Hong Kong based company USB Kill has produced a USB thumb drive – which kills any unsecure device it comes into contact with.
The device is designed as a tool to help hardware manufacturers test if their product is surge protected. “Any public facing USB port should be considered an attack vector” the company writes in its press release. “In data security, these ports are often locked down to prevent exfiltration of data, or infiltration of malware, but are very often unprotected against electrical attack!”
USB Kill 2.0 works by rapidly charging its capacitors from the USB port it’s plugged into and then discharging 200 volts – in a matter of seconds. This is repeated continuously until the device is unplugged.
It is reported up to 95% of devices could be unprotected from electrical attacks. However, USB Kill also writes: “The only hardware that resisted USBKILL.com team tests was the latest model Macbooks which optically isolate the data lines on the USB ports”.
USB Kill 2.0 is available to buy now from www.usbkill.com for €49.95.
