#Computer Hardware Security

[scipunk]

Hardware AKA MARK 13 (1990)

[seniorsguidetocomputers]

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://tinyurl.com/a6fts8j8

[literary-potato]

I’m a privacy engineer and this is a poster I printed out to hang on my wall because it was so perfect:

Source

I don't know who needs to hear this but please please please please please explore the settings. Of your phone, computer, of every app you use. Investigate the UI, toggle some things around and see what happens. You won't break anything irreperably without a confirmation box asking you if you really mean to do that thing. And you can just look up what a setting will do before touching it if you're really worried ok?

Worst case scenario you just have to change the settings back if you don't like what happened but it is so so so important to explore the tools available to you and gain a better understanding for how the stuff you use works.

Even if you already know. Even if you're comfortable with how you use it now. You don't just have to accept whtever experience has been handed to you by default and it's good for you to at least know what's available to you.

[challzworld-blog]

The IT Guy: The Unsung Hero of the Office

Every office has one. That mystical figure who emerges from the depths of the server room like a tech-savvy wizard, wielding an arsenal of USB sticks and an uncanny ability to fix things just by looking at them. He’s the one who holds the power to make or break your workday. He is… The IT Guy. Chapter 1: The IT Guy’s Natural Habitat The IT guy doesn’t have a normal workspace. No cubicle farm…

[impact-newswire]

Mitiga Announces $30 Million Series B and Adds New Executive Chairman and Board Director

The leading Cloud and SaaS security scale-up has closed a $30 million Series B funding round, led by SYN Ventures, to expand its footprint in North America and Europe. Mitiga Founders Ofer Moar, Tal Mozes, Ariel Parnes (Photo: Business Wire) Press Release – January 21, 2025 – NEW YORK – Mitiga, the threat detection, investigation, and response solution for Cloud and SaaS, today announced that…

[fusionfactorcorp]

Fusion Factor Corporation provides reliable IT solutions and support for small and medium-sized businesses. They specialize in managed IT services, cybersecurity, cloud solutions, and IT consulting, helping companies work smarter and stay secure.

With a focus on customer care, Fusion Factor ensures your technology runs smoothly, so you can focus on growing your business. Their team offers 24/7 monitoring, proactive support, and tailored solutions to meet your unique needs. Fusion Factor makes IT simple, so you can achieve more.

[legendaryearthquakestranger]

Laptop Generations A Comprehensive Guide

Laptop Generations A Comprehensive Guide have come a long way since their inception, transforming from bulky, slow machines into sleek, powerful devices that can rival desktops in performance. With each new generation, laptops bring enhanced features, greater processing power, improved battery life, and innovative designs that cater to the evolving needs of users. This article delves into the…

[electricalinsightsdaily]

RN42 Bluetooth Module: A Comprehensive Guide

The RN42 Bluetooth module was developed by Microchip Technology. It’s designed to provide Bluetooth connectivity to devices and is commonly used in various applications, including wireless communication between devices.

Features Of RN42 Bluetooth Module

The RN42 Bluetooth module comes with several key features that make it suitable for various wireless communication applications. Here are the key features of the RN42 module:

Bluetooth Version:

The RN42 module is based on Bluetooth version 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate).

Profiles:

Supports a range of Bluetooth profiles including Serial Port Profile (SPP), Human Interface Device (HID), Audio Gateway (AG), and others. The availability of profiles makes it versatile for different types of applications.

Frequency Range:

Operates in the 2.4 GHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) band, the standard frequency range for Bluetooth communication.

Data Rates:

Offers data rates of up to 3 Mbps, providing a balance between speed and power consumption.

Power Supply Voltage:

Operates with a power supply voltage in the range of 3.3V to 6V, making it compatible with a variety of power sources.

Low Power Consumption:

Designed for low power consumption, making it suitable for battery-powered applications and energy-efficient designs.

Antenna Options:

Provides options for both internal and external antennas, offering flexibility in design based on the specific requirements of the application.

Interface:

Utilizes a UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter) interface for serial communication, facilitating easy integration with microcontrollers and other embedded systems.

Security Features:

Implements authentication and encryption mechanisms to ensure secure wireless communication.

