Vishwanath Akuthota, 27 years old Indian national living in the USA on a student visa destroyed seven Apple computers, 59 windows PC and several podiums and digital monitors having USB ports through a USB killer on February 14, 2019.
The process how actually that USB killer stick worked is after it is plugged into the host it starts collecting the power into its capacitors and after it reaches to a high voltage then it discharged that back into the source device.
That high voltage push back overloaded and destroyed the computer’s USB port and obviously the electrical systems. This USB killer can be made at home with few electrical parts or can be purchased online easily.
In USB-C the cryptographic authentication protocol is supposed to prevent these types of attacks, however, some people claim that this protocol can be bypassed through a proper device.
Vishwanath Akuthota recorded himself while destroying the PCs on his phone which is the proof why he is guilty. Before destroying the computer with USB killer stick he said or whispered “I’m going to kill this guy”, according to a press release.
His this act made equipment damage of worth $51,109 and $7,362 were spent for replacing the destroyed equipment and on the investigation. However, the student has agreed to pay the full damage amount back to the school for this USB killer act.
It is still unclear what was his motivation to this, but if we judge through his recording and statement it seems that he had a grudge on someone, he graduated in business master’s degree from Saint Rose college back in 2017. Akuthota will be sentenced to jail for 10 years which is set to take place on August 12, 2019. Moreover, a fine of $250,000 is also imposed on him.
