Reddit Reddit reviews PortaPow 3rd Gen USB Data Blocker (Red 2 Pack) - Practice Safe Charging

We found 26 Reddit comments about PortaPow 3rd Gen USB Data Blocker (Red 2 Pack) - Practice Safe Charging. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Computer Accessories & Peripherals
Computer Cables & Interconnects
USB Cables
Electronics
Computers & Accessories
PortaPow 3rd Gen USB Data Blocker (Red 2 Pack) - Practice Safe Charging
Attach between your USB cable and charger to physically block data transfer or syncing; charge mobile devices without any risk of hacking or uploading virusesPortaPow's SmartCharge chip automatically switches between Apple, Universal and Samsung standards to ensure compatibility with your device and charge at up to 2.4 AmpsPortaPow Data Blockers were originally invented in 2013 and are used by the governments of the USA, Canada, UK and New Zealand as well as many corporations around the world to secure their devicesMore than 1000 5-star reviews in total over multiple colors and quantities (red/white/black, single/twin/5-pack)Now on our third gen design - the only data blocker to physically show you that its blocking data. See details below
Check price on Amazon

26 Reddit comments about PortaPow 3rd Gen USB Data Blocker (Red 2 Pack) - Practice Safe Charging:

u/cosha1 · 57 pointsr/london

For the less tech savvy people, please please please, use a "USB condom". These stations are great for stealing all your data. They can potentially mount the memory (both internal and external) and download all your data. A USB condom removes the data pins from the cable therefore the stations can literally ONLY push power and are physically unable to mount the memory on your phones, as opposed to trying to download all your shit.

Stay safe and use a condom.

EDIT: These are the ones I use

u/iamthemadz · 33 pointsr/todayilearned

https://www.amazon.com/PortaPow-3rd-Data-Blocker-Pack/dp/B00T0DW3F8

I got these a long time ago. They trick the power source into providing more juice instead of limiting to 500mA and they also seperate the data lines from the charging source.

u/JoinMyFramily0118999 · 28 pointsr/nyc

Make sure you use a condom.

u/tapman · 12 pointsr/DiWHY

PortaPow Fast Charge + Data Block USB Adaptor with SmartCharge Chip (2 Pack) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T0DW3F8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_RvNAzbR2NCG61

u/gavinmcmahon · 10 pointsr/nyc

I always carry a few USB condoms for this reason.

u/VoidByte · 8 pointsr/britishproblems

You should get a USB Condom.

I have to have one in my car because otherwise the sat-nav crashes when you plugin a phone.

u/dodland · 4 pointsr/news

Gotta wrap it before you tap it, assuming these aren't also compromised...

u/IUsedToBeACave · 3 pointsr/hacking

Thats why these exist. That being said it is more than likely fine.

u/Weather · 3 pointsr/mildlyinteresting

Perhaps a bit. The only reason I mentioned SyncStop is that it's the most well-known of these types of devices. Other brands are available, including PortaPow and Plugable. Additionally, you could always simply make your own.

u/TransNOC · 3 pointsr/sysadmin

Deploy a Citrix or RDP redirect to his corporate PC over VPN VM for him to use with 2 factor authentication and a US-based certificate authority. That way he can travel with no corporate data in tow, where he might be forced to decrypt the laptop for foreign border agencies which are known to work with intelligence services. Since he will want to travel light, perhaps buy him a Macbook and don't forget power converters for Africa. Don't forget to deploy antivirus (with an uninstall password set) and filevault, even on Mac and make sure he cannot save the password in the RDP software. If you do go the Mac route, don't forget to deploy a password on the firmware as well. Don't give him local admin on the laptop but insert a local admin account for a backup he doesn't know exists unless told about in a troubleshooting session.

I hate Surface Pro's but they are such a bitch to tamper with (don't forget to also setup secure boot microsoft only, no USB boot allowed in the uefi firmware and set a password on it) that most attempts would be physically visible. Remember, give him a REALLY GOOD remote experience (Citrix works good over high latency / low bandwidth links) and he will want to comply with all of this.