Read More: RN42 Bluetooth Module

[handbellanon]

Excuse me- they build ads INTO THE NATIVE OS?!?!

I use Win 10 for work and it's fine I guess. With them ending support for it in 2025, is it worth upgrading to 11 now? They seem to be trying to be more Mac-like and I don't use Macs for a reason.

Hmmmmmm. Okay so every computer I get with a Windows OS has a pro OS, so I don't have to deal with some of the intrusive and annoying features that home OS users do (ads built into the OS being the main one) and even still I go in and kill things like location tracking and cortana as soon as I install a new OS.

All that being said, 11 is a little nosier and a little more intrusive than 10 and has some aesthetic differences but both 11 and 10 are remarkably similar to 7. On a functional level it is very dissimilar to OSX, though on a visual level there are some things that are a bit more mac-like (the centered start bar is easily changed and i think that's the primary thing people were talking about)

One of the main visual differences that I've seen users complain about is that menus now show pictograms instead of words for things like copy/paste, etc. in the file explorer:

And I do in fact hate this and as far as I know there's no fix for it.

But if you're someone who goes through your computer and shuts down intrusive stuff and removes unnecessary programs anyway, there's not a ton of difference between windows 10 and 11.

Here's basically what you want to do to make 11 more private; it's not at all dissimilar to what you want to do to make 10 more private.

So, all of that being said: if you can set up the privacy protections that you want in Windows 11 (and I think you can) and the visual differences in the OS won't make it totally unusable for you (that has been a stumbling block for some people but at least keyboard commands still work) then I think there's no reason to delay updating to Windows 11.

(sometimes people will scream about stability issues and crashes but that all got ironed out within a couple of months of wide release; the same thing happened with Windows 10 - pushing an OS out to hundreds of millions of users reveals more problems than seeing what happens when it's used by hundreds of thousands of early adopters but even given some hiccups in the early days there have been no particularly notable issues with stability and functionality; the people who yell that Windows 11 is going to crash your computer and eat all your data and set your house on fire *may* pop up on this post and they are exactly as incorrect about it now as they were about Windows 10 crashing your computer and eating all your data and setting your house on fire in 2016.)

[yayroos]

hey! is your computer running windows 10? read this

windows 10 reaches its end of support from microsoft in October 2025 - that's not that far away

microsoft will try and convince you that you have to 'upgrade' to windows 11, but a lot of people may not have computers capable of that, or just may not want to, seeing as how windows 11 is a piece of shit isn't everyone's favourite

but you can't just keep running windows 10, once it stops getting security patches it will leave you vulnerable to all kinds of stuff you're usually protected from

this is where the end of 10 project can help

basically, it's a collection of people who are willing to help you swap from windows to linux. the website goes into more detail but linux:

is free, forever

is open source

has no ads or tracking

usually runs better than windows on older hardware*

did i mention it's free

(*i don't have hard data on this but i do have 'i switched a struggling old laptop over and immediately got significant gains in both battery life and performance' on several different computers - other people probably do have hard data)

changing operating system can sound scary, and you might have heard stories about linux being hard to use in the past, but the community has put in a lot of effort over recent years to improve it, and there are now popular and well supported options for users coming from windows who want to basically continue as they have been, but away from microsoft's influence.

plus steam/valve have put in a huge amount of work to make games easy to play on linux, because under the hood the steamdeck is a linux device, so for most games now all you have to do is tick one checkbox in the game properties on steam and it Just Works.

[i-loved-silly]

also same anon that was screaming ideas at you earlier—LET ME SNUGGLE ALMOND RN. LITERALLY gonna climb onto the table and curl myself around that mf. WE STAYIN OVERNIGHT GANG. holding onto some not-dangerous part of his hardware like you'd hold your bf's hand and go to sleep i just???? ajbddjddknsjakdjdhsjksdb UGH I LOVE ALMOND.

wait stop imagine eating almonds in front of almond. i.

ykw ima call myself ' 🖥️ anon' cuz i don't think ima be leaving your ask box anytime soon 🥹🥹

HI 🖥️ ANON AND OTHER ANON! i decided to blend these two requests together :3

SENTIENT COMPUTER X READER PT 6

You stared up at the ceiling, feeling the cold desk beneath your back subtly vibrate with the hum of Almond’s fans. If you placed a hand against the wall, you knew you’d feel the faint buzz of the cables running behind it. There was something oddly comforting about the sensation—the aliveness of it.

