Comment on Why a Helium Leak Disabled Every iPhone in a Medical Facility

cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• tal@lemmy.today ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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?

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  • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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.

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    • tal@lemmy.today ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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.

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      • IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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.

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    • flashgnash@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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

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      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Is helium used in deodorants these days?

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      • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        If you are close enough to spray a device you are close enough to just steal it. Or spray the owner.

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    • xor@infosec.pub ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      a very small percentage of helium will disable the phone

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  • 4th_Times_A_Charm@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Lock picking lawyer gonna have to get on this

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• LordGimp@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Well that’s not true. It’s just a real bitch. As a welder, helium leak check is about the toughest damn QC to pass. Most welding QC has some reasonable margin for error during inspection, but the damn helium doesn’t care. You can have a beautiful weld with a tiny imperfection at the start or end and it’ll piss helium just as badly as an entirely scuffed bead.

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