Student Used 'USB Killer' Device To Destroy $58,000 Worth of College Computers (theverge.com) 235
A former student of The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, has pled guilty to charges that he destroyed tens of thousands of dollars worth of campus computers using a USB device designed to instantly overwhelm and fry their circuitry. The plea was announced today by the Department of Justice, FBI, and Albany Police Department. The Verge reports: Vishwanath Akuthota, the former student, now faces up to 10 years in prison (with up to three years of supervision after release) and a fine totaling up to $250,000. He was arrested and taken into custody in North Carolina on February 22nd, just over a week after he went on a spree of inserting the "USB Killer" device into 66 of Saint Rose's computers around various locations on campus. Such devices can be easily and freely purchased online and can overload the surge protection in many PCs.
Akuthota, 27, apparently made video recordings of himself inserting the malicious USB device into the computers and said "I'm going to kill this guy" as the PCs were overloaded and permanently ruined. So it's fair to say the FBI and APD had all the evidence they needed. In total, Akuthota caused $58,471 worth of damage. As part of his guilty plea, he has agreed to pay back that amount to the college, a small private school in New York's capital city. The Verge reached out to The College of Saint Rose for a statement on today's news, but a spokesperson said the college had been asked by law enforcement to refrain from commenting.
Akuthota, 27, apparently made video recordings of himself inserting the malicious USB device into the computers and said "I'm going to kill this guy" as the PCs were overloaded and permanently ruined. So it's fair to say the FBI and APD had all the evidence they needed. In total, Akuthota caused $58,471 worth of damage. As part of his guilty plea, he has agreed to pay back that amount to the college, a small private school in New York's capital city. The Verge reached out to The College of Saint Rose for a statement on today's news, but a spokesperson said the college had been asked by law enforcement to refrain from commenting.
Why Record Videos of illegal activity? (Score:5, Interesting)
If you're going to do something stupid or better yet illegal, don't record yourself.
Here's a fun Q&A with him on FB: https://www.facebook.com/saint... [facebook.com]
Sounds like he got fired and was looking for revenge! Curious what he did to deserve the firing.
Re:Why Record Videos of illegal activity? (Score:5, Funny)
My first thought was "HAHAHAHAHAHA Dumb fuck". Then I actually thought about it, and I laughed harder... So yea and he made it to college! Go our education system..
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Her:
* Parents paid for expensive primary and secondary education
* Worked way, way harder than I did while she was in school
* Parents paid for college that was expensive rel
Re: Why Record Videos of illegal activity? (Score:2)
He meant that his parents were not forced to pay out of pocket for his primary education. He was not discussing the wider economic issues of public school funding.
You're right, but only by changing the context of the discussion.
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Smart ones don't.
I came out with a 4-year degree and a total of $15k in debt while supporting a wife and two children.
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He will be lucky to get a burger flipping job.
Especially in India.
Step 1: Murder god
Step 2: Grind up god into paste
Step 3: Fry god on grill
Step 4: ?????
Step 5: Profit!
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[In the future] He will be lucky to get a burger flipping job.
Not like his high powered job at the college then. From his Q&A in th eFacebook link :
My responsibilities are
1. Set up stage for jazz band for practice.
2. etc
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I'm sure if he was actually smart, he would have been smart enough to know recording his self was the stupidest thing he could have possible done. Just saying..
Re: Why Record Videos of illegal activity? (Score:5, Funny)
If you're going to do something stupid or better yet illegal, don't record yourself.
"If you're going to do something stupid, do it intelligently?"
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If you are going to do something both stupid and illegal don't record yourself doing it.
The recordings are essentially a confession, it's a slam dunk case and he's going to go to jail as a result of his stupidity in doing the action and stupidity in recording it. Had he not recorded it proving this would have been harder and he might have got a plea. With a solid confession on board the DA has no reason to plea and they will throw the book at him.
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I am genuinely curious, because to me even if he gets half of that it seems like total overkill to me.
The silly boy is probably an entitled prick, and was fired for good reasons, but wouldn't a few months prison, and some probation seem like an appropriate response?
Re: Why Record Videos of illegal activity? (Score:5, Interesting)
Honestly, prison seems excessive for most any property crime. Restitution with penalties and interest, an ankle monitor, and a few years of weekends picking up trash seems good. Throw in a jumpsuit that says I'm the jackass that burned out the computers fr fun. If he doesn't seem genuinely repentant, make him wear donkey ears while he picks up the trash.
Re: Why Record Videos of illegal activity? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah but how are we going to keep the PIC funded if we adopt your idea? Don't you understand there's campaign donations involved here?
