A couple of weeks ago, iTWire's Ray Shaw wrote of the dangers of connecting your mobile device to a public charging socket.  In that item Ray echoed the thoughts from Kaspersky Labs that a "naughty person" might have added his own electronics to the innards of the charging station to indulge in a "conversation" with your device.  Based on Kaspersky's thoughts, the article described the usual "platitudes" around how to stay safe.  

With all that in mind, let's instead be a little more proactive about safe charging and describe some practical methods.

Go to any airport and look around the departure areas for clusters of people. They will coincide with the power sources for charging mobile devices. Further, the longer the flight, the greater the number of people desperate to "top off" their devices prior to departure.

Clearly, there are two sources of power in an airport departure area. Firstly, a standard electrical socket (these are getting harder and harder to find!) and secondly, a custom mobile device charging station.

The first category requires you to have your own "wall wart" and that ought to be entirely safe, so we shall ignore that option in this discussion. Plug in and charge away!

iTWire has noted two general solutions to the mobile charging station problem. The first is a series of small "pods" located amongst the departure lounge seating area – those travelling though Singapore or Hong Kong will be familiar with them. The alternate is a large bank of glass-fronted lockable pigeon holes (not unlike the typical bank of Post Office boxes) where one can connect one's device, lock the door and relax elsewhere (we've seen them frequently, but can't recall where!).

Both solutions are fraught.  It is simply not possible to determine what's on the other end of the charging socket.

The only option is to create a digital condom.  Just like the "real" version, there are plenty of options.  Allow me to list a few.

1. The easiest (and perhaps twee) option is to charge the mobile from the laptop you're also carrying. You're not travelling with a laptop?  Perhaps you should read on.
2. Next, you might carry one of those 11,000 mAH battery packs (Cygnett, for example has a pretty good range). If you interpose the battery pack between the charging source and your device, you're immune to any nasties.
3. Carry one of those old double-ended USB hard drive cables (remember when external drives needed more power than a single USB socket could deliver?). Plug the non-data connection (it's the one with the thinner wire that is connected into the main data socket) into the public socket and you're good to go. Note that this will not enable any of the enhanced or rapid charging features your device might have.
4. Build (or buy) a USB "condom". Note that either solution includes additional wiring to assist the device to believe that it is connected to a fast charging source. While not perfect, it will generally allow the device to take as much power as the source can supply and the device can consume.

Stay safe out there, people and make sure you carry a condom.