The USB that kills computers gets even more voltage

Nov 2, 2015 15:45 GMT  ·  By

This past February, a Russian hacker that goes by the name of Dark Purple revealed a custom-made USB flash drive that, when inserted into a computer, would fry its internal circuitry.

This custom-made apparatus was called USB Killer, and for good reason, since it had the capability of knocking down any type of device that sported an unprotected USB port.

After a few months hacking away at its creation, Dark Purple has revealed the second version of its infamous tool, which now, according to his own sayings, is as deadly as the first, but smaller in size.

This focus on reducing its dimensions was because the hacker wanted to prevent attentive users from noticing any considerable size or weight difference between USB Killer and a regular thumb drive.

USB Killer 2.0 has doubled its previous discharge capacity

What makes USB Killer 2.0 more mind-boggling is the fact that, while the device became much smaller, its discharge capacity doubled.

So instead of 110V shocks sent to your computer via the USB port, USB Killer 2.0 can now deliver a whopping 220V.

Under its carcass, the concepts behind USB Killer have not changed. The device still uses a simple DC-to-DC converter interconnected with a few capacitors that store tension from the converter and then release it in a massive charge through the device the USB Killer drive is attached to.

Hard drive data is not fried in USB Killer attacks, for now

All of the times, the USB port is completely rendered useless, along with the computer's motherboard. Dark Purple says that, in his experiments, hard drives and their data were left intact.

While the device relies on a custom-made setup, the principles behind it are simple electronics theory, and something that anyone could easily replicate.

The moral is that USB ports should not be left open and readily available to anyone anymore. Something that needs to be addressed right now, especially on medical equipment, airplanes, surveillance systems, nuclear power plants, or other equipment that handles critical tasks.

Below is a video demonstration of USB Killer 2.0 in action.