• cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 months ago

    Helium doesn’t just kill apple devices, It kills anything with a MEMS oscillator. Helium atoms are so small that it’s impossible to make a seal that completely blocks them.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      3 months ago

      Hmm.

      That seems like it’d open a lot of potential abuses.

      I wonder what the failure mode of various electronic locks is when they’re exposed to helium?

      • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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        3 months ago

        If you are in a position where you can dump random gases into the air supply to the degree it impacts these devices then they are likely compromised in other ways as well.

        • tal@lemmy.today
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          3 months ago

          I don’t know about that. It seemed to have a pretty rapid impact on the phone in that video, and it’s not like those are exactly open. And they weren’t pressurizing it.

          • IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org
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            3 months ago

            Helium is tiny, and will diffuse though pretty much anything other than continuous welded metal pipe very very quickly. The elastomer seals on a phone would slow it down slightly, but the article’s from 2018, before so many phones were watertight. I remember my old iPhone had a little piezo cooling fan in one of the grates on the bottom, so helium would have no trouble at all.

        • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          You don’t necessarily need to put it into the air supply, could just bathe the specific device you want disabled in helium from a deodorant can or something