Stealing Private Information
Not all of the new sound-based technology is good news. Researchers discovered that it is actually possible to transmit data from one computer to another using nothing but sound. The fear is that this technology can eventually be used to start sending malware and viruses to unsuspecting people. What once seemed like a bizarre theory by security consultant Dragos Ruiu has grown into a probable technological advancement. A team of German researchers published their research and revealed that they had managed to successfully send malware from one non-networked laptop to another non-networked laptop using just its speakers even when the laptops were more than 60 feet away from each other.
Spying Chips
Consumers were just freaking out about the fact that their Samsung Smart TV’s could essentially eavesdrop on their conversations, but now it turns out that even their bag of chips has the potential to expose their secrets — although it’s still far less likely. Researchers from MIT, Microsoft and Adobe recently found a way to decode passive sounds from inanimate objects through a complicated algorithm. The algorithm analyzes the vibrations that sound waves create on the surface of the object and can then string together full messages. According to their published research, they successfully pulled intelligible speech from a bag of potato chips that was more than 15 feet away from its subject.