The FBI just reiterated a long-standing warning about public charge stations and your phone’s security
Smartphone batteries are bigger than ever but we spend enough time on any of them that the opportunity for a quick charge-up is something we rarely pass by. But maybe we should, at least when it comes to public charge stations. According to the FBI, they’re just plain dangerous.
It’s called « Juice Jacking, » a term coined by security expert Brian Krebs in 2011 (opens in new tab), and refers to attackers hijacking charge stations in city streets, airports, and other public venues where people might casually stop and charge up one of the best smartphones. A decade later, the FBI’s Denver, Colorado, office sounded the alarm again in a tweet.
As the FBI notes, the attack can come from either the charge port or a cable that someone causally left behind.
The reason such attacks are so effective is that the USB-C, USB-3, and lighting ports are dual-purpose: they have pins for power and pins for data.
