> You could just have a usb thumb drive on a retractable lanyard (think RFID badges or DoD Common Access Cards), but what if that thin retractable cord just snaps–leaving the USB drive snugly in-place in the laptop?

You could also just use a thicker cord.

The project, no offense to the author, could be renamed: long USB cable with a magnetic usb attachment.

> As of yesterday, that’s [stolen laptop] a hard attack to defend against.

Which is just wrong; the author did not invent anything here - anyone I’ve known that’s ever been worried about this scenario has implemented it already with <yubikey/access card/arbitrary usb>.

* extra PSA: if you’re worried about this but somehow haven’t already required 2FA for all your accounts and admin access on your laptop, then you should re-evaluate your threat scenarios.