On Sun, 22 Apr 2001, Jim Choate wrote:
>SPINTRONIC PROBE MICROSCOPES.
<....snip....>
> The SP-STM method is used not so much to image atoms
>in a sample as to map their magnetism. Previous to this one could
>map magnetism in a bulk material .... but only at the scale of 10
>nm or more. With the spintronic STM one can now map surface magnetism
>at the atomic scale.
Hey. This article from Choate was relevant. These guys have just
reduced by about six orders of magnitude the smallest magnetic
trace that can be detected on the surface of a hard drive platter.
What this means is that NOTHING whose plaintext you have ever stored
on your hard drive is secure from a data thief who has physical
posession of the disk and can afford the use of one of these devices.
And that includes plaintext in memory that got swapped, things you
printed in a way that caused a temporary file to be made, and
whatever else.
The physics is interesting, but I'd really like to know what one of
these devices costs -- depending on whom you need to secure your
machines against and the financial value of the data to them, this
is a complete killer.
Bear
