Urgent Warning: New Cyberattack Makes Your Screen Sing to Steal Your Data!

A cybersecurity researcher has discovered a new and innovative way to steal information from a computer, using sound waves and the pixels of computer screens.

Our personal data is not safe anywhere. We can no longer count the number of methods hackers have invented to steal it. Exploiting vulnerabilities in computer processors or in Wi-Fi drivers on Windows systems... even printer ink cartridges can be used to spread malware if we believe some manufacturers. You might think that criminals will eventually run out of possibilities, right? Apparently, not yet.

Cybersecurity researcher Mordechai Guri developed an extremely unexpected technique that makes you wonder how he even came up with the idea. This technique is called PIXHELL (a combination of "pixel" and "hell"), and it allows the theft of information from a computer through sound waves unintentionally emitted by LCD screens. These waves are then sent to a receiving device, such as a smartphone, by altering the display of the pixels on the victim's screen. As we said, it's completely unexpected.

Stealing your personal data using sound and the pixels of computer screens? It's possible.

To clarify, the unintentional sounds in question refer to those from electrical coils, capacitors, or internal vibrations within the screens. These sounds are inaudible to us and cannot be eliminated. By pre-infecting a computer with malware designed for this purpose, the attacker can record information after triggering a specific sound-based action. For example, when the volume is turned on, off, increased, or decreased.

Afterward, the stolen data is transmitted via the LCD screen in the form of sound waves through "singing pixels." The frequency ranges between 0 and 22 kHz, making it almost undetectable to the human ear.

To defend against this attack, there are two solutions: ban anything with a microphone, as it is required to receive the data, or install jammers that emit disruptive white noise.

Don't worry, the transmission range of the PIXHELL attack is a maximum of 2 meters. This means the hacker must infiltrate the location, infect the machines, place the receiver nearby, and then leave with it. So, it is unlikely to happen.