Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have found that safe operation of rooms with
Negative indoor pressure is a wayinsulation, which is used to prevent cross-contamination of rooms. It is used in hospitals or biological research laboratories. It is also necessary to protect external areas from exposure to deadly pathogens.
According to security expertsUniversity of California, Irvine (UCI) cyber-physical systems, mechanisms that control air flow in and out of biocontainment structures can be tricked into operating irregularly using sound of a specific frequency. At the same time, it can be secretly hidden in a popular song.
“If this music has a tone built into it thatmatches the resonant frequency of the pressure regulators in one of the protected spaces, this will lead to malfunction and leakage of deadly bacteria,” explains senior co-author Mohammad Al Farooq, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at UCI.
The researchers stated that standard sensorsdifferential pressure sensor (DPS) are vulnerable to remote manipulation. They tested the hypothesis on eight industry standard DPSs from five manufacturers. It turned out that all devices operate with resonant frequencies in the audible range and, therefore, are susceptible to hacking.
“When sound waves collide with diaphragmsinside the DPS, they begin to vibrate at the same frequency,” explains lead study author Anomadarshi Barua, Ph.D., UCI. “An informed attacker could use this technique to artificially displace the diaphragm, change pressure readings and disrupt the entire system.” This, in turn, will lead to the release of deadly pathogens.
The full text of the article is available as a preprint on the preprint server arXiv): “A wolf in sheep’s clothing: the spread of deadly pathogens under the guise of popular music.”
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