SFHalfling

IoT has been giving a bad rep lately mostly due because the stacks that are running on embedded devices are difficult to fix for vulnerabilities, especially if they are using a custom OS that does not receive fixes for vulnerabilities

IoT has been given a bad rep due to a complete and utter lack of security procedures, not due to the stack it's built on.

The stack doesn't lead to software having hard coded admin passwords or being open to injection style attacks, throwing something together in a couple of weeks / months and not designing with security in mind causes the issues.

Updates allow you to fix these after it happens, but most shouldn't appear in the first place if developed properly.

Motherboard wi-fi is usually on a separate board that can be removed, or if not it can be disabled in BIOS or worst case disable the device in Windows.

I don't know about this place, but if I was doing public facing computers like this, I'd disable USB in BIOS then glue gun the physical ports.

Lifeprotip: If someone is blackmailing you - don't pay, you can't win.

See black mirror s3e4 for this as well.

Oops meant ep3, the one that had the teenager wanking in it.

Tbh it depends on what you want to do, if you want to visit London, you don't need a car and in fact I would say a car would be detrimental due to the traffic situation. (Again pre-1900's design does not suit the modern world)

Other cities are much more welcoming to cars and a lot of attractions aren't actually in city centres, particularly if you are interested in historic sites like stately homes.

I don't really know about Ireland as I've never been.