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The 'USB Killer' Has Been Mass Produced -- Available Online For About $50 (arstechnica.com)

New submitter npslider writes: The "USB Killer," a USB stick that fries almost everything that it is plugged into, has been mass produced -- available online for about $50. Ars Technica first wrote about this diabolical device that looks like a fairly humdrum memory stick a year ago. From the report: "The USB Killer is shockingly simple in its operation. As soon as you plug it in, a DC-to-DC converter starts drawing power from the host system and storing electricity in its bank of capacitors (the square-shaped components). When the capacitors reach a potential of -220V, the device dumps all of that electricity into the USB data lines, most likely frying whatever is on the other end. If the host doesn't just roll over and die, the USB stick does the charge-discharge process again and again until it sizzles. Since the USB Killer has gone on sale, it has been used to fry laptops (including an old ThinkPad and a brand new MacBook Pro), an Xbox One, the new Google Pixel phone, and some cars (infotainment units, rather than whole cars... for now). Notably, some devices fare better than others, and there's a range of possible outcomes -- the USB Killer doesn't just nuke everything completely." You can watch a video of EverythingApplePro using the USB Killer to fry a variety of electronic devices. It looks like the only real defense from the USB Killer is physically capping your ports.

243 comments

  1. I Got One But It Doesn't Work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I tried it on my laptop, desktop, and phone. And it does not respond. Matter of fact...hm.

    1. Re:I Got One But It Doesn't Work by gerf · · Score: 2

      I made one to plug into my iPhone 7 audio jack and blow it up. Oh wait...

    2. Re:I Got One But It Doesn't Work by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Funny

      I made one to plug into my iPhone 7 audio jack and blow it up. Oh wait...

      You can use it on your Samsung Note 7 to... oh, wait...

    3. Re:I Got One But It Doesn't Work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I tried it on my laptop, desktop, and phone. And it does not respond. Matter of fact...hm.

      Same problem here. I then remembered that I owned a hammer and used that to disable several devices, including a toaster.

    4. Re:I Got One But It Doesn't Work by Adriax · · Score: 5, Funny

      I tried it on my Nokia, and the stick blew up.

      --
      I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
    5. Re:I Got One But It Doesn't Work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe some one above already pointed out that old school vandalism devices were called bricks.

  2. I am amazed that there is no current limiter by hemanr · · Score: 0

    I can't believe these computers are built with current limiters!

    1. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 2

      There are some issue with the USB spec inrush definition that makes one want to tie fat traces between the power source and the USB port. There are ways of doing this properly, but almost no one wants to pay more than a fraction of a cent on it or become unprofitable/lose out to chinese suppliers, so shit happens.

    2. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by willy_me · · Score: 4, Informative

      Of course they have current limited USB switches. The point is this device slowly collects charge over time then drops it onto the data lines instantly. The protection diodes found within the USB host are only designed for ESD-like voltages and currents. They can not handle a high voltage being applied for a long time. They blow then the rest of the USB chipset blows. If you are really lucky, the charge then passes through the USB chipset and blows other ICs in the host.

    3. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      The one I read about last year charged to -120v before dumping, to defeat any protection diodes.

    4. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Maybe a zener diode shunt to ground would be more effective.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    5. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by willy_me · · Score: 5, Informative

      That is basically what a protection diode is - except they do not use zener diodes. They have one diode connected to ground and one to VCC. If the voltage drops below ground, one diode conducts clamping the voltage to ~-0.7v. If the voltage increases beyond VCC, the other diode conducts and clamps the voltage at VCC+0.7v. This is effective when dissipating a small charge that could potentially be at a high voltage - think ESD. But if you have prolonged current the diode will blow and short.

      So you have a short (blown diode) but you still have a significant amount of energy to dissipate. This results in a large current that will cause the diode to physically explode or possibly blow a trace. USB data lines typically use very thin traces and can not conduct much power. If a trace goes then USB is screwed but the rest of the computer will probably function correctly. If the diode explodes your protection is gone and the high voltage will now cause all sorts of damage.

    6. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      TVS diodes cost .02 each in bulk. Far too expensive.

    7. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nah. you're supposed to have bidirectional protection to pass certain specs.

    8. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      There are high current zeners out there that can handle the load more than long enough to discharge the caps in the USB stick. You just might need a better heat sink.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    9. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by AaronW · · Score: 2

      Actually the schematic I'm looking at uses a Littelfuse SP3011 protection circuit for USB 3 which uses a zener diode. It clamps the voltage to ground and the zener and can handle spikes of 40A and +/- 8KV. The nice thing here is that it protects any spikes from being sent to the power supply.

      --
      This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
    10. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by LinuxInDallas · · Score: 1

      It can handle 40A but for how long? Those large caps on the "killer" device can hold that up much longer than the relatively small storage cap in an ESD gun.

    11. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Zeners have tolerances on their voltages and soft characteristic curves, especially at low voltages. A zener is not going to adequately protect an IC.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    12. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So the lesson here is don't plug in any strange or unknown USB sticks into your devices, and don't let anyone else plug any in either! I really can see no reason for such a destructive device to exist...except for some jackass to leave one some where and hope someone finds it and fries their computer or other devices.

    13. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by AaronW · · Score: 1

      There is no cap on the device to be "destroyed" in this case since there is no diode going between a data line and +5v. In fact, the way that the "killer" device is designed the -240v will just be shunted directly to ground through a diode. I'd be more worried if it were +240V since the zener would also be involved.
      The caps on the killer device don't hold a lot of charge since they're rated at a minimum of 240V unless they're quite large. With capacitors there's a tradeoff of voltage vs capacity for a given size. I'd argue that the device would be far more destructive if it pumped -12v instead of -240v since it would be able to output a lot more current.

      --
      This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
    14. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by SirSlud · · Score: 2

      Chinese suppliers? Chinese supplies don't want to lose out to Chinese suppliers. Has nothing to do with where it's being made ya dunce.

      --
      "Old man yells at systemd"
    15. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I can't believe these computers are built with current limiters!

      There are. But current limiters (an expected requirement from a voltage output line) and a device that can handle a completely unexpected negative voltage spike 2 orders of magnitude higher than predicted are two entirely different things.

      There's no magic protect me from everything component.

    16. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Maybe a zener diode shunt to ground would be more effective.

      In which direction? Bearing in mind that this device will rise the ground potential 200V above what you're trying to protect, what will a zener do other than happily conduct that voltage into your protected lines?

    17. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd argue that the device would be far more destructive if it pumped -12v instead of -240v since it would be able to output a lot more current.

      I'd argue that it would be about the same.
      The "benefit" of a higher voltage is that it won't be stopped by small signal diodes or transistors.
      The higher voltage can also crack small ceramic capacitors.

    18. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by Mattcelt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      'I'd argue that the device would be far more destructive if it pumped -12v instead of -240v since it would be able to output a lot more current.'

      IANAEE, but as I understand it: high current can cause heat damage and possibly fires, but high voltage can jump lines and cause failure in more than just the circuit it was introduced to.

      Both are potentially (no pun intended) very bad. But a high voltage spike will cause much more widespread damage in a very short span. This is why we treat static electricity (high voltage, low current) with such respect around electronics.

    19. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Actually the schematic I'm looking at uses a Littelfuse SP3011 protection circuit for USB 3 which uses a zener diode. It clamps the voltage to ground and the zener and can handle spikes of 40A and +/- 8KV. The nice thing here is that it protects any spikes from being sent to the power supply.

      Yes, the datasheet wonderfully specifies the standard it is designed to. But you forgot something key in your specification, the time base. For anything longer than a couple of nano seconds it's current capacity drops down to about 3A. Great if you're rubbing your feet on the carpet and then touching your USB port once or twice, not so great if you have a circuit actively pulsing repeatedly a couple of hundred volts at high current over and over again until things go pop.

      Protection systems in all classical cases are designed to dissipate energy. As a classic clue if you see anything that quotes IEC61000-4.x then expect it to go bang when met with this device as it is a completely different design case.

    20. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, but what do you think happens to the data signals when you put cheap TVS diodes there? (They have an internal capacitance of about 30 pF)
      It might work fine for low speed USB, but people don't want low speed USB, they want fast USB.

    21. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by MattskEE · · Score: 1

      Yes, the protection circuits could be beefed up. The problem is these larger devices which provide more protection also load the USB transmission line down with more parasitic capacitance, leading to reduced bandwidth.

    22. Re: I am amazed that there is no current limiter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At 50 bucks a pop, that's an expensive prank that you'll never see the result of, or know if it even worked.. .

    23. Re: I am amazed that there is no current limiter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just do it at work.

      If you work in IT, you'll definitely know about it.

