Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for November 7, 2019
Lasers can issue silent commands through microphones intended for voice control; A TED talk on the importance of transforming adversaries into allies; DNA genealogy could be a national security nightmare; Russian bird researchers broke their budget with roaming charges from tracking devices; and a Steem report describing China's planned cislunar economic zone between the Earth and the Moon
Straight from my RSS feed | Whatever gets my attention |
Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.
- Lasers can silently issue 'voice commands' to your smart speakers - In a recent paper, researchers from Tokyo and the University of Michigan have described the method, involving the use of lasers, that they used to take over a number of different voice controlled devices. In one example, they were able to use a laser from a separate building to trick the digital assistant into opening a garage door. The digital assistants use a small plate, described as a diaphragm, to detect vibrations in the air and interpret those vibrations into voice commands, but through the use of lasers, these researchers were able to silently cause matching vibrations. The researchers said, "they could've easily made online purchases, opened doors protected by smart locks and even remotely unlocked cars connected to voice AI-powered devices by using the same method. " A complete list of devices that were hacked using this method includes: "Google Home/Nest, Echo Plus/Show/Dot, Facebook Portal Mini, Fire Cube TV, EchoBee 4, iPhone XR, iPad 6th Gen, Samsung Galaxy S9 and Google Pixel 2". Manufacturers, including Tesla, Ford, Amazon, Apple and Google have been notified of the issue. The researchers also note that putting tape over the microphone won't solve the problem, and the microphones need to be reengineered. I guess the moral of the story is: Until this is fixed, don't keep your digital assistants in site of a window.
Here is a video:
In order to help bring Steem's content to a new audience, if you think this post was informative, please consider sharing it through your other social media accounts.
And to help make Steem the go to place for timely information on diverse topics, I invite you to discuss any of these links in the comments and/or your own response post.
Beneficiaries
- Burn Steem/SBD - @null - 5%
- Cited author(s) - @rt-international - 10%
- Fundraising for the Rustin Golden Knights Marching Band - @rgkmb-unofficial - 10%
- Posting and/or scheduling service (steempeak.com) - @steempeak - 5%
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) curation on Steem - @steemstem - 5%
- Steem/API services (anyx.io) - anyx - 5%
- Steem/RSS services (steemrss.com) - torrey.blog - 5%
About this series
Sharing a link does not imply endorsement or agreement, and I receive no incentives for sharing from any of the content creators.
Follow on steem: @remlaps-lite, @remlaps
If you are not on Steem yet, you can follow through RSS: remlaps-lite, remlaps.
Thanks to SteemRSS from philipkoon, doriitamar, and torrey.blog for the Steem RSS feeds!
Congratulations @remlaps-lite! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP
To support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
Items #1 and #3 are intrinsically related. Code is just 1's and 0's. There is no secure computer. Computers that scan DNA have been infected with malware using DNA crafted for the purpose. Cars with computers have been hacked by shining lights on their lights, playing sounds into the speakers, and on and on. Every interface is a conduit for hackers that understand computers.
No data on a computer is secure, nor ever will be. Worse yet, every commercially available chipset is backdoored at the factory by various state and other actors.
Criticism is my most valued currency, for the reasons given in #2. Absent criticism, without opposition, I cannot change my mind when I am wrong, or become better than I am. Fear keeps me on my toes. Shame enables me to avoid regret, and regret to avoid shame.
A man is only defined by his enemies, crafted by his obstacles, and proven by his transcendence.
Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for reading! I appreciate the insightful commentary that you so-often add to these posts.
I agree with you on all points, although it is sometimes hard for me to get past the reflexive feeling of defensiveness when confronted with criticism. And, when watching the TED talk on listening to critics, I wondered how realistic it is to ask most businesses to be transparent in that sort of situation. Nice idea, but I think it would be hard (or impossible) for most corporations to put into practice.
It is our human condition that has conditioned us to defend ourselves from criticism, and it is a trait I often lament with regret in myself. Fortunately I am not a corporation, and do not need to convince a committee to do so. I can barely do it to me =p.
This post has been voted on by the SteemSTEM curation team and voting trail. It is elligible for support from @minnowbooster.
If you appreciate the work we are doing, then consider supporting our witness @stem.witness!
For additional information please join us on the SteemSTEM discord and to get to know the rest of the community!
Thanks for having included @steemstem in the list of beneficiaries of this post. This granted you a stronger support from SteemSTEM. Note that using the steemstem.io app could have yielded an even more important support.