Tracking events of interest to mitigate attacks

A computing device comprising:

• a comparator coupled to an I/O pin of the computing device for detecting repetitive input signals;
• a storage unit coupled to the comparator for storing a representative input signal, wherein the comparator compares an input received via the I/O pin to the representative input signal stored in the storage unit to determine whether the input matches the representative input signal, and wherein the representative input signal stored in the storage unit is a prior incoming signal received via the I/O pin;
• and
• a counter coupled to receive an output of the comparator, wherein the counter increments upon the comparator indicating that the input matches the representative input signal indicating a repetitive input signal, wherein an output of the counter is coupled to a computation engine to provide a limit-exceeded signal to the computation engine when a value at the counter exceeds a predetermined level of acceptability for repetitive input signals, wherein the counter comprises a volatile counter and a nonvolatile storage, wherein the nonvolatile storage stores a bit for each top volatile count number of events identified by the volatile counter.