"'Lamphone' Hack Uses Lightbulb Vibrations to Eavesdrop on Homes"

Researchers with the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Weizmann Institute of Science recently published a paper, detailing a new hack, dubbed "Lamphone" that could allow attackers to eavesdrop on conversations happening in homes from afar. Lamphone involves the analysis of a hanging lightbulb's vibrations. The execution of this hack requires the use of a laptop, telescope, and an electro-optical sensor. A hacker would also need to set up near the window of a room in which the lightbulb is placed. The slight vibrations of a lightbulb caused by fluctuations in the air pressure on the surface of the bulb can be used by attackers to recover speech and singing. Through an experiment with the hack, the researchers were able to extract noises in a room, including specific songs and audio from a Donald Trump speech. Suggested mitigations include reducing the amount of light emitted by a lightbulb and using heavier lightbulbs. According to researchers, the use of electro-optical sensors in privacy-invading hacks will continue to grow more advanced in future attacks, easing the performance of eavesdropping. This article continues to discuss the performance and testing of the Lamphone hack, as well as mitigations, previous hacking methods that leverage sound frequencies and the expected advancement of privacy hacks using electro-optical sensors in future attacks.

Threatpost reports "'Lamphone' Hack Uses Lightbulb Vibrations to Eavesdrop on Homes"