This immediately reminded me of the slightly infamous and almost certainly apocryphal "box" of the phreaking era for supposedly overloading and destroying your adversary's phone, or even taking down the local POTS switch. It was called a urine box most commonly, or sometimes a copper box or assassin box if I recall correctly.
USB Killer
131–140 of 198 posts
Re: USB Killer
#132One could give these out to activists around the world, they seem to be always at risk of getting their electronic devices confiscated by law enforcement.
They have it bad enough already without adding felony charges for destruction of government property.
Re: USB Killer
#133Do you think he's tested it?
Re: USB Killer
#134This immediately reminded me of the slightly infamous and almost certainly apocryphal "box" of the phreaking era for supposedly overloading and destroying your adversary's phone, or even taking down the local POTS switch. It was called a urine box most commonly, or sometimes a copper box or assassin box if I recall correctly.
This [1] seems to indicate the urine box and the assassin box were actually different, even though they seemed to achieve similar results. I'd be curious to find circuit diagrams.
Re: USB Killer
#135This is so not cool.
Why? Sounds like a way to increase security awareness. Although, I suppose a huge blaring alarm might do just as well. Leave them around your office/parking lot and see who uses them. Then have a chat. Better they plug in a bad device you control vs one carrying a truly malicious payload. (Probably a good idea to attempt to phish employees, too.)
There are better ways to increase security awareness than to destroy people's computers.
Re: USB Killer
#136I made a list of other way usb can be evil: http://www.jefftk.com/p/malicious-usb-sticks
Re: USB Killer
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know Britons love their plugs, and I have never quite understood why. They look brutish, clunky and over-engineered. The opposite of elegant. The reason why they have fuses is so you can use ring circuits, which saves copper compared to the usual radial wiring. So its just about saving a little money. Everyone now gets to state his favourite plug type. Bring it on! Mine is the swiss Type J ( http://www.worldstandar…
Does anyone actually care that their plugs are elegant? In any case, your Type J is missing the fact that in the UK, the cables point down towards the floor rather than sticking out, keeping them flush with the wall and often allowing you to hide the plugs behind things.
of course. Did you miss the article yesterday about Macbook going with USB-C? Apple has made bank on just getting people to buy better plugs and cables (USB, Magsafe, Lightning connector, etc.). People also spend tons of money to hide cables when mounting TV screens.
Re: USB Killer
#138If any USB mouse, USB keyboard or soon also USB charger is a potential laptop annihilator, then maybe it's something wrong with the USB standard.
Re: USB Killer
#139Well at least the new MacBook won't have a problem with this device.
Re: USB Killer
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
He didn't know. After it burnt his laptop, he decided to pass it on and make it easy for somebody to steal the key and burn their laptop.
I see. Thanks! Highly unlikely that 129 people in a row respond like that though... More likely is that someone destroys the USB device in anger, dismantles it, is too shocked to do anything, doesn't interpret the number as a counter, or doesn't want to ruin other people's computer. And, of course, that many people in a row stealing a USB device from a backpack is already unlikely in itself.
Yeah it would have been clearer if he didn't use a power of 2 for his counter's current state. Made me think it had to do with the device's storage capacity.