The autonomy of mobile phones is increasing and technologies such as fast charging allow us to fully charge the mobile phone in a matter of a few minutes, but if we spend a lot of time away from home it may happen that we run out of battery at the most inopportune moment.
It is now common to find charging ports in public places, such as subway stations, airports or buses. Although it may be tempting to use these types of charging stations, it is important to know that doing so may entail certain risksBelow we tell you exactly what the Juice-Jacking.
It is advisable to avoid using public charging stations if we want to avoid risks
In English, juice is a term used to refer to the charge of the mobile phone. In turn, the word Jack It is used colloquially with the meaning of stealing. Juice-Jacking is the term used to refer to the use of charging stations located in public places for install malware on the devices of the users who use them, something that INCIBE and even the FBI have warned about.
Taking advantage of the huge number of people who use these types of charging stations every day, attackers can modify the stations to install malware on users’ mobile phones. This is possible because the cable is not only used to charge the mobile phone: It also serves to transfer information.
The attackers’ goal may vary, but the malware It can be used for multiple purposes: from displaying advertising on our devices to stealing valuable information, such as our passwords or banking information. Banking Trojans are very common and the risks are enormous, since users are generally not aware that their mobile is infected.
It is more likely that the Juice-Jacking is carried out through a fraudulent cable. As stated by INCIBE, It may happen that attackers leave a cable “forgotten” at the charging station to infect the mobile phone of the person using it. As you can imagine, if you have to charge your mobile phone at a public charging station, you should always use your own cable.
It is important to note that current mobile phones have protections to prevent this type of attacksOn Android you need to manually select the data transfer mode from the notifications menu, as data transfer is disabled by default.
In the case of the iPhone, for some time now iOS has shown us a warning message when we connect the mobile to a computer or another device for the first time, making it necessary to click on “Trust” to enable data transfer.
Of course, all of the above does not mean that any public charging station is compromised, but it is important to be aware of the existence of this threat to avoid taking unnecessary risksIn general, whenever possible it is advisable to use our own charging cable and adapter to charge the mobile battery in a traditional socket.
Alternatively, we can always carry an external battery in our backpack. We currently have high-capacity models that offer several full charges, so by carrying one of these batteries we will avoid having to use this type of public charging stations when we run out of battery.
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