The woes of a frequent traveler often involve a hungry stomach and a dying cell phone. Conveniently,free charging stations might seem like a golden relic, saving your day from pure phoneless boredom while waiting for a connecting flight. Chargers beware! These stations could result in a hacked phone.

Many public places that facilitate travelers often offer these free charging stations for your dying devices. In recent review, hackers now have the ability to rig these machines to track anything and everything contained within your device while it is on the charger. Brian Markus, CEO of cybersecurity company ‘Aries Security’ recently discovered the threat and stated that “if you go into your online banking application to take a photo of a check, well, that’s recorded… when you connect to your contacts, all of that is recorded.”

Cybercriminals hide HDMI splitters and recorders within the charging stations. Newer devices have the ability to share and stream media via HDMI onto a TV. Once the device is plugged in, the hacker has full rein to record everything done within the device without the owners knowledge. HDMI is usually automatically set to ‘enabled’ on smartphone devices. Markus discovered this threat by realizing that automatically enabled HDMI setting could pose a potential threat.

Besides Markus’s recent study, no victims have stepped forward. To protect yourself and your device, suppy your own charging cable and plug it directly into the charging stations outlet. Another alternative is carrying a fully charge battery pack with you. Don’t fall victim to a senseless crime. Protect yourself and your devices!