? Another reason to use a wall wart?
- Thread starter NorthOfAtlanta
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Wow! What can I say? First they go after the chilllun and we did nothing. But now they're after my laptop?! That's where I draw the line! Nobody touches the laptop! 
I have to say this sounds like a load of boogaloo. I don't buy from China anyway so not concerned.
What is there not to believe? It sounds very plausible PRC companies would insert malware into anything with a USB connection...
And what benefit would they gain from doing so, aside from no one wanting to buy their products anymore?
Do you understand the concept of malware? It is in a lot of things and tracing the source can be quite difficult, if not impossible...
As seems to be your habit, you didn't answer the question. What is the manufacturer's motivation for destroying their customers' computers?
The PRC government, hacking, espionage... Malware has even been found in new mobile phones and computers- from the factories...
I use a wall wort all the time. if you don't open or install you ego lol you can get any thing from your ego lol.
I think even low end protection will save you lol
Best wishes
Vape on
P.s
Do you know what it would cost to add the teck to make it do that on every device?
I think even low end protection will save you lol
Best wishes
Vape on
P.s
Do you know what it would cost to add the teck to make it do that on every device?
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I'll give you two options. You tell me which one is more plausible:
1) The government of the People's Republic of China is waging organized espionage against e-cig-using mid-level managers at English clerical offices.
2) The boss got a virus from a ......... and didn't want to tell the IT guy.
I'll go with option three...
The author of that piece or his employer (or both) are nanny liberals at heart who have fallen for ANTZ lies about the evil e-cigs and wanted to create a false flag operation to fuel even more false hate towards e-cigs and vapers. Those nanny type do gooders tend to stick together whenever they think they have a cause to fight for in their quest for the perfect utopian society.
Who in his/her right mind would hook up a cheapoid USB charger — capable of going "kablooie!" at any time — to an expensive computer motherboard?
Everyone I know either uses wallwarts or inexpensive, standalone, multi-port USB hubs available for about $10.
FWIW, I defy anyone to show me a cheapoid USB charger that wasn't manufactured in China.
Everyone I know either uses wallwarts or inexpensive, standalone, multi-port USB hubs available for about $10.
FWIW, I defy anyone to show me a cheapoid USB charger that wasn't manufactured in China.
Anything that can plug into a USB port and has enough memory to perform its function and still have room for malware could infect your computer. It's not something I worry about. Malwarebytes (registered version) catches redirects to known bad sites and notifies me in the taskbar. SuperAntiSpyware (unregistered) catches PUPware here and there. Microsoft Security Essentials (called Windows Defender on my Win 8.1 machine) runs real time detection.
Except for PUPs my computers stay pretty clean. People I know bring me computers that are highly infected with pop ups so prolific that they prevent actual use of the computer. You can't even click on anything for popups. I usually find and remove a rootkit virus when that happens.
If there was a virus on an ecig, good detection software would probably catch it when you inserted it.
What irks me is when I clean a computer and the same people bring it back infected after they removed the free software I installed to prevent that from happening.
Except for PUPs my computers stay pretty clean. People I know bring me computers that are highly infected with pop ups so prolific that they prevent actual use of the computer. You can't even click on anything for popups. I usually find and remove a rootkit virus when that happens.
If there was a virus on an ecig, good detection software would probably catch it when you inserted it.
What irks me is when I clean a computer and the same people bring it back infected after they removed the free software I installed to prevent that from happening.
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hi Nate,
it may not be the manufacturer.
when these type of things have happened in the past
its usually due to hackers paying off employees to
insert malware. compaq,hewlett packard,acer,you name
it. they have all been plagued with malware installed on
there computers at the factory before the usb spec came along.
today of course these things are more easily done via the
interwebs though improbable its still very possible to be done
over devices that use usb to charge.they are basically small
computers.
regards
mike
I see the same thing all the time with friends and family members. I honestly can't fathom how people manage to get their computers so jacked up with malware. In 20 years running internet-connected computers, I've had a total of one minor infection, and that was in around 1998. I take no special precautions except running free antivirus and anti-malware programs, staying away from dodgy websites, and not opening potentially dodgy email attachments.
One distant family member several times removed brought me his mini notebook for the third time in months, just ate up with serious malware and viruses. After the second time I spent several hours running eradication programs and cleaning it up, I decided I wasn't going to do that anymore. I booted into the restore utility, wiped it and left it in an out of the box state, and gave it back to him. He hasn't been back since. I guess I lost a free(loader) customer. Considering his browser history file, I know why and where he got clobbered.
I run three virus and malware programs, but only one running in real time scan mode. That's the registered version of Malwarebytes. I've had tracker PUPs and minor adware here and there, but only one serious infection in a decade. That was a rootkit that I eradicated with TDSSKiller.
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I have 5 ecig devices that plug into USB for power. I've never had a computer offer to install PNP software for any of them or had security software complain about any,. The main reason is that these devices just want 5v power from whatever they plug into. They aren't smart - as far as computers are concerned. Most come with a 2-lead USB connector - +voltage and Ground - and no data capability at all. One - I don't know how smart - it came with a a cable capable of data xfer but the computer doesn't recognize it as 'smart' at all. No Problems. Except - the computer gives them like 400MA of power unless they could prove they need more ( requires smartness) then it could give them 750ma. But none of the ones I've got are smart - so a wall-wart can give them more power - so they recharge faster. So look at the card-edge connector thats the USB connector - 2 connection leads - no problem - the cable for USB connecting - 2-wire? no problem.
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https://srlabs.de/badusb/
Have you heard of the most recent "BadUSB" vulnerability? Malware is loaded onto a microController that is invisible to the OS, and is found already on nearly all USB devices. Because it is invisible to the OS, virus scanners don't see it. At least, that's the basic gist I get from it. I haven't actually read much into it because I don't plug odd things into my USB ports.
As far the this story though, I think they were just full of crap.
I defy anyone to find a cheap usb ecig charger that uses anything but the pos & neg leads. I defy anyone to find even ONE usb e-cig charger that has any connection on its pcb to the usb data lines. This entire notion of malware on an e-cig charger is totally rediculous.
btw... These chargers arent going to cause harm if they're plugged into your desktop pc or laptop. It's just better to use a higher amperage wal wart than relying on the relatively low power output on a laptop or netbook
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