Is it safe to use public charging stations

The problem with smartphones and batteries

These days, airports, fast food restaurants, and even buses have USB charging stations that allow users to charge their devices such as smartphones and tablets.
But are public charging stations safe to use? And can your smartphone or tablet be hacked when using these terminals?
Well, in this article we will try to answer some important questions regarding the use of public charging stations.

Experts warn of public charging stations
Talent Supplier experts say you should be concerned if you use a public USB charging station, and earlier this year researchers at IBM's X-Force Red security team issued serious warnings about the risks associated with public charging stations.
IBM experts say that plugging a generic USB charging port into a phone is a lot like finding a toothbrush on the side of the road and then deciding to use it in your mouth!
The danger is that public charging stations rely on USB ports that transfer not only power but also data between devices.

Modern smartphones give you additional control features, as data from USB ports cannot be accepted without your permission, which is why on iPhones for example, there is a feature to ask to trust this computer.
Unfortunately, some security vulnerabilities can provide a way to bypass this protection, and with a public USB port, a connection with the phone can be adopted that can transfer data.

With a little bit of technological cunning, it's possible to arm a public USB port and make it send malware to a connected phone, and this works especially well with some Android phones, older versions of iOS, or devices that are late in security updates.