    24. Re: I am amazed that there is no current limiter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why protect against such attack anyway? Will you protect against acid, temperature, bullets? I'd rather they focussed on unintended damage possibility than to make a fort against all possible attacks.

    25. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by PPH · · Score: 2

      But if you have prolonged current the diode will blow and short.

      Fuse/diode combo on the data lines. Blow the fuse (resettable polyfuses for convenience).

      I see a market for 'USB condoms' that provide this function for people who need to plug in unknown USB devices. Also a mode to block the data lines when you think you are plugging into a USB charger that has an embedded data sniffer built in.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    26. Re: I am amazed that there is no current limiter by BlytheBowman · · Score: 1

      Unless it is a public computer or a large corp. with thousands of computers then you would want a fort. Imagine the enourmous damage/cost if some nut used one of these at the public library or at the workplace he is pissed off at.

    27. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by radarskiy · · Score: 1

      "I see a market for 'USB condoms' that provide this function for people who need to plug in unknown USB devices. "

      Now you have two unknown devices.

    28. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by willy_me · · Score: 1

      Resettable polyfuses are a wonderful idea - but they would not work. They require too much area to heat up and as a result - are slow. This sort of application requires a more traditional fuse. Such a fuse would require significant board space and still require that blown devices be returned for repair. In short, unless this becomes a serious problem, I can not see such protection circuitry being added.

    29. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by Agripa · · Score: 2

      I see a market for 'USB condoms' that provide this function for people who need to plug in unknown USB devices.

      Always practice safe hex.

    30. Re:I am amazed that there is no current limiter by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      .... The protection diodes found within the USB host are only designed for ESD-like voltages and currents. They can not handle a high voltage being applied for a long time. ...

      Electrostatic Discharge can be around 20,000 volts. What do you think makes the spark and the "snap" sound?
      But it might be shorter than this thing, it depends on how big the caps are. And how long the devices can endure the overage.

  3. Shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm gonna have to stop putting random USB sticks in all my devices. :(

    1. Re:Shit by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's what she said!

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  4. USB Devices don't kill by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People kill devices by plugging this in.

  5. Beware public charging stations... by msauve · · Score: 1

    I can just picture someone plugging one of these into one of those public charging kiosks at an airport. Wanna bet how well the ports are well isolated?

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:Beware public charging stations... by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      I'd bet $100 they have zero protection beyond the typical protection diodes.

    2. Re:Beware public charging stations... by mspohr · · Score: 5, Informative

      Public charging ports don't have data lines... just power. The device would charge but have no data lines for the discharge.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    3. Re:Beware public charging stations... by Enigma2175 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I can just picture someone plugging one of these into one of those public charging kiosks at an airport. Wanna bet how well the ports are well isolated?

      It would likely do nothing at all. It dumps the charge down the data lines, a charging port shouldn't have any data lines. Now, maybe the data lines ARE connected to something (so the TSA can search every phone that gets plugged in, "for your safety"), in that case maybe blowing the data lines would be a good thing overall.

      --

      Enigma

    4. Re:Beware public charging stations... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Best post I've read all night!

    5. Re:Beware public charging stations... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Then use it just in case. NSA data lines FRIED. Posted AC for obvious reasons.

    6. Re:Beware public charging stations... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      No problem at all. These do not have data-lines and 220V is not enough to jump any relevant distance. (Don't you love the general stupidity of the vandalist mind-set?) Carrying one of these into an airplane may get you a few years behind bars though, as they are close in design to a stun-gun.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    7. Re:Beware public charging stations... by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      That would be really dumb to do since a web of cameras and recordings can track you all the way back to entering the terminal.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    8. Re:Beware public charging stations... by msauve · · Score: 3, Informative

      "Public charging ports don't have data lines"

      Your claim (and that of other's, below) is simply wrong.

      Because, any USB charger expected to work with a wide range of devices does in fact have connections to the USB data pins. If they are unconnected, a USB device can draw no more "one unit load" (0.1 A) from the port. If the data lines are actively used, a device can negotiate to 500 mA. Using the USB charging spec, the data pins are shorted together or with a 200 ohm resistor (depends on the version of the spec), and a device it can draw up to 1.5 A. But that's still unlikely to cause problems with other ports.

      What is a concern is that there are lots of proprietary extensions beyond the USB spec. Apple and Qualcomm are two big players in that regard, using the data lines to signal the availability of current and/or voltages more that the USB spec itself allows. Modern "universal" charging ports actively use the USB data lines to identify the device type and then negotiate available power. These types of ports are becoming more common everyday.

      Even if ports are sufficiently isolated so that one of these "killers" couldn't effect other ports, it's possible that they could damage the port they're plugged into, potentially causing it to deliver voltage damaging to other devices. Even though ESD protection is likely provided (just as it is on a computer's USB port), that's meant to handle only low energy situations (high volt/low amps). These killers are designed to accumulate, then deliver a much greater charge than that.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    9. Re: Beware public charging stations... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except for a little difference of 50,000 volts or so. Yeah, sure.

    10. Re:Beware public charging stations... by msauve · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "a charging port shouldn't have any data lines"

      You're wrong. A useful USB charging port _must_ have connections to the data lines (see my post, above).

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    11. Re: Beware public charging stations... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At $50 per stick, that sounds like a very profitable bet for someone.

    12. Re:Beware public charging stations... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Getting caught Carrying one of these into an airplane may get you a few years behind bars though, as they are close in design to a stun-gun.

      FTFY

      Since it's full of RF-passive components (the design is inherently for a "physical access" attack, not a "remote access" attack), it's going to look like - a USB device full of blocky electronic components. Even on X-rays. So, you're down to having either a blanket ban on portable electronics air-side, or the judgement and experience of the security staff to recognise the "Chthulu-a-like" logo. So, no protection there then.

      Scattering these in the taxi drop-off area of the airport - or even better in the smoker's corner - would provide plausible deniability for anyone caught carrying one. If Big Brother know that you actually brought one already ... well, you've got bigger problems than getting caught with one of these.

      Quick look in my flying bag - 9 USB devices of different makes all broadly similar in design to this. Including a couple of USB GSM modems for different countries.

      Actually, rigging up an adaptor to turn one of these into a stun-gun ... certainly should be doable. Though with only 220V, would it provide enough belt to actually stun someone? Hurt someone - sure. Be noticeable - well, who here hasn't take a few 240V belts off the mains? Died? Far fewer. It takes something like 40mA across the heart to reliably kill someone, which takes some care to set up. To get 40mA off 220V, you'd need a circuit resistance of less than 5k5 Ohms ; skin resistance is on the order of a megaOhm/m, so you'd need your contacts just a few mm apart. Which would give you penetration of the same sort of distance down into the conductive body tissues. You could annoy someone with this, but causing real damage would be pretty hard.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    13. Re:Beware public charging stations... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      While you are right in the technical side, combine pattern recognition with an over-eager and stupid prosecutor to get the outcome I described.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    14. Re:Beware public charging stations... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Then carrying a plastic box with a vaguely Chthulu-a-like logo on its outside and some mashed potato inside, is a ticket to jail. If you're within 14000 km (2 Earth radii) of an airplane.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    15. Re:Beware public charging stations... by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

      your calculations are off, dry skin has very high resistance, but wet or pierced skin has very low resistance, 1000 ohms or less for wet or broken skin.

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
    16. Re:Beware public charging stations... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      I ball-parked it at 1MOhm/m - pulled from the depths of my memory.

      dry skin [...] but wet or pierced skin

      It depends very much on the details of each case.

      If you read the safety notices and press, being within several miles of a mains power outlet has a 10% chance of killing you per minute, regardless of your actions. Plugging and unplugging devices needs a professional in a fully-sealed rubber suit. OTOH, most people who fit this site's target audience ("nerds") will at some point have taken a belt off their mains, and ain't dead yet. It is highly variable, and you need to look at the details of every case. Still take care, but work things out first.

      I once won the school's unofficial contest for the most imaginative excuse for not having completed my homework : it involved a Van de Graff generator, measurements of electrostatic force, and around a quarter megavolt. My excuse was that since I'd been ignoring the school rule on "no hair over the collar" for several years by then and had hair about 0.4m long, I couldn't get close enough to the equipment to actually pick up the charge without getting a belt of a hundred kV or so through the head. Oddly, I ain't dead yet.

      Where's my resistance tester? Between my index fingers I get from 0.67 to 0.92 MOhm in a 30 second test. That would be 1-2 MOhm/m.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  6. Shenanigans by mattyj · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'm calling shenanigans on the claim it was used to fry a 'brand new MacBook Pro', as a brand new MacBook Pro doesn't have USB ports. Unless you're buying a model that's a few years old, and why would you do that?

