Sunday, June 14, 2020

Spies Can Turn Lightbulbs Into Microphones For Real-Time Eavesdropping



FOX News: 'Lamphone' technique allows spies to target victims using lightbulbs for real-time eavesdropping

Researchers turn lightbulbs into microphones

Forget wiretapping -- researchers have developed a new way for spies to eavesdrop on targets using lightbulbs.

The technique is called “lamphone” and was developed by researchers at Israeli's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Weizmann Institute of Science. It uses a special sensor to analyze a hanging lightbulb’s frequency response to sound through fluctuations in air pressure that cause vibrations.

Using lamphone, attackers can recover speech and sounds from an individual in another location. The tactic, first reported by Wired, is said to only require a laptop, a telescope and an electro-optical sensor to carry out.

Read more ....

Update #1: How You Can Use a Light Bulb to Eavesdrop on People's Conversations (Popular Mechanics)
Update #2: Spies can eavesdrop by watching a light bulb’s variations (Ars Technica)
Update #3: Lamphone attack lets threat actors recover conversations from your light bulb (ZDNet)

WNU Editor: This is far-out stuff.

3 comments:

Jac said...

That's pretty great except if you switch off the light bulb or close the shutters.
For sound, just put a damper (modulate spring for example) on parts sensitive to vibration and I'm not talking about an-echoic devices that would completely destroy the method. But that's truly a good way if the opposite part is not prepared for that.

RussInSoCal said...

Spies can also turn light-bulbs into fire bombs.

/but if I told you how, I'd have to... you know...

Anonymous said...

How do you think God does it? Only he sees every particle. No hiding.