You get off a flight and realize your phone is almost out of battery, which will make getting an Uber at your destination a bit challenging. Then you see it — a public charging station at the next gate like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. As you run rom-com style to the USB port, you may briefly wonder if it’s actually safe from a cybersecurity perspective to plug in your phone.
The answer is technically no; it’s not safe. It is very possible for a cyber criminal to load malware into a charging station with a USB cord. This man-in-the-middle attack is referred to as juice jacking. The malware can then steal data, infect your phone with malware or totally disable your phone. It can happen at any public charging station — in the airport, mall, hotel or event venue. Another variety of juice jacking is plugging an infected cord into a charging station for someone to use.
While much of the publicity centers around iPhones, juice jacking can happen to any model phone, including Androids. In fact, any device that plugs into a charging station, including tablets and smartwatches, is also vulnerable. The issue isn’t the type of device but the fact that it uses a USB cord to plug into a charging station that a cyber criminal can tamper with and infect with malware.
However, neither I nor other journalists were able to find any recent documented cases of juice jacking. Yes, it’s been in the news a lot lately after the Denver FBI tweeted about juice jacking from ..
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