Surely you have heard or it has happened to you, that your credit or transport card has been demagnetized by the simple waves of even a mobile. So, imagine what a machine like the one they use at airports can have.
X-rays and electronic equipment
Upon arriving at one of these controls, they make us leave our computer, mobile phone, smartwatch and other devices on a tray that goes through an X-ray scanner without any type of protection.
The first thing we need to know is What are these types of waves and who do they affect?
X-rays are a form of ionizing radiation. This means that the photons that make up these rays have the necessary energy to free electrons from atoms and generate positive ions. This ionizing ability can cause damage to biological tissues when exposed to high doses. However, it is important to note that electronic devices are not made up of cells and are therefore not affected in the same way as people.
In other words, according to this, our teams are safe from any radiation, no matter how strong it may be, because they do not share the materials that these waves harm, right?
Well, not quite. Given that storage units such as flash drives, SSDs or SD cards could be affected if they are exposed to certain levels of radiation because they represent the information by means of binary values.
That is to say, that, theoretically, high intensity X-rays could alter the value stored in a cell from 1 to 0 or vice versa and cause the loss of information or data corruption, thus leaving us without our files and content in them, reaching the point of being able to modify part of the OS and that our computer won’t boot.
Although this is quite improbable and very rare to see, it does not mean that it cannot happen, and although a screen or other component that does not have living cells will not be affected by radiation, it can give us a problem in our computers.
As a recommendation you already know what I am going to tell you. Always have a backup in the cloud or at home in case something like this happens, but don’t be afraid anyway, it’s like thinking that the plane is going to crash, it can happen, but it’s not normal. We simply give you the fact that the possibility exists, it is not innocuous for our teams as many people believe.
Now you can go on a quiet trip (or not), and remember me when you are passing your devices through lightning control. Surely you think that nothing ever touches you and it will happen to you, but you will see how not.