    I'm glad my iPhone 7 is safe from any potential 'headphone jack killer' devices. Ha ha. You lameos and your non-Apple products.

    1. Re:Shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      watch video tool, he uses a converter

    2. Re:Shenanigans by msauve · · Score: 1

      In exactly what way does a computer with "Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C)" ports not have USB ports? Apple will happily sell you an adapter which one of these things plugs into.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  7. Well... by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is why we can't have nice things.

    1. Re: Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah... first I had to cover my camera because of spying, and now this.

      Also, capping USB ports is not enough, because attacker can just remove the cap. You need to somehow permanently plug it or remove the conductors.

    2. Re: Well... by ghoul · · Score: 2

      I can think of a Plug which also stores a charge till 220V and gives the shock to anyone removing the plug without sending the disarm command to the plug(for which you need the computer password)

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    3. Re: Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great idea, but unfortunately can be defeated by $2 pair of rubber gloves.

    4. Re: Well... by molarmass192 · · Score: 1

      Shit ... so Apple was prescient in removing all USB ports on their latest laptops.

      --

      Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
    5. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On the other hand, going all USB-C on the new MacBook Pro might turn out to be a good feature after all if the potential port hacker forgot to bring their USB-A to C dongle.

  8. So much for public charging locations by RCourtney · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Like the fact that you can find a USB port in planes, trains, bars, and various other places where you might need to charge up your phone?

    Yup, not any more.

    It really sucks that some people just like to watch the world burn.

    1. Re:So much for public charging locations by Spy+Handler · · Score: 1

      hmm

      *plugs usb killer into airliner USB charging port*

      *dies*

    2. Re:So much for public charging locations by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      Fortunately, it's not designed as a passthough USB device, and it appears to be activated with a button. So, it seems sort of unlikely that it would be abused like that en masse, at least not without significant modification, which raises the bar quite a bit for malicious sorts.

      I think a bigger danger is someone leaving the device lying around with a label printed "top secret" or "do not view", and letting natural human curiosity do the rest. That's still an expensive "prank" to play at $50 a pop, with no benefit to the users, so it seems unlikely to be widespread.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    3. Re:So much for public charging locations by QuasiEvil · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Probably not much would happen. Many of them just put +5V on the power line and leave the data lines floating or tie them together. Sometimes they have various resistor networks to trigger higher charge rates. Depends on the size of the resistors, but my bet is even throwing 100-200V at them isn't going to do much given how little energy a few ceramic caps can hold. You'll exceed the power rating for a bit, and that will quickly drop off as the caps discharge.

      The bigger problem will be USB C chargers and things like Qualcomm Quickcharge, which actually use digital communication on the lines to trigger various non-5V voltages and higher currents. Because they use actual signaling, they're much more prone to damage.

      As the parent said, the sort of antisocial taintsuckers that would do this are why we can't live in a decent society.

    4. Re:So much for public charging locations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Yup, not any more.

      *blink*
      I'm not sure what you're on about. It's not as if the mass-production of the "USB Killer" suddenly made it possible to hook up 120/240VAC to the V lines of a USB port. The Etherkiller and friends _signficantly_ predate the Etherkiller web page's debut in 2002.

      _Please_ try to maintain some perspective.

    5. Re: So much for public charging locations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, per the video, some people can afford to buy a brand new MacBook Pro and fry it, so I'm betting there are pranksters who consider $50 small change..

    6. Re:So much for public charging locations by mspohr · · Score: 2, Informative

      Charge ports don't have data lines.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    7. Re:So much for public charging locations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like the fact that you can find a USB port in planes, trains, bars, and various other places where you might need to charge up your phone?

      Yup, not any more.

      It really sucks that some people just like to watch the world burn.

      And if this becomes a large enough problem, defenses will start to become more common. I see that as a win.

    8. Re:So much for public charging locations by evilviper · · Score: 2

      Should be trivial to construct a USB charging cable with inline fuses (or sacrificial caps/resistors/diodes), maybe adding $1 to the cost of the cable, and protecting your expensive devices from not just intentional sabotage, but also cheap, poorly engineered chargers, which might just kill you.

      It was already bad hygiene to plug-in a USB cable that has the data lines intact into a public port, as all your data could be quietly siphoned off, and malware loaded on. If this new threat gets people to pay attention to previous threats, we might all be better off for it.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    9. Re: So much for public charging locations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A brand new Macbook is probably under warranty. The one in the video is probably on a "Genius" counter right now.

    10. Re:So much for public charging locations by mrsam · · Score: 2

      Get one of those "USB powerbank"s.

      They're dirt cheap. If you don't know what they are, they are one or two 16850 LI-ion cells, a mini-USB port, and a USB-A port. The mini-USB port is used to charge the cells in the powerbank, and then you can plug your gadgets into the USB-A port, to charge them later.

      Use the powerbank to suck the power from a public port first, then plug in your devices. The downside is that the whole process takes longer. The upside is that all you're risking is blowing up your powerbank. That sucks, but as I said, they're dirt cheap, and you just get another one.

    11. Re:So much for public charging locations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They'll just have to use larger resistors in the data lines

    12. Re:So much for public charging locations by Superdarion · · Score: 1

      Can't the same thing be accomplished with a pre-charged capacitor (a battery or something) with an usb port? Send the charge through the data line and blow stuff up. And I'm sure you can get it cheaper than 50 USD.

      So if this is to become a problem, it won't be from this gadget.

    13. Re:So much for public charging locations by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      It is possible to design protection for this type of attack, so I imagine we will start to see "vandal proof" USB soon, like we have rugged switches and keypads and the like.

      Maybe I should Kickstart a USB-killer-killer that absorbs the energy and then nukes the USB killer with an even more powerful response. The side supplying power will always have the upper hand here.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    14. Re:So much for public charging locations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just buy a power-only or "data block" USB adapter. I got two on Amazon for like $8.

    15. Re: So much for public charging locations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It doesnt have a button

    16. Re:So much for public charging locations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if you plugged in your USB-killer into your external battery, it would damage your external battery and you would look foolish. The grandparent was saying that publicly available USB charging ports would go away because -their- owners would get tired of replacing damaged hardware, not that the public ports would kill -your- hardware.

    17. Re:So much for public charging locations by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      little 208 3 phase strait to it when detected... that would be a nice trick that all US airport charging stations would be able to employ seeing as there will always be 3 phase power in large commercial buildings somewhere.

    18. Re:So much for public charging locations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Should be trivial to construct a USB charging cable with inline fuses (or sacrificial caps/resistors/diodes), maybe adding $1 to the cost of the cable, and protecting your expensive devices from not just intentional sabotage, but also cheap, poorly engineered chargers, which might just kill you.

      It was already bad hygiene to plug-in a USB cable that has the data lines intact into a public port, as all your data could be quietly siphoned off, and malware loaded on. If this new threat gets people to pay attention to previous threats, we might all be better off for it.

      I agree the cable can be made. You could also just require everyone to use wireless charging. It would be more difficult to damage things that way. In fact I'm looking for a good 5.5" android phone that supports wireless charging, ideally cheaply. The best I saw was like $240 plus a supported QI charging module.

      I have no idea why wireless charging isn't more popular...

    19. Re:So much for public charging locations by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Mostly they do, though they may just be connected to resistors to indicate that they can provide more than the default 0.1A defined by the USB standard (the standard allows for up to 0.5A, but *only* if your device has successfully negotiated for it with the host controller)

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    20. Re:So much for public charging locations by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Fuses? Zener/avalanche diodes?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    21. Re:So much for public charging locations by radarskiy · · Score: 1

      And how do you know this is true before plugging something into it?

    22. Re:So much for public charging locations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You didn't watch the video - it's not activated with a button.

    23. Re:So much for public charging locations by radarskiy · · Score: 1

      If you were willing to go to that much trouble, you would just carry a battery and/or an AC charger and not bother with the public USB charging ports.

    24. Re:So much for public charging locations by radarskiy · · Score: 1

      Just buy a power-only or "data block" USB adapter. I got two on Amazon for like $8.

      And how did you check that those adapters actually blocked this power attack?

    25. Re: So much for public charging locations by mspohr · · Score: 1

      You have It backwards.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    26. Re:So much for public charging locations by evilviper · · Score: 1

      You could also just require everyone to use wireless charging. It would be more difficult to damage things that way.

      As proof, I recommend putting your phone in a microwave and running it on high for several minutes.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  9. A Glass Of Water Is Free. by zenlessyank · · Score: 1

    Pour it on laptop or desktop or server. Works 100% of the time.

    Someone should sue these tick turds. Right after they inhale watered PC smoke.

    1. Re:A Glass Of Water Is Free. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Coffee works. I know.

    2. Re:A Glass Of Water Is Free. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A microwave oven works great.

    3. Re: A Glass Of Water Is Free. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it does indeed fry's both devices though.

