Avoid ‘juice jacking’ to keep your personal data secure

Hackers are using public USB chargers to install malware which targets your mobile device

With the ever-connected world, keeping your data secure has become a huge challenge. The cybercriminals are becoming ever so smarter at ways to steal your personal information. And the most vulnerable places that they target are public places like airports, hotels, shopping malls, public libraries, etc. While we are ever so thankful to find free public wifi or mobile chargers in these spots — the convenience, unfortunately, comes at a hefty price.

In a recent malware report — Mobile Malware and APT Espionage: Prolific, Pervasive, and Cross-Platform, mobile company BlackBerry has highlighted how advanced persistent threat (APT) groups have been leveraging the mobile malware to their nefarious espionage campaigns. The report talks in detail about several previously unidentified APT attack campaigns that have targeted sensitive civilian & military institutions in several countries (chart below).

As evident from the data in chart mobile malware attacks have become very common. The report suggests that this emanates from people trusting their mobile devices much more than their desktop computers. Hackers, on the other hand, are cashing in on our complacency…