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Student Used 'USB Killer' Device To Destroy $58,000 Worth of College Computers (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the reckless-behavior dept.

A former student of The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, has pled guilty to charges that he destroyed tens of thousands of dollars worth of campus computers using a USB device designed to instantly overwhelm and fry their circuitry. The plea was announced today by the Department of Justice, FBI, and Albany Police Department. The Verge reports: Vishwanath Akuthota, the former student, now faces up to 10 years in prison (with up to three years of supervision after release) and a fine totaling up to $250,000. He was arrested and taken into custody in North Carolina on February 22nd, just over a week after he went on a spree of inserting the "USB Killer" device into 66 of Saint Rose's computers around various locations on campus. Such devices can be easily and freely purchased online and can overload the surge protection in many PCs.

Akuthota, 27, apparently made video recordings of himself inserting the malicious USB device into the computers and said "I'm going to kill this guy" as the PCs were overloaded and permanently ruined. So it's fair to say the FBI and APD had all the evidence they needed. In total, Akuthota caused $58,471 worth of damage. As part of his guilty plea, he has agreed to pay back that amount to the college, a small private school in New York's capital city. The Verge reached out to The College of Saint Rose for a statement on today's news, but a spokesperson said the college had been asked by law enforcement to refrain from commenting.

16 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Why Record Videos of illegal activity? by DatbeDank · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you're going to do something stupid or better yet illegal, don't record yourself.
    Here's a fun Q&A with him on FB: https://www.facebook.com/saint...

    Sounds like he got fired and was looking for revenge! Curious what he did to deserve the firing.

    1. Re:Why Record Videos of illegal activity? by Highdude702 · · Score: 5, Funny

      My first thought was "HAHAHAHAHAHA Dumb fuck". Then I actually thought about it, and I laughed harder... So yea and he made it to college! Go our education system..

    2. Re: Why Record Videos of illegal activity? by Type44Q · · Score: 5, Funny

      If you're going to do something stupid or better yet illegal, don't record yourself.

      "If you're going to do something stupid, do it intelligently?"

    3. Re: Why Record Videos of illegal activity? by sjames · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Honestly, prison seems excessive for most any property crime. Restitution with penalties and interest, an ankle monitor, and a few years of weekends picking up trash seems good. Throw in a jumpsuit that says I'm the jackass that burned out the computers fr fun. If he doesn't seem genuinely repentant, make him wear donkey ears while he picks up the trash.

    4. Re: Why Record Videos of illegal activity? by Kjella · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Of course that would be unreasonable, but that's how the attorney general gets to prescribe your actual sentence through a plea deal. We'll drop the crazy charges and you'll serve one year or we go to court and try to nail you for ten, what'll it be? It's a huge risk to fight the charges even if you're innocent, if you're objectively guilty and take it to court for a lesser sentence your legal team had better be miracle workers. In most cases a jury will end up much closer to the legal maximum than the plea deal because they feel like slam dunking criminals. Remember this case?

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    5. Re: Why Record Videos of illegal activity? by Pascoea · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think prison is entirely appropriate here and for other property crimes. If someone decides to destroy/ruin/steal someone else's property, they should be put behind bars for a while so they understand there are consequences to stupid and negative actions.

      How does one pay restitution when they are locked up in prison? Punishment isn't the sole purpose of the justice system. There are ways to implement a punishment, pay back the damaged parties, and eventually reincorporate the offender as a valuable member of society. Put the guy to work and direct the earnings towards the damaged party. You could having him pick up trash off the side of the road, or ideally assign him a job where he can learn a valuable skill and proceed into a successful life once his restitution is paid. If it makes you feel better, throw him in jail for a month to let him know what awaits if he fucks up again, then put an ankle bracelet on him and make him stay in some sort of halfway home until his debt is paid. Just throwing him behind bars for 5-10 years isn't going to solve anything.

  2. 10 years in prison is excessive... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And shows how fucked up the US "justice" system is. Average sentence for murder is something like seven years. He should be given a psych evaluation and made to pay restitution via wage garnishment in the future.

    1. Re:10 years in prison is excessive... by Goetterdaemmerung · · Score: 4, Informative

      And shows how fucked up the US "justice" system is. Average sentence for murder is something like seven years. He should be given a psych evaluation and made to pay restitution via wage garnishment in the future.

