Please Stop Charging Your Phone at Airport, Here's Why

boy have you ever been stuck at an airport you've checked all your social networks and texted all your friends then you see that scary message 10 charge left you find the closest charging station and plug in your phone and just like that you're the victim of a cyber attack this is known as juice jacking and it's a real risk in public places charging stations in shopping centers airports hotels and food courts or even on public transport can hide things that put your data security at risk so how does it work the hackers install a special program on a public charging station anyone who connects their device will get that suspicious software installed straight onto their phones take a look at your usb charger a regular usb connector has four to five pins inside only one is used for energy transfer the rest are used for data transfers most modern phones have data transfer mode disabled by fault but some older android versions are vulnerable to hacking and some people may have accidentally turned on data transfer in their settings sometime earlier when you plug your phone into your computer you'll be asked whether to trust the device but you won't realize that the data transfer has already taken place through the charging station once the connection has been established there are two main risks the first one is data theft when you connect up to the compromise port a criminal can infect your device and steal your data special programs allow them to look through your files and apps your credit card information logins and passwords and other personal information can all be compromised easily this is usually enough for them to gain full access to your financial accounts the other type of danger is the installation of malware this is software that can clone all of your phone's data to the criminal's device the installed app might also gather information on you such as your gps movements purchases social media activity and your photos messages and calls or one day you might wake up to see your phone locked with a message send money to this account to unlock your phone another risk is adware you'll see unwanted ads and commercials on every page you open on your phone the worst kind are the invisible ones that are downloaded to your computer when you sync your phone at home so how can you protect yourself well first of all avoid using public charging stations turn on battery percentage visibility limit your app use and check what apps eat away at your battery even if they're not open get into the habit of charging your phone at home at work or in the car that way you'll never find yourself in the middle of the airport with no charge but if your device's battery is not in the best shape or you constantly use your phone carry a regular wall outlet charger with you if you see that your phone is almost out of battery just plug it in somewhere using your own charging device there's no way to transfer data or harm your device if you use one of these or how about taking a small portable battery with you there are so many right now on the market hey you can get one with a cute design and be on the go and not worry about your phone security but if none of these is an option i've got another solution for you put your phone away and read a book asking too much well then first install a good anti-virus app on your phone yes it might feel like the age of easy to miss viruses that can destroy your computer has passed but that doesn't mean your device isn't at risk it never hurts to install some good protective software you can also get some physical protection small usb passthrough devices work like little adapters between your usb cord and your phone they stop the data connection and only allow power to go through but let's say you have to use a public usb charger how would you know that your phone has been infected well look for these signs see how fast your phone works if all of a sudden your brand new phone can barely load apps well that's a warning sign another one is apps crashing or if your phone restarts randomly in the middle of the day that means some background process is eating up your device's processing power but remember that older phones work slower with newer operating systems or apps just watch out for a sudden change likewise look out for your phone overheating sometimes you see scary messages saying things like your device needs to cool down before you can use it this might simply be caused by high external temperatures that heat your phone up to critical levels or because you've played your favorite game for way too long but it could also be because your phone has been infected again watch out for sudden changes to your device's behavior unexpected changes to the battery level can also indicate an unknown threat if you've locked your phone and put it in your bag with fifty percent charge and an hour later it only has twenty percent something is definitely a miss but the most telling signs are changes to your phone or data usage that you had nothing to do with if you see surprising changes in your phone settings especially privacy settings that's a very clear sign that someone else has access to your phone check your data usage statistics regularly if you see that one to two gigabytes have suddenly been used for something that you haven't done it's time to be worried if you noticed anything like this check your device for apps that you don't remember installing most spyware is invisible but sometimes it looks like a regular app that has installed itself on your phone in this case you should first restore your device to factory settings then update your apps developers constantly upgrade their security and finally install an anti-virus it can detect and delete viruses and clean up your device but public charging stations are not the only way cyber criminals can hack your device in public places do you know how much information they can steal over public wi-fi every time you connect to a public network everything you do will be visible to hackers since the connection is not secure they have no problem in intercepting the information so remember these simple rules don't input your personal or sensitive information well on public wi-fi this includes banking information passwords for social media emails and so on install and use vpn programs that can secure your connection to the internet they usually cost money i know but nothing beats knowing that your sensitive information is protected invest in an unlimited data plan for your phone if possible it's a fast and simple way to create a wi-fi hotspot on your phone that way you are always protected and finally turn off file sharing this can be done in a few clicks on different operating systems like mac or windows this will protect your information and your work from any attacker and don't forget to try the book thing sometime

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 297,133

Rating: 4.882772 out of 5

Keywords: bright side, brightside, bright side videos, phone secrets, phone secret tricks, protect your device, bright side smartphones, smartphone tips and tricks, charging phone at the airport, ways to ruin your smartphone, airport USB charging stations, charging mistakes, mistakes while charging phone, scammers tricks, safety videos, protect your personal data, data protection tips, safety online, Internet scam, Wi-Fi scam, airport scams, public USB, public wi-fi

Id: 4RYyeAZo7D4

Length: 7min 31sec (451 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 23 2020