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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
There's long been much handwringing around Halloween around the prospect of pins, needles and razor blades being hidden in candy and passed out to children. On the very rare occasion this does happen, the outcome is normally little more than some superficial cuts. However, for 2019, [MG] has developed an altogether different surreptitious payload to be delivered to trick or treaters.
Consisting of a small USB device named DemonSeed, it's a HID attack gadget in the genre of the BadUSB devices we've seen previously. When plugged in, the unit emulates a USB keyboard and can be programmed to enter whatever keystrokes are necessary to take over the machine or exfiltrate data. Files are available on Github for those looking to replicate the device.
The trick here is in the delivery. [MG] has produced a large quantity of these small devices, packaging them in anti-static wrappers. The wrappers contain a note instructing children to insert them into their parent's work computers to access "game codes", and to share them with their friends while hiding them from adults.
The idea of children brazenly plugging hostile USB devices into important computers is enough to make any IT manager's head spin, though we suspect [MG] doesn't actually intend to deploy these devices in anger. It serves as a great warning about the potential danger of such an attack, however. Stay sharp, and keep your office door locked this October 31st!
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 3, Interesting) by barbara hudson on Sunday November 03 2019, @09:52PM (17 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @10:34PM
Poor kid, did the police get the psychopath?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @10:51PM (3 children)
[citation needed]
So we're supposed to just take your word for it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @11:07PM
Or don't take her word for it. Just a bit of info. Take it as you see it.
No one really cares what an AC has to say. Log in and then ask and maybe you'll be answered.
Yes I know I'm AC right now. So ignore me at your peril!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @11:21PM (1 child)
This is one of Barbara Hudson's "friends". Hudson probably gave him the apple.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday November 09 2019, @09:21PM
This case could be a production problem - 100 pound bags of cocoa sliced open with a utility knife, blade snaps, end up in the mix ... the utility knives with grooves so you can snap off the dull tip and have a fresh edge are a problem under stress - the blade gets dull, and rather than snap the edge off, people apply more force, so it can break off and good luck finding the broken pieces unless it's ended up in somebody.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 03 2019, @11:11PM (7 children)
No they're not. They're on the same aisle in most every store that sells razor blades as the "I'm a huge pansy and afraid I'll cut myself" disposable blades and they cost about a buck for a pack instead of $5-15. They're what I use when I'm not on a quest for epic beard-dom.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 03 2019, @11:31PM (6 children)
Yeah - Home Depot, disposable blades, I think there were ten in the package. About seven bucks. Just plain single edge utility razors, but disposable shaving blades don't cost much more unless they have some macho-sounding name and however many blades is fashionable this year. When Hudson said "straight razor", I pictured a nice blade that you might be willing to pay $50 or more for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_razor [wikipedia.org]
Ya know, after 9/11/01 I wonder why we don't have to show an ID, and have a background security check to buy razor blades? Any one of us could hijack a bus or something, right?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday November 04 2019, @02:54AM (3 children)
Man, buy them at WalMart or wherever you get your shaving stuff. They're like a buck fiddy for half a dozen double-edged blades and they're right by all the other blades. Mind you, if you got bigass Golem hands like me you're going to hate using safety razors because of how small the handles are.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday November 04 2019, @05:00AM (2 children)
I don't even shave, lol! I only use those blades in my knifes.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday November 04 2019, @05:13AM (1 child)
Wrong kind of razor blades. Those are utility knife blades. They're probably ten times as thick as the ones used for the old safety razors that lost popularity back in the sixties and seventies. And only one side of utility knife blades is sharp instead of both sides (there is no back, they're symmetrical). Unless you were thinking of the ones you'd use to scrape stuff off of glass with, in which case pretty much exactly like those if the sharp side were mirrored.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday November 09 2019, @09:07PM
I've posted a link to a recent CBC story about a razor blade in a chocolate bar from this Halloween below.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @02:05PM (1 child)
Except of course, we couldn't, because people have changed their behavior.
See what happened to the underwear bomber, instead of cowering, people mobbed him. Once people saw what the cost of doing nothing was, they started to see that doing something, while dangerous, might still be safer.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday November 04 2019, @04:59PM
Yes, and God bless the vertebrates. The spineless may inherit the earth, but I don't want to be there with them.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday November 04 2019, @12:58AM
A Wilkonson razor and blades is cheap and EPIC: far cheaper than the "new and improved 12ty blade, vibrating, toothbrushing Gillette-Schick razor-fridges.
I use it everyday
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday November 04 2019, @06:05PM (2 children)
News story from reliable source or I'm sorry I don't believe it happened.
(And that's OK. You owe me no proof. I owe you no credibility since many reliable sources have published that on deep searches there has NEVER been a published case found in medical literature that was verified true.)
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday November 09 2019, @09:02PM (1 child)
You need to check police records, not medical journals. Here's one from London, Ontario, this Halloween: Razor blade found in chocolate bar [www.cbc.ca]
(area code 519 is southwest Ontario).
Scary stuff, but most cases will never get into medical journals or official stats because, unlike, say, cases of necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease) there's no mandatory reporting. Same as even severe drug reactions don't show up in stats unless you take the time to file a report , and that's usually only as a prelude to a lawsuit.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday November 11 2019, @04:57PM
Sure, and you supplied a name above too. I'm not saying it can't happen. I am saying that such incidents are never widespread and when they are done they always seem to be singular incidents against a virtually-always-known target. They are usually motivated by pranks or jealousy.
The notion that you have to fear the strange person giving you something sweet for free (on Halloween) is an attempt to cause a moral panic. One should then either never accept any food or treats any time any where any when because you don't know.... or maybe one should relax just a little.
(Though that can be hard to do when you've known one of the exceptional cases, sure.)
This sig for rent.