Warning: Avoid Public Charging Stations

I use public charging stations at hospital waiting rooms to keep my cell working. I never thought that it might expose my phone to hacking.

I use Vipre, and their newsletter this month warned about the dangers of public charging stations.

Warning

From the newsletter: “Once a port is compromised, a hacker can view and steal your emails, text messages, photos, and contacts. This kind of hacking is called juice jacking, by which malware might be installed onto, or data copied from a device using a charging port that doubles as a data connection, typically over a USB connection.

Yikes! Something else to be cautious about.

Tired of Technology Traumas

My husband and I were standing in line at Whataburger yesterday at lunch. My Whataburger app wasn’t working. You’d think the sky was falling in because the girl at the register didn’t know what to do. I said, “Don’t worry about it.” Oh, no. She ran to get the Manager who started telling me how to trouble shoot it so they could read the bar code (QR code). I wasn’t that concerned in getting reward points for our purchase, but everyone else was I guess.

I turned to Larry and said, “I miss the old days. You know, BT–Before Technology. I’m beginning to think life was simpler and much less stressful then.

Takeaway Truth

Remember, don’t use a charging station unless the person in charge can tell you what kind of security protects your device. (Yeah, like I’m sure the waiting room volunteer knows all about cyber security.)