One of the best ways to stay safe and secure when using your computers and other electronic devices is to be aware of the risks.
Most risks are obvious: use strong passwords, don't download and install software from untrustworthy websites, or hand your unlocked device to a third party.
There are less obvious - yet equally dangerous - risks that can result in device or network intrusion, or even device destruction.
Here are seven bits of kit that look like ordinary tech gadgets, but that are actually powerful hacking tools.
Note that none of these tools are sold specifically as hacking tools.
This broad capability means the Flipper Zero can be used to control items that have an infrared remote control, to clone RFID cards and NFC tags, to capture and retransmit radio frequencies that control things, such as access barriers and even car locks, and to be connected to computers or iPhone and Android devices, which can be used to send keystrokes to the system to do well, pretty much anything you can do from a keyboard.
They look like regular charging cables, but built into the connector at one end of the O.MG cable is a tiny computer, which remains dormant until the cable is connected to a device such as a PC or Mac, or even an iPhone or Android smartphone.
The computer at the end of an O.MG cable acts like a tiny keyboard, pumping out keystrokes to the device it's connected to.
USBKill devices are little dongles that look like USB flash drives, but instead of storing data, they send circuit-busting electrical charges into the devices they are plugged into.
The devices can be triggered by pressing a button, using bluetooth, running a timed attack, or even by passing your hand over the device when wearing a covert magnetic ring.
These devices provide yet another reason to avoid plugging random stuff into your devices.
This is a simple and cheap, but very effective device.
Inside its tiny shell, the USB Nugget - which looks like a kitty - has everything needed to drop malicious payloads to pretty much whatever the device finds itself connected to.
Thanks to a built-in ESP32-S2 Wi-Fi chipset, this device can be controlled remotely, so that the hacker doesn't even have to be anywhere near the system.
The Pineapple can also be used to monitor the collection of data from all devices in its close vicinity, and users can save and go back to this data at a future date.
One easy way to attack a system is to get a device to pretend to be a keyboard and have it act like there's a human typing.
While we've already looked at devices that can send keystrokes to a device, this tool is a dedicated Rubber Ducky device.
The Rubber Ducky is so discreet that someone might plug it into a device, leave it connected, and it might be days, weeks or even months before it's found.
The Turtle is yet another one of those hacking tools that looks innocent and could remain undetected for a long period of time.
Be careful what you plug into your devices, or else.
This Cyber News was published on www.zdnet.com. Publication date: Tue, 30 Jan 2024 23:43:05 +0000