[OLPC Security] Grey Markets: differentiation of legitimately purchased laptops

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 16.10.2007 02:43, Ka-Ping Yee wrote:
> On Tue, 16 Oct 2007, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
>   
>> Software security mechanisms can't achieve that. However, repainting
>> laptops is probably not very difficult. Unless I misunderstood you, a
>> certain color combination would be reserved for "donor" laptops.
>>     
>
> I'm not so sure it would be easy to repaint.  How difficult do you
> think it would be to take a laptop with a coloured logo and repaint
> it white, perfectly enough that a U. S. buyer would fail to notice
> the fake, the paint wouldn't come off, etc.?
>   

I envisioned buyers who know that the machine is not legitimate, but who
want a reasonably legitimate appearance. For them, repainting doesn't
have to be perfect, just good enough not to raise suspicions of other
people passing by.

> In any case, the goal isn't elimination of theft, it's reduction
> of theft.  If it costs the bad guys more to repaint the laptops
> than it does for the good guys to skip the logo colouring step on
> some of them, it's probably worth doing.
>   

Ideally, making illegitimate laptops look legitimate should cost the bad
guys enough money to kill any possible profit. Unfortunately, that is
not possible for the XO without removing all repair options and/or
raising the manufacturing cost significantly.


Regards,
Carl-Daniel