Mobile phones and many computer devices do not last very long on battery and if you’re out and about then you may need to find a charging point, unless you have planned ahead and taken a portable battery bank with you to charge up the device.

Some airports, cafes and other places are starting to offer free USB charging facilities, where you can plug in anything that uses a USB cable and get a free charge.

This is a useful service, but scammers are beginning to target these services to get at the data on your device.

Some criminals have taken to physically getting into unsecured charging kiosks and installing malware that can download data from your device to the criminal.

You need to be wary of public USB charging points and do not assume they are safe.

Plugging your USB cable into a USB socket on a mains plug is fine as there can be no data transfer.

External batteries and power banks are safe to use.

There are also devices called USB data-blockers which are available cheaply and they plug into your device and ensure no data transfer can be carried out.

You can also buy encrypted USB drives – they cost more than standard USB drives but are safer as the data is automatically encrypted when stored or you can install software such as BitLocker which will do this for you on a standard USB drive.

Stay safe.

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