Officers Warn of ‘Juice Jacking’ at Public USB Charging Stations
Vacationers who have to cost their smartphones whereas on the go would possibly wish to keep away from public USB charging stations, as a result of safety danger referred to as “juice jacking,” authorities in California have warned.
An advisory from the District Legal professional’s Workplace of Los Angeles County warned towards the USB charger rip-off, by which hackers attempt to infect the smartphones and different digital gadgets of unassuming vacationers via the free USB charging stations in public locations akin to airports and motels. Juice jacking makes an attempt see hackers loading malware into the charging stations, or in cables that they go away plugged in on the stations. The malware might both lock the smartphone and maintain it as hostage, or ahead delicate info akin to passwords to the attacker.
The county’s chief prosecutor’s workplace doesn’t have any recorded instances of juice jacking, a spokesperson advised TechCrunch. The spokesperson merely mentioned that the advisory was a part of a “fraud training marketing campaign.”
The plan of assault by hackers to commandeer USB charging stations will not be a brand new idea. Warnings towards juice jacking have been round for years, however safety researcher Kevin Beaumont mentioned that he has not seen proof of such an assault getting used within the wild. A number of safety researchers have reached out to TechCrunch’s Zack Whittaker concerning proof-of-concepts, however juice jacking is nowhere close to epidemic ranges — regardless of the alarming warning from the authorities.
It has additionally confirmed that cables can turn out to be instruments for hackers, as not too long ago demonstrated by safety researcher Mike Grover. He created a cable that appears like a regular iPhone charging cable however can be utilized to remotely take over a pc.
The District Legal professional’s Workplace of Los Angeles County advisable vacationers plug their very own charging cables into AC energy retailers. Moveable chargers, which is available in many alternative types and value factors, are a safer different to public USB charging stations as effectively.
Whereas juice jacking will not be the weapon of alternative for hackers, as there are numerous different methods to infiltrate the smartphones of targets, it stays a possible menace. Vacationers ought to persist with the protected aspect and solely think about public USB charging stations a final resort.
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