Featured Updates

BusKill available in-store (The Netherlands NovaCustom)
3D-Printable BusKill Prototype Demo
LUKS Header Shredder (BusKill Self-Destruct Trigger)
BusKill v0.7.0 released
BusKill Now Shipping!
BusKill goes to DEF CON 32
Bitcoin Black Friday (10% discount on BusKill)
Disarm BusKill in QubesOS
BusKill available in-store (Leipzig ProxySto.re)
BusKill Demos (Windows, MacOS, Linux, TAILS, QubesOS)
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BusKill Now Shipping!

We’re excited to announce that our first production run of BusKill cables is now in-stock in our distribution center. Existing orders are going out now, and new orders will ship immediately.

[BusKill] Our Dead Man Switch Magnetic Breakaway cables are Now Shipping!

The first BusKill prototype was born in 2017. It gained international popularity in 2020 when Michael Altfield described how to build your own BusKill cable. After extensive effort and with the help of several contributors, a Linux hacker’s DIY cable got a user-friendly, cross-platform GUI.

When the only USB-A magnetic breakaway coupler on the market became out of stock and EOL’d, we raised $18,507 on CrowdSupply in early 2022 to manufacture our own injection-molded cable. One thousand logistics challenges later, Mouser started shipping BusKill cables to our backers in October 2022.

The assembled BusKill cable is plugged-into the USB-A port of a laptop

Now that the hardware is out the door, we’re hard at work on new features for the BusKill app. Our top goal is to add a soft-shutdown trigger to the existing lock-screen trigger. At the time of writing, this is functional on Linux and Windows. We’re just working out the kinks of privilege escalation on MacOS.

To be notified when we’ve added the soft-shutdown trigger to the BusKill app, you can signup for our newsletter.


We did our best to test BusKill across the three target platforms, but the wide spread of OS versions does leave room for error. If you happen to find a bug with BusKill, please let us know.

If you don’t have a BusKill cable yet, you can buy one here on this website or build your own. And for the makers out there, checkout the progress on our 3D printable BusKill magnetic breakaway coupler 🙂

You can also buy a BusKill cable with bitcoin, monero, and other altcoins directly from our BusKill Store

Bitcoin Accepted Here

Monero Accepted Here

Quicker Emergency Shutdown for TAILS

Are you a security researcher, journalist, or intelligence operative that works in TAILS–exploiting TAILS’ brilliant incognito & amnesic design that forces all of your network traffic through the Tor anonymity network? Great! This post is for you.

TAILS Logo
TAILS: The most secure OS available

TAILS is amnesic; it’s designed to leave no trace of the fact that it was used on your laptop. But what if someone literally steals your laptop while you’re working with classified information in TAILS? Not only will they get access to all of the tabs open in your Tor Browser (gaining access to your accounts for any sites you’re currently logged into, gaining the ability to impersonate and send messages as you, etc), but they’d also be able to access the contents of your decrypted persistent drive!

Let’s say you’re a journalist, activist, whistleblower or a human rights worker in an oppressive regime. Or an intelligence operative behind enemy lines doing research or preparing a top-secret document behind a locked door. What do you do to protect your data, sources, or assets when the secret police suddenly batter down your door? How quickly can you actually act to shutdown your laptop and shred your RAM and/or persistent volume?

What if you had a magnetic trip-wire tied from your body to your laptop such that it would trigger the TAILS emergency shutdown if the cable got disconnected by you jumping to your feet or falling off your chair at the sudden bang of your front door being reduced to splinters?


Using a BusKill cable with your TAILS drive can help shave off those precious seconds needed to trigger an emergency shutdown that will help keep you, your data, and your contacts safe.

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