A hacker has shown a frighteningly easy way to hack any cell phone in just 15 minutes.
Ryan Montgomery is an ethical hacker who shared a simple way someone might hack into your devices by demonstrating how he could hack into his own computer.
Montgomery used a gadget that appeared to be a simple everyday item to steal information from his own device when appearing on a podcast this month.
He spoke to Patrick Bet-David from Valuetainment where he showed a wire that looked like a phone charger and revealed that you could “bring this home, it could act like a charger forever” but it has a secret function that could have a more sinister use.
Plugging the charger into his own computer, Montgomery explained how easy it is to hack into a phone or laptop using the gadget.
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Once plugged in, the hacker can “type keys at 860 words per second, I can leave it there and come back later, this thing has its own Wi-Fi network that I connect to”.
If a computer, a hacker would be able to see who and what you’re messaging or what you’re looking at.
The charger connects to the hacker’s phone where he can type out anything he wants onto the hacked device.
Demonstrating it on the podcast, Montgomery says that it “could have been anything, that could have been a malicious command, that could have been a virus that it downloaded.
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“That could have been anything that I wanted it to be and I have now remote control over this cable that if I plug right into my phone, watch my phone charges, you would have no idea that this implant is in your house.”
However, as terrifying as that may be, it’s not all bad - he also revealed a data blocker which will alert you as to whether a charger you’re using is a “malicious cable” or not.
Viewers were shocked by the revelation and took to the YouTube comment section to share their reactions, with one user writing: “EVERYONE is changing their ATM PIN and deleting their browser history.”
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Another said: “This is why I don’t charge from public USBs like airports and hotels.”
A third wrote: “Who borrows charging cables from strangers in 2024? Definitely not me.”
And a fourth person had their own theory, adding: “Who else thinks these are already installed straight from the factory to direct all that info straight into the NSA (National Security Agency)?”