Don’t Charge Your Phone There!

It’s easy to think that charging your phone at a convenient, free, charging station is safe. It’s not.

In fact, cybercriminals are hoping you will let your guard down and plug in. When you use a kiosk charging station in a public place, you could be compromising everything on your phone and connected devices. This is called juice jacking and here’s how it works.

You plug into a public charging station, say at an airport or hotel. The hacker has installed a device into the charging station, which allows malicious code and malware to be downloaded to your device. They now have wireless access to everything on your phone, including bank account numbers, passwords, usernames and the like. Ever linked or paired your phone with another device? It’s now compromised, too. This is true for all devices: iPhones, Androids and Blackberries.

Help! How Do I Prevent Juice Jacking?

It’s simple. Charge your device at home, bring your own charger with AC Adapter, use your phone’s security features, power down your device and use power-only USB cables that don’t also transfer information.

Want more information about protecting yourself from fraud? Follow our blog and fill out the form below for specific questions.

*Information for this blog was taken from the article “ ‘Juice Jacking’ Plus Music Gift Cards,” written by Robert E. Holtfreter in the November/December 2017 issue of Fraud Magazine.