2023-08-18 16:30:00
Telecommuting, personal or professional video meetings… Our use of a computer is varied. And if, as for the bank card, we do not reveal our password or we hide it, we omit a detail which is now important: the sound.
According to one new study published in Augustartificial intelligence can recognize your password using the sound produced by the keys of the keyboard on which you type.
AI finds 95% of the password, using the sound of the keyboard
Among current hacks, video is relatively common via “shoulder surfing” (“surf on the shoulder”: as for a bank cash dispenser, the thief looks over your shoulder to see the code) or hacks by obtaining information, such as by recording certain online video meetings.
But the sound of the keyboard is just as revealing. For the study, the researchers placed a smartphone, with the voice recording function activated, near a computer. They also audio recorded a Zoom and Skype meeting. Then they had an artificial intelligence they developed “listen” to the “clicks”. Result: The AI found the correct password with a 95% success rate. Touchscreen passwords are “less” hackable (40% success all the same).
The key for the AI would lie among other things in the positioning of the keys in relation to the outer sides of the keyboard.
More and more of this type of cyber attacks in the future
“There will be an increase in these types of cyberattacks, with ever more precision in the analysis of sounds,” said one of the study’s co-authors, Dr Ehsan Toreini, from the University of Surrey. And to remember that devices with integrated microphone are always more numerous, including on food processors or toys. Not to mention that we use laptops in cafes, transport, parks… places where criminals can easily record our “clicks”.
If in addition the AI is “helped” by a video (our shoulder, arm or wrist movements, even subtle ones, give information on what we type on the keyboard), hacking is facilitated.
This study is far from being the first of its kind. Enough to panic all computer security systems around the world!
The use of the Shift key is to be applied in all circumstances, studies showing that if the AI manages to recognize that you press it, it cannot understand when you remove your finger from the key in the middle of the other “clicks”. On the other hand, forget the “white noises”, because the AIs can eliminate these sounds without concern.
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