USB Killer

@rrhoover somebody watches Mr. Robot 😏

@rrhoover The paranoia is real now.

how else can you find out who the unlabeled usb stick belongs to? 😂

@gabriel__lewis @rrhoover it was there as prototype and in theory even before that series *just sayin*

@tpbtv Or, you know... don't. Destroying thousands of dollars of technical equipment that you and your classmates paid for isn't really very funny.

@bitandbang well I'm sure there would be a simple way to recover them. Not sure whether t attacks the BIOS or the hard drive of the computer. Potentially it is even attacking software. I'm not so sure myself.

@tpbtv no really, don't. If you read the page you'll learn that it fries the circuitry.

@tpbtv ....watch the video. It short circuits the computer. That's physical damage and requires replacing hardware.

@lebaux its about as much of a "good idea" as it is to report about anything illegal and bad going on in the world. lets assume you weren't aware of this usb specification exploit, which by the way has been around for years. well, you're aware of it now. isn't that something? at a $50 price point most people won't buy it anyway. especially because its function can be implemented with any usb stick and free to download software. ethical hacking always seems counter productive to some, but i think its needed to move forward and spread awareness.

@gopietz your argument is weak... here is the analogy: you can make a decent bomb using only what you find in grocery store. There are plenty of DYI articles on the internet, but you will make that extra step towards ethical anti-terorrism so you make the bomb and sell it twice the price of items needed (so you are defending your position via pricing point). You will raise awareness for sure, but there that one dude that buys it and kills himself or someone. And my question is, was this ethical? The answer is the same with your USB (spoiler: it is not).

@lebaux to each their own. i don't agree with your analogy either. there's very little one could do against a bomb attack because the victims don't play an active role in the plan. awareness of this topic wouldn't protect anyone. in this case however the victim has to actively do something for the plan to work. by making people aware of this exploit, they will not do something stupid. Most of the times analogies just don't hold up. That's true for yours and mine.

@gopietz my analogy just deconstructs your reasoning and makes it very questionable, nothing else.

@lebaux No it doesn't...

@ziyadalobaidi maybe a tesla?

@mikespax Oh God! Looks like Tesla cars have usb 2.0 port in them. This will be a great a question for Elon... Imagine using this attack while a car is driving. This gotta a major security risk if it's possible