Denver, Federal Bureau of Investigation officials warn the public to avoid charging the phone on free public phone charging stations. As there is a risk of malware attack on their phones which might risk their data privacy.
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Smartphones have become an inseparable gadget in everyone’s lives. You see them first thing in the morning and before you go to bed. In future, if possible you might even attach it to your body.
This opens a window of opportunity for the bad guys to plant their cyber attacks on your phone threatening your personal data.
Recently, FBI Denver, tweeted that the bad fellas are making use of USB ports in the free Public phone charging stations to insert malware or mobile monitoring software into your smart devices.
Juice Jacking
Juice jacking is a Man in the Middle (MitM) Attack where the USB cable is used to send malware to your phone device or tablet or transfer sensitive personal information from your phone.
This attack is mostly reported to happen in public charging stations where you can charge your phone battery for free.
In this scenario, when you connect your phones to the malware infected USB ports or cables, the malware is downloaded in your phone or your personal datas can be transferred while charging. You will also be using the phone while charging, which makes it more vulnerable to this juice jacking attack.
It affects both the Apple iOS and android phones. Researches have shown that 60s of charging is enough time to infect mobile devices. Nowadays we can find public charging stations in airports, hotels, train stations and many such places.
Your passwords, security pin, personal data can be compromised in this cyber attack. This can lead to cyber crimes like data breach, identity theft and financial fraud.
How to know if you are a victim of Juice Jacking?
If your phone is subjected to juice jacking, you can find out by observing some of the symptoms. The below given symptoms are common for most of the malware attacks.
- Sudden overheating in your phone
- Phone Charge might drain very fast.
- Suspicious app activity in your phone, like certain changes in settings
- If you find any different app that you have not installed, then it might be malware.
- Device slow down
- More data usage than normal limit.
If these symptoms match yours then you should take countermeasures to protect yourself from becoming a victim of a cyber attack.
What are the precautions you can take?
You can follow the following measures to protect your phone from juice jacking attacks. Those include:
- Avoid charging your phone in the USB cables in free charging stations.
- Install anti malware softwares such as AVG antivirus.
- Take a powerbank with you.
- Take your own charging adapter or cable.
- Use power only USB cables like PortPaw which does not transfer any data.
- Use data protection applications like Juice jack defender.
It is important not to use your mobile phone while charging, which can protect your phone from any juice jack attack or transfer of sensitive data.
You carry so much information about yourself on your phone these days. It happens so that you can be a potential target of any cyber attack and it is important to know ways to protect your personal information from reaching the hands of the bad guys.
