Your smartphone can be hacked even without the hacker touching your phone

Digital assistants have been the “new trend” in technology for some time now. Every tech-giant whether Apple or Google, is trying to make their digitals assistant as humanely as possible but now with the recent research, you “smart” assistant can be taking orders from a stranger without you even knowing about it.

Researchers developed that Siri, Alexa and other voice control applications can now be controlled using inaudible ultrasonic commands. Hackers can get in your smartphones, open malicious websites and even gain access to your devices just by using this technique. The researchers have named this method “Dolphin” Attack. In summary, Google, Siri, and Alexa can now be hacked with an inaudible Ultrasonic Sound.

Smartphones can catch frequencies above 20,000Hz which is inaudible to normal people. The researchers translated human commands into high frequencies and played them by using a regular smartphone, an amplifier, an ultrasonic transducer, and a battery. By using this technique the researchers were able to issue a number of commands, including activating Siri to initiate a FaceTime call on iPhone, activating Google Now to switch the phone to the airplane mode, and even manipulating the navigation system in an Audi automobile.

However, the attack seems quite destructive, it should be noted that the digital assistant's systems respond audibly to any voice commands sent to them. So the chances of a hacker controlling your phone without you even noticing are slim.

There are certain preconditions for the attack to work i.e the owner of the smartphone should leave the phone unattended and unlocked, the digital assistant in the phone should be activated and the phone should be within five to six feet from the transmitter. It should be noted though, that there have been researches in the past where in attacks can be transmitted from distances far greater than six feet.

More you depend on the smart phone by giving complete access to your digital assistant to do tasks even when the phone is locked or, you leave your phone unlocked far from your sight. Both of these cases though are already dangerous even if an attacker does not have access to ultrasonic sound attacks. Disallow your voice assistant to access your phone when locked, and don’t leave your phone unattended. This should keep you safe.

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