Digvijaya Singh warns people against new cyber threat - Juice Jacking

The General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee Digvijaya Singh on Monday warned people against 'Juice Jacking', a new way of data hacking from devices that are charged at public places. Taking to Twitter, Digvijaya Singh said, "Beware of Juice Jacking!" and advised people to avoid charging mobile phones at public places.

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What is Juice Jacking?

Juice Jacking is a type of cyber attack which originates from USB charging port installed at public places such as airports, cafes, bus stands, etc. The power cable that is seen in public charging stations, facilitates cyber attack while charging the phones.

The process provides illegitimate access to steal personal information from connected devices by either installing malware or by copying sensitive data from the device.

As devices are often charged via USB ports, it may tend to open up the options to transfer files between devices. The attacker uses off-the-shelf hardware that gets installed on public charging boards. This hardware is specifically designed to breach security and gain access to connected devices' information. One may lose the data without even knowing about it.

The cyber attack could range from extracting contact details and private pictures or can inject malicious code directly into the device which allows the hacker to copy all passwords of financial data.

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Home Minister Launches New Cyber Crime Centre

On January 10, Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to control and combat cybercrime in India.

Amit Shah stated that the I4C would be a 7 pronged scheme to fight cybercrime which would include a cybercrime reporting portal, analysis of threats, capacity building, research, and innovation, creating an ecosystem for cybercrime management and joint cybercrime investigation platform for law enforcement agencies.

In addition to this new cyber crime cell, the Home Minister also launched a National Cybercrime reporting portal where citizens can report any kind of Cybercrime irrespective of the place. 

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