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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 26 2014, @04:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the need-to-put-a-filter-on-that-e-cigarette dept.

The Guardian features a story about e-cigarettes carrying some malware, infecting computers used to charge them. Though not entirely surprising when you actually think about it, personally I'd not have expected non-computerized devices which just happen to have micro-usb charger socket to pose a threat to IT security.

From the article:

“The made in China e-cigarette had malware hardcoded into the charger, and when plugged into a computer’s USB port the malware phoned home and infected the system.”

Later the article references some low-level attacks might be used to reprogram USB chips on devices, letting them act as USB keyboards issuing commands on the behalf of the logged in user, etc.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Monday December 01 2014, @04:57PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Monday December 01 2014, @04:57PM (#121555)

    That is an excellent idea. Thank you. I think I will do the extra -1 to offtopic. I want my troll posts ON TOPIC!

    Mod parent up (then mod him down).

    --
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