News

Researchers show hijacked computers can send data as sound waves

Friday 7 August 2015 00:44 CET | News

A team of security researchers has demonstrated the ability to hijack standard equipment inside devices in order to send information out of an office through sound waves.

The attack program takes control of the physical prongs on general-purpose input/output circuits and vibrates them at a frequency of the researchers’ choosing, which can be audible or not. The vibrations can be picked up with an AM radio antenna a short distance away.

The new makeshift transmitting antenna, dubbed ‘Funtenna’, adds another potential channel that likewise be would be hard to detect because no traffic logs would catch data leaving the premises.

Hackers would need an antenna close to the targeted building to pick up the sound wavesand they would need to find some way to get inside a targeted machine and convert the desired data to the format for transmission.


Free Headlines in your E-mail

Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.

Subscribe now

Keywords: malware, cybercrime, data breaches, online security, web fraud, computers, sound waves
Categories: Fraud & Financial Crime
Companies:
Countries: World
This article is part of category

Fraud & Financial Crime