Originally Posted By: DWallach
Anandtech wrote a nice article on USB-C back in June:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9331/intel-announces-thunderbolt-3

Intel's vision: we'd have USB-C rolling out by end of 2015 and with more volume in 2016. That seems to be what's happening.

Of course, this means that we'll have three variants on USB-C-to-USB-C cables: "charging cables" (i.e., USB 2.0 only), "data cables" (i.e., 10Gbps) and "active cables" (much more money, supporting 4K video, etc.). And from my initial dive into Amazon, we already see a huge absence of standardized labeling. You pick up a random cable, you'll have no idea what's inside. Sigh.

Still, it's impressive to imagine a world where every single port on your computer is USB-C (plus perhaps a mini-phono jack), including the power connector. It's also pretty wild to think through the security ramifications. You buy a cheap 120V wall wart for charging your laptop and... what's really going on inside that wall wart? There will need to be active electronics to support all the different charging standards. Could you hack a charger to hack your phone? Oh boy.
If USB-C cannot tolerate a 'charging only' cable with literally NO data link, just power, then the security issue may become huge.

I can foresee special prophylactic cable end adapters, sold by trusted names, that allow you to access charging power from untrusted (data-wise) sources. Or device manufacturers (Apple, et al) having to create a USB 'firewall' within the device to prevent unwanted attacks.

The Bad-USB attack vector may become a bigger, more difficult risk if every thing with a USB-C connector MUST have electronics inside.