Sonic and ultrasonic attacks damage hard drives and crash OSes

(credit: Microsoft) Attackers can cause potentially harmful hard drive and operating system crashes by playing sounds over low-cost speakers embedded in computers or sold in stores, a team of researchers demonstrated last week. The attacks use sonic and ultrasonic sounds to disrupt magnetic HDDs as they read or write data. The researchers showed how the […]

Ultrasonic hack ‘DolphinAttack’ sends inaudible voice commands to Siri, Alexa

Hackers can take control of smart devices using ultrasonic frequencies the human ear cannot detect, according to a new study. Tablets, phones or even in-car interfaces with major voice recognition platforms are all at risk. Researchers at Zhejiang University published a white paper last Thursday detailing how they were able to attack devices like phones, […]