Sound waves can hack everything from phones to cars

Sound waves could be used to hack into critical sensors in everything from phones and medical devices to fitness trackers and cars, researchers have warned. The groundbreaking University of Michigan researchers reveals that millions of gadgets that use accelerometers are at risk. Researchers found the tiny sensors can be tricked, registering fake movement and giving hackers a backdoors into devices. The researchers performed several proof-of-concept demonstrations of their hack, including using a $5 speaker and a malicious music file to cause a Samsung Galaxy S5's accelerometer to spell out the word'WALNUT' in a graph of its readings (pictured). The sensors involved in this research are known as capacitive MEMS accelerometers.