The $56 USB Killer is an electrified USB stick that will fry a laptop

If it’s powered by using the USB power and supplies it’s output voltage down the data path it could be nasty for the computer in question, but since the data signals are very low current anyway if there is a series resistance and just a simple voltage clamp or even a zener diode would be capable of reducing any high voltage that any tripler circuit or DC/AC converter of that size cos it couldn’t produce much current without melting in the process.

Might be worse if it were designed so you have to open it like the cruzer edge and in so doing charged a capacitor from a piezo electric crystal, like in a cigarette lighter and more like a static discharge.