Lamphone attack allowed researchers to recover conversations from a distance of 25 meters (82 feet).
Earlier this year it was reported that hackers can exploit a critical vulnerability in Philips smart light bulbs to spread malware. Now, scientists at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and Weizmann Institute of Science have identified that it is possible to use a light bulb’s vibration patterns and evaluate the amount of light emitted to spy on secret conversations from a remote location.
The spying can be conducted simply by observing a hanging light bulb visible from a window in the room.
Scientists Ben Nassi, Yaron Pirutin, Adi Shamir, Yuval Elovici, and Boris Zadov claim that the hanging bulb is the key to this attack, which they have dubbed “Lamphone” attack because it serves as a diaphragm and a transducer.
See: Using a laser on Alexa & Google Home hackers can unlock your front door
This means a hanging light bulb can be used by secret agents and spies to eavesdrop on confidential conversations by detecting vibrations from the bulb that result from naturally occurring air pressure fluctuations when sound waves hit its surface. By measuring the changes in the hanging bulb’s output, snippets of conversations can be picked up including music.
The researchers based their research on the principle that objects vibrate when sound waves hit their surface. They used a setup comprising of a telescope to get a close-up view of the room where the light bulb was present, and an electr ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