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Honestly, prison seems excessive for most any property crime
Does it though? I mean, you willingly destroyed property that has some value to it. Someone else now has to dedicate time and effort to restore what was broken and there are a bunch of people who couldn't do their work because of some idiots actions. Sure, you could get the perpetrators to "right the wrong" by spending their own time and money restoring the original state but that doesn't make up for lost productivity and whatever other consequences there were - you know, intangible things.
I think pr
Re: Why Record Videos of illegal activity? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think prison is entirely appropriate here and for other property crimes. If someone decides to destroy/ruin/steal someone else's property, they should be put behind bars for a while so they understand there are consequences to stupid and negative actions.
How does one pay restitution when they are locked up in prison? Punishment isn't the sole purpose of the justice system. There are ways to implement a punishment, pay back the damaged parties, and eventually reincorporate the offender as a valuable member of society. Put the guy to work and direct the earnings towards the damaged party. You could having him pick up trash off the side of the road, or ideally assign him a job where he can learn a valuable skill and proceed into a successful life once his restitution is paid. If it makes you feel better, throw him in jail for a month to let him know what awaits if he fucks up again, then put an ankle bracelet on him and make him stay in some sort of halfway home until his debt is paid. Just throwing him behind bars for 5-10 years isn't going to solve anything.
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To what end? They can't pay their restitution in prison, they can't maintain their other responsabilities, it costs society over 60K/year to keep them there, renders them LESS able to integrate productively into society later, teaches them that society is the enemy, and schools them in new more exciting ways to commit crime.
If you beat a dog that pees on the rug, all you'll get is a dangerously bad tempered dog that pees on the rug.
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Is prison warranted in property crimes? How about if we're talking about white collar criminals who take millions? Bank robbers who threaten people with weapons?
I definitely think there is a place for prison for property crimes. Either repay the full amount, or whatever you can, then somewhere between 1 day/$200 - 1 day/$1000 for whatever can't be repaid/repaired. Let's say we're generous, and give 1 day/$1000 owed. Perhaps they find he has $5000. From the $58,000 he owed, they take his $5000, then give him
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The assault in a bank robbery is not a property crime, it's assault.
As for Madoff, a long term membership in Club Fed on our dime doesn't do anything to make the people he wronged whole. Paying back every last penny he stole with penalties and interest does.
How are you going to enforce a 270 year prison sentence? Are you planning to keep his rotting corpse in a cell?
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Proper restitution (Score:2)
Honestly, prison seems excessive for most any property crime. Restitution with penalties and interest, an ankle monitor, and a few years of weekends picking up trash seems good. Throw in a jumpsuit that says I'm the jackass that burned out the computers fr fun. If he doesn't seem genuinely repentant, make him wear donkey ears while he picks up the trash.
Restitution should be having to pay for the replacement systems and personally rebuilding and configuring each one of them.
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Re: Why Record Videos of illegal activity? (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course that would be unreasonable, but that's how the attorney general gets to prescribe your actual sentence through a plea deal. We'll drop the crazy charges and you'll serve one year or we go to court and try to nail you for ten, what'll it be? It's a huge risk to fight the charges even if you're innocent, if you're objectively guilty and take it to court for a lesser sentence your legal team had better be miracle workers. In most cases a jury will end up much closer to the legal maximum than the plea deal because they feel like slam dunking criminals. Remember this [cnn.com] case?
Re: Why Record Videos of illegal activity? (Score:4, Informative)
It's a huge risk to fight the charges even if you're innocent,
My understanding is hiring a lawyer to get a plea deal is around $10-30k. If it goes to trial it's a minimum of $100k. Just for the lawyer. Expert witnesses and other crap add to that.
Think about that for a bit. You get charged with something you didn't do. Not only are you trading off 1 year vs 10, if you roll the dice and go for broke you're, well, broke even if you win.
Something is broken with our system of "justice".
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Something is broken with our system of "justice".
You are right, but I can assure you that things are far far worse than you can possibly imagine. I am a career IT guy (I am American by the way) but I have plenty of friends who are lawyers and they've taught me a lot about how the US justice system really works. Imagine the following scenario which could happen. Just suppose some friend or neighbor or acquaintance gets angry with you and sues you over something that is complete bs, but they are trying to ruin you financially. You hire lawyer and fi
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Except that if you're innocent, you can often get the other side to cover legal costs.
Of course, in this case not only did he do something blatantly illegal, he filmed himself doing it, so 'innocent' isn't really an option.
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Good luck getting the state to pay for your legal costs if you are found not guilty.
