I am unsure how well this scales and if there are any security concerns running outdated firmware on a large number of devices. I may be getting some newer Whatsminers (like M30s) down the line as well and they might not be able to run outdated firmware. If the manufactures only stopped closing ssh ports all the time

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The new models come with SSh disabled by default, so it will be very unlikely to get SSH access on those, and yes, of course there is a security concern when SSH is enabled, it isn't as bad as publishing your email and password online, but it's an extra door for hackers to try and break, and most attacks on miners come via SSH which is why most manufacturers started to disable SSH in order to provide less support to their clients/ SSH victims.
controlling the power input could harm the hardware in the long run. So I am hesitant to try this. Or am I wrong in this regard?
I don't want to discuss wether it would hard the hardware or not, but how does powering the miner off and pausing mining are any different? most theories behind the on-off issue are related to the sudden cha