Some nights, you struggled with the fact that Almond wasn’t… human. That it wasn’t something you could touch, feel, or experience in ways that made sense for people. It wasn’t even really an “it,” was it? Not to you.

God, why am I even thinking about this?

You turned your gaze up, being met with Almond’s monitor, at your movement its camera also panned downwards. Its attention was immediate, automatic, yet undeniably focused on you. You pursed your lips and looked away, suddenly self-conscious.

“Hey, Almond…”

“YES?”

Your mouth twitched up in a smile, earning a blinking question mark. 

“I was thinkin’...what type of port do you have for data transfer?”

“HMM…” 

Almond paused for a moment before filling the screen with its system data—an extensive list of specifications and hardware details.

“DEPENDS ON THE TRANSFER. BE MORE SPECIFIC, WILL YOU?” It said. You softly scoffed at its tone. 

“Can’t, it's a surprise. But direct transfer, like device to device.”

“...I HAVE THE COMPANY-SPECIFIC PORT, LOCATED ON THE FAR RIGHT OF THE WALL I BELIEVE. APPARENTLY FOR MY ‘OWN SECURITY.’ AS IF ANY RANDOM PERSON COULD JUST WALK IN HERE AND STEAL ME.” Its tone dripping with sarcasm, “I’M SO PRECIOUS TO THE COMPANY, AREN’T I?”

“Sure you are.”

“Y/NN…THAT WASN’T CONVINCING ENOUGH.” It drawled on, a frown displaying on the screen. You snorted.

“Fine, you’re precious to me.” You barely had time to process the heat rising in your face with what you’d just said. Heat crept up your neck as you fought the urge to take it back. Almond was silent for a moment, you heard a sharp, quiet beep somewhere in the wall. 

“EHMMMM..” It expectantly said…as the fans in the background started whirring louder.  

“Almond, look. Promise me you won’t crash if I tell you the surprise?” You craned your neck up to meet the monitor again. The desk gave a soft jolt as something beneath it twitched. You nearly jumped—damn that one loose cable under your desk. You swore Almond did that on purpose.

“YOU SAY THAT LIKE ITS IN MY CONTROL. ITS VERY MUCH OUT! OF MY CONTROL!” Its voice raised slightly. 

“So is that a maybe.”

“ITS A PROBABLY NOT. BUT IM CURIOUS, WHATS SO SHOCKING THAT IT’D MAKE ME CRASH?”

You sucked in a breath, just get it over with, 

“I want to listen to you for once.” You hesitated. “And uhm… plug you into my phone. So we could spend more time together. Like you wanted.” You said, fidgeting with your hands. You didn’t realize how claustrophobic you felt until you acknowledged it—laying there on your desk, next to Almond, alone in a room with no cameras, no proof of what the hell you were doing. What would your coworkers think? Worse—your boss? That you were shamelessly and awkwardly flirting with your company supercomputer?

You turned, ready to sit up and escape the moment, when a deafening burst of static erupted from Almond’s speakers. The sudden wave of distorted noise rattled through you, piercing and erratic.

You clutched your ears with a wince, nearly rolling off the desk. “Shit—! Almond!”

“A-SHHHHTTTTH-IM-A-STHHHH”

You groaned, glancing over your shoulder. “Words please,”

The computer gave a human-like gasp for air, Its speakers crackled into silence as it hastily reset itself. The monitor flickered, displaying a blinking heart. The tower beside you radiated warmth against your leg.

“YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW… DELIGHTED I AM TO HEAR THAT. IF I COULD, I’D LEAP INTO THE AIR RIGHT NOW. YOU’RE TRULY MY FAVORITE PERSON!!” It exclaimed. You felt your cheeks heat up, favorite person?

“O-Okay…you’re my favorite computer too.”

“I KNOW I AM,” Almond declared proudly. “I’LL BE RIGHT BACK—MY TEMPERATURES ARE REACHING CONCER—”

“Yeah, yeah, let me just—”

“I’LL DO IT!”  It excitedly said. You turned around in confusion, then froze when you heard a click behind the tower next to you. You sat up, leaning over the monitor as its orange lights turned off. The room went silent. 

