It doesn't actually require LN2. In fact, all you really need for many cases is a can of compressed air and a usb drive.
The idea that your full disk encryption is only safe so long as nobody manages to have such outlandishly difficult to acquire materials is rather disheartening.
Moreover, disk encryption systems aren't just designed for overly paranoid individuals who probably don't have anything more interesting on their drive than embarrassing porn, it's also targeted for people who have data they seriously want to keep from being divulged. A perfect example being a running, but locked, corporate laptop being stolen from an office building or even a public space (e.g. a coffee shop). Someone desiring to commit industrial espionage would have no difficulties whatsoever in pulling off a cold boot attack on a vulnerable system, even if liquid nitrogen was required (it's quite easy to obtain and fairly cheap).
While the materials required are quite simple to get I am more worried about someone jacking my macbook pro and wiping the drive and reselling it as opposed to someone doing a cold boot on it. The materials are cheap, the execution of the attack isn't terrifically complicated for the folks on here, but the likelihood of being a victim of this attack in the wild is exceedingly low, that's what I was getting at moreso than the difficulty of the attack.
The idea that your full disk encryption is only safe so long as nobody manages to have such outlandishly difficult to acquire materials is rather disheartening.
Moreover, disk encryption systems aren't just designed for overly paranoid individuals who probably don't have anything more interesting on their drive than embarrassing porn, it's also targeted for people who have data they seriously want to keep from being divulged. A perfect example being a running, but locked, corporate laptop being stolen from an office building or even a public space (e.g. a coffee shop). Someone desiring to commit industrial espionage would have no difficulties whatsoever in pulling off a cold boot attack on a vulnerable system, even if liquid nitrogen was required (it's quite easy to obtain and fairly cheap).