Scary James Bond-style USB flash drive can instantly kill any computer
Russian computer researcher creates the 'USB Killer' thumb drive that will fry your computer in seconds
Can Hackers turn a remote computer into a bomb and explode it to kill someone, just like they do in hacker movies? Wait, wait! Before answering that, Let me tell you an interesting story about Killer USB drive:
A man walking in the subway stole a USB flash drive from the outer pocket of someone else's bag. The pendrive had "128" written on it. After coming home, he inserted the pendrive into his laptop and instead discovering any useful data, he burnt half of his laptop down. The man then took out the USB pendrive, replaced the text "128" with "129" and put it in the outer pocket of his bag… Amen!
I’m sure, you would really not imagine yourself being the 130th victim of this Killer pendrive, neither I.
This above story was told to a Russian researcher, nicknamed Dark Purple, who found the concept very interesting and developed his own computer-frying USB Killer pendrive.
He is working with electronic manufacturing company from where he ordered some circuit boards from China for creating his own USB killer stick.
"When we connect it up to the USB port, an inverting DC/DC converter runs and charges capacitors to -110V," the researcher explained. "When the voltage is reached, the DC/DC is switched off. At the same time, the field transistor opens.
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At last, he successfully developed a well functioning USB killer pendrive which is able to effectively destroy sensitive components of a computer when plugged-in.
"It is used to apply the -110V to signal lines of the USB interface. When the voltage on capacitors increases to -7V, the transistor closes and the DC/DC starts. The loop runs till everything possible is broken down. Those familiar with the electronics have already guessed why we use negative voltage here."
It is not possible for hardware to prevent all damage to physical systems in some scenarios. It may be possible for an attacker to exploit SCADA vulnerabilities and remove safety controls used by power plants or put it into an unstable state.
"It is used to apply the -110V to signal lines of the USB interface. When the voltage on capacitors increases to -7V, the transistor closes and the DC/DC starts. The loop runs till everything possible is broken down. Those familiar with the electronics have already guessed why we use negative voltage here."
It is not possible for hardware to prevent all damage to physical systems in some scenarios. It may be possible for an attacker to exploit SCADA vulnerabilities and remove safety controls used by power plants or put it into an unstable state.
The following USB flash drive isn’t just an extremely imaginative tech weapon worthy of James Bond. We’re looking at an actual killer USB stick that will forcefully turn off the PC the moment it’s inserted into a USB port – and yes, it does look just like your average memory stick you’d pass around the office.
USB sticks have long been a mechanism for delivering malware to unsuspecting computer users. A booby-trapped flash drive, for instance, was the means by which the US and Israel reportedly infected Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility with the Stuxnet worm. And, in case anyone thought USB stick attacks had lost their novelty, last year's Bad USB proof-of-concept exploit delivered a highly programmable attack platform that can't be detected by today's defenses.
THIS THUMBDRIVE HACKS COMPUTERS. “BADUSB” EXPLOIT MAKES DEVICES TURN “EVIL”
Researchers devise stealthy attack that reprograms USB device firmware.
Now, a researcher who goes by the name Dark Purple has created a USB device that can permanently destroy much of a computer's innards, rendering the machine little more than an expensive doorstop. Within seconds of being plugged in, the USB stick delivers a negative 220-volt electric surge into the USB port, that's enough to permanently damage any computer receiving the charge.
The USB stick looks normal, and there are no outward signs it's malicious. But the USB Killer 2.0, as its creator calls it, takes computer attacks on a less-traveled road that leads to physical destruction. According to a post from The Daily Mail, an earlier and less powerful version of the device drew power from USB ports using a DC-to-DC converter until it reached negative 100 volts. At that point, the power was directed into the computer. The process ran on a loop until the circuitry failed.
However, as Ars Technica reports, the hard drive and CPU probably escape the worst of the effects, so it could be possible to retrieve some data from the hard drive of the broken machine.
Most people are vigilant about their online security, but generally they don't think twice about the hardware they plug into their devices. It's unlikely you're going to be hit with a USB Killer any time soon, but it's worth bearing in mind, especially considering ordinary-looking USB drives like this one have been used to transmit worms and viruses in the past.
Also in 2014, a security firm demonstrated an attack on Apple’s Mac computer by overriding temperature controls, which can actually set the machine on fire.
So if we say that a computer could be converted into a bomb, then of course it’s true, a hacker can probably make your computer explode as well.
Therefore, next time when you find an unknown USB flash drive, just beware before inserting it into your laptop. Because this time it will not fire up your important files or data stored on your laptop like what malwares do, instead it will fire up your Laptop.
USB sticks have long been a mechanism for delivering malware to unsuspecting computer users. A booby-trapped flash drive, for instance, was the means by which the US and Israel reportedly infected Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility with the Stuxnet worm. And, in case anyone thought USB stick attacks had lost their novelty, last year's Bad USB proof-of-concept exploit delivered a highly programmable attack platform that can't be detected by today's defenses.
THIS THUMBDRIVE HACKS COMPUTERS. “BADUSB” EXPLOIT MAKES DEVICES TURN “EVIL”
Researchers devise stealthy attack that reprograms USB device firmware.
Now, a researcher who goes by the name Dark Purple has created a USB device that can permanently destroy much of a computer's innards, rendering the machine little more than an expensive doorstop. Within seconds of being plugged in, the USB stick delivers a negative 220-volt electric surge into the USB port, that's enough to permanently damage any computer receiving the charge.
The USB stick looks normal, and there are no outward signs it's malicious. But the USB Killer 2.0, as its creator calls it, takes computer attacks on a less-traveled road that leads to physical destruction. According to a post from The Daily Mail, an earlier and less powerful version of the device drew power from USB ports using a DC-to-DC converter until it reached negative 100 volts. At that point, the power was directed into the computer. The process ran on a loop until the circuitry failed.
However, as Ars Technica reports, the hard drive and CPU probably escape the worst of the effects, so it could be possible to retrieve some data from the hard drive of the broken machine.
Most people are vigilant about their online security, but generally they don't think twice about the hardware they plug into their devices. It's unlikely you're going to be hit with a USB Killer any time soon, but it's worth bearing in mind, especially considering ordinary-looking USB drives like this one have been used to transmit worms and viruses in the past.
Stuxnet worm is one of the real example of such cyber attacks, which was designed to destroy centrifuges at the Nuclear facility and all this started from a USB drive.
Also in 2014, a security firm demonstrated an attack on Apple’s Mac computer by overriding temperature controls, which can actually set the machine on fire.
So if we say that a computer could be converted into a bomb, then of course it’s true, a hacker can probably make your computer explode as well.
Therefore, next time when you find an unknown USB flash drive, just beware before inserting it into your laptop. Because this time it will not fire up your important files or data stored on your laptop like what malwares do, instead it will fire up your Laptop.
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