Student Fried $58,000-Worth of College Computers Using 'USB Killer' Device

Status
Not open for further replies.

alxlwson

You Know Where I Live
Joined
Aug 25, 2013
Messages
9,372
"A 27-year-old former college student pleaded guilty on Tuesday to sticking a “USB killer” device into 66 computers at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York.

On February 14, Vishwanath Akuthota went on a technological rampage, destroying 59 Windows computers and seven Apple computers, and several digital podiums and monitors—all of which had USB slots in which Akuthota inserted a “USB killer” he bought on the internet."

I find it very interesting that these people record themselves committing felonies.
When I was pissed at the school principal in High School, I took a dump on his desk. I guess we've all graduated to screwing everyone over.

Read more over at Gizmodo

Grab your "USB Killer" device here.
 
Akuthota, an Indian citizen in the country on a student visa, graduated from the College of Saint Rose with an MBA in 2017. The incident took place almost two years later, he was subsequently arrested in North Carolina eight days after the computer raid. When he is sentenced in August, he faces a fine of $250,000 and up to ten years in prison.

lock him up for 10 years,make him pay the fine then ship him back where he came from .
 
So the windows keys where worth $58,000 or was it all labor. I need to get a job as a tech guy at a university. Or they are just dell computers or some shit I can't see this frying the mb etc... unless it is some cheap ass equipment.
 
So the windows keys where worth $58,000 or was it all labor. I need to get a job as a tech guy at a university. Or they are just dell computers or some shit I can't see this frying the mb etc... unless it is some cheap ass equipment.

This is school equipment, of course its cheap & probably really old in modern computing sense.
 
So the windows keys where worth $58,000 or was it all labor. I need to get a job as a tech guy at a university. Or they are just dell computers or some shit I can't see this frying the mb etc... unless it is some cheap ass equipment.

Windows keys? I don't think you understand, the USBkiller device sends a high voltage surge into the usb port, frying the computer.
 
This is school equipment, of course its cheap & probably really old in modern computing sense.

^ I get it but, the usb port would be fried.


But come on, like all the videos of this thing are of old laptops or Pentium boxes. It's like I don't believe it, it must be $58,000 for the new windows key, or because the usb port was fried they bought new computers.



Like this guy has a Chromebook die on him and that was it.
 
Last edited:
From TFA, it was 59 Windows computers, 7 Apple computers, + some digital podiums and monitors. Replaced for about $51,000 for hardware and about $7,300 for investigating and installation labor.

Weird thing is the guy got his MBA from the school in 2017 so I am wondering what his beef was.
 
From TFA, it was 59 Windows computers, 7 Apple computers, + some digital podiums and monitors. Replaced for about $51,000 for hardware and about $7,300 for investigating and installation labor.

Weird thing is the guy got his MBA from the school in 2017 so I am wondering what his beef was.
Its a conspiracy I am not buying it, that usb thing does not work.
 
This is school equipment, of course its cheap & probably really old in modern computing sense.

The local universities and community college near me are pretty high end.

Heck... even the community college are using the latest Xeon and i7 cpus in the library.

They have the latest Latitudes, Thinkpads, and Macbooks for students to check out as well.
 
Last edited:
Its a conspiracy I am not buying it, that usb thing does not work.

The video you linked showed it worked.... None of the USB ports it was plugged into worked for data anymore.

At the enterprise level it means the equipment needs to be replaced. It's not covered under manufacturer warranty, and it's not time or cost effective to replace the motherboards \ logic boards in 66 computers. This stuff sounds trivial to us but once you get to big business small items are rarely repaired. Items are either covered under warranties and replaced by the manufacturer or scrapped and replaced with something covered under warranty. (Even if only one of the USB ports in each computer doesn't work, why should the school have to live with it? The moron caused this damage and can deal with the cost to undo it. )
 
This is worse than him sticking a USB with a virus and infecting the computers. At least with the virus, they don't lose the hardware. Anybody know if the USB ports are disabled, does this still work? If not, the school should have disabled the ports. I'm sure in the future they will.
 
This is worse than him sticking a USB with a virus and infecting the computers. At least with the virus, they don't lose the hardware. Anybody know if the USB ports are disabled, does this still work? If not, the school should have disabled the ports. I'm sure in the future they will.

From what I understand of this, this is both a hardware and software vulnerability
 
Shit I'll do it and post the results here, but I'm not paying for a paper weight.

Typical response. Crawfishing...

500LCF-3.jpg
 
Typical response. Crawfishing...

