You can now fry a computer's hardware with a $55 USB drive

Just in case you were feeling particularly destructive today, we’ve got just the device for you. USBKill is selling a little thingamajig that can fry your computer the minute this is plugged in.

According to the Hong Kong-based company, the USB Kill Stick will "instantly and permanently disable unprotected hardware". What the Kill Stick does is it rapidly charges its capacitors from the USB power supply, when it’s plugged. Almost immediately after the stick then then rapidly discharges, with this entire process occurring within a few seconds.

The Kill Stick was originally a proof-of-concept device, but the Kill Stick 2.0 is now a legitimate device on sale. The company believes hardware developers can include the device in their testing protocols to protect their hardware from electrical attacks. The USB and accompanying Test Shield (to safely test the device without frying your hardware) is available for a combined total of US $72.