You could be opening yourself up to a hacking of a lifetime if you charge your phone in a public place.
CREDIT: FreePhonesART / Pixabay
Apparently, hackers are now able to compromise plugs in public spaces, meaning if you need to charge your phone from an electrical outline which has been tampered with, your phone and all its personal information could be stolen.
Speaking to CNN Drew Paik of security firm Authentic8 told CNN.
“Just by plugging your phone into a [compromised] power strip or charger, your device is now infected, and that compromises all your data”.
The compromised outlet could leech your personal data via the phone’s USB cable, stealing your contacts, photos and possibly even your banking details, if you have them stored on your phone.
There’s no way to tell if a plug, in a public space, has been tampered with – so it might just be safer to have a dead battery or buy yourself a battery pack. We loved the Solar powered one from G:roove
Rapper Mykki Blanco has reported on Twitter that a passenger sitting in the next seat had the police called because Delta Airlines allowed “someone like me” on board.
By Imnotcmjames (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsMykki Blanco, real name Michael Quattlebaum Jr, was taking a flight on board a Delta Airlines flight from Toronto to Detroit when the man in the next seat had the police called. According to Mykki, the passenger said he was “not comfortable” and didn’t know how Delta allowed someone like Mykki to board the plane and sit next to him.
When questioned by the police, Mykki said a police officer told him that an FBI report would be made about the “interaction” between the entertainer and the other passenger. Mykki refutes that any interaction happened and insists ” I slept through the entire flight”
According to the entertainer’s own report, the police told Mykki that he would “go to jail” if he continued to ask why the police were giving preferential to the man who made the report.
Mykki has said that this was the most “bizarre” form of homophobia the artist has ever experienced.
A Delta customer service rep was quick to respond on Twitter saying, that they couldn’t believe their eyes and that they were “sorry” for the experience. They said that “discrimination of any kind” was not tolerated onboard their flights and that they “Love” all their passengers.
