The FBI warns against using public charging stations for smartphones. Because the dangers can be manifold.
When the cell phone battery gives up the ghost on the go, it can be annoying or even problematic. For this reason, there are often freely accessible charging stations in public places. Whether in the shopping center, in a café or at the airport – If you have a charging cable with you, you can recharge your battery there for free. However, caution should also be exercised, as a recent warning from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shows.
Public charging stations can transmit malware
There it is mainly about public USB ports. Specifically, it says: “Avoid free charging stations in airports, hotels or shopping malls. Criminals have found ways to use public USB ports to inject malware and surveillance software onto devices.” USB-A ports are particularly common in public places these days.
Malicious software can get onto your smartphone via the public USB ports. A USB port is also used for data transfer. This is what makes the connection so popular, among other things – even with criminals. According to the FBI, the method they use is called “juice jacking”. Apparently, there are more and more such incidents at the moment, because the scam is not entirely new.
How does juice jacking work?
Behind the ominous term “juice jacking” is a special type of cyber attack. This is a hardware-oriented attack, which is not carried out via software, as is the case with phishing emails, but in this specific case via the charging stations themselves.
The affected charging station is prepared in such a way that it also transmits sensitive data at the same time as charging – hence the urgent warning from the FBI. Because fraudsters can do a lot with the data. Among other things, identity theft is possible in this way, for example to access the victims’ credit card data. Fraudsters can also make money by selling such data or even blackmailing victims.
How to protect yourself from juice jacking
The FBI recommends carrying your own chargers instead. One solution could be power banks, i.e. an external, usually very handy additional battery. Incidentally, with a corresponding power bank you can not only charge your smartphone. The devices are now also available with wireless charging and sufficient power for larger electronics as well as several connections to connect mobile phones, laptops and tablets to the power supply at the same time. But even a normal charger with the appropriate USB cable can offer protection because it prevents a direct USB connection to the cell phone.
In addition, there is a corresponding warning for both Android and iOS if you connect the smartphone to a public charging station. On Android, a menu then pops up with the option “Only for charging the device”, which you should definitely select. iOS asks even more specifically whether to trust the new device on the other end of the line. Anyone who says no here also prevents data transmission. Alternatively, you can also use so-called “USB condoms”. These can be plugged onto the charging cable and also prevent more than current from flowing.