  10. hmm seems more malicious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    than usefull to tinfoil hats/hacker/maybe spies if it melted ram and hardrives then maybe. uess its still chemical solutions to fry their data in a rush.

  11. What would happen to a charger? by grub · · Score: 1

    What would happen if you plugged one of these into a charger?

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:What would happen to a charger? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't know, stick it on your tongue and find out.

    2. Re:What would happen to a charger? by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      Nothing much different? I believe a charger is a tiny computer, is there a 4bit or 8bit CPU in there that negotiates current output to the device?

    3. Re:What would happen to a charger? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Not usually. Later USB specs followed the de-facto industry practice of allowing chargers to just put specific resistors across(?) the data pins to indicate available current. Makes for much less expensive chargers.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  12. Mission Impossible 6 by ghoul · · Score: 1

    This device will self destruct in 5 seconds (or however many cycles it takes to get to -220V)

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
    1. Re:Mission Impossible 6 by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      The device will include an astable oscillator (driven off the power lines), probably operating in the audio range (because components are cheap. So 1 second after you plug it in, your oscillator has done a couple of thousand cycles and is driving current into the capacitors at the highest voltage it can. How much charge the capacitors can handle will determine how much time it takes to fully charge, but you wouldn't need to plug/ unplug it multiple times.

      (I had to repair a 1950s Geiger counter once, which needed a 120V DC battery which fitted into the footprint of a square "lantern battery" - about 65mm square by 120mm tall. These batteries haven't been made since the 1970s, so I had to build a standard rechargeable battery and DC-DC step-up converter into that footprint. Using 1950s technology. Bloody "authenticity" nuts.)

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  13. Police searches by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One interesting use I can think of is to simply carry one around in case you get arrested by the police.

    Supposedly police require a warrant to search your personal papers such as your cell phone, so this shouldn't be much different. If they take the USB drive over to the cruiser and plug it in "just to see" then this will fry their system.

    You can even tell the officer not to plug the device in, that it's not a thumb drive, and that there's no information on it.

    It would probably work at airports as well.

    I really don't see a downside to this.

    1. Re:Police searches by The+Good+Reverend · · Score: 3, Informative

      No downside? You're not considering "Getting your ass beat by the cops for destroying their stuff", as well as likely terrorism charges, 'cause that's what scaring police with an unknown device will get you.

    2. Re:Police searches by ghoul · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well I could sue the police and retire on the settlement. Its like winning the lottery only with a beatdown thrown in

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    3. Re:Police searches by Jeremi · · Score: 1, Informative

      Well I could sue the police and retire on the settlement. Its like winning the lottery only with a beatdown thrown in

      You haven't been paying attention to the news much, have you? It's very rare that police officers are held accountable for misbehavior; society (for better or worse) gives them a lot of latitude. Police officers literally get away with murder(*) on a regular basis.

      (*) or at least, actions that would definitely be called murder if anyone else did the same thing

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    4. Re:Police searches by quenda · · Score: 2

      I really don't see a downside to this.

      When the cops can't use their electronic address book, they will have an excuse to get out the old-fashioned telephone books.

    5. Re:Police searches by sheramil · · Score: 2

      I really don't see a downside to this.

      You've never dealt with the police, then. Tricking them into damaging their own equipment while wearing a shit-eating grin doesn't exactly endear you to them.

      "So what are they gonna do? Drag me out the back and beat me with sticks?"

      Do you really want to find out?

    6. Re:Police searches by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 1

      Well I could sue the police and retire on the settlement. Its like winning the lottery only with a beatdown thrown in

      Only if you have the entire beating on video. Good luck with that.

    7. Re:Police searches by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      You're assuming they'll realize their equipment is damaged. If the gizmo just fries their USB port, they'll just not be able to read anything off the device and not know their equipment is broken for days or weeks.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    8. Re: Police searches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thats epic just make sure to lawyer up as a witness first.

    9. Re:Police searches by gravewax · · Score: 1

      No downside? I can think of many, getting arrested for carrying a device intended to do damage, destruction of policy property etc etc. This has so many downsides it is a completely insane use where a routine search could turn into a nice long stint in Jail and a criminal record.

    10. Re:Police searches by Eloking · · Score: 1

      One interesting use I can think of is to simply carry one around in case you get arrested by the police.

      Supposedly police require a warrant to search your personal papers such as your cell phone, so this shouldn't be much different. If they take the USB drive over to the cruiser and plug it in "just to see" then this will fry their system.

      You can even tell the officer not to plug the device in, that it's not a thumb drive, and that there's no information on it.

      It would probably work at airports as well.

      I really don't see a downside to this.

      Well, let's start with the fact that police equipment are paid with your taxe, which basically mean you're burning your own money.

      Beside, I don't get why so many people have so much hate again the police. Yeah there's a bunch of them that are asshole, but asshole exist in every profession. It's just that it's more of a problem if it's a police officer (or a politician) instead of the garbage boy.

      --
      Elok
    11. Re:Police searches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, you're a fool. Even if you don't get beaten physically, you're going to get slapped around by the courts.

      I imagine you think you're clever, but you come across like an angsty teen with no concept of the consequences of their actions.

    12. Re:Police searches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Police aren't going to beat you up unless you threaten their lives in some way. Stop being such a drama queen you stupid fag.

    13. Re:Police searches by Calydor · · Score: 1

      That's assuming they don't just shoot you to stop you from using your strange device to hack the Pentagonz!

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    14. Re:Police searches by ghoul · · Score: 2

      I have been reading and seeing that while cops rarely go to jail, cities are very eager to payup to cover up the crime

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    15. Re:Police searches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no cruiser officer will plug a usb drive in their car stupid

    16. Re:Police searches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You didn't scare them if they were willing to plug it in.

    17. Re:Police searches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If someone's willing to spend $50 on this, why would they care about their tax money paying for replacement equipment?

    18. Re:Police searches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would buy one in the guise of a cellphone.

    19. Re:Police searches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One interesting use I can think of is to simply carry one around in case you get arrested by the police.
      It would probably work at airports as well.

      Dude you just made me buy one to carry in my bag!

    20. Re:Police searches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sounds like a white person story.

    21. Re:Police searches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the money will be useful to pay your full time nurse or home health aid, after the beating leaves you with an IQ of 55, paralyzed, and unable to hold your go.

  14. Not really new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This idea goes way back to phreaking and what I think was referred to as a blotto(sp?) box. Basically hooking an inverter and HV transformer directly into a telephone junction box and causing unpredictable levels of destruction in the surrounding area.

    In highschool someone discovered sticking a car key into a usb port was like the computer equivalent of 'cartridge tilting', although it usually damaged the machine in addition to the graphical glitches it produced.

  15. Re:Thanks Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He isn't draining anything, he's filling it even fuller with Olympic swimming pools worth of sludge. His Treasury Secretary is plucked straight from, drumroll please, Goldman Sachs. After all that time he spent complaining about the (((GLOBALIST ELITE BANKERS))) and whining about Hillary's speech to Goldman.

    I'm going to enjoy watching his supporters slowly figure out they fell for a long con, got suckered bigly, and voted in the world's yuuuuugest huckster.

  16. Beware people carrying buckets of water... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I don't get the concern here. Abbie Hoffman used to describe plugging the phone network into the power grid and taking out an office telecom system. What's new here? You can break a computer in a thousand ways if you have access to it. Shoot it, blow a fire extinguisher at it, pee on it, use compressed air, drop it on the floor, EMP it... whatever.

    I think this "news story" is actually a slashvertisement.

    1. Re:Beware people carrying buckets of water... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      Shoot it, blow a fire extinguisher at it, pee on it, use compressed air, drop it on the floor, EMP it... whatever.

      I can assure you that peeing on a computer will not necessarily kill it.

      Please don't ask me how I came by this information.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Beware people carrying buckets of water... by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      The concern is that these things will be provided to innocent suckers.

      Hey, I've got some really nice freeware on this USB stick. Plug it into your computer at work, it'll save you hours.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    3. Re:Beware people carrying buckets of water... by Pikoro · · Score: 1

      How did you come by this information?

      --
      "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
    4. Re:Beware people carrying buckets of water... by smallfries · · Score: 1

      You have to switch it on first...

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
    5. Re:Beware people carrying buckets of water... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are a strange, strange, man. But I like you.

    6. Re:Beware people carrying buckets of water... by bheerssen · · Score: 1

      Shoot it, blow a fire extinguisher at it, pee on it, use compressed air, drop it on the floor, EMP it... whatever.

      I can assure you that peeing on a computer will not necessarily kill it.

      But it might kill you.

