Odisha police ask people to not use public charging stations, here is why

By Divya Bhati: We often struggle with dying smartphone batteries while travelling and try to find charging points to juice up our phones again. The public charging facilities come in handy and even help us in emergencies. But, what if I tell you that sometimes these facilities made to help the public can allow hackers to get access to your smartphones?

Mobile phone charging ports with USB can often be bait for people. Hackers often load malware, or change the USB port or connect a USB cable on the other side to get access to phones connected to the port for charging. While you think your phone is charging, these hackers can infect your phone with viruses or malware which could later help them track your phone or steal the confidential data inside it. The process is called Juice Jacking.

Even Odisha police alerted the public about this juice jacking. "Don't charge your mobiles at public places like mobile charging stations, USB power stations etc. Cyber fraudsters are trying to steal your personal information from your mobile and install malware inside your phone," they said in a Twitter post.

So, let's see how the Juice Jacking works. If you are an iPhone, an Android, or any other smartphone user, one thing which is common in all devices is that the phone charges through a cable. Though there can be different types of ports, the process is the same– via a charging cable.

So, whenever you see a USB charging port, not the normal electrical switch to plug in your power adaptor, be alerted. The USB charging ports can connect your phone to a different device set up by hackers. So, as soon as you plug in your device with a cord to that USB connector, your phone will be vulnerable to viruses or data theft. Hackers can get access to your device during the charging process and you can become a victim of cybercrime. Also, if your device is being hacked via these USB ports, you will not get to know.

Notably, for most smartphones, the data transfer is disabled by default (except on devices running older Android versions), and you can only allow the file transfer by manually accepting it in your device. For instance, when you plug your phone into your computer, you get a prompt on if you want to share files. Similarly, if you get that prompt message while using the public charging ports in airports, metro, railway stations, or other places for security, reject the prompt or, for the safer side, avoid using the port.

While juice jacking is not a widespread threat, it's still better to avoid and understand the risks. Always carry a power bank or the phone charger and charge directly from the electricity socket.