USB Condoms are Life Savers for Travellers

You must have charged your phone outside the home, if you travel a lot. And, if you were not careful, your phone’s data might already been compromised.

And, a USB Condom helps you avoid any kind of data theft while charging.

At many public places like airports, hospitals, and railway stations you will find various USB charging stations where you can just plug in your phone or tablet by using the USB cable.

It can be a honeytrap and hackers can copy all the data from your phone and there’s no need to mention how much sensitive data our phones contain, right? This kind of data theft attack is also known as juice jacking.

A USB Condom is just one way to prevent any kind of data exchange while charging your device.

Well, let me explain:

What is a USB Condom?

A USB Condom is a cover for USB devices to prevent accidental data exchange when your phone is plugged into a public USB charging station or someone’s computer.

Not only that… a USB condom can also prevent your device from a USB Killer attack or a BadUSB attack.

And, before you ask… here’s how it looks like:

What kind of attacks that a USB condom saves you from?

A USB condom can save you from attacks like:

• Juice Jacking attack: This type of attack can copy all the sensitive data from your phone by secretly installing malware on your device.
• BadUSB attack: This type of attack exploits vulnerabilities in USB firmware and enables the device to execute commands remotely.
• USB Killer attack: This a very serious kind of attack that sends high-voltage power surges and fries the device making it instantly dead.

How does a USB condom protect from Juice Jacking?

The working is pretty simple:

USB condoms block all the data lines in the USB cable making it impossible for hackers to double as a data connection.

In simple words, if you use one of such condoms on the top of your USB cable there’s no way any data can be transferred through it.

However, there are some other methods that can also help you prevent any kinds of data exchange:

1. Carry a USB charge-only cable
2. Use your own AC adapter in the wall socket to charge
3. Carry a portable battery power bank of your own

You can buy such a USB condom online from SyncStop or Amazon.

That’s it.

If you’ve a related query, feel free to let me know in the comments, right now.

Also, share the article with the people who you think might be interested in reading it.