Gadgets Can Be Hacked To Produce 'Dangerous' Sounds, Says Researcher
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Many modern gadgets can be hacked to produce deafening and disorienting sounds, research has revealed.
Security researcher Matt Wixey found a range of devices had little protection to stop themselves being turned into "offensive" low-grade, cyber-weapons.
Mr Wixey tested laptops, mobile phones, headphones, a PA system and several types of speakers.
The weaknesses could cause physical harm, harass individuals or disrupt larger organisations, he said.
Mr Wixey, who is a head of research at PWC's cyber-security practice, said he conducted the experiments as part of PhD work into the ways that malware can directly cause physical harm.
He sought to find out if the volume and speaker controls of the devices could be manipulated to make them produce harmful high and low frequency sounds.
Custom-made viruses, known vulnerabilities and other exploits were used to subvert the devices and make them emit the dangerous sounds for long periods of time.
"Some attacks leveraged known vulnerabilities in a particular device, which could be done locally or remotely in some cases," he told the BBC. "Other attacks would either require proximity to the device, or physical access to it."
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