In cryptography, acoustic cryptanalysis is a type of side channel attack which exploits sounds emitted by computers or machines. Modern acoustic cryptanalysis mostly focuses on the sounds produced by computer keyboards and internal computer components, but historically it has also been applied to impact printers and electromechanical cipher machines.
History of Acoustic cryptanalysis
Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks eventually negotiated the declassification of CIA acoustic intercepts of the sounds of cleartext printing from encryption machines. Technically this method of attack dates to the time of FFT hardware being cheap enough to perform the task—in this case the late 1960s to mid-1970s. However, using other more primitive means such acoustical attacks were made in the mid-1950s.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_cryptanalysis
Hello,
ReplyDeleteYour article shows an excellent explanation about the Acoustic cryptanalysis ,but i want to add that in his book Spycatcher, former MI5 operative Peter Wright discusses use of an acoustic attack against Egyptian Hagelin cipher machines in 1956. The attack was codenamed "ENGULF".
other than that it's an excellent job.