FBI Denver has alerted to stop utilising general phone charging ports around the city

April 11, 2023: The FBI recently alerted consumers against those who use free public charging stations, saying crooks are managing to hijack public chargers that can infect gadgets with malware or software that can give hackers access to your phone, tablet or computer.

“Avoid using free charging stations in airports, hotels or shopping centres,” a tweet from the FBI’s Denver field office stated.

“Bad actors have figured out the scope to use public USB ports to present malware and control software onto gadgets. Carry your charger and USB cord and use an electrical outlet instead.”

The FBI offers the same kind of guidance on its website to avoid public charges. The bulletin didn’t point to any latest instances of consumer harm from juice jacking, and the FBI didn’t return a request for comment on what made a prompt the reminder from its Denver office.

The Federal Communications Commission has warned about “juice jacking,” as the malware loading scheme is well known, since 2021.

Consumer gadgets with compromised USB cables can be kidnapped through software that can then siphon off IDs and passwords, the FCC has warned at the time. The commission told the customers to avoid public stations.