Public chargers for smartphones, tablets and other devices, Urban furniture has become an essential element for many people. Whether due to an oversight before leaving home, because we have taken too long at work (or at an aperitif with friends) or for any other reason, having charging points strategically distributed throughout cities and towns, some even in transport vehicles public, it can make the difference between us being able to stay connected or, conversely, experiencing a sudden recess at the end of the 20th century, which isn’t really that far away, but was markedly different from today.
In many cases, the installation of public chargers has been nothing more than the response to the alternative plan that many users were already using, and which is none other than locate outlets to plug your own chargers into. The advantage of chargers is that, yes, when using them they cannot call us attention for being misused, something that does happen with plugs, in addition to allowing us to carry only the connection cable with us, not the charger.
I know that it is often said that we have developed an excessive degree of dependence, but it is indisputable that staying connected provides us with a series of advantages and comforts, ranging from the banal but pleasant way of listening to music, to having a communication tool that can make a difference in complicated situations. It is true that we could do without smartphones, but it is also true that it would mean giving up, in an unnecessary way, all the good things they have brought to our lives.
Not everything is good, of course. But don’t worry, this time I’m not going to talk about addiction to devices and so on, no, this time I’m going to talk about security, or a security problem, to be more exact. As we can read on NBC News, the FBI has issued an alert about the risks of public chargers, to the point of recommending that those that we can find in airports, shopping centers, hotels, etc., should not be used. The reason? That cybercriminals have discovered ways to use public USB chargers to introduce malware and monitoring software to the devices that connect to them.
Although the FBI is confined to the United States, the truth is that this threat is globaland in reality it is not something new, although we can understand that it has increased substantially, which has led to the need to issue said warning-recommendation.
Users with little or no technical profile may have never (or practically never) connected their smartphone to the PC to transfer data, restore backup copies, etc., but the truth is that the USB-C port (or Lightning, in the case of the iPhone, at least until the arrival of the iPhone 15), andIt’s a port for charging, but also for dataso what seems like an innocent connection to charge the mobile can actually become something much more dangerous.