Do not allow him under any circumstances to take an Android phone overseas. I highly recommend a iPhone with a heavy duty "Unicorn Beetle" case (check Amazon) and a USB charge only cable: https://www.amazon.com/PortaPow-Block-20AWG-Lightning-Cable/dp/B01F7AU62E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522957207&sr=8-2&keywords=charge+only+iphone&dpID=31dRwWAKkBL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

For everything else: https://www.amazon.com/PortaPow-Data-Blocker-Adaptor-SmartCharge/dp/B00T0DW3F8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522957248&sr=8-2&keywords=charge+only+adapter

and send him with at least two of these: https://www.amazon.com/Rishon-Enterprises-Inc-I9889-Addalock/dp/B00186URTY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522957319&sr=8-1&keywords=hotel+room+lock these should be inside his laptop bag and with him at all times. I recommend a backpack: North Face Borealis.

If he's going out of cell range, I recommend purchasing a Garmin Inreach and activating it for $65 a month. It will allow him to cheaply send and receive SMS messages via Iridum and a smartphone. Let him know that any communications over this is not secure whatsoever.

Run firmware updates on everything right before he leaves.

u/edman007 · 2 pointsr/linuxquestions

It can't be done in SW, the 2.1A negotiation is by lack of data and a fixed resistance. You need a dongle to do it. They are cheap.

u/ET3 · 2 pointsr/androidapps

Or a USB condom

PortaPow Data Blocker USB Adaptor with SmartCharge (2 Pack) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T0DW3F8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_WQp9AbGMW4RKT

u/DigChrono · 2 pointsr/GalaxyS8

I think they're talking about those things you sometimes see in malls and airplanes, where it's just a USB port to directly plug your cable into. But, if you have to use one of those, it's best to use a data blocker, like this one.

u/ChetBenning · 2 pointsr/answers

Not that I know of. Do you need to transfer data to/from your work PC or are you just charging? If just charging you can get a USB condom, or a power only USB cable.

Not affiliated with these products, just for examples:

https://www.amazon.com/PortaPow-Block-Charge-21AWG-Lightning/dp/B00NCR590O#customerReviews

https://www.amazon.com/PortaPow-Data-Blocker-Adaptor-SmartCharge/dp/B00T0DW3F8/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_bs_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=G9A5YXWDNYGGN2TWAYYV

u/shadyninja94 · 2 pointsr/security

https://www.amazon.com/PortaPow-Data-Blocker-Adaptor-SmartCharge/dp/B00T0DW3F8

It is USB device that is design to physically cut off the the data lines, with the idea being that you could use the device to charge your phone/tablet in any random USB port without the risk of data transfer.

u/Rail_Control · 2 pointsr/NoStupidQuestions

On linux, it was likely harmless. Still ill-advised.

Better would be to offer a charge from your backup battery. Or use a USB data blocking adapter. For their safety as well as yours.

u/mwaldron · 1 pointr/apple

Something is seriously mesed up with Chevy's MyLink and iOS 9.2.

See this thread. It seems like Apple is blaming GM, but it worked perfectly fine in iOS 9.1 and prior versions so I don't really care who's technical fault it is, Apple caused it to break.

As for preventing the USB, I put one of these in line with the USB port to solve that problem. I'm not sure that's a great solution though, I think I'm just going to put my 2.1A charger back into my power outlet and use that.

u/Mikuro · 1 pointr/GooglePixel

It is an adapter that blocks data transfer between a USB port and your cable, leaving only the power pins connected. So you can connect your phone to a potentially compromised port (think airports) without the risk of your device getting hacked.

There is an actual product called the USB Condom, as well as similar products like PortaPow's Data Blocker. I have the one from PortaPow, and it works pretty well. The downside is that most (all?) fast-charging standards negotiate via data, so these devices limit you to ordinary charge speeds.

