My buddy the IT auditor made me paranoid about public USB ports

Talked to my friend Dave last week. He works as an IT auditor for a big firm in Portland. He said he never ever uses those free charging stations at airports or malls. Told me about something called juice jacking. Basically hackers can put malware on those public USB ports. It can steal your data while your phone charges. Now I only carry my own wall plug and cable when I travel. Anyone else worry about this or am I being too cautious?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_oscar1d ago

I read a piece in Consumer Reports about this maybe 5 years ago and they said the risk was way overblown. For it to work, the hacker would need to physically modify the USB port and your phone would also need to have an outdated operating system. Most modern phones have protections built in that ask you if you trust the device before any data can transfer. Ive used public charging stations maybe 50 times over the years and never had a problem. Not saying its impossible but its like worrying about lightning striking your car in a parking lot. Your wall plug idea is fine but I think your buddy Dave might be selling you a little fear for the sake of his job.

jordanl821d ago

Tbh just buy a charge-only cable, blocks data transfer completely and costs like five bucks.