It happens to all of us: you’re on the go and your iPhone is low on battery. You can’t wait to get home: you need to charge it as soon as possible. Or maybe you’re getting ready to board a plane and want to recharge your iPhone battery. In many places (stores, airports, amusement parks, etc.) you will find public charging stations where you can plug in (often for free) and recharge your iPhone battery.
However, using public charging stations may put you at risk of juice jacking. As described by the FCC in the United States, juice jacking occurs when a hacker loads “malware onto public USB charging stations to maliciously access electronic devices while they are charging.” When you see this public charger, it’s not obvious that it was hacked to steal a user’s personal data on connected devices. Obviously, this is not something everyone wants.
Regardless of how you personally assess this risk, there is a simple remedy (besides never using public charging stations). In iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, Apple added a feature that has been available on Mac for some time: Wired accessories. You’ve probably seen this in action on Mac, where the default setting is to ask whether you trust an external device when you plug it in.
In iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, the default for the Wired accessories the setting is Automatically allow once unlocked. You can change that. Here’s how.
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How to change the Wired accessories setting
- In iOS or iPadOS 26 or later, open Settings.
- Faucet Privacy and security.
- Scroll down until you find the Security section. Faucet Wired accessories.
- You have four options here:
- Always ask: The operating system will always ask for your permission.
- Request new accessories: the operating system will only ask you at the first connection. After that, every other time he won’t ask again.
- Automatically allow once unlocked: The operating system does not ask for authorization if the device is unlocked.
- Always allow: the operating system never asks for permission.
We recommend the Always ask Or Request new accessories settings. If you plug in accessories frequently, you might want to choose the latter setting so you’re not constantly bothered by the permission box. When you are asked to Allow And Do not allowyou can select Do not allow, and your device will still charge.
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If you want to take your protection a step further, you can use the Nitrokey USB-C/C Data Blocker (€7, about $8), which blocks USB-C data transfers. Plug the Nitrokey into the charger port, then plug your device into the Nitrokey. The Nitrokey even protects against the risk of hacking the charging cable itself.
This article was originally published on our sister publication Macwelt and has been translated and localized from German.
