Tag Archive for: Phone

Can the New EarSpy Hack Eavesdrop on Your Phone Conversations Through Vibrations?

/in


Eavesdropping on Phone Conversations Just Got Easier.

Eavesdropping on Phone Conversations Just Got Easier. (Representational image)

Photo : iStock

Mobile security is a constantly evolving field, with new vulnerabilities constantly emerging. Imagine mobile security as a highway: just as new potholes can form on a highway every day, new vulnerabilities can appear in mobile security. The effectiveness of mobile security also depends on users taking care to protect their devices and avoid compromise, much like how the smoothness of a drive on a highway depends on drivers taking care to avoid accidents.
A group of researchers from several reputable American universities have recently developed a new attack method called EarSpy, which is designed to capture what users say through their phone’s speaker by analyzing vibrations caused by the user’s voice.

This attack can even work when the phone is held up to the ear, and was found to be very effective at identifying the gender of the speaker and the words spoken when tested on newer models of the OnePlus phone. In one particular set of tests using the OnePlus 7T, EarSpy was able to correctly identify the gender of the speaker in 98.66% of samples.

Across multiple phones, sample sets, and analysis models, gender recognition was fairly accurate, with the lowest reading being 65.53%. EarSpy was also able to detect the speaker’s identity with a top accuracy rate of 91.24%, nearly three times better than a random guess.

However, the accuracy of EarSpy in understanding the exact words spoken was lower. When tested using samples of actors reciting a sequence of digits, the best performer achieved a hit rate of only 56%. Despite this lower accuracy, the researchers noted that this is still five times more accurate than making a random guess.

The authors of the research paper also pointed out that while the impact of speakerphone vibrations on raw accelerometer data is relatively low and algorithmic word detection using this data is spotty, adversaries using the EarSpy attack can still determine key components of the conversation, such as who is speaking and what is being spoken about. In theory, EarSpy could be leveraged by malware that has infiltrated a device to relay accelerometer data back to the…

Source…

Security researchers show how to eavesdrop on mobile phone calls by measuring the ear speaker’s tiny vibrations

/in


While it’s possible that malware on your smartphone could record your calls, it’s an increasingly difficult technical proposition. Instead, researchers from Texas A&M University and colleagues have demonstrated that it’s possible to eavesdrop on phone calls by measuring the tiny vibrations of the ear speaker using a phone’s built-in accelerometers and then decoding that data remotely to determine what was said. They call the method EarSpy. From Security Week:

They conducted tests on the OnePlus 7T and the OnePlus 9 smartphones — both running Android — and found that significantly more data can be captured by the accelerometer from the ear speaker due to the stereo speakers present in these newer models compared to the older model OnePlus phones, which did not have stereo speakers.

The experiments conducted by the academic researchers analyzed the reverberation effect of ear speakers on the accelerometer by extracting time-frequency domain features and spectrograms. The analysis focused on gender recognition, speaker recognition, and speech recognition[…]

When it comes to actual speech, the accuracy was up to 56% for capturing digits spoken in a phone call.

“EarSpy: Spying Caller Speech and Identity through Tiny Vibrations of Smartphone Ear Speakers” (arXiv)

Source…

Essential security steps when setting up a new phone or computer

/in


For the new tech in your life, there are options to secure your privacy and security.

Most tech is easy enough to set up and start using. The secret Big Tech companies don’t want you to know? Some settings are great for them but not for you. Tap or click for privacy defaults you need to change.

It’s never too late to go back and change your settings or do some cleanup to get more years out of even an older gadget. Tap or click for the smartphone cleanup you need to do if yours is more than three months old.

For the new tech in your life, there are countless options. Here are a few important ones to prioritize:

Start your day with the top tech news

If you got a new computer

Microsoft places ads and suggested apps in the Start menu. That’s annoying, but it’s simple to turn them off:

• Click the Start menu, then open Settings.

• Choose Personalization.

• Select Start from the left pane.

• Toggle off Show suggestions occasionally in Start.

On a Mac, this quick privacy step stops companies from tracking you across websites to advertise products and services.

• Open the Safari browser. Go to Safari > Preferences > Privacy.

• Next to Website tracking, check the box for Prevent cross-site tracking.

• You can also choose to hide your IP address for extra privacy.

Get the most out of it: Malware can ravage your new computer. Here are five ways to think like a hacker, starting today.

If you got an Amazon Echo

Amazon Sidewalk is basically a mesh network that extends your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection range by up to a mile by using some Echo speakers and Ring gadgets into bridge devices.

That gives internet-connected tech far from your router, like lights at the edge of your driveway, a real boost. That’s nice, but what does it mean for your security?

Source…

10 Helpful Tools You Can Unlock Using Google Search, Google Assistant, or the Google App on Your Phone « Smartphones :: Gadget Hacks

/in


Google has a few hidden tools you might not have discovered yet, and they work in Google Search, in the Google app, and with Google Assistant — on both iPhone and Android phones.

We all know smartphones do much more than make phone calls. They serve as cameras, GPS navigators, music players, portable televisions, web browsers, and even flashlights, making other gadgets that serve those singular purposes nearly obsolete.

But your phone can replace other tools, such as dice, guitar tuners, and bubble levels, with assistance from Google. And you don’t need to install an app to access them unless you want to use the Google or Google Assistant app and don’t already have one of them (many Android phones come with at least one preinstalled).

Google Search Tools

These tools below are accessible on your iPhone or Android phone by performing a Google search in your browser at google.com or by searching in the free Google app for iOS or Android. Some of them can even be called up with Google Assistant.

When searching for these tools, you can tap the button with the downward-pointing chevron to find the other available tools. You’ll see a tab for games and toys, but we’re currently focusing on the tools. All but one of these tools are also accessible via desktop browsers.

10 Helpful Tools You Can Unlock Using Google Search, Google Assistant, or the Google App on Your Phone

1. Flip a Coin

Search “flip a coin” to access Google’s coin. The virtual coin will spin and flip before landing on a side. Tap the “FLIP AGAIN” button to repeat.

10 Helpful Tools You Can Unlock Using Google Search, Google Assistant, or the Google App on Your Phone
10 Helpful Tools You Can Unlock Using Google Search, Google Assistant, or the Google App on Your Phone

2. Roll a Die or Set of Dice

Search Google for “roll a die” or “roll dice” to roll one six-sided die. You can also specify multiple dice and other types of dice.

There are dice with 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20 sides. For example, “roll 3 d12” gives you a trio of 12-sided dice, while “roll 5 d20” gives you five 20-sided dice. Google will display the rolled dice and the resulting total number.

10 Helpful Tools You Can Unlock Using Google Search, Google Assistant, or the Google App on Your Phone
10 Helpful Tools You Can Unlock Using Google Search, Google Assistant, or the Google App on Your Phone

With the on-screen interface, you can tap the “Roll” button to roll the dice again. Tap the dice in the white space to clear them. In the toolbar below the white space, tap the die options to roll an additional die onto the white area. You can also tap the +/- button to add a modifier to the roll total.

3. Spinner

If you’d prefer to spin a wheel for your random number generator, Google has…

Source…