Vulnerabilities discovered in the Thunderbolt connection standard could allow hackers to access the contents of a locked laptop’s hard drive within minutes, a security researcher from the Eindhoven University of Technology has announced. Wired reports that the vulnerabilities affect all Thunderbolt-enabled PCs manufactured before 2019.
Although hackers need physical access to a device to exploit the flaws, they could theoretically gain access to all data in about five minutes even if the laptop is locked, password protected, and has an encrypted hard drive. The entire process can reportedly be completed with a series of off-the-shelf components costing just a few hundred dollars. Perhaps most worryingly, the researcher says the flaws…