In China, one of the most successful enterprises to come from their sharing economy has been power bank rentals. However, police in China are warning that mobile battery packs can be used to spread malware.
On Sunday the Ministry of Public Security’s online security department published a warning on their official WeChat account which said that shared power banks can be used to transmit Trojan horses and other forms of malware, with power banks of unknown origins being especially susceptible to such things. Once a smartphone has been infected by a contaminated charging point, the malware implanted on their device has the ability to steal personal information, such as contacts, photos and videos, according to the police warning.
Currently, this issue is not thought to be large or widespread, with the police having no real-world examples of these scenarios to offer. Although, some experts warn that users must still be wary of the potential threat shared power banks carry.
