Kaspersky warns against charging via PCs, Macs and public charging stations
Kaspersky warns against charging via PCs, Macs and public charging stations
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Do not charge your mobile phones via public usb outlets... Kaspersky, security alarm bell ringer has warned against charging your smartphone via public USB outlets and even your own PC or Mac.

In a concept presented at the Black Hat security conference in 2014 it was demonstrated how you probably shouldn't use public smartphone charging stations, as hooking up to a fake one could see malware loaded onto your device.

Kaspersky has searching more into this and "as part of a study into the dangers of charging your handset at a public charging station, tested a number of devices using iOS and Android to see what data is transferred externally while connected to a Mac or PC".

Kaspersky said, "Now that smartphones almost always accompany their owner, the device serves as a unique identifier for any third party who might be interested in collecting such data for some subsequent use".

"But it wouldn't be a problem if collecting a few unique identifiers was all that an attacker could do with a device connected to an unknown computer or charging device", security alarm bell ringer further added.

Kaspersky advises using only trusted USB charging stations and encryption technologies to protect the data.

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