The story
killer + poke (“the storage of a value in a memory address, typically to modify the behaviour of a computer program”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
killer poke
kil·ler pokeToday it means: Any method of inducing physical harm to a computer or peripheral by software means, especially by inserting invalid values into a control register or by building up harmonic oscillations in a hard disk, etc. Full definition →