      --
      (Score: -1, Stupid)
    7. Re: Beware people carrying buckets of water... by BlytheBowman · · Score: 2

      There used to be a series of videos on Youtube (taken down for some mysterious reason) of a guy who would smash and destroy all kinds of electronics, and in one video he tried to destroy a CRT style color TV (2000s vintage) by dumping a whole bottle of soda directly on the (live and turned on) circutry. Not only did the set NOT blow up or shoot sparks, it kept operating, with only the picture starting to gradually shrink verticaly! Not that I recommend doing this as I am sure the puddle was probaly electricaly live and carrying a lethal voltage but these videoes showed just how hard it is to damage electronics to the point of getting any kind of effect that is remotely like you see in Hollywood movies. The videos were done by a man who would talk very surly, kind of grade school like, and he usualy did his destructive deeds in his tool shed which was covered with heavy quilts and carpeting on the inside. He also appeared to be very religious and his videos often had text along the lines of "repent now and be saved!" A couple years ago, he abruptly closed his account and pulled all of his videos off of Youtube. Strange man, but I always enjoyed his videos.

    8. Re:Beware people carrying buckets of water... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because no one who finds a random landline telephone on the side of the road is gonna go "gee, I wonder what I might discover on this thing if I plug it in?"

    9. Re:Beware people carrying buckets of water... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      My guess; he has a cat or dog.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  17. Optocouplers by iTrawl · · Score: 1

    Are optocouplers too expensive to include on motherboards now? That's what should be frying, not the whole laptop.

    --
    "Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
    1. Re:Optocouplers by MarginallyStable · · Score: 1

      Typical optocouplers do not have the bandwidth to support USB speeds.

    2. Re: Optocouplers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shhhh dont tell my 10 gig ethernet sfp that.

  18. I find this kind of depressing. by hey! · · Score: 1

    I'm all for things that go boom. I love weird, clever little gadgets. I admire a clever and subtle subversion of a system, even when I don't condone its use.

    But geez; this thing is not exactly elegant. It uses a fairly basic circuit to exploit the completely unsurprising fact that the interface isn't designed to handle high voltages.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:I find this kind of depressing. by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm all for things that go boom. I love weird, clever little gadgets. I admire a clever and subtle subversion of a system, even when I don't condone its use.

      But geez; this thing is not exactly elegant. It uses a fairly basic circuit to exploit the completely unsurprising fact that the interface isn't designed to handle high voltages.

      I'm with you on this one. All someone did was say "Gee, capacitors can hold large charge and dissipate it quickly so it will destroy a circuit whose design spec doesn't call for handling large voltages" and build a small device to do so. BFD. I can build a 120 or 210 power cord with a usb connector, plug it in a to the wall and a usb port; POW sparks fly as well. The "the interface and machines should have been deigned to prevent such an event" is ridiculous since no one expects someone to design a device to deliberate damage the port; and if you did try to do so why stop there? A screwdriver can also physically damage it so doe step spec require it to withstand such an attack? How about if I put my machine in a microwave? Or do we design it in such a way that it performs as intended and the expectation is it will be used in a reasonable manner?

      Some people will no doubt think it's funny to use one on unsuspecting victims and when caught say "It's just a joke" and / or "The machine should have been designed not to let that happen;" and be surprised when they are hauled into court. Oh well, you can fix a fried device but you can't fix stupid.

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  19. For the lulz. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't have any problems with someone using this to fry usb ports on things that don't belong to them "for the lulz" being fucked in the ass to death. For the Lulz.

  20. So much for Anker. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All I need is a regular outlet and my Anker multiport USB charger. Each port individually protected.

  21. These idiots are going to get sued by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Informative

    The problem with a device like this is it is hard to find a substantial legitimate use for it. Given that, they are likely to be targeted for a lawsuit and they are likely to lose that suit.

    While it is perfectly ok to sell a device that gets used to commit crimes, you generally have to have a legit reason to be selling it and it can't be something that is totally made up that nobody actually believes. So for example while a crowbar can certainly be used to break in to a house to or attack someone, they are also widely used used to get nails out of things and pry stuck objects apart. As an opposed example a number of companies that sell devices to help you cheat on urine tests have gotten in trouble since their devices had no use other than said cheating.

    It is very, very hard to think of a legit use for this and I can't imagine they'll get many legit sales. So it'll probably get them in legal trouble.

    1. Re: These idiots are going to get sued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They can sell versions for people to plug into their devices to protect against data thieves, like the police or TSA

    2. Re:These idiots are going to get sued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe useful for USB port robustness testing, but sadly the voltage is too low and the capacitance too high to simulate any reasonable, non-malicious, ESD event.

    3. Re:These idiots are going to get sued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The use isnt that hard to justify at all. It says it right on it's page -

      The USB Killer is a CE Approved testing device designed to test the surge protection circuitry of electronics to their limits - and beyond.

      And honestly, I'd rather have it out in the open. A few high profile USB kills and manufacturers will try to start building their way around this.

    4. Re:These idiots are going to get sued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If it is an effective attack mechanism it should be addressed by the manufacturers. That includes them fixing the security and/or hardware on the devices they sell. They could sell them as a means to test device vulnerability, which seems better than outlawing them altogether.

    5. Re:These idiots are going to get sued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quickly destroying sensitive equipment before they fall into the hands of agents from foreign nations.

    6. Re:These idiots are going to get sued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My reason is "I don't have to answer that question".

  22. What the HE double hocky sticks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I hope everyone that buys this device to do harm to someone's system forgets and installs in into their systems. I can see something like this being used when you take your car in for service and the tech wants to get YOU and fries the USB in your car costing thousands to fix. Or worse yet they use it to make money at the repair shop car after car with thousands of repairs. Even worse yet BestBuy techs use it to fry peoples laptops/tablets to force them to buy a new on. Holy crap this is a really bad thing to make available to people.

    1. Re:What the HE double hocky sticks by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Not really - any idiot can wire a USB plug onto the end of a power cord and get much the same result. In fact, feeding wall power to pretty much anything not designed for it is likely to do moderate to severe damage. The only use case for this is to do it more discretely, and/r trick someone else into doing it. I.e. it's little more than a particularly expensive and malicious "gag gift" for total assholes.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  23. Look up laws on booby traps by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I doubt they'd have a hard time stretching it to over something like this. If you have a device who's only purpose is to destroy something and it goes and destroys something, well you are pretty likely to get in trouble for it.

    Remember courts aren't operated by overly literal geeks who think if they can find some explanation, no matter how outlandish or unlikely, it'll be accepted. The law bases a lot around what is reasonable, and around intent. So your attempt at being cute won't work, and you'll be off to jail.

    It also may very well be illegal just to have, or be made illegal if not. There are devices that are outlawed purely because they have no legit use. Many states ban burglary tools, which can include things like the cracked ceramic piece of a spark plug (the aluminum oxide ceramic breaks tempered glass easily). If they catch you and can prove intent, then you are in trouble just for having them with the intent to use them illegally.

    Oh and don't think they have to read your mind or get a confession to prove intent. They usually just have to show that the circumstances surrounding the situation are enough to lead a reasonable person to believe that you were going to commit a crime.

    And a post like this, would count for sure.

    1. Re:Look up laws on booby traps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And a post like this, would count for sure.

      Good job posting as AC then.

    2. Re:Look up laws on booby traps by rastos1 · · Score: 1

      If you have a device who's only purpose is to destroy something and it goes and destroys something, well you are pretty likely to get in trouble for it.

      Destroying something is sometimes a legitimate thing to do.

      If have a hammer and I use it to smash a harddisk with confidential information because that hard disk is being replaced by a bigger and newer harddisk, then smashing the old harddisk is a legitimate purpose. If you decide to use the hammer as fuse, I warn you to not use it as fuse and you do that anyway - who can blame me?

    3. Re:Look up laws on booby traps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A hammer's primary purpose is to build things. Please attempt to comprehend what you read before responding.

    4. Re:Look up laws on booby traps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) It is obvious from the context that OP wasn't including disposal tools or self-directed use.

      2) Hammers are primarily for nails, i.e. constructive, not for breaking things.

      You are cognitively deficient.

    5. Re:Look up laws on booby traps by gurps_npc · · Score: 2

      Lighters exist. Their sole purpose is to set things on fire, aka 'destroy flamable stuff'.

      They are not illegal. You can carry one on your person.

      If a cop takes one from you and then lights his car on fire, that is HIS fault, not yours.

      The thing is, 'destroying' stuff is not illegal. It is only illegal to destroy something you do not own.

      I have lots of computers and I do not want other people to steal the data on them. I could purchase the USB killer for that legitimate purpose. If the cop stupidly uses it to destroy his own stuff, that's on him, not on me,.

