Researchers in the UK claim to have translated the sound of laptop keystrokes into their corresponding letters with 95 percent accuracy in some cases.

That 95 percent figure was achieved with nothing but a nearby iPhone. Remote methods are just as dangerous: over Zoom, the accuracy of recorded keystrokes only dropped to 93 percent, while Skype calls were still 91.7 percent accurate.

In other words, this is a side channel attack with considerable accuracy, minimal technical requirements, and a ubiquitous data exfiltration point: Microphones, which are everywhere from our laptops, to our wrists, to the very rooms we work in.

  • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Isn’t boffin a derogatory term like “nerd”?

    What a dogshit headline.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It can be. Being a boffin, I’m not offended. Up to the individual if they choose to be offended.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Still shitty journalism to refer to researchers publishing their research in that way.

    • Silic0n_Alph4@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s The Register - think the Financial Times for IT but in the style of The Sun/any other British tabloid. They do it for the lulz, if you will - don’t get too hung up on the headlines as the content is top quality.

    • IllNess@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      Article also uses the term “eggheads”.

      To go from keystroke sounds to actual letters, the eggheads recorded a person typing on a 16-inch 2021 MacBook Pro using a phone placed 17cm away and processed the sounds to get signatures of the keystrokes.