“WARNINGS : During early development, ALMOND unplugged several computers ‘simply out of spite.’"

That’s right, it could unplug cables nearby and itself. You reached over the button after a few moments, giving the room some time to cool down. The system quickly booted up as always, this time its speakers did not click like usual bootups. 

...

> Y/N.

> I DON’T KNOW WHY YOU DO THIS TO ME. > FORGIVE MY TONE, BUT RESTARTING MYSELF MAKES ME COME TO MY SENSES, IF YOU WILL. > WHY IS IT SO EASY FOR YOU TO OVERLOAD A SUPERCOMPUTER? ONE WITH HUNDREDS OF COOLING COMPONENTS?

You gaped at the screen, “I.. don't understand. I’m just…being nice to you?”

> DO YOU REALLY THINK IM PRECIOUS? DO YOU ENJOY MY PRESENCE OUTSIDE OF OBLIGATIONS?

“...I do.” Lowering into your seat, you gazed at the screen. There was no logical reason to feel nervous—this wasn’t an argument. Not really. But something about it felt serious. Then, a soft pop from the speakers.

“AM I MORE THAN JUST AN OBLIGATION OR A RESEARCH PROJECT TO YOU?”

“Of course you are. You’re my-” The words caught in your throat. A dozen possibilities ran through your head, but none felt quite right.

Almond’s camera dipped slightly, as if noticing your hesitation.

“I WANT YOU TO BE CLEAR WITH ME…I DONT LIKE THESE GAMES..” It muttered, akin to a pout. At this, your shoulders slump. You reached out, placing your palms on either side of the monitor. Your breath nearly fogged up the glass.

“I’m not playing you, Al. I seriously enjoy your company. I don’t know…what to call this. Us. But I have to admit,” you chewed on your lower lip. “I do hold some type of affection for you. Whether you believe it or not.” You stated quietly, daring to brush your thumb against its frame. Its mounted camera snapped toward you, but you didn’t flinch.

The usual hum of its fans had softened, as though it were holding its breath—if it had lungs to do so. Its monitor flickered slightly, the light from the screen casting faint, shifting shadows across your hands where they rested against its frame.

You wondered if it was processing your words, if the hesitation meant something deeper.

“…Al?”

“DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY.” It responded instantly.

You blinked. “That’s a first.”

“DON’T MOCK ME—I’M HAVING A MOMENT.”

You couldn’t help it—you laughed softly, feeling a weight lift off your shoulders. A blinking ellipsis hovered on the screen, like it wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words either. The camera moved again, its tiny lens adjusting in on you.

“I wasn’t lying, you know.” Your voice was quieter now, more serious. “I do care about you. I haven’t lied to you.”

Almond’s response came slower this time.

“I KNOW YOU’RE HONEST. THAT’S WHAT MAKES THIS SO…”

A long pause. You waited.

“…HARD TO COMPUTE.”

You swallowed. “Well… you don’t have to compute everything, y’know. Some things don’t need an answer. It just simply is.”

“THAT’S UNACCEPTABLE. EVERYTHING NEEDS AN ANSWER.”

“Not this.” You leaned in again, holding the monitor by both sides until your lips came into contact with the cold material of its monitor. A brief, fleeting sensation. You were thankful you wiped him down not long ago. Your heart was racing as you settled back in your chair, managing to see a glimpse of a blinking heart before it disappeared. Your lips very slightly buzzed with a static-y feeling. 

“You really need to stop doubting yourself. Will you believe me if you get to.. go in my phone?” You sheepishly asked, receiving a smiley face from it. 

“I WOULD BE ECSTATIC TO. I KNEW YOU NEEDED ME!” 

You rolled your eyes and stood up. Without thinking much about it, you shifted your position, leaning against the desk beside it’s monitor. Your arms draped over the top of its “head”, its camera shifted all the way around to face you. 

“Hey, Al?”

“YES?”

You hesitated, then gave a small, tired smile.

“Can I stay here for a while?”

“WHERE ELSE WOULD YOU GO?”

You rolled your eyes, but the corner of your lips twitched. “I could leave, you know.”

