Forest Global Training Partners

Cyber Risks · Krebs on Security

Why is ‘Juice Jacking’ Suddenly Back in the News?

Summary: The FBI's Denver office tweeted on April 6, 2023, warning people to avoid free public charging stations because bad actors can use public USB ports to load malware and monitoring software onto devices, and the FCC issued a similar warning five days later. The term juice jacking was coined in a 2011 KrebsOnSecurity story about DEFCON researchers who built a charging station to show that many mobile devices synced data by default when plugged into a computer, a behavior Apple and Google have since changed by requiring users to approve trust of a connected computer.

Why it matters: Aries Security co-founder Brian Markus, who showcased the threat at DEFCON in 2011, said he knows of no public accounts of juice jacking kiosks found in the wild, and an FCC official told Snopes the commission had not seen any rise in consumer complaints, while the tools to attempt it have become smaller, cheaper and buyable over the counter, such as the $180 OMG cable with a hidden Wi-Fi transmitter.

Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗

Topics
Data Breaches
Related