Consider, for example, typing in your password during a call appointment on Zoom or Microsoft Teams. The AI system can use those sounds to decipher the password, which poses a risk to cyber attacks. That reports the British newspaper The Guardian.
The researchers tested the method by pressing all the keys on a MacBook Pro 25 times in different ways. The sounds were recorded with Zoom and a smartphone.
The sounds were then “fed” to an AI system, which over time was able to recognize the sounds and link them to specific keyboard keys.
Guess passwords
It remains to be seen whether the AI system can actually guess passwords. The researchers only tested how well the system recognizes sounds. They also note that there is a lot of difference between keyboard sounds in an office setting and in a cafe, for example.
Still, there is a warning about the risk of AI when it comes to computer security. According to the researchers, laptop users are particularly at risk because they are often used in public spaces.
The researchers suggest making passwords complicated with upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. “It’s very hard to tell when someone releases a shift key,” said study researcher Joshua Harrison of Durham University.
The results come from a research from the University of Surreypublished in the journal IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops.
2023-08-08 17:49:14
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