content: They intentionally killed hardware with updates in the past. Namely usb chips from off-brand chinese copiers. http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftdi-drivers-are-killing-fake-chips/ Destroying the system from the software side is also possible, in that case you wouldn't attack the firmware, you go for the voltage and clock speed of the mainboard & cpu - both are controlled software-side, you can of course also attack the firmware but that's fixable unlike a fried board.