Some e-cigarettes from China have malware hard coded into the charger, providing cyber-criminals with an unusual but effective infection vector, according to online reports.
Reddit user ‘Jrockilla,’ who claims to be ‘an IT guy,’ posted a story last week about a data breach at a large enterprise.
The IT team apparently couldn’t work out the cause of a malware infection on an executive’s computer, given that the user had up-to-date anti-malware protection installed.
He continued:
“They finally asked the executive, ‘have there been any changes in your life recently?’. The executive answered, ‘well yes, I quit smoking two weeks ago and switched to e-cigarettes.’ And that was the answer they were looking for. The made-in-China e-cigarette had malware hard-coded into the charger and when plugged into a computer’s USB port the malware phoned home and infected the system.”
Phil Barnett, EMEA general manager at Good Technology, argued that the news should serve as a warning on the dangers of “a new generation of intelligent devices.”
