Nowadays, information is more important than anything else. Technology had progressed a lot, making it way easier to disseminate, analyze, classify and process data. The internet and the system of digital technology provides a convenient platform that allows us to connect through our phones, tablets and personal computers. However, it couldn’t be avoided that as much as it is easy for us to access information, it is also just as easy to manipulate and steal them. Electricity is one of the things our gadgets need to operate, and we are fortunate enough to have it at our homes. It will only take as much as a plug-in to the socket with the charger connected to our phones or laptops to surf the net, get updates from the news websites or post our latest status on our social media accounts.
Currently, public charging stations are becoming widely popular because of their efficiency. Since almost all of us own at least a smartphone and mostly suffers from the inconvenience of low-battery, these public stations may seem like a good and advantageous choice. The article emphasized that these type of gimmick, however, might be a cunningly strategic alibi for hackers to obtain our private information. Apparently, through ‘juice-jacking’, it is very plausible for them to steal data or install a malware to our device through the USB port from the charging station. In return, I found the reasoning quite sound and I’m quite grateful that I am enlightened before I get to use one of these stations to charge my phone. Furthermore, I am quite impressed with how people could creatively perform these types of cyber-maneuvering just to access what we have for their own benefit and I am quite relieved that I discovered this type of scheme before I became the victim myself.
Smartphone and gadget users must be made aware about these types of thing, especially now with the growing importance of digital information and the lessening of our privacy since our exposure to social media, Internet and basically the digital world. This should be a warning to all others who are not aware about this kind of scheme to be vigilant and careful of their private information.
Yhen. 