Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsWalmart lists a 30TB portable SSD for $39. It is, naturally, a...

Walmart lists a 30TB portable SSD for $39. It is, naturally, a scam

If someone tries to sell you 30TB of solid-state storage for less than $40, consider turning around and running away, no matter how many clip-art rockets they use in their pictures.

If somebody tries to promote you 30TB of solid-state storage for lower than $40, contemplate turning round and operating away, regardless of what number of clip-art rockets they use of their footage.

It seems like high-capacity SSDs are getting cheaper on a regular basis, however within the phrases of a safety researcher generally known as Ray Redacted on Twitter, there are nonetheless some offers which are too good to be true. Within the spirit of discovery, he purchased a “30TB” exterior SSD from AliExpress for $31.40, which additionally occurs to be listed on Walmart’s web site for $39 (I’m linking it for instructional and leisure worth, please don’t purchase it).

On the within, this “SSD” seems to be like two small-capacity microSD playing cards sizzling glued to a USB 2.0-capable board. This board’s firmware has been modified so that every of those playing cards experiences its capability as “15.0TB” to the working system, for a whole of 30TB, regardless that the precise capability of the playing cards is far decrease. That is one other giveaway; Home windows experiences drive capacities in gibibytes (1,024 mebibytes) or tebibytes (1,024 gibibytes), whereas drive producers use gigabytes (1,000 megabytes) and terabytes (1,000 gigabytes). That is why a 1TB drive usually solely has a reported capability of 930-ish GB, moderately than a good spherical quantity.

On the inside, this
Enlarge / On the within, this “SSD” options what seems to be a pair of microSD playing cards or another type of low-cost, low-capacity flash reminiscence sizzling glued to a circuit board.

The drive is much more intelligent in relation to tricking individuals into pondering it is working. It preserves the listing construction of no matter you are copying, however when it is “copying” your information, it simply retains writing and rewriting over the tiny microSD playing cards. All the pieces will look positive till you go to entry a file, solely to seek out that the info is not there.

Replies to Ray Redacted’s thread are filled with alternate variations of this scam, together with a number of iterations of the hot-glued microSD model and at the very least one which hid a USB thumb drive inside a bigger enclosure.

Faux USB storage gadgets are neither new nor uncommon, although this one makes spectacularly egregious claims about its price-per-gigabyte. Relating to shopping for storage on-line, common sense recommendation is finest: stick to call manufacturers, purchase from reliable sellers (not simply retail websites you belief—the Walmart itemizing is bought by “JD E Commerce America Restricted,” no matter that’s), and know that if a deal appears too good to be true, it nearly actually is.

RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

- Advertisment -

Most Popular

Recent Comments

Alptekin Çalışkan on CyberGhost VPN 6.5.1.3377 Full + Crack