It occurs to all of us: you’re out and about and your iPhone is working low on energy. You possibly can’t wait to get house–it’s essential cost it as quickly as doable. Or perhaps you’re on the point of board a aircraft and wish to prime off your iPhone’s battery. At many areas (shops, airports, amusement parks, and many others.), you’ll discover public charging stations the place you may plug in (usually at no cost) and get some juice on your iPhone’s battery.
Utilizing public charging stations, nevertheless, can put you in danger for juice jacking. Because the FCC within the U.S. describes it, juice jacking is when a hacker masses “malware onto public USB charging stations to maliciously entry digital gadgets whereas they’re being charged.” Once you see that public charger, it’s not apparent that the charger has been hacked to steal a person’s private information from the related gadgets. Clearly, that’s not one thing anybody needs.
Regardless of the way you personally assess this threat, there’s a easy treatment (moreover by no means utilizing public charging stations). In iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, Apple added a characteristic that’s been out there on Macs for some time now: Wired Equipment. You’ve most likely seen this in motion on the Mac, the place the default setting is to ask you whether or not you belief an exterior system while you plug it in.
in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, the default for the Wired Equipment setting is to Routinely Permit When Unlocked. You possibly can change this. Right here’s how.
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Easy methods to modify the Wired Equipment setting
- In iOS or iPadOS 26 or later, open Settings.
- Faucet Privateness and Safety.
- Scroll down till you discover the Safety part. Faucet Wired Equipment.
- You’ve got 4 choices right here:
- At all times Ask: the OS will at all times ask on your permission.
- Ask for New Equipment: the OS will ask solely the primary time you join. Each different time after that, it is not going to ask.
- Routinely Permit When Unlocked: the OS doesn’t ask for permission if the system is unlocked.
- At all times Permit: the OS by no means asks for permission.
We advocate the At all times Ask or Ask for New Equipment settings. If you happen to’re regularly plugging in the identical equipment, you may decide the latter setting so that you don’t get aggravated by the permission field on a regular basis. If you find yourself requested to Permit and Don’t Permit, you may choose Don’t Permit, and your system will nonetheless cost.
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If you wish to go a step additional in defending your self, you should utilize the Nitrokey Information Blocker USB-C/C (€7, about $8), which blocks USB-C information transfers. Plug the Nitrokey into the charger’s port, after which plug your system into the Nitrokey. The Nitrokey even protects towards the danger of the charging cable itself being hacked.
This text initially appeared on our sister publication Macwelt and was translated and localized from German.