We’ve all had that moment. Your smartphone battery is running low, and you’re desperate for some juice. But just how desperate have you gotten? Desperate enough to plug your phone into an NSA charging station? Because some people are seriously facing that choice right now.


Shmoocon, a hacker conference that started today and runs through the weekend, includes a cutesy display with this exact dilemma. The text on the NSA’s display even says, “You know you want to try it!”

NSA official Rob Joyce tweeted out a photo of the display (above), and the spy agency says that it’s in on the joke.


“It’s tongue-in-cheek,” NSA media relations officer Chris Augustine told Gizmodo over the phone. “It was created for this event so that it would allow for... exactly what you’re seeing on Twitter.”

And what you’re seeing on Twitter is a tweet that’s starting to go viral with comments like, “what could go wrong?” and “totally not a trap.”

“We’re trying be edgy,” Augustine continues with a laugh.

But if you’re heading to a hacker conference, you’re probably going to want to lock your shit down. And that includes not charging your devices with mystery cords. Even if NSA says it’s just a joke.


“We go to a lot of conferences like these,” Augustine continued. “Some of our talent comes from conferences like these. I don’t know if we’re presenting at this conference, but I do know we are recruiting.”