Investigators to spy documents through the voice of the printer

dotmatrix

A group of researchers found a way to spy on the document being printed. Leaking confidential documents can only vote because the printer.

This method, as quoted by Twitteling from TheRegister, Tuesday (08/10/2010), new can be done on older printers dot-matrix type. Because, admittedly, this printer is fairly loud noises and sometimes deafening.

However, in several European countries, dot-matrix printers are still used in various professions. Many doctors’ offices and banks in Germany mentioned still use the printer ‘cricket’ to print this important document.

The researchers managed to dig up 95 percent of the words of a document in the study. The methods used include language recognition algorithms adapted to the context of the document.

The point here, if the document is the prescription then used as a translator dictionary clove-cigarette voice of the printer it is a dictionary with many medical terms and drug names. Likewise for inheritance and other documents.

Meanwhile, if carried out ‘blind’, the success rate dropped down to 70 percent. The figure could come down if the distance of the microphone with the further noisy printer – research carried out at a distance of 2 cm.

Methods such as information theft is also called Side Channel Attacks. This attack can not be secured utilizing the output from the target machine to estimate the information conveyed. For example printing machine to record sound, pounding the keyboard until the radiation emerging from the screen.