Crowdfunded hardware ideas sputter out all too often, but a particularly intriguing one just became reality. The--ahem--USB Condom is now shipping, ready to protect your dongles from infected ports for $10 a pop.
Despite the cutesy name, the USB Condom protects a very real potential danger: "Juice-jacking." Juice-jacking refers to the practice of stealing data or uploading malware onto your devices when they're being charged in a malicious USB port. It's not a widespread threat, but security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski claims to have seen these attacks in the wild after the exploit was highlighted at the Defcon security convention in 2011.
The USB Condom, by int3.cc and Xipiter, prevents those attacks by sitting between your USB cord and the USB port you'd like to charge with. The device is basically just a diminutive USB dongle with its data pins disabled. Yep, the USB Condom is the epitome of KISSing at finest.
You can snag a USB Condom in Type A, Mini B, and Micro B flavors. Alternatively, charge-only USB cords and connectors sell for roughly $6 and up on Amazon. Pick your protection!
[Via Boing Boing]