Public Ports should be Avoided for Charging One’s Own Mobile-phone

Free ports to charge USBs can be found all over nowadays and not disregarding their convenience, they are seemingly not necessarily a safe alternative. That's because as CNN just reported, attaching the device to any public outlet may really make it the hackers' target.

The kind of points for Internet access, and stations are getting commonplace and it's a happening thing that plugging a mobile phone into one Universal Serial Bus charging station may prove dangerous. Bustle.com posted this, February 19, 2017.

Authentic8 Security Company's Drew Paik explains that simply by attaching a mobile device to a hijacked charger or power strip would infect the device, thereby compromising the entire data in it. Incidentally, Authentic8 specializes in developing Silo, one protected Web-browser which makes web-operations anonymous.

Interestingly, even the cord utilized for charging any smart-phone can be exploited for transmitting data to other appliances from that cell-phone. For e.g., connecting an iPhone to a Mac, using the cord, may enable downloading pictures onto that workstation from the particular phone.

Besides, incase of any compromised port, a hacker may garner unlimited information, elaborates Paik. Such information includes contact lists, photographs, text messages and e-mail. The process is known as "juice jacking," as security researchers coined the term during 2011. In 2016, "video jacking" was demonstrated when those very security researchers utilized hacked ports along with an iPhone's video display for intercepting all that's fed in as well as viewed.

Recently, at the San Francisco-held RSA security conference in the week of February 13, Authentic8 established one charging station inside the company's stall, offering cords which mobile device owners could use for charging their devices.

For making sure privacy is maintained, the best method is for doing away with using the kind of freely available charging ports, immaterial of the extent of handiness they may provide. So phones should be charged prior to leaving one's house, alternatively make an extra effort while spend to possess one mobile battery pack. That way security can be maintained over the long term.

According to Paik, all said and done, the best thing to do is for solely using one's own charger.

» SPAMfighter News - 2/22/2017