They have found a security flaw in android that allows hackers to steal important information from you. A group of researchers made up of up to five American universities have discovered a technique to listen to your conversations and filter your personal information. This is possible through sensors available on Android devices. It doesn’t work on old mobiles… But it does on modern ones! Thanks to the collaboration of researchers from five universities in the United States, a side channel attack method called EarSpy has been developed. What exactly does this system do? Basically, intercept the vibrations sent by the speaker. To do this, it uses the sensors of an Android smartphone. These can be used to get details about the caller as well as the topic of the current conversation once they get the proper analysis. To reach this conclusion, researchers from Texas A&M Universities, Temple Universities, Dayton Universities, Rutgers Universities and the New Jersey Institute of Technology built a machine learning method. A side channel attack like EarSpy would not have been possible without today’s technological advances in sound transmission and components. Trying to exploit it on a 2016 OnePlus 3T proved impossible. However, a 2021 OnePlus 9 gave researchers more important information: The speaker on the latest Android smartphone is significantly more powerful and accurate. What is the purpose of this research with Android devices? EarSpy may look promising in some ways, but the data it collects is far from accurate. The scientists were only able to identify the caller’s gender with an average accuracy of 88.7%, even after experimenting with a limited amount of audio data. Voice recognition was only accurate 33.3% to 41.6% of the time, while caller ID was only detected 73.6% of the time. As artificial intelligence develops rapidly, these percentages will quickly approach 100% effectiveness. At the moment, you don’t have to worry yet if you use an Android smartphone. Ultimately, EarSpy cannot access your conversations or information. However, it is a red flag for devices using this ecosystem. The scientists who created this method have done so because they are concerned with the interests of the users. His research hopes to show how this type of attack could one day spread widely if it falls into the wrong hands. There is no reason to be afraid, but there is reason to be cautious. Basically, this is a “vaccination” to avoid greater evils. >