Security experts have warned of the dangers associated with USB drives for some time, but until now, the biggest danger has been viruses and malware. Now there is a new potential threat that turns the lowly thumb drive into a ‘laptop killer’ by using a high voltage to destroy the computer’s components. Dubbed ‘USB Killer’, the crude device was created by a Russian electronics expert known as Dark Purple. The malicious drive has been dubbed ‘USB Killer’ and it uses a high voltage and current to ‘fry’ the laptop’s components. The prototype (pictured) was created by a Russian electronics expert known as Dark Purple . The user posted photos and specifications about the project on Russian blog Habrahabr, and this was later syndicated and posted in English on Kukuruku. The English post said: ‘I work in [a] company engaged in the development and manufacture of electronics. ‘In modern computers, the USB ‘physics’ is built in the processor [and] the task of the designed USB flash drive is to burn all of this stuff, or at least kill the USB port.’ Dark Purple posted photos and specifications about his project on Russian blog Habrahabr. The user said: 'In modern computers, the USB ‘physics’ is built in the processor [and] the task of the designed USB flash drive is to burn all of this stuff, or at least kill the USB port’ (the custom circuit board is pictured) The drive uses high voltage and high current to ‘fry’ the electronics inside the port. And because this port is often connected to the CPU, the whole laptop can be affected. A colleague of Dark Purple is reported as saying the device is ‘like an atomic bomb: cool to have, but can not be applied’ Dark Purple ordered the parts, including a custom circuit board, from China before making a ‘full-fledged prototype’. And in tests, the user said they had ‘burnt down’ everything they could. In November a team of Berlin-based researchers reverse-engineered the files that control how a USB drive's software works. This so-called firmware was then reprogrammed to give complete control of a PC to the hacker. Firmware is a software program, or set of instructions, programmed onto a hardware device. It tells the device how to communicate with other devices, including computers. Drive manufacturers will often update firmware to improve the performance of their devices. These changes are made at a central level before being pushed out to individual devices. The flaw was discovered by Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell at Security Research Labs has been dubbed BadUSB. It affects thumb drives and external hard drives, but also any device that connects to a PC using USB. This includes keyboards and the mouse, as well as the USB drives used to charge phones and tablets. ‘The basic idea of the USB drive is quite simple,’ explained Dark Purple. ‘When connected to the USB port, an inverting DC/DC converter runs and charges capacitors to -110V [and] when the voltage is reached, the DC/DC is switched off. ‘The loop runs till everything possible is broken down.’ Put more simply, it uses high voltage and high current to ‘fry’ the electronics inside the port. And because this port is often connected to the CPU, the whole laptop can be affected. A colleague of Dark Purple is reported as saying the device is ‘like an atomic bomb: cool to have, but can not be applied.’ In November a team of Berlin-based researchers reverse-engineered the files that control how a USB drive's software works. This so-called firmware was then reprogrammed to give complete control of a PC to the hacker. Firmware is a software program, or set of instructions, programmed onto a hardware device. It tells the device how to communicate with other devices, including computers. Drive manufacturers will often update firmware to improve the performance of their devices. These changes are made at a central level before being pushed out to individual devices. The flaw was discovered by Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell at Security Research Labs has been dubbed BadUSB. It affects thumb drives and external hard drives, but also any device that connects to a PC using USB. This includes keyboards and the mouse, as well as the USB drives used to charge phones and tablets.
The malicious, custom-built drive has been dubbed ‘USB Killer’
It uses a high voltage and current to ‘fry’ the laptop's components . Prototype was created by an electronics expert known as Dark Purple . Dark Purple designed the drive using parts bought in China . It was described as an 'atomic bomb: cool to have but not to be applied'