Security Director Alert: USB Killer Stick II

Remember the USB Killer stick that indiscriminately and immediately fries about 95 percent of devices? (See the Security Scrapbook warning about it from last September.)

Well, now the company has released a new version that is even more lethal! And you can also buy an adapter pack, which lets you kill test devices with USB-C, Micro USB, and Lightning ports.

Further Reading: USB Killer, yours for £50, lets you easily fry almost every device

If you haven't heard of the USB Killer before, it's essentially a USB stick with a bunch of capacitors hidden within. When you plug it into a host device (a smartphone, a PC, an in-car or in-plane entertainment system), those capacitors charge up—and then a split second later, the stick dumps a huge surge of electricity into the host device, at least frying the port, but usually disabling the whole thing...

The new USB Killer V3, which costs about £50/$50, is apparently 1.5 times more powerful than its predecessor, is more lethal (it pumps out eight to 12 surges per second), and is itself more resistant to setups that might cause the USB Killer to fry itself. more

Spybusters Tip #783 - Block your USB ports with a USB lock and security tape. Aside from Killer Stick sabotage, USB ports are virus injection portals.

German Parents told to Destroy Cayla

An official watchdog in Germany has told parents to destroy a talking doll called Cayla because its smart technology can reveal personal data.

The warning was issued by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), which oversees telecommunications.

Researchers say hackers can use an insecure bluetooth device embedded in the toy to listen and talk to the child playing with it.

Manufacturer Genesis Toys has not yet commented on the German warning. more

Who Was the First Person to Record Sound?

In 1857, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville patented a device for recording sound: A person spoke or sang into a barrel, causing a membrane of parchment to vibrate and a pig bristle to record a mark on a moving surface of glass or paper.

This was useful in studying the characteristics of sound, but a century and a half would pass before we had the technology to play back the recordings. In 2008, audio historians recovered Scott’s “phonautograms” from the French patent office and converted his waveforms into digital audio files.


The recording below was made on April 9, 1860. It’s the French folk song “Au clair de la lune,” recorded 28 years before Edison’s first wax cylinder. more

Coals to Newcastle Espionage (not just any coal)

A federal jury on Thursday convicted a Chinese scientist in Kansas of conspiring to steal samples of a variety of genetically engineered rice seeds from a U.S. research facility, the U.S. Justice Department said, the latest attempt at agricultural theft linked to China.

Weiqiang Zhang, 50, a Chinese national living in Manhattan, Kansas, was convicted on three counts, including conspiracy to steal trade secrets and interstate transportation of stolen property, the department said in a statement.

Zhang, who has a doctorate from Louisiana State University, worked as a rice breeder for Kansas-based Ventria Bioscience Inc, which develops genetically programmed rice used in the therapeutic and medical fields.

He stole hundreds of rice seeds produced by Ventria and stored them at his Manhattan residence, the statement said. more