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Juice Jacking: The Next Cyberattack
Juice Jacking is another creative way that cyber attackers are accessing your data. Learn more about the concept and how to prevent it.
The public must be on guard for any cyberattack that comes their way; however, attackers are creative and are constantly innovating towards the next type of cyber-attack to catch unsuspecting people. Most recently, the concept of “Juice Jacking” has made its way into public attention.
Juice Jacking is a type of attack that uses a charging port, infected cable, or portable battery to access available data on a connected device such as a smartphone or a laptop. Once a device has been infected, attackers can export your data, steal passwords and other personal information, or lock your device entirely making it unusable.
How Juice Jacking works
A conventional USB cable is not only useful for charging your device, but its primary use is to transfer information from one device to another. As soon as a device is connected to a USB outlet, this allows attackers access to devices.
We have all heard of identity thieves putting on card-reading devices, skimmers, or camera on ATMs and other card readers such as at a gas station pump, but attackers are also able to change out USB hardware for another USB port that allows them access to any who connect to the port. Typically, we see threats to our devices in public such as hotels, public kiosks, and airports.
Juice Jacking and Travel
For those people who travel regularly, they rely on the public charging kiosks to keep them connected to family, loved ones, and work while out and about. But USB public charging stations are a prime target for those people seeking to steal and use your personal information.
Attackers can use not only a public kiosk as a way to gain access to your devices, but they can also use an infected cable. Beware to not use cables that are found already plugged into charging stations or you could already have one in your possession as a free gift. It is very easy to mask a cable to look like a brand name item, and most people believe that cables are not capable of holding information maliciously.
Another method to get victims to connect to a power source is to infect portable batteries, and with the rise of shared or rented portable batteries that you can purchase in airports, it has become easier for attackers to gain their victim’s data and move on to the next airport, making pinpointing the problem harder for those trying to stop the attacks.
Preventing Juice Jacking
The easiest way to prevent Juice Jacking is to plug your devices in via your power adapter that normally comes with your device. Another option is to carry your own power bank. A personal power bank can hold enough power for several recharges. Finally, a product that has been developed to combat the threat of Juice Jacking is a USB data blocker, a small adapter that you attach to the end of the USB cable you would like to use that prevents the transfer of data.
Getting Professional Data Analysis without Hiring Professional Data Analysts
Learn how AI helps businesses analyze customer provided data and IoT implementation important for growth, customer loyalty, and greater profitability.
There is so much data available to your business but getting a proper read on its importance an investment in costly data scientists. Learn ways technological advances, such as AI, helps your business synthesize data and provide your IT team with the information needed to create apps and other solutions at a lower cost.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is at the forefront of the data analysis performed by businesses. According to a recent article appearing in Forbes.com, data centers used to house the billions of bytes of data businesses collect, along with business analytics are growing at a compound annual growth rate of 50 percent between the years 2017 – 2021. The market value of IoT in 2017 was $235 billion and expected to more than double to $520 billion by 2021.
What does this mean for you and your business? All those valuable bits and bytes you collect from your customers is useless if you do not have a team in place that can help you make sense of it and use it to grow your business. This typically means hiring a staff of professional data scientists who, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), earned a median pay in 2018 of $118,370 or $56.91 an hour. That is a huge investment in labor which may be better spent instead on AI developed approaches to data analysis and app development.
Leveraging AI to Produce Professional Data Analysis
Professional data scientists cost you nearly $60 per hour while computer programmers with less education and the skills necessary to write and test computer code and develop apps based on your data earn about $40 an hour (median pay of $84,280 according to BLS). AI gives you the ability to hire programmers over scientists, who can help you properly analyze and utilize your data. Here’s how: AI has involved in one of the few technological advances capable of passing the Turing test.
If you are not familiar with the Turing test, it is the ability of a machine to demonstrate human-like intelligence and provide responses indistinguishable from human responses. That this phenomenon has finally happened for the first time in 2014 (64 years after the test was developed in 1950 by British mathematician Alan Turing, noted for breaking German code during World War II) means AI has become the leading driver for businesses looking to bring sense and order to data and quickly create consumer-driven apps to further engage customers and increase revenue.
Why AI over Human Analysis?
Without giving away to fears about machines taking over ala Stanley Kubrick’s HAL 9000 in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey,” business should come to quickly recognize that machine learning and AI are useful technologies, important in reducing human labor costs and providing a way to integrate IoT into your business.
Hiring programmers who can seize upon the results of AI analysis comes at a savings of about $35,000 per scientist needed to perform the role artificial intelligence does. This alone gives you a compelling business reason to consider the advantage of leveraging AI over traditional human analysis performed by professional data scientists. As companies move slowly toward IoT implementation, you have the opportunity to be on the forefront and beat your competitors to the punch, enabling you to chart uncharted territories and seize important market share!