Semi-OT - Hardening a PC.

[James Knott]

Colin McGregor wrote:
> I was talking to some folks this past week about the
> possibility of putting four PCs into a homeless
> shelter. This may or may not happen (depends on
> everyone from the government grant money people to
> shelter staff...).
>
> Still I am in the process of getting my head around
> the issues involved in a project like this. The
> software is simple / easy, I would do a custom live
> CD, likely based on Fedora, as I recently wrote about
> Fedora based tools for live CD creation (and liked
> what I saw). This hardens the software end of things,
> and gets rid of an expensive / breakable part (the
> HD). 
>
> The hardware questions are a little tricker, namely I
> gather theft is a BIG issue at the shelter. You name
> it, and it gets stolen I gather (past efforts along
> these lines I gather saw keyboards and mice stolen).
> So, how to harden a PC in a way the leaves it usable,
> but makes it effectively impossible to steal...
>
> One possible solution that I saw back at the 1993 
> World Science Fiction Convention in San Francisco, was
> wrapping a PC in a sort of video arcade like case.
> With thick (3/4" ?) plywood and a thick sheet of glass
> in front of the monitor the machine was HARDENED. The
> keyboard was partly wrapped in plywood such that
> without a key (and access to the inside of the
> machine) you could still type, but not get the
> keyboard out without breaking it. In other words a
> machine that short of a chain saw isn't going to get
> hurt. The machine I saw in San Francisco was deployed
> in some laundromats (makes sense, drop your clothes
> into a machine and then you have 20 minutes to kill,
> could do worse than dealing with e-mail :-) ).
>
> Question is, if the only way this set-up will work
> involves getting custom quasi-video arcade style cases
> is the only way to go, then I want to know that is
> what I am going to have to recommend. Or, are there
> solutions as good that don't require the services of a
> custom cabinet maker? 
>
> Other issue, the one part the people using the machine
> will have to deal with is the keyboard / pointing
> device. Now, the San Francisco solution was mouse free
> (remember pre-1993 design, so text only menus...).
> Still there are keyboards with built in touch pads /
> trackballs / other mouse equivalents, but is that the
> best route? I assume the keyboard will have to be
> replaced from time to time due to wear and / or bodily
> fluids (ie: vomit... :-( ). So inexpensive and
> washable keyboards would also seem to be desirable,
> but again I would like ideas...
>
> Thanks.
>
> Colin McGregor
>
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The computer doesn't have to be physically accessible to a user.  Why
not just lock it in a cabinet with only the cables coming out.  You can
get security cables for the monitor and also lock down the mouse &
keyboard cables, so that it's impossible to remove them, without
breaking the cable.  Since this will render the device useless, there's
less temptation to steal it.

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