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Kaspersky Lab seeks crowd-funding for their new USB charge-only adapter

By Liu Hongzuo - on 24 Jun 2016, 11:01am

Kaspersky Lab seeks crowd-funding for their new USB charge-only adapter

Pure.Charger - a Kaspersky Lab device for USB-charging devices and ports.

Software security giant Kaspersky Lab is looking at cyber security in a different perspective. They are currently crowd-funding for their Pure.Charger device. This device is an adapter that will allow USB ports to charge your smartphone or tablet, and do nothing else – which helps in preventing unauthorized file transfers.

For Pure.Charger to be capable at preventing unauthorized data lines, the thumb-drive-sized USB device comes with its own MediaTek SoC, and a touch screen for users to control the charge-only adapter, letting it activate or deactivate data lines in USB ports. The Pure.Charger has a USB input on one end, and USB output on the other. For extra protection, it comes with a surge protection that can protect a smartphone in the event of a voltage spike.

The Pure.Charger app.

The Pure.Charger will come with an accompanying app that will notify users when fellow Pure.Charger adopters discover a USB charging point that’s trying to feed or take data from your smartphone. Your charging history will be shown in the app as well, and Pure.Charger will sync the information to your smartphone via Bluetooth.

Why is a USB charge-only adapter important? Let’s take your standard Android OS smartphone as an example. By default, plugging your Android smartphone into a PC using a USB cable will bring up a prompt, asking if you wish to charge your phone or to allow file transfers. In a normal-use scenario, the user will have to manually allow file transfers.

Unfortunately, hackers or exploitative users with malicious intent can always find a flaw or glitch in the smartphone’s USB stack (the gap could be anything, from a hardware loophole or a protocol override). That’s when your smartphone will allow file transfers without your knowledge, which opens your device up to cyber-attacks, such as viruses, Trojans, or data-mining tools.

You can never be sure if a free USB-charging point is "just" a USB-charging port.

We can’t expect our smartphones to be perfect, and neither can we hope that every free USB charging point you see at a café, mall, or airport, isn’t a computer in disguise at the other end of the line. That’s where an adapter that only allows charging, and nothing else, helps.

Kaspersky Lab said that the production of Pure.Charger will only begin if the crowd-funding goal is met. On their Kickstarter page, they aim to raise US$100,000. Currently, they have quite a way to go before this helpful device comes to fruition.

There will be three versions of Pure.Charger – the basic version described above, a Pure.Charger Pro that comes with 16GB internal storage, and Pure.Charger Executive, which will come with 32GB storage on-board. One early-bird unit of the Pure.Charger retails at US$25, and the earliest shipment would start in November 2016.

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