Have you ever been asked for a mobile charger or whether you knew of a charging station at public places like airports, malls, etc.? Or have you asked for one, since you forgot to carry your charger and your mobile has run out of charge.
If the answer is yes in both cases, then this blog would be a good read for you. But before we proceed further, you will need to know what Juice Jacking is.
Juice Jacking is a compromise of your mobile device when connected to an infected USB charging station. This happens because the same USB cable is used for both charging and data transfer on our devices. This compromise is usually done to extract sensitive data such as passwords, contacts, financial information, and others from your mobile or for malware installation.
Juice jacking proves to be an advantage for the threat actors as the victim would never realise that their devices have been hacked and would never know where the compromise happened, even if they do realise that their device has been tampered with.
Safeguard yourself by following precautions like,
- Carrying your own charging adapters and cables, if needed to use at public kiosks
- Using a USB Power-only cable, which would only charge and not allow you to transfer data
- Avoiding using data cables to charge your phone in public places
- Keeping your phone fully charged while travelling especially
- Not leaving your phone unattended in public places and charging stations
- Always carrying a powerbank with you and keeping it charged
- Installing a reputed security product such as “K7 Mobile Security” and keeping it updated to stay protected from unauthorized access and malware
- In the event of an incident, informing the Cyber Police
Threat actors are looking for sophisticated and innovative ways to lure victims. However, threat actors still prefer targeting users by juice jacking as many users do not consider this as a viable route for compromising their devices, making it an advantage for the threat actors.
While users too have started to embrace proper cybersecurity hygiene, many are still unaware of how their data can be stolen via juice jacking. This blog has been written to raise awareness among users regarding the same.
We hope you enjoyed reading and would be careful henceforth while charging your phones in public places.
Be aware and stay safe!
