Technology

60078 readers

4404 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

439

Boffins convert typing sounds into text with 95% accuracy (www.theregister.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/technology

145 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Researchers in the UK claim to have translated the sound of laptop keystrokes into their corresponding letters with 95 percent accuracy in some cases.

That 95 percent figure was achieved with nothing but a nearby iPhone. Remote methods are just as dangerous: over Zoom, the accuracy of recorded keystrokes only dropped to 93 percent, while Skype calls were still 91.7 percent accurate.

In other words, this is a side channel attack with considerable accuracy, minimal technical requirements, and a ubiquitous data exfiltration point: Microphones, which are everywhere from our laptops, to our wrists, to the very rooms we work in.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I type an awful lot slower than you, and still it's faster than I can think. How do you think of what to type fast enough to type at 160wpm?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Not the original person you responded to, but I type 120ish wpm. The trick is to try to tap into the same part of your brain that verbalizes words when you talk, rather than the part that composes stuff when you write.

[–] overlordror 5 points 1 year ago

That speed is usually transcription for me, I'm listening to someone and type what I hear. Actual writing and composing a thought typing speed is closer to 120wpm or so. I learned to type on a typewriter which is much slower, current low profile mech keyboard contributes to faster typing speed too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That speed is something you only reach when using something like monkeytype.com, where it gives a continues list of words for you to type over some time, and then calculates the wpm. I manage about 140.