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Boffins convert typing sounds into text with 95% accuracy (www.theregister.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

145 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Researchers in the UK claim to have translated the sound of laptop keystrokes into their corresponding letters with 95 percent accuracy in some cases.

That 95 percent figure was achieved with nothing but a nearby iPhone. Remote methods are just as dangerous: over Zoom, the accuracy of recorded keystrokes only dropped to 93 percent, while Skype calls were still 91.7 percent accurate.

In other words, this is a side channel attack with considerable accuracy, minimal technical requirements, and a ubiquitous data exfiltration point: Microphones, which are everywhere from our laptops, to our wrists, to the very rooms we work in.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Isn't boffin a derogatory term like "nerd"?

What a dogshit headline.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Article also uses the term "eggheads".

To go from keystroke sounds to actual letters, the eggheads recorded a person typing on a 16-inch 2021 MacBook Pro using a phone placed 17cm away and processed the sounds to get signatures of the keystrokes.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It can be. Being a boffin, I'm not offended. Up to the individual if they choose to be offended.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Still shitty journalism to refer to researchers publishing their research in that way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Meh, I wear such labels as badges of honor. I sacrificed a bit along the way to develop knowledge, skills, competence - I've earned it. Thanks for acknowledging it.

I also see such things in a humorous light. I mean us "boffins" can be such boffins at times. We can over-focus, get caught up on perfectionism, etc, etc. If'n ya can't laugh at your own foibles, well, I don't know what to say.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

It’s The Register - think the Financial Times for IT but in the style of The Sun/any other British tabloid. They do it for the lulz, if you will - don’t get too hung up on the headlines as the content is top quality.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Maybe a US/UK divide? At least in the UK boffin is relatively inoffensive depending on how it's used. Eg if I build a fusion reactor in my garden my neighbour might say "wow, look at what this boffin did!" and it would be a complement where boffin is a stand in for a word like genius, only with a tounge in cheek touch of jealousy.

Thinking about it I would say that 'nerd' is typically putting someone down for their intelligence or interests, whereas boffin is a light insult while identifying the 'boffin' as being smarter than yourself.