* Researchers were able to use data collected by navigation sensors to record audio signals* Ingenious technique may be able to spy on some sensitive data, but requires a large amount of effort
A team of researchers have explained how internet-connected robot vacuum cleaners can be hacked to eavesdrop on homeowners’ private conversations.
Researchers from the University of Maryland, College Park and the National University of Singapore have published research detailing how they were able to launch an ingenious attack that could stealthily snoop on people without their knowledge – despite there being no actual acoustic microphone built into the vacuum cleaner.
The technique exploits the smart sensors built into robot vacuum cleaners.
Self-driving cars, industrial robots, delivery robots, and robot vacuum cleaners all have a technology in common: Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors. LiDAR uses a pulsed laser to help devices measure distances, and navigate obstacles – something that’s important whether it is for an autonomous vehicle on the highway or a robot vacuum cleaner navigation your home.
In a technical paper titled “Spying with Your Robot Vacuum Cleaner: Eavesdropping via Lidar Sensors” the researchers showed how they managed to exploit a robot vacuum cleaner equipped with LiDAR – supposedly used for navigation – to secretly spy on home owners.
The researchers’ were inspired by laser microphones which have been in use since the Cold War.
In a typical spying scenario, a laser microphone will be targeted on the window of a room where a private conversation is taking place. The window’s glass bends and flexes a tiny amount in response to the sound vibrations caused by the conver ..
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