Beware of USB Killer Version 2.0: It can burn your laptop

A Russian researcher nicknamed Dark Purple launched a new version of computer killer: USB Killer version 2.0. The first version of USB Killer was announced on March 2015. Instead of storing data, 'killer USB' causes serious damage on a laptop or computer.

According to hackernews, USB Killer fries the device using high voltage to destroy the computer's circuit board. This USB stick can be a powerful weapon to kill or damage any device with USB port.

Dark Purple, the inventor of USB Killer mentioned in his blog that the idea of creating a powerful USB weapon that kills computers came up from a discussion with his colleagues at work.

They discussed creating a USB flash drive that would burn a laptop down. He began to design the USB flash drive to do this function: burn the device. After a week, he developed quite specific circuit implementation and ordered the component to China to assemble this computer killer weapon.

On his latest Russian blog, Dark Purple related how he managed to organize the installation and testing of USB 2.0 prototypes.

The device performs only one function - the destruction of computers. And it is not limited to computers, any device with USB host interface can be harmed with this USB stick.

For example smartphones that support USB OTG mode, TV, routers, modems, and even oscilloscope with USB interface, these devices can be damaged easily by USB Killer version 2.0.

The main feature of USB Killer Version 2.0 is the output had been doubled to 220V (the previous version had 110V of output). The body was also modified making USB Killer Version 2.0 more compact compared to the older version.

The main principle on how it works is still the same with the previous version. Connecting this killing USB stick to port starts operation of the voltage converter, which charge the capacitor to 220 V.

Watch the video about how USB Killer 2.0 works on a laptop. The video meant to test the new version of USB Killer. As it mentioned in Stan Schroeder's "Watch a USB Killer Stick Destroy a Laptop when It's Plugged In", the laptop's motherboard had been destroyed by this test.