Age is of zero relevance for hard drives?

Also - age is of zero relevance to internet connected linux devices?

I rely on many "8-10 year old device that hadn’t received a security update in 6+ years". My coffee machine. My fridge. My hifi. All my motorcycles. None of them run linux and are directly connected to the internet.

But think about this from the perspective of the average buyer/user. Hard drives are traditionally "local". Local = safe. Now, a new generation of drives are introduced with this awesome capability to get access to data remotely. "Cool", they think. They don't understand how the Internet works, and so they don't really see the issue, or if they have a basic understanding of networks they might understandably believe that "it's behind the router, so it's safe".

The remote access feature was disabled by default. For many people, the only reason it was accessing the internet was so it could get security updates.