I started a discussion on the KNC miner thread about protecting your high end mining equipment from theft. I'd like to open it up to wider discussion in this section of the forum.
Has anyone buying one of these (knc miners) thought about security? Like, what to do if their miner is stolen by some bum who breaks in and thinks it's a fancy desktop PC?
Any thoughts? Getting some kind of serial number engraved on the case? Marking the PCB somehow? Some kind of tracking that is it powers up, gps coordinates get send somewhere? I imagine high end industiral machinery must have something like this to protect the investment, but I don't really know.
The first suggestion was this tracking chip
http://www.thetileapp.com/ Seems like a good idea, but it's very new product and I doubt there are many actually in use yet. Potentially good in a couple of years.
A few suggestions related to gps trackers that are used in plant machinery and cars to track if they are stolen (e.g. lojack). This is a potential solution, but these devices tend to be powered by car battery (so not suitable for use in a miner). Or they have build in long life batteries, which usually means they are bulky and expensive.
Also, stripping down a mobile phone and using that to transmit location was suggested. A good idea, but would need to find some way to keep the mobile battery constantly charged up and working for longer than mobile batteries usually last.
Then a suggestion of a gps module, which I like the most.
I'm doing my research on this, but I feel like I'm reinventing the wheel. Surely people who own high end industrial machinery ($20k cnc lathes etc) must have some security attached, rather than just a peelable sticker saying "Property of Company XYZ"?
My ideal solution would be:
1. Some kind of bare PCB board that could be attached inside the case of a miner. It would looks like it's part of the machine, so it's function as a tracking device is covert. Would be nice if it worked on rechargeable batteries, which were always kept topped up by the power supply to the miner. That way, if the miner was stolen, it would emit gps location data until the batteries were dead, which hopefully would be at least a week, giving time to get the cops involved for a recovery.
2. The next option, which is okay but not great, would be something similar that transmit when the machine is powered up. Much more risky, as you'd have to rely on the theives to plug it in at least once.
3. Your thoughts?
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