Cigarettes will give you cancer. Please stop thinking they won’t. But you can smoke ’em all you’d like, it’s your body. E-cigarettes are starting to give people an issue that’s just as deadly — to their computers.
The Guardian is reporting that e-cigarettes which use a USB-port to charge might contain malware. Their source is a dude on Reddit.
I have a story I wanted to share about a data security breach at a large corporation. One particular executive had a malware infection on his computer from which the source could not be determined. The executive’s system was patched up to date, had antivirus and up to date anti-malware protection. Web logs were scoured and all attempts made to identify the source of the infection but to no avail. Finally after all traditional means of infection were covered; IT started looking into other possibilities. They finally asked the Executive, “Have there been any changes in your life recently”? The executive answer “Well yes, I quit smoking two weeks ago and switched to e-cigarettes”. And that was the answer they were looking for, the made in china e-cigarette had malware hard coded into the charger and when plugged into a computer’s USB port the malware phoned home and infected the system. Moral of the story is have you ever question the legitimacy of the $5 dollar EBay made in China USB item that you just plugged into your computer? Because you should, you damn well should. Sincerely, An IT guy
Vaping might be killing your hard drive, bros. Be warned.
H/T Animal NY