Warning: Hackers Can Now Attack Your PC Even Without Internet!

Simply removing a malware-infected machine from a network might not be enough to secure other devices, for sophisticated hackers have found an easy way out to bypass the 'air gapping technique'. The technique is used by network admins in building a literal air roadblock that stops malicious computer code from propagating throughout a network.

Air-gap malware (named after the very technique it bypasses) travels through the air as sound waves to infect machines in the near vicinity without needing Internet. The 'smart' malware can effectively jump an air-gap by converting malicious code into high-frequency sound waves. These sound waves are then transmitted to nearby devices irrespective of any network leading to infection. The malware works in a way modems work and machines communicate over phone lines. "Recently, researchers have started to show proof-of-concept implementations of how malware could leak data from an air-gapped machine using peripheral devices such as microphones and sound cards." Engin Kirda, professor at Northeastern University and a co-founder of Lastline, a company specialising in advanced malware was quoted as saying.

The startling finding indicates that a computer's sound card is more than sufficient to spread the malware as inaudible sound that could go on and infect other machines. If such is the case, there doesn't seem to be a viable cure or protection against the air-gap malware at least now. However, researchers are of the opinion that it doesn't pose much of a threat to casual computer users since hackers would have to be extremely sophisticated to pull of such an act!