If you win a civil suit then maybe but not in a criminal case.
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I would guess (I have no data) that the extreme vast majority of dropped charges and acquittals are not paired with the government handing over a "oh, our bad" with a check for the cost of your legal team to defend against the State's charges.
In civil matters, yes there are measures for counter-suing to cover legal costs, as well as punitive damages that can be levied for frivolous actions. Not so much with criminal actions - sure there are statutes against malicious prosecution and so on, but good luck ma
Didn't get 10 years Unless you want a million laws (Score:5, Insightful)
He didn't get 10 years.
The article, like most, quotes the maximum anyone could ever get for violating a particular statute. Rarely does anyone get the maximum. The judge takes into account exactly what the person did, their record, etc. In most cases, the penalty is actually negotiated with the defendant via their attorney.
The crime he was charged with would be something like "intentionally destroying property greater than $10,000". That covers taking a baseball bat to your ex-boyfriend's car, destroying the school computers, intentionally driving a bulldozer through someone's house, and lots of other ways of destroying lots of things. The WORST possible cases of "intentionally destroying property valued *over* $10,000" could get 10 years, if the defendant told the judge "fuck you, I'll do it again when I get out".
You can reduce the judge's descretion by enacting a specific law against "destroying a schools computers" and another law against "destroying your neighbor's car" ans another against "destroying the judge's house", but I think we have enough laws already.
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He'll never do the 10. This is the opening shot from the DA, pushing this guy and his lawyer into the room to plead it down to 1-2 years plus a multi-year tail of probation and parole. State's attorneys do this all the time - announce the maximum to scare the shit out of you (especially if they have a solid case, which they definitely do here), and then offer a deal that saves the taxpayers the expense and hassle of a jury trial as well as the expense of locking this asshole up for a further 8 years.
And r
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The assistant DA will often accept a plea for less of a sentence in order to spare the taxpayer the expense and time of a trial that has a known outcome due to all the considerations you mention.
This guy will see the inside of a jail for a few years, and still get a fine; but it won't be what is reported here. Especially since it was a non-violent crime - they'll kick him due to overcrowding long before he's in for 10 years even if he eats the whole meal.
US prison has free healthcare fmc roc mayo clinic (Score:2)
US prison has free healthcare fmc Rochester has mayo clinic
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US prison has free healthcare fmc Rochester has mayo clinic
I can guarantee you it ain't free.
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$2-3 copay fed
TX $100/year MAX some situations are free and you get it even if you have no funds.
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Re: US prison has free healthcare fmc roc mayo cli (Score:2)
Re: US prison has free healthcare - YES (Score:2)
Yes, you get free health care.
Not always good care.
Last time I was at the eye doctor there was a prisoner in handcuffs and belly chain sitting at the refractometer with a cop standing next to him. Nurse said they get 2-3 a week from the local jail.
For the large prisons a lot of the medical needs [like glasses] are cared for inside the walls - I knew an internist and a psychiatrist that had offices inside the walls of San Quinton in California.
There are some cases of people committing crimes in order to get
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If you're going to do something stupid or better yet illegal, don't record yourself.
"If you're going to do something stupid, do it intelligently?"
Crime in a nutshell, lol
The number of super genius criminals who outsmart everybody (like in the movies) is very, very small ...
Because for a lot of folks, that's the whole point (Score:5, Interesting)
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It's not a dichotomous choice of either frying a bunch of computers or shooting up a building of people. And it's also not like getting revenge in some destructive way was the only option in this case.
10 years in prison is excessive... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: 10 years in prison is excessive... (Score:2)
Re:10 years in prison is excessive... (Score:5, Informative)
And shows how fucked up the US "justice" system is. Average sentence for murder is something like seven years. He should be given a psych evaluation and made to pay restitution via wage garnishment in the future.
He is unlikely to get 10 years. That's the maximum sentence when they add up the maximum for each charge and it makes it more newsworthy. The maximum for murder is life without parole or death, and as you say the average may be closer to 7 years. In this case since he admitted fault and agreed to pay for the damages he will get some smaller sentence, possibly time already served or a few months. It is likely his visa will be revoked.
Re:10 years in prison is excessive... (Score:5, Interesting)
His confession (recording of the act) makes it unlikely prosecutors will make any deal of any kind. All his bargaining power is gone with that confession. They tend to throw the book at people when they have a confession. If he pleads guilty the Judge might have some sympathy, but if he fights it he'll get the full kit.
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Jails are crowded. Investing a jail cell for 10 years for a non-violent crime, when more dangerous people deserve harsh punishment, may not appreal to a prosecutor.
