Dave Taylor: ‘Tis the season for travel and smart charging - Boulder Daily Camera

Dave Taylor: ‘Tis the season for travel and smart charging - Boulder Daily Camera

Question: My techie friend told me that my phone can get malware by plugging it into an airport charging station? If I’m just getting power, how can that adversely affect my phone?

Answer: Your friend is correct. There are a number of variables that affect whether this is a legit danger or not, but yes, you can theoretically get malware on your phone simply by plugging it into a malicious charging station.

Dave Taylor

The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office last month issued a warning about this danger: “In the USB charging scam known as ‘juice jacking,’ hackers can modify charging stations in train and bus stations, on trains, and in airports and other public places like hotels and shopping malls. The hackers replace USB ports and cables at the charging stations with similar connectors loaded with malware.  When an unsuspecting traveler uses the corrupted connectors, the hacker has a way into the user’s device, and can lock it, export private information like account numbers, passwords and addresses, or even transmit a full backup of data from the user’s device.”

But let’s dig deeper because it’s a risk, but it’s a tiny risk, one that realistically you aren’t going to encounter unless you’re both extraordinarily unlucky and inattentive.

Modern smartphones keep track of all trusted devices authorized for data transfer. If you encountered a device masquerading as a charging station your phone would ask if you wanted to trust the device before it was allowed access to your data. 

Not only that, but there are two kinds of cables in the market: charging and data. You’ve probably seen cables advertised as data cables. The difference is important. Imagine that to transfer data the cable needs an additional wire; without it, the device can get power to charge your device, but it can’t sync. Mostly this causes frustration — “Why can’t my phone sync with my computer?” — but if you know you have a charge-only cable, that’s an easy addition to your travel kit.

The better solution, however, is to carry your own charging adapter. With that in your travel kit, you’ll never have to worry about malicious charging stations.

Or you can use my solution: Use an external battery charger like one of the slick MyCharge devices that have a battery of their own, built-in cables and flip-out prongs so you can plug in to any wall outlet. You can hook up your phone while the device is charging or just charge the device, then charge your phone off the device at a later time. “]

I’m all about being cautious and alert — I routinely check gas pumps for possible skimmers — but this particular warning is 99% hooey in my opinion. U.S. airports in particular have a lot of stringent safety and security regulations that make it incredibly unlikely some scammers will be able to install a malicious device in a passenger waiting area.

Still, be careful out there. An ounce of prevention, and all that. Carry charging gear and you’ll be fine in even the most sketch and dubious parts of the world.

Dave Taylor has been involved with the online world since before the launch of the Internet and runs the popular AskDaveTaylor.com tech help site. You can also find AskDaveTaylor on Facebook and check out the AskDaveTaylor YouTube channel too.

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2019-12-15 13:01:53Z
https://www.dailycamera.com/2019/12/15/dave-taylor-tis-the-season-for-travel-and-smart-charging/
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