{"id":2678,"date":"2017-03-15T11:52:21","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T15:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/?p=2678"},"modified":"2024-07-08T06:06:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T10:06:32","slug":"musical-virus-can-hack-smartphones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2017\/03\/15\/musical-virus-can-hack-smartphones\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Musical virus&#8221; can hack smartphones"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2679\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2679\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2679\" src=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Prof. Kevin Fu and colleague at lab table surrounded by testing equipment.\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z-125x83.jpg 125w, https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2679\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-text\">Kevin Fu and other researchers have found a way to take control of or influence devices using a standard component in cellphones and other gadgets.<\/span> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/michigan-engineering\/33300083701\/in\/photolist-ehCAoz-ehCx64-ehCAva-ehCAtk-ehCyy8-ehCz94-ehJhDN-ehCxDF-ehCxVp-ehJmiG-ehJhC5-ehJiMm-ehJmnN-Sm7vej-SSof3G-SVXxWc-ehJjpU-ehJkrA-ehCykZ-ehCALZ-ehJjwS-ehJj5U-ehJitb-ehCAJR-ehCwZD-ehJi3Q-ehCzvz-ehCyrB-ehCywa-ehCy44-ehJk5d-ehCAPT-ehJhnU-ehCzpV-ehJj9j-ehCAQM-ehCAFR-ehCADr-RG1WpH-RG1S74-SJBCJa-RDuCWj-SSo9mG-LafzH9-LgDbyf-LcKChr-LcKC7B-LcKAJM-LgDaU9-dSZPTH\">Joseph Xu, College of Engineering\/flickr<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"260\" data-total-count=\"260\">A security loophole that lets someone add extra steps to your Fitbit might seem harmless, but a group of computer security researchers at U-M\u00a0and the University of South Carolina say it points to the broader risks that come with technology embedding itself into\u00a0our lives.\u00a0They found a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/03\/14\/technology\/phone-hacking-sound-waves.html?src=busln\">vulnerability that allows them to compromise devices through the tiny accelerometers<\/a> that are standard components in products like smartphones, fitness monitors, and even automobiles. Their paper describes how they added fake steps to a Fitbit and played a \u201cmalicious\u201d music file from the speaker of a smartphone to control the phone\u2019s accelerometer. That allowed them to interfere with software that relies on the smartphone.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s like the opera singer who hits the note to break a wine glass, only in our case, we can spell out words\u201d and enter commands, said <strong>Kevin Fu<\/strong>, an author of the paper and an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science. \u201cYou can think of it as a musical virus.\u201d Read the articles in\u00a0the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/record.umich.edu\/articles\/research-shows-how-sonic-cyberattack-can-hit-ubiquitous-sensors\"><em>University Record<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/cyberattack-anti-virus-encryption-software-2017-3\"><em>Business Insider<\/em><\/a> for additional information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A security loophole that lets someone add extra steps to your Fitbit might seem harmless, but a group of computer security researchers at U-M\u00a0and the University of South Carolina say it points to the broader risks that come with technology embedding itself into\u00a0our lives.\u00a0They found a vulnerability that allows them to compromise devices through the tiny accelerometers that\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2017\/03\/15\/musical-virus-can-hack-smartphones\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_umich_oidc_access":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[122,194,23],"class_list":["post-2678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-hacking","tag-phone","tag-security"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z.jpg",640,427,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z-125x83.jpg",125,83,true],"medium":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z.jpg",640,427,false],"large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z.jpg",600,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z.jpg",640,427,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z.jpg",640,427,false],"excerpt-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z-200x140.jpg",200,140,true],"themonic-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z-60x42.jpg",60,42,true],"ioslider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z-640x300.jpg",640,300,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z.jpg",640,427,false],"400x250-crop":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/33300083701_305748a75a_z.jpg",375,250,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"News Staff","author_link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/author\/mitnewsadm\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A security loophole that lets someone add extra steps to your Fitbit might seem harmless, but a group of computer security researchers at U-M\u00a0and the University of South Carolina say it points to the broader risks that come with technology embedding itself into\u00a0our lives.\u00a0They found a vulnerability that allows them to compromise devices through the&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2937,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions\/2937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}