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Tips & Guides Universal Cell Phone Charging Stations

Are Cell Phone Charging Kiosks Safe to Use?

9 min read March 3, 2016
Are phone charging kiosks safe|Phone Charging Station Safety
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Cell phone charging kiosks provide a much needed convenience, but are they actually safe? As cell phone charging kiosks are becoming more and more popular it’s important to make sure you keep your phone secure and data safe if you happen to use one at an event or business. While we can’t speak for every […]

Cell phone charging kiosks provide a much needed convenience, but are they actually safe?

As cell phone charging kiosks are becoming more and more popular it’s important to make sure you keep your phone secure and data safe if you happen to use one at an event or business.

While we can’t speak for every product out there, we will highlight some things to watch out for and give you tips for staying safe.

Necessary Precautions:

One thing you should beware of juice jacking. That’s a term used to describe the illegitimate access someone could gain to your phone while it’s plugged in. As with most popular smartphones – and this is true for Androids, iPhones, and even BlackBerrys – the charging cable and data cable are the same exact cord. So while you think your phone is plugged in to charge the battery, someone could be gaining access to steal your data. One easy way to protect against this happening is to set up a PIN or password to your phone that way it’s inaccessible to any pairing devices.

Another possible way to keep your phone safe is to turn it off before you charge it. A lot of phones don’t allow access to flash storage when they’re powered off, so that should keep your device more secure. This also has an additional benefit: your phone might charge faster since it’s not using any resources.

At DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas, Brian Markus, president of Aires Security, set up a charging kiosk that would flash a warning message when someone plugged in their phone. The goal was to educate conference attendees to take precautions. One man plugged his phone in and said, “I don’t care, take my data, I need my phone charged to make a phone call!” This shows how desperate people are when their phone batteries get low, but it’s still important to not sacrifice safety.

Avoiding the Hassle:

Veloxity offers two different charging stations with

  • Smart Locker Access, so that your phone is kept secure while it’s charged.
  • Each locker is protected by entering a combination or swiping a credit card. We have the safest commercial charging solutions available, so contact us today about renting or buying one for your business or event.