ANI
27 May 2013, 14:50 GMT+10
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have uncovered new hard-to-detect methods that criminals may use to trigger mobile device malware that could eventually lead to targeted attacks launched by a large number of infected mobile devices in the same geographical area.
Such attacks could be triggered by music, lighting or vibration.
The work was a joint collaboration between the UAB SECuRE and Trustworthy (SECRET) computing lab and the UAB Security and Privacy in Emerging computing and networking Systems (SPIES) research group.
"When you go to an arena or Starbucks, you don't expect the music to have a hidden message, so this is a big paradigm shift because the public sees only emails and the Internet as vulnerable to malware attacks," said Ragib Hasan, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer and information sciences and director of the SECRET computing lab.
"We devote a lot of our efforts towards securing traditional communication channels. But when bad guys use such hidden and unexpected methods to communicate, it is difficult if not impossible to detect that," he added.
A team of UAB researchers was able to trigger malware hidden in mobile devices from 55 feet away in a crowded hallway using music. They were also successful, at various distances, using music videos; lighting from a television, computer monitor and overhead bulbs; vibrations from a subwoofer; and magnetic fields.
"We showed that these sensory channels can be used to send short messages that may eventually be used to trigger a mass-signal attack," said Nitesh Saxena, Ph.D., director of the SPIES research group and assistant professor in the Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research (CIA|JFR).
"While traditional networking communication used to send such triggers can be detected relatively easily, there does not seem to be a good way to detect such covert channels currently," Saxena added.
Researchers were able to trigger malware with a bandwidth of only five bits per second - a fraction of the bandwidth used by laptops or home computers.
The research was recently presented at the 8th Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security (ASIACCS) in Hangzhou, China. (ANI)
Get a daily dose of Tuscaloosa Times news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Tuscaloosa Times.
More InformationMOSCOW, Russia - A new theme park, set to become the largest in Europe, will open in Moscow in the ...
SEOUL, South Korea - Samsung Electronics has denied media reports that it has sold a million Galaxy Fold smartphones in ...
MANILA, Philippines - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $200 million loan to help the Philippine government prepare ...
DUBLIN, Ireland - The government of Ireland has awarded a contract for the provision of two new Maritime Patrol Aircraft ...
The upsurge of Somali piracy after 2005 led to significant international activity in the Horn of Africa. Naval missions, training ...
SHANGHAI, CHINA - China has suspended additional tariffs on some U.S. goods that were meant to be implemented on Dec. ...
Joshua Kaleb Watson was one of three victims killed by a gunman at NAS Pensacola. ...
The University of Alabama received a $3 million grant to train first responders in 16 counties on preventing opioid overdose ...
Kyle Burger's 2019 Heisman Trophy ballot revealed ...
A final farewell on Saturday for Tanarius Moore who was shot and killed on December 7th. ...
JUCO national champion QB Chance Lovertich commits to South Alabama AL.com ...