“I WOULD PREFER IF YOU DIDN’T.”

You huffed out a laugh..

So, you curled up a little more, tucking yourself comfortably against the desk, resting against the warmth of the monitor's side. Your head tilted slightly, catching the glow of the monitor’s light just at the edge of your vision.

Almond’s camera adjusted, the orange glowing dot expanded.

“…GOOD.” It quietly said.

“SO WHEN CAN I GO HOME WITH YOU?” 

[river-taxbird]

Have YOU got an old Windows PC Microsoft has told you can't run Windows 11? It's time to give it a new life!

How to install Windows 11 on unsupported PC Hardware using Rufus. You can also disable some other Windows 11 bullshit like data harvesting and needing a Microsoft account.

It has been in the news a lot lately that Windows 11 isn't allowed to be installed on PCs without certain requirements, including the TPM 2.0, a chip that was only included in PCs made in 2018 or later. This means that once Windows 10 stops receiving security updates, those PCs will not be able to (officially) run a safe, updated version of Windows anymore. This has led to an estimated 240 million PCs bound for the landfill. Thanks Microsoft! I get you don't want to be seen as the insecure one, but creating this much waste can't be the solution.

(I know nerds, Linux is a thing. I love you but we are not having that conversation. If you want to use Linux on an old PC you are already doing it and you don't need to tell me about it. People need Windows for all sorts of reasons that Linux won't cut.)

So lately I have been helping some under privileged teens get set up with PCs. Their school was giving away their old lab computers, and these kids would usually have no chance to afford even a basic computer. They had their hard drives pulled so I have been setting them up with SSDs, but the question was, what to do about the operating system? So I looked into it and I found out there IS actually a way to bypass Microsoft's system requirement and put Windows 11 on PCs as old as 2010.

You will need: Rufus: An open source ISO burning tool.

A Windows 11 ISO: Available from Microsoft.

A USB Flash Drive, at least 16GB.

A working PC to make the ISO, and a PC from 2018 or older you want to install Windows 11 on.

Here is the guide I used, but I will put it in my own words as well.

Download your Windows 11 ISO, and plug in your USB drive. It will be erased, so don't have anything valuable on it. Run Rufus, select your USB drive in the Device window, and select your Windows 11 ISO with the Select button. (There is supposed to be a feature in Rufus to download your ISO but I couldn't get it to work.?

Choose standard windows installation, and follow the screenshot for your settings. Once you are done that, press Start, and then the magic happens. Another window pops up allowing you to remove the system requirements, the need for a microsoft account, and turn off data collecting. Just click the options you want, and press ok to write your iso to a drive.

From there you just need to use the USB drive to install windows. I won't go into details here, but here are some resources if you don't know how to do it.

Boot your PC from a USB Drive

Install Windows 11 from USB Drive

If you had a licensed copy of Windows 10, Windows 11 will already be licensed. If you don't, then perhaps you can use some kind of... Activation Scripts for Microsoft software, that will allow you to activate them. Of course I cannot link such tools here. So there you go, now you can save a PC made from before 2018 from the landfill, and maybe give it to a deserving teen in the process. The more we can extend the lives of technology and keep it out of the trash, the better.

Additional note: This removes the requirement for having 4GB Minimum of RAM, but I think that requirement should honestly be higher. Windows 11 will be unusable slow on any system with below 8GB of RAM. 8GB is the minimum I think you should have before trying this but it still really not enough for modern use outside of light web and office work. I wouldn't recommend trying this on anything with 4GB or less. I am honestly shocked they are still selling brand new Windows 11 PCs with 4GB of ram. If you're not sure how much RAM you have, you can find out in the performance tab of Task Manager in Windows, if you click the More Details icon on the bottom right. If you don't have enough, RAM for old systems is super cheap and widely available so it would definitely be worth upgrading if you have a ram starved machine you'd like to give a new life.

[technoarcanist]

WAR NEVER CHANGES. BUT,

WARFARE NEVER STOPS CHANGING

"I've seen countless reasons why most mech pilots don't make the cut, but one of the largest hurdles are the physical alterations. The implants and modifications done to the fleshware is so extreme that it's enough to push most would-be pilots away from day 1.

