Every one of us, who know a little more than the average Joe about computers, would have heard about configuration and power-on passwords that keep us from managing and even using our computers. The word is BIOS passwords.

A quick recap. I began tinkering around with computers in college and even I first started my career, I continued the journey. Although I’m still intrigued, I simply don’t have time to invest experimenting on finding the perfect solution to lost passwords.

BIOS passwords are easiest to crack and I realised it way back when I helped crack my friend’s code . She had set a configuration password several years ago and had to make some hardware tweaks (change the boot order of the drives). She, conveniently, forgot her BIOS password. A desperate call to the computer guy nextdoor (who qouted some vulgar amount of money) and my friend decided to call me (coz I come free of cost!) The excitement to break the codes is close to seeing your salary grow in the bank account. Another incident, when I bought a laptop (for review) the previous administrator set BIOS configuration passwords so that I could not enable/disable the built-in wireless or wired network cards.

If you take some time out, and google a few details, you will find a lot of good BIOS password hacking and cracking resources on the Web. And why you should do this? To protect yourself from others.

When I started fooling around with computers and hardware, my actions locked me out of my own computer and damaged the hardware. A loss of Rs 12,000. My advice: be careful handling any computer hardware; you can destroy the sensitive circuitry inside the computer with static electricity coming from your hands. Also remember, that tom toming with hardware can potentially void your computer’s warranty as well.

No, I am not disclosing the tricks of the trade since I am no great teacher. But I am merely warning people that passwords are no defence against hackers or even people like me who like fooling around with hardware (with no precise aim).