Thieves Getting More Creative, Latest Data Theft Method Is Truly Unexpected
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – In today’s digital era, charging cables can apparently be misused by irresponsible parties to steal personal data. Unfortunately, many people remain unaware of the risks and casually borrow cables belonging to others without realising the potential dangers.
The habit of borrowing cables typically occurs in public places such as airports or hotels. Passengers or guests often borrow cables from strangers or staff, seeing it as a practical solution when their device’s battery is nearly depleted.
However, cybersecurity experts strongly advise against this practice, as it is highly dangerous to device security. Borrowing a cable from an unknown party is regarded as a serious mistake that could open the door to the theft of important data stored on a phone or tablet.
“There are certain things in life you should never borrow,” said Charles Henderson, Global Managing Partner and Head of X-Force Red at IBM Security.
He likened a charger cable to underwear. If you forget to bring underwear on holiday, the solution is to buy new underwear, not to borrow someone else’s. The same principle, he argued, should apply to charger cables.
For context, Henderson runs a team of hackers hired by clients to break into their computer systems in order to uncover vulnerabilities. He said hackers have found ways to implant malware in charger cables that can hijack devices and computers remotely.
At the annual DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas some time ago, Henderson recounted how a hacker known as ‘MG’ demonstrated a modified iPhone Lightning cable.
After using the cable to connect an iPod to a Mac computer, MG was able to remotely access the cable’s IP address and take control of the Mac.
He was also able to ‘kill’ the remotely implanted malware and erase all evidence of its presence.
Despite the dangers, Henderson said the risk of scams involving malware planted in charger cables has not yet become widespread. Such schemes are typically used to deceive victims who have already been targeted, rather than being random attacks.
“But just because we haven’t seen widespread attacks doesn’t mean we won’t,” Henderson said.
“The technology is very small and very cheap. It can be made so small that it looks like an ordinary cable, yet has the capability and intelligence to implant malware in its victims. These products will become cheaper to produce, and this is not something the average consumer would track to know when they could be deployed on a mass scale,” he explained.
According to Henderson, the greater threat at present compared with malware-laden charger cables is the USB charging stations found in public places such as airports.
“We have seen some instances where people modified charging stations. I’m not talking about power sockets — what I’m talking about is when there is a USB port on a charging station. Be careful about what you plug into your device,” Henderson said.