We have been lucky so far. Moore's "law" has been holding true. However, we are getting to a point with nanometer sizes where we can't go any further, as we can't go less than an atom. When we hit diminishing returns on performance that persist unless major ISA changes are done, optimizing software to use resources is something that is going to be a difficult climb. People can do it, but this may be something AI isn't great at. For example, hand-tuned assembly still rules the roost, even after decades of compilers having precise logic for optimizing code.

I'm curious why it would even matter. Are the detectives hitting their metrics? Are cases getting done? If so, why care so much that one has to perhaps skirt near violating regulations with a keylogger?

If performance is an issue, perhaps a word to the wise, with escalating stuff?

POP used to be good for testing to see if a mail server worked. Log in with telnet, use USER and PASS, do a LIST, and you could tell if all is doing okay.

However, IMAP has replaced it completely. Nothing POP can do that IMAP can't except for being a simple protocol designed for someone to yank all their mail off their mail server onto their local machine, as opposed to viewing it.

One thing TrueCrypt and VeraCrypt have as an option is to use multiple encryption algorithms. The point isn't 768 bits, but more of, if AES has a break that causes it to have a lot fewer bits that need to be guessed, Serpent and other algorithms are likely not to be broken by the same attack, so the data is protected.

Maybe we need to consider this. Have a good conventional algorithm coupled with a PQ algorithm. This way, if something causes RSA to be completely useless, broken in O(n) time, the PQ algorithm's public key will keep things secure. Similar if the PQ algorithm has the security of Knapsack. Downside is that it means storing multiple keys, and running two encryption operations in parallel, which means more RAM and CPU.

HFT trading there will be interesting. In NYC, the success you have for that is measured by the foot your Internet pipe is from the stock exchange, so it will be interesting seeing a scramble for real estate physically close to this.

Epoxy potting? It is still done. Pretty much every Blu-Ray player has epoxy over the core security chips. Done right, it can actually be useful, as it adds weatherproofing. There is one company that does stuff like that with Raspberry Pis, to make hardened edge computing devices.

If it isn't operable, it can't be hacked. /s

It can affect us directly. The Secure Enclave on a phone can be all that keeps data away from the hands of bad guys on a stolen phone. The TPM might be the only thing that keeps company data out of the hands of nation-state tier level thieves. Yes, it sounds like overkill, but might as well do it right, because you never know.

Correction, can't find the link, but there was a special purpose chip that had a tiny vial in glass of acid to hinder decapping. I can't find the link, so I'll pin [citation needed] on my own post.

The XBox is impressive, but it uses a physical ring of defenses. CPU makers don't have that much room.

At most, they can put a capsule of a potent acid, so decapping causes it to physically dissolve the secure area.

Instead, maybe some work should be done on PUFs. This way, the chip doesn't have to contain any secure data. It just uses its unclonable encrypt/decrypt operation to deal with stuff. A name:value lookup for passwords could be infinite because it wouldn't need to be stored in an enclave.

It was also a library of anything electronic. You could get books on everything... and starting out for basics, there were those 100 in one boards that one could make circuits with, so you learned what a resistor was, what circuits work with diodes, a switch, and many other things.. AM radio, etc. If one figured out a circuit, then it was easy to head to RS, pick up the parts needed, breadboard it... or if you were feeling like a challenge, the PCB etchant kit which consisted of PCBs, a Sharpie, and FeCl3 in a bottle that you swished around this side of forever to etch all the copper off your hand-drawn PCB. From there, use a drill bit, and then drop your through-hole stuff in (at the time, not much was SMT.)

Is it better than now? Debatable. With how easy it is to have boards made and SMT stuff done, one can focus on how to use the chips, not praying that your 555 and your 741 didn't have a solder bridge, otherwise you are making magic smoke. However, just being able to throw components together and figure out what did what was invaluable.

I miss these days.

What I can see a resurrected Radio Shack being like, would be a makerspace. Decent 3D printers (Bambu, Prusa), high quality filament, good laser cutters, and so on. Going full MicroCenter is out for computer parts selection, but having basics like RAM, hard drives, and other basic accessories would be a boon. Cellular stuff is fine, but the days of running a store from that are long gone.

What would resurrect Radio Shack type stores is more user repairable items. RtR would greatly help here. One reason RS died was because people just tossed their electronics and bought them, as opposed to repairing them.

Of course, add some old school Sharper Image with some cool new gadgets every so often, and this brand can be brought back from the dead.

We are assuming we have trustworthy cryptographic algorithms and the foundation where we can do with these exotic PKI structures is uncrackable. Quantum computing is getting there, and only a matter of time before it gets to a point where AES-256 becomes AES-128, AES-128 becomes DES, RSA and ECC algorithms become a joke, and anything based on those can be decrypted or signatures easily forged.

For example, Bitcoin will collapse when its ECC signature algorithms are compromised due to enough qubits.

I don't think many people are looking at the foundations of cryptography. We have been on AES for decades, and even though it has served us well, we need to be looking at quantum-resistant algorithms, or raise the amount of bits used so the gains done by quantum brute forcing are mitigated. It may be time to start looking at a 512 to 1024 bit stream or block cypher as a standard.

Even if cash is stopped, there are always cryptocurrencies. Basically company scrip in a shiny new package.

At $200, I can buy a Chinese mini PC that has Windows 11, some storage, and 16 GB of RAM. Not great, but for a desktop PC with questionable drivers and such, something good enough for light gaming.

I can see one place for this specific machine... an offline computer. Something one uses for top tier signing/decrypting of GPG messages, or signing code. Plug it into an older monitor, and it is quite useful for this task, as after it us used, just unplug the "keyboard", and stick that in the strongbox. In fact, I keep an offline Raspberry Pi for just an item, especially storing offline root CA keys, that really need to go into a HSM, or generating a GPG key I use for Git... and copying that key into a YubiKey. This way, if I lose the YubiKey, I still can rebuild my private key offline.

This. They need to go back to a simple naming structure. Apple's is good enough. Name a generation, then some suffix to show if it is a basic, enhanced, super, super-duper, or plaid model.