this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
180 points (97.9% liked)
Explain Like I'm Five
14004 readers
203 users here now
Simplifying Complexity, One Answer at a Time!
Rules
- Be respectful and inclusive.
- No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
- Engage in constructive discussions.
- Share relevant content.
- Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
- Use appropriate language and tone.
- Report violations.
- Foster a continuous learning environment.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If I remember, the decay of information in RAM is slower than that. This is an old memory, but I recall I think someone on TechTV talking about how you could, if fast enough, remove a module from one machine and put it in another, and if done right, potentially get the information off it.
It's possible, and can be done at home. You need to literally freeze the RAM very quickly (typically with CO2) and transfer it to the new system. Then you dump the contents of the stick and hopefully find an encryption key.
From what i've read it's temperature dependent, and at room temp some dram cells might take as long as 10 seconds to decay. The 64mS refresh is a super conservative call because it's really bad when random bits go missing out of memory. The decay is faster at high temperatures, but some dram controllers might actually adjust based on temperature.
it is temperature dependent, if you change this refresh timing in the BIOS to the tightest possible value at a given temperature, you can easily make your PC crash by heating the RAM up a bit (for example by removing a fan)