Hackers from security firm Netragard decided on a novel attack strategy when their client ruled out techniques like gaining unauthorized physical access and the use of social networks. The company booby-trapped an off-the-shelf USB Logitech mouse by slapping on a powerful microcontroller, a flash drive for storage and custom attack code to exploit a connected system via USB.

The use of a microcontroller meant that the technique can be tweaked to work against a range of operating systems. The microcontroller facilitates the injection of keyboard and mouse input, while warning windows like those from antimalware software can also subverted using zero-day exploit code.

So what happened in the end? Netragard identified a promising target (selected from a database of the target's employees purchased from data providers) and shipped the Trojan mouse to the worker as a freebie. And yes, the attack proved successful. Details of the steps can be found here.

For more:
- check out this article at The Register

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