(Newswire.net — November 24, 2014) — Vast majority of electronic cigarette vaporizers comes with charging capabilities through USB port on your computer. It is handy, fast and some says dangerous to your personal data.
According to a report on Reditt, soon as you plug in your e-cigarette into USB port to charge the battery, the malicious software activates and the manufacturer of e-cigarette product is able to scan your personal data.
Reportedly, the whole thing has been discovered when certain executive of an unnamed company hired professionals to clean his otherwise well-protected system. The search for a source of software infection turned into a quite investigation until experts discovered that his Chinese made e-cigarette contains the threat.
“The made in China e-cigarette had malware hardcoded into the charger, and when plugged into a computer’s USB ports the malware phoned home and infected the system.”
Rik Ferguson, a security consultant for Trend Micro, confirms that the story is entirely plausible. He said that not only e-cigarettes might be infected, but every device that digitally connects wit the computer.
Ferguson said that malware software now attacks production line infecting photo frames, MP3 players and more. “In 2008, for instance, a photo frame produced by Samsung shipped with malware on the product’s install disc,” he says.
“Very widely spread USB controller chips, including those in thumb drives, have no protection from such reprogramming,” says Berlin-based firm SRLabs, referring to a recent proof-of-concept attack called ‘BadUSB’.
“For consumers it’s a case of running up-to-date anti-malware for the production line stuff and only using trusted devices to counter the threat,” SRLabs experts said.
The other side of this story is a concern that it may be released to steer consumers away from cheap Chinese vaporizers as Dave Goss, of London’s Vape Emporium advices which brands are certainly malicious software free.
The truth is that any device that charges through USB port could potently represent a threat to your personal data, especially when 90 percent of those connectors come from China.
So far, there is nothing impossible to clean, if you have good updated antimalware software. At least, not yet.