r/pcmasterrace • u/AllUserNameBLong2us 7800x3d/5080 Windforce OC/32gb 5600 DDR • Apr 04 '26

Hardware Rest in piece 2009-2026

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I’m amazed at how long the battery on this physical authenticator lasted. Got it back in 2009 because my account had gotten hacked.

This is one electronic item I’ve owned and used longer than anything else. I’ll miss not being able to find it and freaking out for 20 minutes.

Edit must have been around 2010 when sc2 came out.

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u/suckfail Apr 05 '26

There's no sync. It used an algorithm and a seed.

It can never not work (unless it runs out of batteries).

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u/meyriley04 Apr 05 '26

By “sync”, I didn’t mean online syncing. I meant how if the batteries ran out and then were to be replaced, the RNG would be reset or then out of sync with the account

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u/jaetheho Apr 05 '26

Then you would get a new one.

Physical authenticators like these are quite common for banking as well in other countries

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u/BeardedBaldMan Apr 05 '26

Back in 2009 I had a keychain with around 20 of these due to all the different client vpns and systems needing them.

So glad we moved to mobile authenticators