Maybe I’m being a little crazy here or just watching too many movies, but could we be data couriers like Johnny Mnemonic? I know the data capacity is small, but we can store info in our chips, and most kinds of scanners don’t pick them up unless someone’s specifically looking for them and sometimes they’re hard to find even then. I guess the real question is would anyone actually pay for us to move small but important bits of data for them? Could this be a thing?
Once the body byte project is a thing… maybe
But I can’t see a couple of kb of data being they important… but maybe I’m not being imaginative 
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For a couple KB of data it would be easier and faster to encrypt the data then transport it by using steganography.
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That is kind of the issue. What piece of data is small enough to carry in our chips, but important enough to be worth paying us to move and what client would have that type of data? I do think we could offer a valuable service as sending data electronically is never secure and an thumb drive or something could always be stolen. Our implants are much more secure, but yes they are pretty limited -for now.
Johnny is also the gatekeeper and recording/retrieval mechanism.
Current RFID chips don’t provide enough storage, but I suppose you could encrypt it and transport the key and URL for the data on an implant.
“Molly’s been to Chiba too.”
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They aren’t though
Let’s say Elon wanted us to ferry some crypto codes… and is willing to pay for it right?
End of the day… we could either abscond with it… or just sniff/clone the data ourselves… I wouldn’t describe that as secure
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Indeed Johnny has no way to access the data himself and he needs the pass code that he doesn’t know.
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It’s taken me a while to come around , but when I first dove into this community I was a believer in “security through obscurity” which is I think what any data courier using our existing chips would be
It’s not the best logic… there’s a lot of assumptions and hopes that people won’t do xyz
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By the way I much prefer the short story (from the collection “Burning Chrome”) over the movie.
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I guess I assumed that a professional data courier would be a professional and be honest, but you’re right, the ‘human factor’ is a problem. Even if the tech is reliable, people are at least questionably so.
What about using someone who has had their appendix taken out, and replaced with a larger implant that has a couple solid state drives. Implant the storage unit, then send the person to the destination to get the implant taken out.
Edit: Not sure how to take out the human factor though. Makes me think of the project that a couple people put together using, iirc, thermite to destroy drives in a server rack. If there was someway to scale down the size quite a bit, which I doubt, that could be a good solution if you’re able to trigger it if someone tampers with it.
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Forgot that part -I haven’t seen the movie in a while.
I don’t remember if it is mentioned in the movie… I have read the short story much more often.
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Haven’t watched or read it. Found the movie on Netflix though, so watching that right now at work. Will read the short story when I get home!
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In the UK I saw it in a cinema with a movie based on “The Gernsback Continuum” called “Tomorrow Calling”.
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There were at least 2 defcon talks on the subject,
Nothing showed much merit… but it was probably a fun way to kill some time
I did have a thought on the subject I never saw addressed… they tried to physical destroy or melt the platters with an acid
I would be more curious to see how something like an industrial strength rust remover would work… Chloric acid maybe?
Newer stuff isn’t iron oxide based though so that’s less likely to work
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I watched one of the defcon presentations. Not sure about the rust remover. I think that would complicate the set up though with the platters needing to be exposed, so a clean room where you wouldn’t need the HDD cases. I wonder if piranha solution would work. Have a large container of sulfuric acid and another with hydrogen peroxide, then an electronically controlled valve opens and sends both into a sprinkle system like fire sprinklers, but hoses through the system so they don’t meet til they’re getting spit out from the ceiling.
In terms of destroying the implant and the host of a data courier, I think the best way is to have data courier companies and courier hit men. Pharmakom hires Johnny to transport data, then hires a hitman to stalk the Johnny with permission to kill if he does something out of the ordinary. Just got done watching the movie lol
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