Is it possible (for some or many) USB-sticks or USB devices to reprogram the firmware from an PC that it is connected to it?
The article plays a little with the threat, that I (I want to put it this way:) lent my USB stick to a friend, he uses it, but clears it afterwards and gives it back to me and the stick now contains an infected firmware (that I can not find out by normal means). And also the friend knows nothing, since his computer was infected before.
Of course, I know that it is possible to change a firmware by hw-means (replacing the chip or reprogram it with special hw) but when the firmware of some or all USB-devices would be alterable just by plugging them into a computer, a new kind of virus would be possible spreading more silently and dangerously as all of them before.
HW hacking the firmware of USB devices of course is possible, but would be more in the field of industrial or real espionage. Reprogramming firmware "on-the-run" would cause a new mass-threat for computers.