View attachment 155771

You craw fishing, pony up if your so confident mail one to me and I will film myself putting it in every hole. Whats like $150 dollars to you when I have thousands of dollars worth of shit I will connect it to?

Ooooooooooohhhhhhhh, you too must know it does not work based on the video i posted. Well what do you know we have a catfish not a craw dad.
 
You craw fishing, pony up if your so confident mail one to me and I will film myself putting it in every hole. Whats like $150 dollars to you when I have thousands of dollars worth of shit I will connect it to?

Ooooooooooohhhhhhhh, you too must know it does not work based on the video i posted. Well what do you know we have a catfish not a craw dad.

What does it matter how much equipment you have to connect it to. If it doesn't work, then you wont lose any of it.

I'm also not the one calling "conspiracy" about it working or not. You, on the other hand, are.
 
What does it matter how much equipment you have to connect it to. If it doesn't work, then you wont lose any of it.

I'm also not the one calling "conspiracy" about it working or not. You, on the other hand, are.

I'm not paying for a paper weight and i know it won't work, it is a conspiracy. If you for some reason want to prove me wrong, go ahead and prove me wrong.

I need the pro kit to plug every hole. That is 105.18
 
I'm not paying for a paper weight and i know it won't work, it is a conspiracy. If you for some reason want to prove me wrong, go ahead and prove me wrong.

Multiple videos already prove you wrong.
 
The local universities and community college near me are pretty high end.

Heck... even the community college are using the latest Xeon and i7 cpus in the library.

The have the latest Latitudes, Thinkpads, and Macbooks for students to check out as well.

^ You just described my University
 
No, no you do not need the pro version as I stated above. The regular version with some regular USB adapters will work just as well.

Also, I'm not buying the device for YOU to do YOUR testing of YOUR theory. I know it works. I don't need to be proven otherwise.

So, you are suggesting I plug it into every hole to show my confidence. I am willing to do that, all the holes. But, I am not paying for a useless device. You are not willing to provide a device, therefore we both agree that it will not work. My reason because I am 100% sure its a conspiracy it will not work at all, no testing needed. Your reason: you too know it is a conspiracy and don't want to spend $68-105 to brick all of my stuff because you know it wont work, no testing needed.
 
So, what makes you think this doesn't work? It seems like a pretty simple concept: Use a capacitor or small high-amperage battery to store a little of the 5V juice from the power pins..... Then feed it back at a MUCH higher voltage and amperage on the data pins and BAM, it's done.
Shiz, we have a variable amperage and voltage DC power supply system from way back in the day. If you have gear that craps out every few days, is under warranty, and the company is being a bungholio because it won't fail while you are on the phone with them..... pick a hole, set that funker to ~10A @50V and WHAMMO! hahahaha..........Those numbers might be a bit aggressive, setting the gear on fire negates the goal of this mission!
 
So, you are suggesting I plug it into every hole to show my confidence. I am willing to do that, all the holes. But, I am not paying for a useless device. You are not willing to provide a device, therefore we both agree that it will not work. My reason because I am 100% sure its a conspiracy it will not work at all, no testing needed. Your reason: you too know it is a conspiracy and don't want to spend $68-105 to brick all of my stuff because you know it wont work, no testing needed.

The only thing that we for sure know is not working, is the logic you just provided. Jebus.
 
So, you are suggesting I plug it into every hole to show my confidence. I am willing to do that, all the holes. But, I am not paying for a useless device. You are not willing to provide a device, therefore we both agree that it will not work. My reason because I am 100% sure its a conspiracy it will not work at all, no testing needed. Your reason: you too know it is a conspiracy and don't want to spend $68-105 to brick all of my stuff because you know it wont work, no testing needed.

That’s a lot of words to say something so profoundly stupid.
 
Dumb to blame USB, cause one could do the same to HDMI, RS232, or any other port.
All you'd need is a free power cord with the IEC end cut off. Rocket science, go figure...
 
Last edited:
So, you are suggesting I plug it into every hole to show my confidence. I am willing to do that, all the holes. But, I am not paying for a useless device. You are not willing to provide a device, therefore we both agree that it will not work. My reason because I am 100% sure its a conspiracy it will not work at all, no testing needed. Your reason: you too know it is a conspiracy and don't want to spend $68-105 to brick all of my stuff because you know it wont work, no testing needed.

You made the claim, the burden of proof is on you to back it up. If you're not willing to back up your claim, your words are a complete waste of kilobytes.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top