      Nor am I required to warn him. I have the right to remain silent.

      I personally would state specifically "I hereby order you not to plug that device into anything. I now exercise my right to remain silent."

      --
      excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    6. Re:Look up laws on booby traps by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 1

      Hence what I said about "overly literal geeks". You think so long as you can find something that you consider to be logically consistent, that'll work and you are out of trouble. I'm telling you that is NOT how it works in a court. They very much take the "reasonable man" approach and factor in intent. Doesn't matter how clever you think you are, what matters is what the law says and how the judge applies it.

    7. Re:Look up laws on booby traps by gurps_npc · · Score: 1

      You ALMOST have a point. But you don't. You clearly have no idea how it happens in court. The courts do not have a 'reasonable man' law that lets the judge do whatever he wants. It doesn't matter how clever you are it's what the LAW says, not what some reasonable man says.

      The law is not reasonable and has never been so.

      What matters is what the lawyers can convince a judge. If you are broke and can't afford a good lawyer, then the DA will run roughshod over you. If you have money and can afford justice, you can get it.

      Reason has nothing to do with it.

      --
      excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  24. jesus would use a hammer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    or perhaps thermite

    1. Re: jesus would use a hammer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ^+1

  25. Re: Thanks Trump! by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Trump shows occasional flashes of real promise -

    Yeah, like flashes of WW 3. Promise!

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  26. This is fucking dumb by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

    I have physical access to the device to begin with. I could just as easily get all stabby with an ice pick or blunt object.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  27. This MUST be fake news by shanen · · Score: 0

    Why in gawd's name would anyone mass produce such a device? This must be one of those fake news stories we've been hearing so much about.

    In technical terms, the USB ports could be designed with diodes to prevent this sort of attack. Perhaps they already are, but in fake news terms they could just up the stored voltage until it's stronger than a lightning bolt. Of course, in technical terms there is no reason it has to be that small anyway. You might as well run a wire to a USB connector and then touch the exposed lead to a fully charged Van de Graff generator. (Now I'm wondering how much static electricity protection USB ports already have.)

    The story is credited to a "new submitter". I think he's just a new sock puppet and my proposed maturity filter might have dealt with him.

    I'm trying to figure out how to cover the open base... What if it isn't a fake news story? I can't imagine any legitimate use for such a device, so I assume it would be made illegal as soon as the politicians can get off their duffs.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    1. Re:This MUST be fake news by dj245 · · Score: 1

      Why in gawd's name would anyone mass produce such a device? This must be one of those fake news stories we've been hearing so much about.

      I can't imagine any legitimate use for such a device, so I assume it would be made illegal as soon as the politicians can get off their duffs.

      I'm sure certain companies and government agencies working with very sensitive information or critical infrastructure would find some value in it. You can disable USB in software or fill the ports with hot glue gun glue, but both can be undone/worked around. There may be other, better methods to secure the USB ports, but there are definitely some legitimate uses for such a device.

      --
      Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    2. Re:This MUST be fake news by nnull · · Score: 1

      And then you're screwed when you do need the USB port to recover the computer.

    3. Re:This MUST be fake news by shanen · · Score: 2

      I still can't buy into it. If you REALLY want to disable the USB port, you go inside and cut the leads. If you want to test the USB port for something like resistance to static electricity, then you need to use proper test equipment. Presumably it would be destructive testing and you would want to increase the shocks gradually to determine the safe levels.

      According to the description, all this thing does is attempt to do some random damage. I say the story is bogus.

      However, I finally did think of a legitimate use for the story. The cops want to find out who would try to buy such a device. Along with his shipping address.

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    4. Re:This MUST be fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't need an USB port for recovery. PXE to the rescue.

    5. Re:This MUST be fake news by Immerman · · Score: 1

      That might work if you could rely on the damage being restricted to the USB ports, but really that's the best-case scenario. For starters, the same chip that handles integrated USB ports usually controls a large number of other data buses as well - SATA, PCI, etc. Even if the damage doesn't spread to the drives, expansion cards, etc, you'd probably need to replace the motherboard before you could use them again.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  28. Re:Thanks Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And replacing it with a gold-lined swamp

  29. Re:Thanks Trump! by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He isn't draining anything, he's filling it even fuller with Olympic swimming pools worth of sludge.

    Bingo. The Trumpkins have been completely suckered, as you can see from the resumes of those in President-elect Donald Trump’s closest political circle so far:

    Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin: Goldman Sachs.

    Chief strategist Steve Bannon: Goldman Sachs.

    Transition adviser Anthony Scaramucci: Goldman Sachs.

    Commerce secretary nominee Wilbur Ross: Rothschild & Co.

    Possible budget director Gary Cohn: Goldman Sachs.

    Potential secretary of state Mitt Romney: Bain Capital.

    And Trump is just getting started. Check out that “swamp draining!" Take that, Wall Street!

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  30. Crap USB Controllers and Ports by sexconker · · Score: 1

    The Taiwanese mobo brands have been layering ESD, overvoltage, and overcurrent protection, as well as fuses for individual ports, on their shit since the late 90s when tons of shit was getting fried due to crappy PSUs and crappy peripherals. The last time I saw it as a named feature emblazoned on the front of the box they were on version 4 of whatever they called it.

    If you're buying OEM crap (Dell, Lenovo, HP, Apple), or an Intel board, you're fucked. Decent mobos will at the worst lose just the one port when the fuse blows.

  31. Re: Thanks Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He's a racist, lying, idiot sack of shit, but he hasnt murdered a pregnant woman on live television, that we know of, so give him a chance!

  32. Just another way to vandalize stuff by eagl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is just another way to vandalize stuff. I owned a far cheaper version of this 30 years ago. Its called a baseball bat. Before that, I had a tack-hammer. My ancestors had a version too, but they called it a "brick". Even earlier versions were called "rocks".

    If we're lucky, cities will start passing ordinances to make mere possession of these a crime, since there is no legal purpose for these.

    1. Re:Just another way to vandalize stuff by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Personally, I hope they will raid the vendor for the customer list after a while and then pay a visit to everyone that bought one.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:Just another way to vandalize stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just what we need, more laws. Especially ones that can be usefully interpreted to serve whatever purpose a judge or prosecutor wants.
      It used to be against the law to carry wire cutters in Texas. A holdover from the range wars when barbed wire was a new technology. It was occasionally used to entrap people (most construction toolboxes have wire cutters in them) until the law was finally removed from the books.

    3. Re:Just another way to vandalize stuff by strikethree · · Score: 1

      If we're lucky, cities will start passing ordinances to make mere possession of these a crime, since there is no legal purpose for these.

      I found the pro-establishment Nazi. Don't worry. They will not tell you what they are actually doing to the Jews and other undesirables. You can sleep well tonight knowing that there are laws protecting you from everything.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  33. Is there an app that locks USB ports? by schwit1 · · Score: 1
    An app that requires a uname and PW to enable a port, without a reboot. And protect against this nuisance too

    USB keyboards may be a catch22.

    1. Re:Is there an app that locks USB ports? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't electrically isolate one of these devices with software. You would have to glue a USB hub that has it's own fuse and optical isolation on the data pins.

  34. At the Apex of the Planet of the Apes by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 1

    Witnessing small but steady improvements of technology over common sense. Ultimately there will be a single technological moment in which there will be no common sense at all.

    Seeing this on Slashdot is like picking up a carpentry trade magazine where one expects to see advice on practical projects, tools and plans, to find a feature article about stepping on rusty nails. Carpenters sometimes step on them and there are bits of humor and sympathy here and there but this article is different. There are lurid photographs of nails sticking out of feet, everyone seems enthusiastic about the topic. They have obviously scoured the Earth to gather present those excited about this thing, and there a distressing number of people. It is even obvious that folks have stepped on rusty nails to be featured in the article.

    The long time reader is horrified and confused. Perhaps something has gone horribly wrong with the world in a way that is surreal.

    As stupidly pointless as inBOIL's death in Richard Brautigan's work, In Watermelon Sugar ,

    Pauline started mopping up the blood and wringing it out into a bucket. When the bucket was almost full of blood, inBOIL died. "I am iDEATH," he said.
    "You're an asshole," Pauline said.
    And the last thing that inBOIL ever saw was Pauline standing beside him, wringing his blood out of the mop into the bucket.

    --
    <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
  35. Commodore 128D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Didn't something similar on my old system. The game ports were mounted in front and a screwdriver hit the exposed pins. I blew out one of $20 DIP's.

  36. Back to Back by dohzer · · Score: 1

    Anyone else dying to find out what happens if you plug two of these into each other?

    1. Re:Back to Back by MrLogic17 · · Score: 2

      Just like when you plug 2 power strips into a loop- free power forever!

