Explore

Charge your phone at these places and risk getting your device infected with viruses and having your information stolen, avoid now.

Charging your phone in places like airports, hotels, and other public spaces can potentially expose it to security vulnerabilities and cyber threats.

Administrator

22 January, 2024

125

When traveling, we often have the need to charge our phone. However, if you are careless while charging, it can quickly lead to data theft and even put you in danger. Many public places offer charging stations with available USB ports. But that’s also the reason why criminals can exploit and attack your phone. When you plug your phone into a public USB charging port, they can steal your data through that public charging port. So be careful when charging your phone at public charging stations:

Avoid charging at the airport

Waiting for your flight, especially when it’s delayed, increases the need to charge your phone. Airports usually provide many charging stations, but if you’re not careful, your data can easily be stolen while charging. Airports are crowded places, and the security of your phone’s information is hard to guarantee. So try to bring your own power bank instead of plugging into public charging cables.

Hotels

Hotels are also places where criminals can infiltrate and steal your data. Hotels are where your mobile data can be stolen through the USB ports when you use public charging. USB ports can obtain information from your phone. If your phone doesn’t contain too much important data, then charging at the hotel should not be a big concern. However, if your device stores highly sensitive information, you should be more cautious.

Shopping malls

You should also be aware not to charge your phone at shopping malls. USB charging ports in shopping centers can be exploited by criminals. They can take advantage of any vulnerabilities to connect to your phone and steal your personal information, accounts, private photos, and videos.

On buses, taxis

When using public transportation like buses, taxis, or other unfamiliar vehicles, it’s also not recommended to charge your phone since you don’t know if the USB ports are safe.

Notes for charging in public places

You should carry a power bank with you to avoid using public USB charging ports. Nowadays, cybercriminals are very sophisticated. In public charging sockets and cables, they can install USB devices that can steal data.

Use a USB cable that only has charging function and no data transfer function. This way, the data on your phone will not be transmitted to the USB port, so it will not be stolen.

When traveling, to avoid the situation of running out of battery and having to use public charging, you can switch to other forms of entertainment, such as reading a book on your phone.

If your phone contains a lot of important confidential data, you should be extra cautious with public charging ports. Or you should only charge with your own power bank and charger. That means you should borrow the power outlet instead of using public USB cables.

When charging, turn on airplane mode for faster charging, close unused apps to charge faster, reducing risks for you.

Smartphones are indispensable devices for us when traveling, but remember that they can cause trouble when your data gets stolen. So be really careful when using them and be aware of public USB charging ports or those of strangers.