Friday, October 12, 2018

Beware of stray cables

I just watched this scary video demonstration by Kevin Mitnick of KnowBe4 of a lightning cable that infects any computer you plug it into (well, the demo used a Windows 10 computer) with malware. In the demo Kevin suggests that we stop leaving cables plugged into our work computers, implying that the demo lightning cable could be swapped in when our back is turned. And don't use any old cable that you might find lying around? "You need to stop, look, and think", he says, "before you plug any device into your computer."

But Kevin leaves a lot of other questions unanswered:
  • How can we determine if a cable is malicious?
  • How can we tell if a cable we buy in a store is malicious or not? 
    • Do we have to stop buying non-Apple branded lightning cables now?
    • Are Apple branded cables save, even?
  • Can we use anti-malware software to protect ourselves if such a cable is plugged into our machine?
Hey, reader, sleep well tonight!