I have not personally used it with my Pixel, since these days my on-the-go charging is taken care of with my own portable power bank.

u/otakunopodcast · 1 pointr/ender3

Thought of that first. but couldn't for the life of me find anything like that on amazon. Only thing I could find was dongles like this which let power through but NOT data, which is completely useless in this case.

u/THE_CENTURION · 1 pointr/mildlyinteresting

The top one on Amazon has the data pins physically not present. Seems pretty trustworthy since you can verify that they're not there.

u/doogm · 1 pointr/iphone

So I’m thinking that for a super-majority of the people, the current behavior is fine and Apple has no reason to change it. Even for super-nerdy reddit users. But, let Apple know about it, maybe they will change it.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Another idea is see if you can find a charging-only lightning cable. Not sure that anybody makes one, but somebody might. Or something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/PortaPow-3rd-Data-Blocker-Pack/dp/B00T0DW3F8

u/Gruggleberries · 1 pointr/perth

I thought the same when I saw these - the covers would be trivial to remove and even easier to put a cheap 3D printed cover on it with malware or a capacitor to blow up phones.

Something like this could stop malware pretty easy if you frequently charge from mystery sources. But then again, if you are going to carry a saftey adapter and need to charge frequently, you may as well carry a lipstick sized powerbank.

u/Lysergicide · 1 pointr/technology

That's alright if you don't understand it very well, it's not really something most people deal with regularly on a technical level. Not exactly a hot topic at parties.

AES is the standard and will protect your important information; they didn't call it the Advanced Encryption Standard for nothing (though it's based off of the Rijndael cipher). There are of course other ciphers like Twofish which offer essentially equally strong security. Poor implementations of these are what make them potentially unsafe, but that's the case with any form of encryption.

Something like an encrypted hard drive or file that you can create with a tool like VeraCrypt (a well maintained fork of TrueCrypt) if you use a strong enough password (something long 16 characters of more, with a variety of letters, numbers and symbols, that doesn't use $ubSt1tuT3d p4tt3rNs) using AES will still protect your data at rest extremely well.

If you use an offline password manager like KeePassXC and sync it with Dropbox, Box or Google Drive, you can generate really long, completely random passwords with a lot of entropy (higher the entropy, the better). Then you would only ever need to really remember one really long random password, for your encrypted drives and you can then have a uniquely generated long password for every one for them, as well as online accounts.

The insecurity is usually not by breaking the algorithm or brute forcing it. If someone really wanted at your data, they're more likely to break into your residence or office, threaten you physically for the keys, install a hardware keylogger to steal the key or if your computer is running it can be fairly trivial to extract the key from memory.

Honestly though, unless some state actor is targeting you, for a reasonable level of security try to follow best practices like these:

  • Use an offline password manager like KeePassXC which you can sync the file to all your devices. Never reuse passwords, ever.
  • Encrypt your home computer or laptop with VeraCrypt which is easy enough to do with a graphical interface that guides you through the process for Windows. Linux users should use Cryptsetup/LUKS and macOS users should use FileVault at minimum. If you lose your computer or have it stolen this should at least prevent common thieves from getting at your data.
  • Make sure your phone is encrypted. Most modern Android and iPhone devices are by default. Use a password on those instead of a PIN, pattern or the unlock options.
  • Use multi-factor authentication for all your online accounts if there are options to do so. That way even if your password is compromised, the attacker wouldn't be able to provide additional factors, like an OTP security token (you know when you get an email verification code for instance).
  • Use/buy a router with decent security and firewall. Disable any inbound traffic and UPnP (which can be abused to open up ports).
  • Make sure your browser is using an ad-blocker like uBlock Origin for Chrome (plus Extra) or Firefox which will block dodgy sites and malware from loading as well.
  • Keep your devices patched and up to date.
  • Try to avoid using or doing anything sensitive on open WiFi networks, unless you have a VPN service you can use.
  • Don't plug any devices into those USB chargers at malls, airports and other places unless you have some kind of USB condom that blocks the data channels.

    I hope you can use that information to better secure your devices and accounts. It's not as difficult to improve your security posture as most people think, just requires a little bit of reading and investigation without even getting too deep into it technically.
u/TheRealWhoop · -1 pointsr/london

Grab yourself one of https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00T0DW3F8/ to guarantee it, or a data only cable.