China-made E-Cigarette Chargers Could Infect Your Computer with Virus
"The executive's system was patched up to date, had antivirus and anti-malware protection," Reddit user Jrockilla said. "Web logs were scoured and all attempts made to identify the source of the infection but to no avail."
"Finally after all traditional means of infection were covered, IT started looking into other possibilities. They finally asked the executive: 'Have there been any changes in your life recently?' The executive answered: 'Well yes, I quit smoking two weeks ago and switched to e-cigarettes.' And that was the answer they were looking for."
Rik Ferguson, a security consultant for Trend Micro, also considers the matter plausible and says, "Production line malware has been around for a few years, infecting photo frames, MP3 players and more." In 2008, for instance, a photo frame produced by Samsung shipped with malware on the product's install disc, the Guardian reported.
"Hackers are able to exploit any electronic device to serve malware to a poorly protected network," Pierluigi Paganini, chief information security officer at ID management firm, said in a blog post. "Despite the [fact the] idea could appear hilarious, many electronic cigarettes can be charged over USB using a special cable or by inserting one end of the cigarette directly into a USB port."
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