      He is unlikely to get 10 years. That's the maximum sentence when they add up the maximum for each charge and it makes it more newsworthy. The maximum for murder is life without parole or death, and as you say the average may be closer to 7 years. In this case since he admitted fault and agreed to pay for the damages he will get some smaller sentence, possibly time already served or a few months. It is likely his visa will be revoked.

    2. Re:10 years in prison is excessive... by bws111 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Oh horseshit. First of all, he has not been sentenced to anything yet. 10 years is the maximum he could get, whereas the maximum for murder is life imprisonment, or in some cases death. Secondly, the AVERAGE murder sentence is 40.6 years, where did you get that idiotic 7 years? The average property crime sentence is about 4 years. https://www.bjs.gov/content/pu...

    3. Re:10 years in prison is excessive... by Highdude702 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Incorrect. It is a federal case so he has to do I believe 85% before he is eligible for parole. That means at a maximum sentence of 10 years he would do 8.5 years minimum. When it comes down to state there is different rules all around the country. Nevada has a scaling system where its x-x months/years and the front number can not exceed 40% of the back number. So for instance he could get a 4-10 year sentence. In 4 years from the date of arrest he would get a chance to see the parole board. depending on the crime they can choose to dump him(not release). That normally depends somewhat on your case, your behavior in prison, and wot not. Some states have a flat time system and you do the time they give you. 48 months is 48 months. Telling you this from experience unfortunately.

    4. Re:10 years in prison is excessive... by rahvin112 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      His confession (recording of the act) makes it unlikely prosecutors will make any deal of any kind. All his bargaining power is gone with that confession. They tend to throw the book at people when they have a confession. If he pleads guilty the Judge might have some sympathy, but if he fights it he'll get the full kit.

  3. Because for a lot of folks, that's the whole point by Solandri · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For a lot of the people doing stuff like this, if they can't brag about the crime, there's no point doing it. It's not really anarchy or revenge that they seek. They're attention whores. They thrive on the publicity and praise/criticism they get. For them, pulling a stunt like this without recording it (and distributing the recording) is like the proverbial tree that falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear. In their minds, it's indistinguishable from the tree never falling / them never having committed the crime.

  4. Re:Fuses by willy_me · · Score: 4, Informative

    A fuse would not protect from this sort of over voltage damage. Fuses are slow and by the time sufficient current is flowing to blow the fuse - the circuitry is already shot. Electronic fuses (MOSFETS with controllers) are much faster and do not need to be replaced. Most devices use current limited load switches to limit surge current and prevent damage. But even these devices, while better then fuses, would not help. ESD protection diodes would help but they are not designed for large amounts of energy and will quickly burn up. With the amount of energy this guy was adding, the diodes will literally pop off the PCB. USB is quite well protected (now, not originally) but all consumer electronics will break when you have hundreds of volts applied. Well, ethernet would at least prevent the damage from cascading into the device - but few interfaces are protected like ethernet.

  5. $58,000? by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow! He destroyed one Mac!

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  6. Re:Fuses by rahvin112 · · Score: 5, Informative

    these USB killers do way more than a hundred volts. IIRC it was in the thousands and it usually hits them multiple times before you can yank the usb, cycling about once a second. Though there is no amperage behind it the volts come in so quickly that I doubt even ESD protection could block it. When this was demoed it killed even protected computers because it slams it 3-4 times before the person can react and yank it out of the slot.

  7. Didn't get 10 years Unless you want a million laws by raymorris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He didn't get 10 years.

    The article, like most, quotes the maximum anyone could ever get for violating a particular statute. Rarely does anyone get the maximum. The judge takes into account exactly what the person did, their record, etc. In most cases, the penalty is actually negotiated with the defendant via their attorney.

    The crime he was charged with would be something like "intentionally destroying property greater than $10,000". That covers taking a baseball bat to your ex-boyfriend's car, destroying the school computers, intentionally driving a bulldozer through someone's house, and lots of other ways of destroying lots of things. The WORST possible cases of "intentionally destroying property valued *over* $10,000" could get 10 years, if the defendant told the judge "fuck you, I'll do it again when I get out".

    You can reduce the judge's descretion by enacting a specific law against "destroying a schools computers" and another law against "destroying your neighbor's car" ans another against "destroying the judge's house", but I think we have enough laws already.