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The history of successful prosecutions against guilty people, and the public embarrassment when they fail to convict a dangerous person, both indicate their interest. I'd agree that their efforts are too often misplaced or politically diverted.
Re:10 years in prison is excessive... (Score:4, Interesting)
If he wrote that USB death stick software himself,
It's hardware. Basically a transformer that steps up the voltage, stores the charge in a capacitor then zaps the USB circuit and thus the motherboard with 200V or so.
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Kids and their toys. When I was in high school some local delinquents discovered that they could scuff their feet on a carpet to build up a static charge, touch the keyboard lock and zap the motherboard. No fancy USB killer stick needed. Myself and a few volunteers spent a weekend opening the machines up, identifying which could be saved, and disconnecting the keyboard locks. And the computer room got a humidifier.
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Re:10 years in prison is excessive... (Score:5, Informative)
Oh horseshit. First of all, he has not been sentenced to anything yet. 10 years is the maximum he could get, whereas the maximum for murder is life imprisonment, or in some cases death. Secondly, the AVERAGE murder sentence is 40.6 years, where did you get that idiotic 7 years? The average property crime sentence is about 4 years. https://www.bjs.gov/content/pu... [bjs.gov]
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Secondly, the AVERAGE murder sentence is 40.6 years
Yet somehow the MEDIAN murder sentence (on the first page of your link) is less than 14 years, far closer to OP's estimate than your supposed statistic.
Sentences for particularly egregious murders tend to be tens or even hundreds of times longer than the murderer can be expected to live [wikipedia.org], which makes the concept of an "average" sentence fairly meaningless.
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Learn to read. The first page is not showing the sentence length, it is showing time spent in prison before first release. Sentence length is on page 4.
Re:10 years in prison is excessive... (Score:4, Informative)
Still can't read, huh? The OP did not say the amount of time spent in prison, he said the average SENTENCE for murder was 7 years, and he was comparing it to a max 10 year SENTENCE for this crime, as if this crime was getting more time than the average murderer. If you want to compare time actually served, then the MEDIAN 1 year for property crimes must be compared with the MEDIAN 14 years for murder. Whether you compare sentences (average 40.6 years for murder vs MAX 10 years for this), or average time served, either way the OP (and you) are completely wrong.
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Re: 10 years in prison is excessive... (Score:2)
The problem with using that ~14 year statistic is that it includes people whose sentence ended by death, and the number of people who died in prison during their terms is not insignificant. That means we can really infer a whole lot about murder sentences from that statistic. If say it's a bit less meaningless than the 40 year average sentence statistic but still it's not that useful. Even then, around 15 years for your average murder makes sense to me. Realize that most of the murders are going to be secon
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I'll take a link to bjs.gov over SlaveToTheGrind's opinion
Opinion? One more time:
Yet somehow the MEDIAN murder sentence (on the first page of your link) is less than 14 years
Reading comprehension is an increasingly lost art.
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I'm gonna guess that counts the guy that got convicted with life without parole and 3 months later killed him self. That probably counts as serving 3 months on a m1 or something stupid like that. you know how statistics lie and shit. I know here in nevada If you murder someone(m1) you're lucky to get to see the light of day within the next 10 years. that's the cool down period for that crime. They lock you in a cell, and to shower, they have a shower box that rolls around and it gets rolled up to your door
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You could do more monetary damage by totaling someone’s parked Tesla with a lifted pickup truck, and you’re likely not going to face jail time for that.
He should have to pay for the replacement costs of computers he damaged and any labor costs associated with replacing them/restoring the backups/reconfiguring them. That alone is enough of a deterrent to keep copycats from getting any ideas - there’s no need to “send a message.”
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Federal sentences come from guidelines with charts and point systems. Google "USSC". Whenever you hear "up to N years", it's going to be nowhere near that much unless a whole bunch of aggravating factors line up, like having a long record.
Re:10 years in prison is excessive... (Score:5, Informative)
Incorrect. It is a federal case so he has to do I believe 85% before he is eligible for parole. That means at a maximum sentence of 10 years he would do 8.5 years minimum. When it comes down to state there is different rules all around the country. Nevada has a scaling system where its x-x months/years and the front number can not exceed 40% of the back number. So for instance he could get a 4-10 year sentence. In 4 years from the date of arrest he would get a chance to see the parole board. depending on the crime they can choose to dump him(not release). That normally depends somewhat on your case, your behavior in prison, and wot not. Some states have a flat time system and you do the time they give you. 48 months is 48 months. Telling you this from experience unfortunately.
