e-Cigarettes Can Give You… Malware?

Be careful plugging your e-cigarette into your computer’s USB port to charge: that USB adapter included with your healthy smoking alternative may not have been for your convenience. New reports suggest that certain brands of e-cigs carry malware that automatically install when attached to your PC.

A Reddit user reported about his boss at the “large corporation” he works for suffered a massive data security breach that could not initially be determined. “After all traditional means of infection were covered, IT started looking into other possibilities,” he said. It found the problem, and traced it back to the boss’ e-cigarette: “The made in China e-cigarette had malware hardcoded into the charger, and when plugged into a computer’s USB port the malware phoned home and infected the system.”

Rik Ferguson of Trend Micro has some advice for future e-cig customers: “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.”

Source: The Guardian