Google acquires SlickLogin: dogs go wild!
SlickLogin, an Israeli start-up, is behind the technology that allows websites to verify a user's identity by using sound waves. It works by playing a uniquely generated, nearly-silent sound through your computer speakers, which is picked up by an app on your smartphone. The app analyses the sound and sends a signal back to confirm your identity.
The firm confirmed the acquisition on its website but did not provide any financial details of the deal.
Too bad they don't still put whistles inside packages of Cap'n Crunch cereal!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Khyber on Tuesday February 18 2014, @01:28AM
Even better, what if my speakers don't have the response range to reproduce that frequency?
D'oh!
Destroying Semiconductors With Style Since 2008, and scaring you ill-educated fools since 2013.
(Score: 2) by Angry Jesus on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:00AM
Even better, what if my speakers don't have the response range to reproduce that frequency?
Pick a frequency that any consumer grade speaker will be able to reproduce, like something in the human vocal range?
Use more than one frequency?
It's weird how people play dumb when trying to shoot something down, as if their lack of imagination proves that someone else is incompetent.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by KibiByte on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:06AM
The problem here is 'nearly silent' which pretty much indicates to me that this would be done around the outside of the typical range of hearing for an adult but is still reproducible by typical consumer-grade hardware. That's roughly a range of 6KHz to play around in, for most adults.
But the problem is making sure nobody else is hearing it, which means low power. Higher frequencies require higher amounts of power to go any truly appreciable distance. Inverse square makes this even worse.
This is similar to the 'audio bug' that was discussed on other sites last month. Just as infeasible now as it was then.
The One True Unit UID
(Score: 3, Informative) by Angry Jesus on Tuesday February 18 2014, @04:38AM
I think you are reading more into "nearly silent" than is there. It could simply refer to volume. After all, part of the description is that the user holds his phone up to the speaker.
(Score: 1) by dmc on Tuesday February 18 2014, @05:19AM
"
I think you are reading more into "nearly silent" than is there. It could simply refer to volume. After all, part of the description is that the user holds his phone up to the speaker.
"
I wanted to mod you informative for RTFA, but I wanted even less to RTFA myself. Until you said this, I too was presuming it was less user-intensive than holding the phone up to a speaker that isn't muted (e.g. due to headphone usage). I of course thought that due to remembering the audio-transmission virus some security research detected that is an attack against non(traditionally)networked systems. (it wasn't actually infection while offline, but reinfection using the audio-networking to get the full virus code back after a ram/disk wipe. I.e. advanced persistent threat hiding in firmware that is just smart enough to be able to fetch the rest of its code from network if available, or even over the air with such inaudible audio if need be)
(Score: 1) by dilbert on Tuesday February 18 2014, @02:26PM
(Score: 1) by dilbert on Tuesday February 18 2014, @02:30PM
http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/10/meet-bad bios-the-mysterious-mac-and-pc-malware-that-jumps- airgaps/
(Score: 5, Informative) by Angry Jesus on Tuesday February 18 2014, @05:45AM
This is similar to the 'audio bug' that was discussed on other sites last month. Just as infeasible now as it was then.
I missed that line when I first responded. You need to read this paper.
http://www.jocm.us/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=s how&catid=124&id=600 [www.jocm.us]
Some scientists at Fraunhofer were able to do exactly what the BadBios guy was claiming - covert acoustical mesh networking using nothing more than off-the-shelf lenovo laptops and well-known software algorithms. Nothing about viral replication, just the acoustic data transmission part.
(Score: 1) by KibiByte on Tuesday February 18 2014, @06:11AM
That's a pretty good read. Sadly, it appears they're using the same models and units. I'd like to see this done across different units with similar results, as one of the original BadBios claims was something that could infect any computer, running any OS.
The One True Unit UID
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(Score: 1) by Popeidol on Tuesday February 18 2014, @04:39AM
It could handle that with a negotiation phase, like dial-up modems. Initial contact is made at a frequency that all functional speakers and microphones can handle, and it steps up from there until they reach failure (or a predetermined max). Then they drop to the last known good frequency and start the verification.
You could make it pretty fast, and aside from an initial chirp it'd happen as quietly as your equipment allows.