If you get an odd, clean USB drive despatched to you within the mail, don’t put it into your PC. That’s simply fundamental knowledge safety, however for a number of journalists in Ecuador, it’s change into doubtlessly life-saving recommendation.

A TV community needed to name within the native police after a flash drive exploded when a journalist inserted the drive right into a USB port. Reportedly the gadget was rigged to set off a small quantity of RDX, a military-grade chemical explosive, when the pc’s electrical cost engaged over the USB connection.

As reported by the native TV channel, police, and the Associated Press (through PCMag), nobody was harm within the small explosion. Police decided that solely half of the drive’s explosive load was triggered. Four different explosive USB drives have been despatched to journalists and information companies in Ecuador, three of which did not detonate and the final of which was intercepted by postal carriers earlier than it arrived. Police have one suspect thus far, however the investigation is ongoing.

Organized crime is suspected. The journalist who unknowingly triggered the explosion, Lenín Artieda, covers crime and corruption in Ecuador, the place a whole bunch of assaults in opposition to journalists and media shops happen yearly. While the improvised flash drive bombs have failed to harm anybody thus far, even a small quantity of explosive inside a plastic or metallic casing might trigger severe harm through grenade-style shrapnel shreds. Journalists in Ecuador and elsewhere are looking out for extra of the unmarked explosives.