  37. Just remember it is criminal to use by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Unless you own the hardware or have explicit permission. Using this otherwise is the equivalent of taking a hammer to a computer without permission. As this device has no purpose except destruction, it may even be criminal to own in some places.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  38. Well there goes the neighborhood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These kinds of things are the reason why you don't want your storage soldered to the motherboard.

    Some kids are going to go around and nuking display-models of laptops, desktops, smart tv's, video game consoles, you name it. Time to start epoxying the USB ports of "permanent" installations of devices with USB ports.

  39. Apple users please note by chrism238 · · Score: 1

    Please note that in order to use this device on your new MacBookPro that you'll require a special USB-3->USB-C adapter. Please make an appointment at your nearest Apple Genius Bar to test your device.

    1. Re:Apple users please note by itsdapead · · Score: 1

      Please note that in order to use this device on your new MacBookPro that you'll require a special USB-3->USB-C adapter.

      Pah. This just proves what a superior technology USB-C is - devices to fry your USB-C laptop have been available online for ages!

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  40. Electrocuted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hope they lock the fuckers up and throw away the key if someone dies from one of these devices.
    Fuck the cunts that sell these thing.
    And fuck the cunts that buy them.

  41. Re: Thanks Trump! by SirSlud · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Talking to Taiwan sounds smart, if you're an idiot who doesn't have the most basic grasp of the nuanced dynamics at play. He'll do all the things people like you will think is bold, smart, independent, whatever - and predictable reactions from China will happen, just somewhat small but meaningful consequences. And people will keep wondering why they have to live in a world the way it is, not the way they think it should be. Much like the adage that there's no such thing as a stupid question, it sounds like a cool move emotionally, but in reality, leaders need to know how to tread.

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  42. I want one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .. in my phone. Steal my phone or attempt data theft at an airport or police stop and your device gets fried.

  43. There are camera in the airport by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "in that case maybe blowing the data lines would be a good thing overall." only until they find out why it broke down, then the person caught doing it get slammed for terrorism attempt or similar.

  44. But, why? by pz · · Score: 1

    Yes, sure, an interesting thought experiment, I suppose. Maybe. If you're the sort of psychopath who likes to pull legs off of small insects and animals just to watch them die. And, if that's the case, well, you need to be removed from direct contact with society and should be seeking treatment, possibly including protection from yourself. There is no legitimate use that comes to mind for a USB-killer other than to intentionally destroy property (unlike, say, a firearm which has legitimate uses beyond the raw ability to kill or maim). Moreover, it would seem to be targeted toward public-facing USB ports which are, in general, a public good, and destroying a public good brings us back to the psychopath issue.

    For everyone else, well, that sort of creative energy is useful put to more positive efforts.

    --

    Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
  45. Re: Thanks Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "real promise - his talking with Taiwan for instance"

    Yeah, irradiated little Americans look real promising if he keeps that up.

    "Judge them by their actions"

    Yeah you guys were totally willing to give Hillary a chance on that, right?

    Talk about hypocrite...

  46. USB Killer Killer by benlwilson · · Score: 2

    Time for someone to make and sell a 'USB Killer Killer'

    Upon detecting that a USB killer has been inserted the USB Killer Killer quietly disconnects its protected USB link to the PC's USB port.
    It then flashes a rotating red LED, sounds a warning siren and declares thermonuclear war on the unsuspecting USB killer by way of its 1.21kV capacitor bank, which interestingly happens to be around the size of an overweight adult hedgehog.

    Unexpectedly the USB killers plastic casing instantly explodes and showers the user in molten hot plastic and metal shrapnel.
    Hm.. i should probably rethink this idea.
    Actually no, if you're stupid enough to use a USB killer this is what you get.

    1. Re:USB Killer Killer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about a spring mechanism to launch the USB killer at warp speeds

  47. Just throw them away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just buy one and throw it in the police car park or the airport car park. No one will pick it up and stick it in the port right? And unless you're caught on one of thousands of face recognition cameras they won't be able to find you right?

  48. Re:Thanks Trump! by Sartr · · Score: 0

    Congrats, Anonymous Asshole! You shoehorned politics into the one story on Slashdot today that had nothing to do with it! Congrats on your wonderful virtue signaling, peacock.

  49. Lock him up! Lock him up! Lock him up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only a fool doesn't realize that Trolls like Trump love the swamp.

  50. Re: Thanks Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Regardless of wether he had a role in Goldman Sachs scandal, he either worked for Goldman Sachs, knew what they were up to and did nothing to prevent it making him complicit, OR he wasn't aware of what's going on in his own back yard making him incompetent and unfit for public office.

  51. Assholes by allo · · Score: 1

    It's a nice product to demonstrate, that you should trust no hardware. But its a Proof of Concept. There is no reasonable use to mass produce it. Even securty professionals won't kill one notebook per customer, but just play a video of the thing in action.
    Mass producing it just calls for stupid pranks costing a lot of money and killing a lot of data, which isn't backed up. And possibly getting people in jail, which think its just a prank.

  52. Re: Thanks Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just want to know if he's a floater or a sinker

  53. Same could be done for other external connections. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sure the same problem exists for all external connections (with an external battery to supply the capacitor charging current):

    There are commercial devices that are used for ESD testing that have been available for many, many years. The only differences here are:
    - the connector on the end
    - the amount of (dis)charge
    - the malicious intent

    For Laptops:

    Thunderbolt3
    Power supply
    HDMI
    VGA
    eSata
    FireWire
    PCMCIA
    expressCard
    serial port
    parallel port
    PS/2 keyboard/mouse
    (the list goes on)

    Hell, even applying enough voltage to an LCD screen would probably destroy pixels, if not render the entire screen dead.

    For USB, specifically someone needs to invent the kensington lock equivalent for USB ports (although Thunderbolt3 ports are pretty damn small).
    Or some kind of lockable case/protector or laptop condom....

    Best not to leave your devices unattended, ever.

  54. Re: Thanks Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think we might be worrying a bit too much about Trump. He's an idiot, but the important thing is that all he has is rabid, brain-dead, naïve followers and a bunch of stooges and opportunistic lackeys. But he has no friends. The moment he has outlived his usefulness to them, he'll get impeached so fast he'll never realize what happened. Nobody likes him. The republicans can't stand him, he's not one of them, and the Democrats sure as hell won't save him.

    I think the reign of The Donald and his unhappy Asstrumpeteers will be pretty short. I'm reasonably sure he won't sit the whole term.

  55. Re: Thanks Trump! by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

    why is you peoples first response to anything always "racist" please explain..

  56. Re: Thanks Trump! by Highdude702 · · Score: 2

    The answer to the problem is we need to remove Stupidity from State. there should be mandatory IQ testing for NOT ONLY voting but ALSO FOR the politician themself..

  57. I work in IT for K-12 public schools. by waspleg · · Score: 1

    We're already getting emails about these from our managers forwarded from other districts. They're scared.

  58. It looks like the only real defense... by DoctorNathaniel · · Score: 1

    It looks like the only real defense from the SledgeHammer (tm) is to physically protect your laptop.

    I think we should have some laws against ball-peen hammers and their ilk to protect our devices!

  59. Not the worst thing to plug into a USB port by joe_frisch · · Score: 1

    If you have physical access to a machine, you can do pretty much whatever you want to it.

    If someone is planning to leave theses around to destroy computers then they could do a lot more damage with an infected USB drive - to anyone idiotic enough to plug in an unknown usb device.

    If you want to maximize damage, an ounce of C4 in a drive will to a lot more damage. Thermite would be more spectacular.

    I don't get it. You spend $150 for a device that will make a computer fail in a boring way.

  60. There are tons of youtube videos of people using by waspleg · · Score: 1

    this on things. Varied results. Some things die, some don't, some have odd shit happen in between.

  61. I'll Sell You A Rock For $15 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just be careful to keep your fingers out of the way when you smash the laptop.
    Wait... Now get two for the same price, just pay additional shipping and handling.

  62. Death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I will break anybody who uses that on me.

  63. I've made some of these in the past. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're really easy to make too. You just take a regular USB project, get some of the wires confused and hey presto! You too could be frying the data line with high voltage instead of doing what you actually want your circuit to do.

  64. it's a bomb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    on an airplane. Great, now no USB sticks on planes

  65. I want one ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... for my car's OBD II port. So when the car thieves try to hack a car with a laptop, they get what's coming to them.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  66. Uh, nothing? by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 2

    Since they require the 5V power from a host to generate the high voltage and all...

    --
    Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
  67. Re: Thanks Trump! by StevenMaurer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Accusing a federal judge of being unable to discharge his duties because he's Hispanic, and a member of the Hispanic Bar Association (one of hundreds of such affinity lawyers groups), manifestly is racist, as even Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was forced to admit.

