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by John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

FBI Warns Public USB Charging Stations Stealing Your Data

April 11, 2023

Charging anxiety isn’t just limited to EV owners. Many mobile device users are constantly aware of their battery level and what options are available to keep those devices powered up. One source of power is public charging stations. We’ve all seen them. Walls, towers, tables, etc. with USB outlets for us to connect our charging cables. Not so fast. The FBI Denver office tweeted a warning about using public USB charging stations. Connecting to a compromised USB charging port can extract the data from your device in a process known as “juice jacking.”

BGR has a post concerning the FBI warning and steps to avoid giving up your data. Modern iPhone and Android devices will present a warning dialog box when you connect to a USB port that can transfer data. The simple solution is to use an electrical outlet with your charging block instead of directly connecting to a “foreign” USB port.

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