Freedom to Tinker » Blog Archive » New Research Result: Cold Boot Attacks on Disk EncryptionEd Felten and other researchers have discovered an interesting way to defeat a number of current hard disk encryption methods. What it boils down to is that the keys required to decrypt the data are stored in main memory where Felten and team have focused their attack. Apparently if you’re fast enough, or use a refrigerant, you can recover data stored in memory by removing power from the system and rebooting with a specially crafted OS.