[rhema]

Would a high voltage loop, for breaking components, be a good solution to an attack like this? Like, fry the electronic components to verify it's just plain metal on the insides?

[proee]

Perhaps, but it could start a fire. You might consider plugging into a power supply and measuring if there is any current draw.

[walrus01]

USB type A male-to-female inline ammeters are really cheap, and accurate to 0.1W. I got one for ten bucks.

[foobar1962]

How do you know THAT doesn’t have a surveillance device inside?

[walrus01]

Sort of a "it's turtles all the way down" type problem, but one could always x-ray it.

[metaphor]

+/-20mA seems a bit coarse...with modern low-power silicon, imagining it wouldn't be too difficult to skate under that radar.

[ars]

A USB C cable has active electronics inside it, they are used to define the wire gauge on the conductors and the length of the cable.

[SlowRobotAhead]

Right. Also the Apple cords have an entire ARM micro in them for cable authentication.

[gumby]

Likely fry the conductors in the cable too. Might as well cut the cable in half...or leave it in the home of your enemy.

[timpattinson]

Just do an insulation test at say 250V using a commonly available 'megger' device