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People rarely get hit with the maximum penalty though. That max is there to prevent judges with justice priapisms from putting a guy behind bars forever because he didn't pay a parking ticket.
He plead out and agreed to pay for the damages so he likely wont get the maximum sentence.
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Yes i know that, i was just correcting the GP on the fact that if they give him max he will be doing 8.5 years.
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Why would you even try to bring the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act into this? The computers are probably lab PCs that almost certainly had no data of value (and might have even been re-imaged on a daily/weekly basis). This is just property damage. If there's any abuse involved with the CFAA, though, it's usually in using it as a threat on just about any crime that touches a computer.
$58,000? (Score:5, Funny)
How much damage could of been done with etherkille (Score:2)
How much damage could of been done with etherkiller?
http://www.fiftythree.org/ethe... [fiftythree.org]
First time for everything (Score:4, Funny)
For once, an MBA has to actually pay for the damage himself.
$58K!?!?! (Score:4, Funny)
So, that means 4 Macbooks?
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This isn't a new or original idea (Score:2, Insightful)
Many years ago I worked for a technical institute. Got an urgent call "the computers where exploding"
Some little turd of an individual had switched all the machines off then set the power supplies to 110v (in a 220v country)
So the next person to turn the machine on got a loud bang and smoke...
Many machines where destroyed. Many courses had to be cancelled.
People like this need locked up, forever.
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Even the above post says "many years ago." 110+220 V power adapters that don't require an explicit switch ARE the norm these days.
Was anyone ever charged for the Etherkiller? (Score:3)
I always wondered if some poor bastard ever unwittingly plugged in one of these things that some malicious person left lying around and if so, what happened (and if anyone was ever charged.)
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and if anyone was ever charged
Or even dis-charged.
Dumbass (Score:2)
Object lesson (Score:2)
Tangential to the subject of the article....look at all the consumers of the news who posted "omg 10 years in prison!" whose naivete allowed them to (somewhat) read the article, believe the idea that he's going to get 10 years (not understanding the hyperbole common to news reporting), and be outraged.
Think of these naive and gullible news consumers next time you read about people being outraged (particularly non Americans commenting on American news) and how easily their feelings are accidentally or delibe
Uh yeah (Score:2)
Vishwanath Akuthota, the former student
Well I would certainly hope he's "former."
What's newsworthy (Score:3)
I hope they covered _all_ the damage... (Score:2)
I hope they accounted for all the damage that he did. He didn't just destroy some computers that have to be replaced, he's wasting a lot of people's time buying and setting up replacement computers, and may have destroyed work that was stored on the computers. And anybody that does something so randomly destructive needs to be punished in order to discourage future random destruction by others.
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I still plan to get one of those.... (Score:2)
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It's self explanatory, he did it because hes stupid.. They didn't need to mention it. We all got it.
Re:Fuses (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Fuses (Score:5, Informative)
these USB killers do way more than a hundred volts. IIRC it was in the thousands and it usually hits them multiple times before you can yank the usb, cycling about once a second. Though there is no amperage behind it the volts come in so quickly that I doubt even ESD protection could block it. When this was demoed it killed even protected computers because it slams it 3-4 times before the person can react and yank it out of the slot.
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> Diodes are cheap.
As is the empty space in a car lock. Filling the ignitio with epoxy makes the car useless. Blowing the USB ports on a school computer makes the keyboard, mouse, printer, or other devices useless.
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I'm can't quite understand the folks who are defending the perp. I mean, this wasn't a political statement, it wasn't done for any higher purpose, it was done because the guy had zero respect for the people who own and maintain the equipment.
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Re: There was easier way for him to destroy those (Score:2)
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that does not really damage the hardware to the point of junking it.
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Re: Proportional? (Score:2)
Anyone shipping computers that can't handle the 'pretty much any pin could get shorted to any other pin(s)' cases commonly caused by dodgy peripherals or connector and wiring damage is, indeed, doing shamefully shoddy work and deserves all the warranty returns they get(potentially more if the warranty is stingy). Some basic ESD endurance is also pretty much expected in consumer devices: requiring ESD protection measures on stuff that isn't b
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I wonder if the shifters of such boxes have considered the marketing benefits of a separate, grounded, USB board for the external sockets. Fry that and it's a 10$ fix, not a dead 250$ box - neglecting technician time.
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$10 price difference is enough to sway a cost sensitive purchasing agent to buy a different brand. And the repair time or service call are much more expensive, taking the system offline for as much as a few weeks while the machines get pulled out of service, shipped to the vendor or an on-site tech visits, and the hosts repaired and tested.