the system shuts off the audio warnings script so the USB drive can be removed without alarm by the user of the system.

How I Built It

Portable Padlock Program was built using Udev device management rules on Linux to detect the insertion and removal of a specific USB device. We used Python as well as the Google text-to-speech API to create the text-to-speech to announce the theft of a system.

Challenges I Ran Into

Our team’s lack of experience using Google’s text-to-speech API caused some frustration and challenges while creating this application. It was difficult to have only one prompted audio warning play at a time when the USB drive was being removed from the system. Our magnetic breakaway USB adapter was also finicky with allowing the host system to detect if the USB was connected, causing some delays when demonstrating.

Accomplishments That I'm Proud Of

Being able to take an idea from concept to reality is one of the most rewarding things that you can do. We're proud of how far our team got with our project despite the challenges and setbacks we faced.

What I Learned

Our team gained extensive knowledge of USB detection and management using udev in Linux as well as how to create text-to-speech prompts using Google’s text-to-speech API.

What's Next for Portable Padlock Program

Portable Padlock Program plans to expand in the future to account for constant GPS locating once the system has been taken from the user with the USB. The GPS location of the GPS would automatically be sent to the user’s mobile telephone number in specified intervals. If we brought PPP to market, we would love to make a single proprietary device rather than using a USB drive with an adapter. A single proprietary device would be ideal for a corporate solution – USB devices are very cheap and commonplace nowadays, allowing for as many as needed to be distributed to employees and management.

Built With

• gtts
• python