IT Security: Computer Attacks with Laser Light
fliptop writes:
Lasers have been demonstrated to be capable of all kinds of attacks, from breaking into a smart home to non-line-of-sight imaging. Researchers at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the Technical University of Braunschweig, and the Technical University of Berlin demonstrated that physically isolated (air-gapped) computer systems can be hacked using a directed laser:
The researchers found that hackers can communicate secretly with air-gapped computer systems over several meters of distance, using a directed laser to transmit data to the light-emitting diodes of traditional office devices without additional hardware at the attacked device. Their work was presented at ACSAC '21, the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference.
"The LaserShark project demonstrates how important it is to additionally protect critical IT systems optically next to conventional information and communication technology security measures," says KIT Professor Christian Wressnegger.
Full story at Kit.edu Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.
Journal Reference:
Niclas Kuhnapfel, Stefan Preuler, Maximilian Noppel, et al. LaserShark: Establishing Fast, Bidirectional Communication into Air-Gapped Systems, (DOI: https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.04119)
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