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Acoustic Interference Attacks Can Damage Hard Drives and Crash Operating Systems

posted by janrinok on Thursday May 31 2018, @04:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the so-can-dropping-them dept.

takyon writes:

Sonic and ultrasonic attacks damage hard drives and crash OSes

Attackers can cause potentially harmful hard drive and operating system crashes by playing sounds over low-cost speakers embedded in computers or sold in stores, a team of researchers demonstrated last week.

The attacks use sonic and ultrasonic sounds to disrupt magnetic HDDs as they read or write data. The researchers showed how the technique could stop some video-surveillance systems from recording live streams. Just 12 seconds of specially designed acoustic interference was all it took to cause video loss in a 720p system made by Ezviz. Sounds that lasted for 105 seconds or more caused the stock Western Digital 3.5 HDD in the device to stop recording altogether until it was rebooted.

[...] "For such systems, the integrity of the recorded data is vital to the usefulness of the system, which makes them susceptible to acoustic interference or vibration attacks," the researchers wrote in a paper titled "Blue Note: How Intentional Acoustic Interference Damages Availability and Integrity in Hard Disk Drives and Operating Systems."

Nice title.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday May 31 2018, @06:15AM (1 child)

    by anubi (2828) on Thursday May 31 2018, @06:15AM (#686621) Journal

    Thanks! I stand corrected big time...

    I would not believed it - but the source looks credible enough.. a guy who does stuff, not a guy trying to sell me stuff.

    I did not think a human yell could deliver near enough energy. A jackhammer three feet away, definitely, but someone yelling at it?

    Thanks again... people like you posting stuff like this is exactly why I love reading these forums... I learn the damndest things. With this one being near the top of stuff that I would have never believed.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @11:19AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @11:19AM (#686670)

    You're very welcome, but I cannot take credit for that link. It was posted here on SN as a story earlier this year. I could not find the story (SN search leaves a bit to be desired) but I found it on YouTube.