Statutory warning: E-cigarettes could be injurious to your computer!

Statutory warning: E-cigarettes could be injurious to your computer!
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E-cigarettes may be better for your health than normal ones, but spare a thought for your poor computer — electronic cigarettes have become the latest vector for malicious software, according to online reports.

E-cigarettes may be better for your health than normal ones, but spare a thought for your poor computer — electronic cigarettes have become the latest vector for malicious software, according to online reports.

Affirming these reports, a security consultant from Trend Micro, Rik Ferguson has commented, “Production line malware has been around for a few years, infecting photo frames, MP3 players and more.” Earlier, a report on social news site Reddit has suggested that at least one “vaper” has suffered the downside of trusting their cigarette manufacturer.

“One particular executive had a malware infection on his computer from which the source could not be determined,” the user writes. “After all traditional means of infection were covered; IT started looking into other possibilities. 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.”

Many e- cigarettes can be charged over USB, either with a special cable, or by plugging the cigarette itself directly into a USB port. That might be a USB port plugged into a wall socket or the port on a computer. But, if so, that means that a cheap e- cigarette from an untrustworthy supplier gains physical access to a device.

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