Unique security problem - data security under fire

[MidnightWarrior]

With absolutely no outside funding whatsoever it's kind of tricky to compete with the actual military. With all spending coming from individual member's pockets directly to whatever training, equipment or purpose is needed, it's much better for it to be spent on a dress uniform and matching boots or whatever specialist training than pouring it into some dizzyingly complex form of distributed darknet. I'll leave projects like that up to the CIA. Their yearly budget for floor cleaning and sanitation is probably way higher than all our expenses combined in three.

You are right that centralization it's an opportunity for a one-shot kill. If it would mean target destruction, our job has just been done for us. It's acquisition that's the concern.

1. Hardware and software configurations should be irrelevant. We are talking about wiping hard drives here.

If you find that an easy task, go ahead and try to convince me that you could easily go and wipe the HDD(s?) your yahoo geocities* website is on in less than 3 hours in the event of a country-wide blackout. No, go right ahead, I'm listening.

* I know geocities is down, just giving an example.

2. If people's computer skills are insufficient, then it is only surpassed by the inadequacy of your personnel selection process. Bloody well train them!!!

The individuals who happen to be computer specialists aren't the most likely candidates to pass selection in the first place, even though the most motivated ones do manage. Expecting every meathead marine to effortlessly read through and analyze an unencrypted packet dump is about as realistic as training everybody not to reveal their identities without enforcing, say, Tor or similar.

everyone heads for the hills

It was a good idea then, now times have changed. Preliminary tests and simulations are clear on how technologies like FLIR make asymmetric warfare of the type you're describing terrible choices.

As for special screws - sure, but you need the ram chips in one piece, and once the power goes out there's limited time to grab the keys. I wouldn't expect the hostile party to be prepared for that kind of security.

Edit: Backup-wise no risk can be taken. RAID-2 to protect from media failure and nothing more.