This USB Device can burn your PC - USB Killer

With the advancement in tech, new devices have been developed which really makes our life easier. On the other hand, some nerds use this technology just to do the reverse, make our life difficult. An example can be a computer virus. But now what I am going to talk about is much more dangerous than a Virus - Its called a USB Killer. This device is so dangerous that it can burn your PC in a second and looks exactly like an ordinary pen drive. All one have to do is plug it in the USB socket and boom: Your device is fried. Pretty much easy stuff hah!!

USB Killer that may look like an ordinary pen drive

How does the USB Killer works...

Inventors say that the USB Killer was made to test hardware. They have also developed a dummy device or a test shield with two wires emerging from it which can be taken as a switch. Connecting the two wires completes the circuit. The USB killer fits in this dummy device or it can be straight away connected to the USB port.

The USB Killer when plugged to the port, it would immediately charge it's capacitors from the USB power supply of the port and then collect all the charge, mount it up and then discharge it back in matter of seconds causing electrical overcharge. The inventors claim that this killing device would work on 95% of computers and the reason for that is most USBs of computers have completely unprotected ports. This means that if this thing sends a ton of power through the computer in the port, it is going to send it straight to the motherboard and eventually its going to be dead. Now, this thing is not limited to PCs or Laptops only. Smartphone devices which supports OTG and USB charging is no match to this serial killer. It does the same thing to your phone. All you will hear is clicking sound and R.I.P.!!!

Dummy tester with the USB Killer

Ultimately all smart devices can be harmed by the USB killer. If it cannot destroy the whole of it, it will definitely damage the port. Just image around 240V of charge straight away bombarded. A lot of different devices are protected more for data infiltration but aren't protected against electrical malfeasance and this is particularly scary.

Does manufactures know about the USB Killer?

However according to the company, they said that Apple voluntarily protected its hardware from this; so you're safe Macbook users. As I said, it's not just the enemies laptop, it could be a public copy machine or photo scanning device or something that has a port. Any public facing USB port should be considered an attack vector and this can be a little bit worrisome. The company is selling this for fifty-six dollars and there's also a test shield (the device with two wires) which allows you to test your devices with the USB port and would cost about sixteen dollars. So they kind of created these two things that go hand-in-hand. They created a monster and a thing to see if you're vulnerable to the monster.

Watch this instant death death of an Old Macbook Pro. The USB Killer has something to show you...