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Tech literate folks, especially authorities, need to be so careful with what they get the public scared of. Get people scared about reusing passwords or not set

Tech literate folks, especially authorities, need to be so careful with what they get the public scared of. Get people scared about reusing passwords or not setting up 2FA. Warning folks about fringe concerns like juice jacking does nothing to meaningfully improve the safety or privacy of the general public, it only serves to get clicks (scary new thing! find out!) and desensitize people to warnings about real threats.

asynchronous 4y ago
This times a thousand. It’s still the low hanging fruit getting the average citizen and if we had proper controls we could mitigate a lot of the damage people feel from database leaks and account compromises.
- hot_gril 4y ago
  Many 2FA implementations are user-hostile. I wouldn't blame the users. IDK about Android, but iPhones are now randomly generating passwords and storing them in Keychain, which has its own user-friendly 2FA. Solves the password-sharing problem. There's also authentication via Apple. Yeah it's first-party proprietary stuff; there are third-party solutions too, but they're harder for regular people to deal with.
  - asynchronous 4y ago
    Point being you don’t see the federal agency announcements typically talking about basic solutions like that: you see them warning about edge case attacks like juice jacking.
    - hot_gril 4y ago
      Yeah, for some reason govt agencies in particular always pick weird things to warn people about. Security advice from the government is also questionable since they spy too.
ElevenLathe 4y ago
Fear of this threat may be the thing keeping it from being a big deal. If nobody cared to protect against it was commonplace to use public USB ports to charge your phone, it would be much more attractive for attackers. On the other hand, just not using public USB outlets or keeping a charge-only cable in your bag are pretty cheap countermeasures. Most people charge their phone while they're sleeping so the AC adapter or special cable can stay in their bedroom/luggage/hotel room. It's really not a big deal.
- Fatnino 4y ago
  Why would anyone want to use a grungy, slow charging public usb port and be stuck in some place for however long it takes to get frustrated that it isn't filling your phone fast enough? Get a power bank. They are cheap and even the large ones weigh no more than a pound. They have enough juice to get any phone through a day or 2 of use. You bring it with you everywhere and you never have to think about the battery level in your phone. Notice it's low (single digit percent battery) while out and about, plug in the powerbank and carry on being out and about. The idea that I would use a public charger attached to a garbage can that I would then need to sit next to for an hour is crazy.
  - ElevenLathe 4y ago
    I've only ever seen them in airports (where people frequently sit for an hour or more between flights) or in hotel rooms. I've never seen one on a trash can or somewhere that you wouldn't already be waiting for something. A few years back there was a startup that had kiosks in grocery stores to charge while you shopped (locked into a little cubby hole), but those seem to have disappeared too.
  - codyb 4y ago
    Plenty of homeless people, tourists, people who’ve just been out too long on a single charge and need 5 minutes of juice to get them to their next destination, delivery workers. It’s a nice thing to make cities friendlier, along with things like free wifi, water fountains, benches, and restrooms.
  - 4y ago
hot_gril 4y ago
It's more like, I ignore government orgs like the FCC giving warnings that involve tech in some way. I don't care if my phone says incoming missile strike, it's probably a false alarm, and I disabled those anyway.
WeylandYutani 4y ago
Gotta help Apple sell expensive chargers and thwart EU legislation on USB standards.

asynchronous 4y ago

This times a thousand. It’s still the low hanging fruit getting the average citizen and if we had proper controls we could mitigate a lot of the damage people feel from database leaks and account compromises.

hot_gril 4y ago
Many 2FA implementations are user-hostile. I wouldn't blame the users. IDK about Android, but iPhones are now randomly generating passwords and storing them in Keychain, which has its own user-friendly 2FA. Solves the password-sharing problem. There's also authentication via Apple. Yeah it's first-party proprietary stuff; there are third-party solutions too, but they're harder for regular people to deal with.
- asynchronous 4y ago
  Point being you don’t see the federal agency announcements typically talking about basic solutions like that: you see them warning about edge case attacks like juice jacking.
  - hot_gril 4y ago
    Yeah, for some reason govt agencies in particular always pick weird things to warn people about. Security advice from the government is also questionable since they spy too.

ElevenLathe 4y ago

Fear of this threat may be the thing keeping it from being a big deal. If nobody cared to protect against it was commonplace to use public USB ports to charge your phone, it would be much more attractive for attackers. On the other hand, just not using public USB outlets or keeping a charge-only cable in your bag are pretty cheap countermeasures. Most people charge their phone while they're sleeping so the AC adapter or special cable can stay in their bedroom/luggage/hotel room. It's really not a big deal.

Fatnino 4y ago
Why would anyone want to use a grungy, slow charging public usb port and be stuck in some place for however long it takes to get frustrated that it isn't filling your phone fast enough? Get a power bank. They are cheap and even the large ones weigh no more than a pound. They have enough juice to get any phone through a day or 2 of use. You bring it with you everywhere and you never have to think about the battery level in your phone. Notice it's low (single digit percent battery) while out and about, plug in the powerbank and carry on being out and about. The idea that I would use a public charger attached to a garbage can that I would then need to sit next to for an hour is crazy.
- ElevenLathe 4y ago
  I've only ever seen them in airports (where people frequently sit for an hour or more between flights) or in hotel rooms. I've never seen one on a trash can or somewhere that you wouldn't already be waiting for something. A few years back there was a startup that had kiosks in grocery stores to charge while you shopped (locked into a little cubby hole), but those seem to have disappeared too.
- codyb 4y ago
  Plenty of homeless people, tourists, people who’ve just been out too long on a single charge and need 5 minutes of juice to get them to their next destination, delivery workers. It’s a nice thing to make cities friendlier, along with things like free wifi, water fountains, benches, and restrooms.
- 4y ago

hot_gril 4y ago

It's more like, I ignore government orgs like the FCC giving warnings that involve tech in some way. I don't care if my phone says incoming missile strike, it's probably a false alarm, and I disabled those anyway.

WeylandYutani 4y ago

Gotta help Apple sell expensive chargers and thwart EU legislation on USB standards.