Don't Let a USB Slot Takeoff with Your Information
Category
Vulnerabilities
Risk Level
You’ve found yourself at the airport waiting for your flight when you look down at your phone. The ominous “Low Battery - 10% of battery remaining” warning pops up, but you have a five hour flight coming up! What do you do? You look around and see one of those charging stations available. This one has some charging cords hanging out, and some USB slots available to use your own cord. You begin to walk towards it…STOP DON’T DO IT.
“But I need power!”
USB slots have two main functions: to provide power and to transfer data. Sometimes they will only do one or the other depending on their purpose, but unfortunately you don’t know what those cords or USB slots will do until it’s too late.
“So what do I do?”
If you have the charging brick that comes with your phone, use it! Remember, that’s the little box that you plug into a power outlet and then your charging cord plugs into it to provide power to your phone. The charging brick that came with your phone only transfers power, and not data. But not all charging bricks are made the same, so make sure you use a trustworthy one!
“I made it on the plane with some charge, but there’s a USB outlet on the back of my seat I can use, right?”
Wrong! If your flight has a power outlet, use it with your charging brick. It’s the best way to stay safe. But if you absolutely have no choice, invest in a “USB Data Blocker”. These are little devices that can plug into an untrustworthy USB slot and block any data transfers while only allowing power to flow to your charging cord - safe and secure for your flight! While both iOS and Android now allow you to “trust” or “don’t trust” a device for data transfer, it’s better to just avoid that whole dilemma in the first place by using your own charging brick!
So how do you make sure your organization is staying safe while your team is on the go? Let’s talk about our Cybersecurity Awareness Training to help everyone on your team understand the risks to your organization and its data by something as simple as a USB slot.
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