A disturbing story emerges from Ecuador with the discovery of a bomb designed to look like a USB flash drive and which detonated when connected to a computer, almost costing the life of a victim.
The mere approach sounds like something from a spy movie or the anarchic part of the Fight Club plot. But in reality it is a disturbing, real and recent case where someone’s life was in danger.
Even more complex is the circumstance in which the incident occurred, since it would technically be being investigated as an act of terrorism against a member of the journalistic community.
The idea of building a bomb with a shape and mechanism proper to a usb stick It seems almost impossible but the sources consulted seem to confirm the veracity of this story with all the delicate edges that it implies.
The bomb that looked like a USB memory and that exploded in Latin America
A newspaper report The Guardian tells us how everything happened in Ecuador, where the journalist Lenin Artieda opened an envelope that he received in the newsroom of his work at the Ecuavisa TV facilities.
Inside the envelope was a device with a USB connection port, so that everything made it appear that it was a reading memory that could contain information of interest to the reporter.
However, when he inserted the device into his laptop, the object ended up exploding, causing Artieda some minor injuries, although the frank conclusion of the incident is that the objective was actually to cause him much more damage than was caused.
Due to the qualities of the case and the attack, the Ecuadorian Attorney General’s department has opened a terrorism investigation to investigate in depth everything that happened:
“Any attempt to intimidate journalism and freedom of expression is a repugnant action that must be punished with all the rigor of justice. The envelopes sent to the journalists had similar characteristics and the same content, so they will be investigated jointly.”
It is what marks the official statement from government authorities after speaking publicly about the case, after it was confirmed that Ecuavisa TV was not the only outlet to receive this type of letter bomb.
At the time of writing this note, at least five different organizations in the country would have received the same kind of USB flash drives.