When you are travelling you often find yourself running low on power. Either your phones battery is nearly dead or your computer. Luckily, you think, there are numerous charging points available around the airport or train station. What you don’t know is that you might be inadvertently placing yourself in danger by using that USB port. You see hackers are increasing tampering with USB ports in such locations and installing hardware which allows them to hack into your computer of mobile phone. The USB ports and cables can be loaded with malware which allows the hackers to infect your devise thereby giving them a way in. They can then read and export your data, including your passwords, and even lock up your gadgets, making them useless. They call this phenomena juice jacking.
It is not hard to understand how the hackers do it. So we already know about card scanners who attach a devise to the ATM in order to scan people card and steal their money, this is a similar concept. The USB ports in public places are easy to tamper with and install compromised hardware which allows scammers to conduct their nefarious activities. The solution to this is to either use your own cables, so don’t accept cables from strangers. Another solution is to use data blockers which are basically a USB attachment which disables the data pin in the USB port thereby stopping the transfer of data. You can still charge your devise but for the cost of a cup of coffee you can keep your devises safe from hacking.
The best solution for this problem is to have your own charging devise, a power bank. Power banks are already prolific and are available at stores or online. It is important to buy one from a reputable supplier. If you are lucky enough you will be given a promotional power bank by one of your suppliers or as a corporate gift. Companies are increasingly giving away power banks as a promotional product as they realise the value in having one handy. With this whole new issue of juice jacking it is even more handy to have your own power bank handy when you need it the most.
Safe From Hackers
