Can you trust your USB Charger?
2013/12/6 view:
One of the biggest trends in the consumer electronics sector, over the past few years, has been the rise in the use of the now ubiquitous USB connection as the primary mechanism to charge a portable device. This makes perfect sense from the point of view of both the manufacturer (fewer parts) and the consumer (less hassle). This is no more prevalent than in the mobile phone industry, where even the European Commission has set out a memorandum of understanding [1] to make Micro USB the de-facto charging connector on mobile phones (quite how much this means in practice is another matter).
Now at this point it could be asked, what has this to do with security? Well one subject that isn’t broached that often is in almost all these devices the USB port is still the primary mechanism to synchronise data and configure the device. Sure many devices can be configured to synchronise over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi but rarely come out of the box in such a state, for a very good reason.
Now imagine this scenario (as hypothetical as it is):
“You are in an unfamiliar part of the country, your smartphone’s battery is running dangerously low but as it is your primary means of communicating and doing business you must find somewhere to charge it. You spy an Internet cafe, knowing your device can charge over USB you rush in, pick a seat, a coffee and plug it in. Breathing a sigh of relief, you relax with your latte till enough charge is available to go on your way.”
Of course what you didn’t realise is the computer was infected with malware, which just stole all the data on your phone and sent it back to its masters. With business phones this could be all your confidential emails, your important customer contacts, plans for future expansion, and, well the point has been made. A paranoid nightmare of the dangers of ubiquity? Almost certainly, but it is something which should be seriously considered by both device manufacturers and corporate security managers alike.
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