Shoutout to the guy who warned me about public USB charging stations

I was at the Denver airport last month waiting for a late flight and plugged my phone into one of those free charging kiosks near gate B12. A man sitting next to me leaned over and said "you know those can steal your data, right?" He explained how juice jacking works through the USB port. I unplugged right there and bought a cheap wall adapter instead. Has anyone else run into these compromised stations or do you just carry a data blocker cable now?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowan26215d agoMost Upvoted

@angela890 that guy saved you a headache for real. It's wild how we just trust random tech in public spaces without thinking, like the same way people tap their credit cards on any reader without checking if it's got a skimmer on it.

angela89015d ago

Ngl that guy was a real one for warning you. I've always felt sketch about those public charging stations, ever since I saw a video where a guy plugged a flash drive into one and it had malware installed in seconds. Honestly, I just carry a portable battery now and charge my phone that way instead of trusting some random kiosk at a gate. Tbh I bet most people don't even think about it, they just plug in without a second thought.