    Insofar as Islam, it is a sprawling religion consisting of 2.2 billion adherents, with many sub-ideologies. If you yourself have not apologized for the "Klan" (who call themselves Christian and "light" crosses as emblems of their WASP faith), then any broad brush attack on Muslims over the actions of al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda of Iraq (a.k.a. ISIS) is pure bigotry.

    Bashing illegal immigration, while conspicuously being entirely unconcerned that Trump's own wife Melaina was clearly an illegal immigrant, is again not only a sign of hypocrisy, but one of racism. Because there is no legal difference between the two situations. Merely a skin color one.

    The reason why people continue to call Trump racist is because he is. The reason why people call his supporters racist, is because there is hard evidence of racist attitudes taken from surveys of them.

    The idea that a racist is going to suddenly vote for the party who opposes racism, instead of the Republican party that it has been proven benefits from it, if only people wouldn't point out their racism, is absurd.

    Is that enough research for you?

  68. Re:Thanks Trump! by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Your team lost, try to deal with reality.

    Lol, so did yours, it just hasn't dawned on you. :)

    He's already breaking most of his campaign promises. Take a look:

    Build a wall along the border? He says it's not going to happen now.
    Draining the swamp? More like refilling it. lol
    Deporting 3 million people? Never going to happen.
    Deporting 11 million people? Never definitely going to happen. He's already said so!
    Jailing Hillary Clinton? He's already said he won't do it.
    A 'total and complete' shutdown of Muslims entering U.S.? He's said that's not going to happen.
    "If I become president, we're all going to be saying 'Merry Christmas' again." I'd like to see him make people do that.
    Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cutting benefits. Lol, with what? Magic beans?
    Bar Syrian refugees from entering the country and kick out any who are already living here? Not gonna happen. He's already said so.
    He said he'll "Never take a vacation while serving as president." Really? We'll see.
    Target and kill the relatives of terrorists? Ummm, no- that's a war crime.
    Shut down parts of the Internet so that Islamic State terrorists cannot use it to recruit American children? Lol, good luck with that. :)
    "I promise I will never be in a bicycle race." This I believe, because the fat fuck can barely climb a flight of stairs.
    Bring back jobs from China? We both know that's never going to happen. That ship has sailed.
    "Force Nabisco" to once again make Oreos in the United States? Suuuuuuure he will. Yeah, sure, lol!
    On his first day in office, Trump said he would get rid of gun-free zones at military bases and in schools. I'll bet you $10,000 that doesn't happen.
    End birthright citizenship? Uh, no, sorry....that's in the Constitution.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  69. Re: Thanks Trump! by whodunit · · Score: 1

    "Research" is a pretty strong word for links from Politico: https://www.google.com/amp/s/a...

    And the WashPo and New York Times: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry... (NYT again:) http://m.washingtontimes.com/n...

  70. Re: Thanks Trump! by whodunit · · Score: 2

    God forbid Trump do something to piss off China! Like accusing them of raping America, of rampant economic cheating, government-funded hacking and espionage, or vowing to "renegotiate" economic agreements with them. He was doing real good with China until that phone call!

  71. Re: Thanks Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Besides which, "Muslim" is not a fucking race. Get over it.

  72. Re: Thanks Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually, doing the opposite of what the nice "free trade" globalists have been doing for the last 40 years is a really good idea. That was kind of the point of electing him. A lot of us are tired of political correctness at home, and just as tired of making nice with murdering thugs who cheat on every bit of trade laws they can, who masquerade as communists but who are really just interested in staying in power, and who need to seriously be told that their inevitable world domination is not so inevitable.

    Now if we can do something about our own lying, cheating, murderous thugs masquerading as capitalists we might just be onto something.

    Calling people what they are is exactly what those of us who voted for Trump want. Is it safe? Maybe not all the time, but enough is enough when it comes to harmful ignorance of the true nature of things.

  73. Just Watch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This device will appear in a hacker/spy movie soon. Depending on your age and viewing preferences it could be:

    1). Jason Bourne;
    2). Jack Reacher;
    3). Lara Croft;
    4). XXX;
    5). New (New New?) Avengers;
    6). James Bond;
    7). Die Hard;
    8). One of the various Super Hacker movies, one-offs starring such people as Robert Redford, Angelina Jolie, John Travolta, etc.;
    9). Scorpion;
    10). Mission Impossible;
    11). S.H.I.E.L.D.;
    12). Men In Black;
    13). ...

  74. Re:Thanks Trump! by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

    Just look at the schematic for the USB jack. One lead is supply, and another is ground.

    Short the supply lead with ground and pffffssst , you have killed the usb logic on the mother board. Bye bye motherboard USB connection.

    --
    Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
  75. Oh come on where's your sense of history by garote · · Score: 1

    50 bucks for this? Back in "my day", we made these things for nothing, and we used them too. Here's how you do it:

    1. Cut the cord off a lamp
    2. Cut a data interface cable in half
    3. Splice the two together

    Plug one end into a surge protector outlet, and one end in to any computer component. BLAMMO!!!!
    Then reset the surge protector, and you're ready again.

    O NOES HOW DO WE PROTECT OUR DEVICES FROM THIS!!!
    Here's an idea: Don't let your idiot h4xx0r children borrow any hardware you actually NEED. :D
    (Took my parents a round or two to learn that One Simple Trick.)

  76. Re: Thanks Trump! by syntotic · · Score: 0

    Still wrong: Islam is the SPECIES and how to be better that SPECIES. Not US. Or what do you think an institutional state of war sounds like? Lion charity to impala agreements? That they managed to communicate something to us is remarkable but does not mean they are rational. And I _was_ today hearing a desperate sounding she barista defending herself from an obvious Muslim Arab male barista after she **decoded** what the Muslim man meant with a single phrase and how she nuderstand what it would mean for her de facto. I made my best efforts not to listen, forgot the phrase right away, but it was exemplar that the he barista did defend it and the she barista did answer rationally to an **innocent** statement. She concluded he would have to kill her. He simply shut up. I kept playing a videogame. YOU want to still discuss whether they will extinguish us first or not!

  77. Fix your hardware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since this exists, it is now the responsibility of hardware manufacturers to protect against it.

  78. Re: Thanks Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is manifestly NOT racist once you background check the judge. I'm sure there are some Mexicans and children of Mexicans that Trump would quite happily be judged by, but THAT one isn't one of them. THAT particular judge had already shown partiality in a number of his decisions, and is associated with groups that support illegal immigrants.

    Having problems with an individual is not racist, even of that individual is of another race and you are a white male. Having a blanket policy that "I will not be judged by a Mexican" is racist. Trump hadn't said anything like that, so go find some other "proof".

  79. kids these days by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

    damned lazy kids, back in my day we had to build our own etherkillers and solder the 110 line or capacitor and switch ourselves, then use hot glue or electrical tape to make sure it wouldn't shock the shit out of you (or leave it bare and you have 2 functions in one device.

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  80. Re:Thanks Trump! by strikethree · · Score: 1

    I'm going to enjoy watching his supporters slowly figure out they fell for a long con, got suckered bigly, and voted in the world's yuuuuugest huckster.

    Eh? The situation is far more complex than that as you would have noticed if you had seen as many presidents as I have. I suspect that Trump honestly believed what he was saying but, to steal a line from someone else in here: Some guys in suits walked into the Oval Office (without even asking permission!) and opened a briefcase with a video screen in it. It displayed footage from around 1963 in Texas with the caption, "This is what happens if you do not cooperate"

    I am not trying to say that Trump was intending to do good things for the American people. I am saying that whatever his intentions were, they were fucked off quite rudely from day one. Really? He hired his most hated type of person to be his economic advisor? That is surely a sign that he is fully in control. No?

    Yeah, the elections are just theater. Being president of the United States may be fun but it is far from the top of power. How else do you explain Obama's presidency?

    --
    "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  81. Re: Thanks Trump! by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Because clearly, being agaisnt someone that is a member of a lawyer's association that will only accept Hispanic members (racist), and is named, literally, "The Race" is somehow racist? It is now racist to point out other people's racism, this will be fun!

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  82. Re: Thanks Trump! by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Nor is Hispanic, which is an ethnicity, not a race.

    Muslim is much like Jewish in that, it is a culture and religion, not a race.

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    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  83. Re: Thanks Trump! by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    but the important thing is that all he has is rabid, brain-dead, naïve followers and a bunch of stooges and opportunistic lackeys

    As opposed to all those followers of Hillary?

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    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  84. Re: Thanks Trump! by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Hillary got many chances, unfortunately, at every turn she kept proving how horribly corrupt and terrible she is. Her actions proved quite clearly that she would have been a horrible president.

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    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?