Data Security When Charging Mobile Devices

A lot of people have a smart phone which they use for work.  The vast majority of these people will have access to their work emails on said phone.  And some of these emails will have sensitive corporate information on them.  Just think of that big deal that you’re on the cusp of winning which has to be kept very hush hush.  Imagine if you gave that information to a hacker….

This is a problem which most people don’t even realize exists.  As long as you don’t lose your smart phone or tablet, surely the information is safe?  Unfortunately it isn’t.  The term “juice-jacking” has been coined in recent years and it means the hacking of a mobile device while it is being charged.

There are several ways in which data can be taken unbeknownst to the user.  More often than not it will happen when there is an interaction between the users’ mobile device and another system.  There are various ways in which this can happen.  One such example of this is through the routine backup to the cloud which a fair amount of mobile devices do automatically.  Most people will also charge their mobile devices through their laptop/desktop which creates a local system interaction.  Another example of interaction is through tethering where one mobile device will provide network access to another.  If the company who has issued the mobile devices is able to control all of these factors, the risk is usually fairly small.

However, more often than not, at least one of these components will be external.  For example, if you charge your work mobile on your personal laptop, charging your personal phone on your work laptop, setting up an automatic backup without the company’s consent and regular monitoring or even just trying to charge your device through an untrusted charger.  Not only does any of the above allow company data to be stored in unsecure locations outside of the company but it can also facilitate the spread of malware between devices.  Ideally what the company would want to do is to ensure that security controls on the works mobile device restrict it from syncing with other devices.  This will prevent it from accidentally syncing with a personal computer.  Likewise, it is also possible to restrict what devices can sync with work computers.  To prevent remote, cloud backup, the company is able to either to block those services or simply by setting up the mobile devices in the first place so that they don’t use them.

If you’re travelling and are stuck in an airport with nowhere to charge your mobile device, think twice before accepting that friendly guys offer to let you charge it in their laptop.  Malware programs can take less than a minute to run and who knows what information they’re siphoning off your mobile device in the mean time!  So keep your device safe so juice-jacking doesn’t happen to you.  Malware and viruses can also come from other sources that said.  Most people have probably heard of Heartbleed and how many passwords were stolen.  Although that was to do with the programming, you probably thought you could trust most of those sites to protect your data.  How can you be absolutely sure that the website you love with those amusing cat GIFs on it hasn’t slipped a virus onto your laptop?  And how do you know this wasn’t then transferred to your work mobile when you were using your laptop to charge it?

Essentially the main problems come from individuals plugging in their work or personal mobile devices to the wrong things.  This is why many companies ban using computers (at home or at work) to charge mobile devices to prevent juice-jacking from occuring.  However, this then creates the problem of plug sockets.  There are never enough plug sockets to plug everything into at once.  So what to do!?  Well thankfully, there are solutions to this lack of plug sockets. 

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