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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 24th, 2023

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  • Absolutely not. Cyber attacks are not comparable with real attacks, when it comes to counterattacking.

    I mean, how would that even work?

    Let’s do an example: A hospital has a cyber attack.

    Assumption 1: We notice the attack.
    This may sound stupid, but maybe we don’t even notice, that data is stolen and no one ever notices.

    But they want to destroy shit, so they do!

    Okay, let’s say we notice the attack.

    Assumption 2: We notice the attack in time.
    What does that mean, they destroyed stuff, right?

    Yes, but when? Some attacks delete backups for weeks and then destroy the data. We are talking about a government and not a money hungry hacker group here, they have time.

    Maybe all traces of the attack are deleted, before all goes black?

    But we’re the good ones, the smart ones, we notice it in time. Cool.

    Assumption 3: it’s possible to trace the origin.

    Again, how do we do that? Does the code look russian? Maybe Isreal just knows how to trick us. We maybe have no IP, since it came in via USB or CD?

    Okay, we’ll ignore that. We have an IP.

    Assumption 4: The IP tells us, who it was.

    An IP from Israel attacks an american hospital. Clear case, let’s attack back. Right? Wrong.

    The IP is private, so it could be some random dude and you just attacked a country for one person doing a crime? Great job.
    Even worse, maybe the person has a hacked smart fridge and the attack came from Russia. How would you know?

    Okay, let’s say the IP is from a datacenter. Bad example, they rent their servers…

    Okay, the IP is from a government agency. Now we’re talking. They don’t rent; it’s unrealistic, they were hacked. We can attack back!

    Assumption 5: We know, what to do next.

    (This is not a strong argument, but it stills stands)

    But what do we attack? One of their hospitals? Do we start a war with them? Call the embassy?

    All of this on all the prior assumptions…
















  • That’s great actually.

    Then I would suggest using used thin clients. They cost around 50€ each, maybe less. You can install a Linux on there and remotely manage them then. They are quiet, small, not energy intensive and mostly have an x86_64 CPU, so software is also not an issue.

    They also mostly have HDMI so connecting is not an issue either. If you still buy a Bluetooth remote, they can be handled without a mouse.

    Software wise I am not well versed with google slides, but you can probably use kiosk mode in Firefox or chrome and just have the main page with the slides as chosen website.


  • Okay, let me get your current setup/needs right:

    You have multiple rooms with dedicated Raspberry Pis, that each run PiSignage to display automatically forwarding (google) slideshows.

    You now want to minimally change this setup to allow people to manually forward slides.

    This begs some questions:

    1. How are the slides selected/uploaded?
    2. How are the slides forwarded?
    3. How does the setup know if it’s an automated slide or not?

    In my head the new setup would look something like this:

    The Pis stay, as does PiSignage.
    A device is added to forward slides (most likely a Bluetooth remote)

    Here is where it gets tricky.

    On remote press, a menu could be opened, to select uploaded slides and display them via other means than PiSignage. Closing this slide opens PiSignage again.

    But having this easily maintainable is tricky and it will get hacky and people will forget closing their slide and so on.

    Alternatively USB-sticks could be used.
    Inserting one opens the folder, a slide can be selected with the remote and removing the stick opens PiSignage.

    Both methods are hacky and not easily maintainable. But I can not think of other means.

    Also I think that you should first think about some means of uploading and selecting slides as well as whether you even want to keep using PiSignage.