I build systems from parts. (I mean, most miners do, right?) Motherboard, RAM, Graphics, Hard Drive, etc. If you can do that, most people who can, know if a system they are building is secure or not.
This is completely false. Building a computer via parts is as easy as adding everything to a cart, purchasing it and snapping/screwing it all together when it arrives.
That is totally irrelevant to if, say, you're aware that newegg shipped your motherboard to the NSA and they had fun with your bios.
This is my thought as well. Some people have bought hardware that was already used as well even though it was being sold as new.
Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App
That's true.
Posted From bitcointalk.org laptop
Interesting. But it would never happen to me.
Posted by malware on the new cold wallet.
HE JUST SAID HE HAS MALWARE. EVERYONE DIVEST RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!
But really, how do you know? The situation I was talking about was a guy who bought a premade computer that had a used HDD in it (it was a "brand new PC" and the HDD had been reformatted). He then got ahold of the owner and that person had sent it in for destruction but it apparently just got wiped and put in a brand new HP (I think it was).
Makes me think it could happen with other hardware as well though.
Really, you can't know. Just purchase a computer from a reputable big box store and use the OS Disc to do a reformat (or install Linux, of course).
Posted from that Laptop that Dooglus forgot in that hotel room that one time