Apple MacBook batteries hacked to burn or explode

We know that computers can be broken into by hackers for malicious purposes, but who would’ve thought that laptop batteries could be broken into as well? At the Black Hat security conference next month in Las Vegas, a security researcher named Charlie Miller will be giving a demonstration on how to hack into and control the microprocessor of a MacBook battery.

According to Miller, “These batteries just aren’t designed with the idea that people will mess with them. What I’m showing is that it’s possible to use them to do something really bad.” Apparently once the controller for the battery has been compromised, it can be manipulated to the point where it is dead or “bricked”, and there even is a possibility for a fire or an explosion to be caused by placing malware on the chip.

Similarly damaging cyber attacks have been proved possible on much larger systems like generators, or other parts of the power grid.

Normally people aren’t worried when it comes to cyber criminals – the worse they can do is corrupt your data or use it without permission (which is bad enough). If what Miller says is true, then we might have to worry about our computers exploding on us in the near future (oh great). Hopefully new security measures will be taken to prevent such occurrences from happening.

George Wong
Categories: Apple, Computers
Tags: Apple Inc, Battery, Hacking, Macbook