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A comment on Journalist plugs in unknown USB drive mailed to him–it exploded in his face.

Re:Journalist plugs in unknown USB drive mailed to him–it ex... by snozolli on Wednesday March 22, 2023 @04:47PM (#35266858)
Police determined that the drive featured explosives but believe it didn't explode because the adapter the producer used didn't have enough juice to activate it, Fundamedios said.

Sounds like journalists need USB extension cables that include a current and voltage limiter. Maybe just a USB 1.0 dumbed-down interface would do it.

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Re:Journalist plugs in unknown USB drive mailed to him–it ex... by anonu on Wednesday March 22, 2023 @04:50PM (#35266904)
Why even risk it? Sounds like they need an explosives tester..
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Re:Journalist plugs in unknown USB drive mailed to him–it ex... by Arrath on Wednesday March 22, 2023 @05:23PM (#35267279)
Little robot arm in a blast enclosure to plug the drive into an extension cable.

Strangely, it still takes 3 tries for the robot to correctly insert the device..

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Re:Journalist plugs in unknown USB drive mailed to him–it ex... by mgdlbp on Wednesday March 22, 2023 @06:20PM (#35267822)
1. Plug drive into cable

2. Plug in other end of cable

3. ???

4. !!!

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Re:Journalist plugs in unknown USB drive mailed to him–it ex... by jackvalentine on Wednesday March 22, 2023 @07:43PM (#35268632)
Or just leave the cable end outside of the box unplugged and only plug it in once the box is closed.
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Re:Journalist plugs in unknown USB drive mailed to him–it ex... by yencabulator on Friday March 24, 2023 @05:49PM (#35296114)
Cue mechanical force triggered fuse. But at that point, you could just make a letter that blows up when opened.
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Re:Journalist plugs in unknown USB drive mailed to him–it ex... by lostlogin on Thursday March 23, 2023 @01:18AM (#35270780)
Sounds like one of the journalists already had this in place. Crappy USB hubs have at least one use.
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Re:Journalist plugs in unknown USB drive mailed to him–it ex... by sacnoradhq on Thursday March 23, 2023 @02:48AM (#35271238)
It would be much safer to have a current- and voltage-limiting rig in a remote room handled by robotics.

Newspaper mailrooms should risk manage packages and have an ability to X-ray them and sweep them for explosive residues.

Reporters are targets. The cost of doing nothing is death and injury.

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