The safety of public charging points is not guaranteed.
Charging points are available at several airports. frantic / Alamy Stock Photo
At the airport, you may have to wait for the plane for a longer time, and browsing the Internet or playing games on the phone consumes battery. In that case, it would seem logical that the device could be charged from a USB plug found in the field.
However, this should not be done carelessly.
The US Federal Police (FBI) has warned against using public USB plugs intended for charging. The warning applies not only to airports but also to other places where public charging plugs are available, such as hotels, shopping centers and cafes.
If you don’t see the embed, you can watch it from here.
An online publication has reported on the matter Laptop mag.
Three dangers
According to the FBI, public plugs may contain a virus or spyware that could be downloaded to the device using a charging cable.
The first threat is the device locking, which would prevent the user from using their device.
Another threat is personal information ending up in the hands of criminals. These can be, for example, photos saved on the device.
The third threat is passwords and login credentials ending up in the possession of criminals, which would mean that cybercriminals could share credentials with each other and log in to different services.
The danger can be avoided, for example, by using a charging cable that is not suitable for data transmission. Other safe options are to use an external backup power source or to use the cable via a power adapter intended for charging.