It’s long been known that you should never insert an unknown USB drive to your computer because it could be loaded with malware. However, new research from Ben-Gurion University has exposed 29 types of USB attacks, and extends to your smartphone. It shows that you should never use a USB charger you find lying around or plug into a public USB port. Both can be compromised by attackers, as we talked about with one of the researchers on the project, Ran Yahalom.
“We surveyed 29 attacks, updated last year. New methods of likely developed and published attacks increase that number. The microcontroller, a reprogrammable microcontroller used to impersonate peripherals as well as an actually the firmware update. Academic circles call this ‘bad USB.’ It’s a family of attacks based on reprogramming the firmware.”
Read more at Tech Republic
