TSA Advises Against Using Airport USB Ports to Charge Your Phone

 

So-called juice jacking is the most controversial topic in cybersecurity circles. In most years, when a new alert is issued by a government agency before the holidays, it creates new headlines. Stories are written and cyber eyebrows are raised — there are more stories than attacks. But still those stories come. However, a recent alert raises the possibility that travellers may actually be at risk.

In reality, juice jacking occurs when you plug your phone into a public charging cable or socket at a hotel or airport, and rather than a dumb charger, a computer operates in the background to retrieve data from your device. This is not the same as carefully designed attack cables that contain a malicious payload inside the cable.

The latest official warning (and headlines 1,2) comes from the TSA. “When you’re at an airport, do not plug your phone directly into a USB port,” it warns you. “Bring your TSA-compliant power brick or battery pack and plug in there.” This is so because “hackers can install malware at USB ports (we’ve been told that’s called ‘juice/port jacking’).” 

TSA also urge

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