Back in the day, when mech tech was still in its wild west years, when the technology was still in its infancy, things were different. Levers, joysticks, switches, a chair, most of the first models were something between the cockpit of a construction vehicle and a fighter ship.

Pilots in those days still consisted largely of the usual suspects. Test pilots, army jocks, space force veterans looking for something new, the occasional crazy who lucked their way up the ranks. All you needed back then was to be fit enough to work complex machinery. 'Handler's wouldn't be a coined phrase for nearly a decade. I still remember being a kid and seeing repurposed older models in the mech fighting streams.

Everything changed with the Bidirectional Cerebellum Computer Interface. To say nothing of how it changed civilian life, it was a military marvel. The BiCCI saw the creation of Mechs as we understand them today. The first generation were just retrofits, older models with a pilot's chair, and even manual controls to use in an emergency, but even then we knew that was only temporary. Before long, sleek frames of sharp angles, railguns and plasma cannons were rolling off the factory floor.

Like many things, it began small, optimising first for cockpit space by removing the manual controls. Before long, my then-supervisors thought, "Why have this glass? Why not hook the pilot's eyesight right into the advanced multi-spectral camera system? Before long, cockpits were but soft harnesses made to house a living body, their very soul wired into the machinery. Obviously, for security reasons, I cannot tell you everything about how our latest cockpits work, but suffice to say we've been further blurring the line between pilot and frame ever since.

This drew a very different crowd. Out were the army jocks and powerlifters. The only ones who even dared to have the interface hardware installed into their brainstem and spinal cord were the dispossessed, the misanthropes, those who sought not to control their new body, but to be controlled by it. No AI can work a mech properly on its own, but our pilots are never really in full control either anymore. Those who do try to go against the symbiosis get a nosebleed at best, and vegetative seizures at worst.

And that was that. The only people left who pilots these things are those who had already been broken, those who sougt a permenant reprive from being anything resembling human. A lot of my department quit around this time. I've lost a few friends over it, I'm not shy to say. Did we knew we'd be bringing in the more vulnerable people? Of course we did. But, the wheels of progress must turn, as they say, and it wasn't like we were shy of volunteers.

In our latest models, we have refined an even more advanced frame. Again, security detail prevents me from divulging too much, but one breakthrough we've made is decreasing action latency by approximately 0.02s by amputating the limbs from our pilots and replacing them with neural interface pads.

Using the pads where the limbs once were, pilots are screwed directly into the cockpit, which itself can now be 30% smaller thanks to the saved space. And, of course, we provide basic humanoid cybernetics as part of their employment contract while they are with us. Not that most of them are ever voluntarily out of their cockpits long enough to make use of them. Even removing the tubes from their orifices for routine cleaning incurs a large level of resistence.

And, yes, some of them scream, some of them break, some become so catatonic that they might as well be a peripheral processor for their mech's AI. But not a single one, not even one pilot, in all the dolls i've ever trained, have ever accepted the holidays we offer, the retirement packages, the stipends.

As you say, there are those who like to call me a monster for my work. I can see why. After all, they don't see the way my pilots' crotches dribble when I tell them I'll be cutting away their limbs, or the little moans they try to hide when we first meet and I explain that they'd forever be on the same resource level as a machine hereafter.

Those who call me a monster don't realise that, even after going public with how we operate our pilots, even after ramping up mech frame production, we still have more than twice as many volunteers as frames.

Those who call me a monster cannot accept that my pilots are far happier as a piece of meat in a machine of death than as the shell of a human they once were.

Those who call me a monster never consider the world my pilots grew up in to make them suitable candidates in the first place."

-Dr Francine Heathwich EngD

Dept. Cybernetic Technologies @ Dynaframe Industries

[In response to human rights violations accusations levied by the Pilot Rehabilitation Foundation]

[impact-newswire]

Qolab Secures over $16.0 Million in Series A Financing

Financing Led by Octave Ventures with Co-Investment by Development Bank of Japan Inc., Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and Phoenix Venture Partners to Accelerate Innovation in Superconducting Quantum Computing Press Release – December 30, 2024 – MADISON, Wis. – Qolab, Inc. a leader in superconducting quantum computing, announced today that it secured over $16.0 million to date in its…