SALT LAKE CITY — USB charging ports are nearly everywhere – hotels, shopping centers, airports — you name it. At first glance, they look benign, as if there's no way they could possibly harm your phone or tablet by using a public USB port. But that's not true, security officials warn.
A recent post on the Transportation Security Administration's Facebook page warning that "Hackers can install malware at USB ports," and that "when you're at an airport do not plug your phone directly into a USB port." It's called "juice jacking."
"You've got to be very careful when you're charging your smartphone," said Eric Plam, a cybersecurity expert and chief revenue officer of mobile internet provider SIMO.
"What could happen is that data could be transfer from one of these risky USB jacks into your smartphone," Plam warned.
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