Project from Kaspersky Lab goes live on Kickstarter

Jun 17, 2016 23:50 GMT  ·  By

The Future Crew Team from Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab has started a Kickstarter project named Pure.Charger that aims to safeguard smartphones while their masters are connecting them to public or untrusted USB ports for a quick charge.

It's known that some malware variants have the ability to infect shareable data storage units such as USB devices. Plugging in your phone into a USB port is a dangerous affair, especially if you don't know what's at the other end of the port.

While a USB port on a train or in a public square may look innocent, the computer at the other end may still harbor malware, no matter how small.

The same goes for your friend's laptop, and especially for a stranger's computer. Begging someone for a quick phone charge may not be a good idea if their computer hosts all sort of nasty viruses.

Pure.Charger, as described by the Kaspersky team, is a simple in-out USB thumb-drive that separates the data stream from the electrical current.

If the USB port tries to establish a data transfer, a built-in LCD touch screen will alert the user of the attempted connection. Users can approve the data transfer by tapping on the touch screen.

Users will use Pure.Charger by plugging it into the desired USB port and then connecting the phone's USB cable to the device. Pure.Charger will act as a data transfer proxy but will allow electrical current to pass unabated.