In the latest cyber attack, e-cigarettes made in China can be used to spread computer malware.
E-cigarettes were created to help people quit smoking since it does not contain any tar or nicotine. While it is believed widely that an e-cigarette is much better than smoking a regular cigarette, recent developments suggest that the item can be used to infect computers with malware. The USB charging port in the cigarette, when connected to a laptop, can transfer malware onto the system.
A user posted on social news website Reddit about how he got infected by the malware. The user wrote, “One particular executive had a malware infection on his computer from which the source could not be determined. After all traditional means of infection were covered, IT started looking into other possibilities.”
On further investigation, the IT team found out that it was an e-cigarette that was the source of the infection. The malware was hardcoded into the USB of the charger. The e-cigarette was manufactured in China. While the whole theory seems rather impractical, security experts have explained that this is possible.
This concept of introducing malware through USBs is called BadUSB, something that is picking up steam in the last few years. As technology advances, there will be several other mediums that attackers will use to infect systems. In the past, Apple iOS devices chargers were used to infect computers with malware.
