A team of researchers warns of a dangerous vulnerability in HDMI cables

HDMI cables are essential nowadays, whether for connecting consoles or devices such as Blu-ray players to our modern televisions and monitors. However, a group of Uruguayan researchers has discovered a dangerous vulnerability: the electromagnetic signals emitted by HDMI cables can be captured to remotely reconstruct screenshots of our monitor, which can compromise our privacy and security. Although this is unlikely to affect individuals, both governments and companies could be targeted.

The latent danger of HDMI cables, and how cyber spies can use them to attack governments and companies

For decades, cybersecurity experts knew that CRT monitors (the old, sturdy tube monitors) generated unintended electromagnetic emissions that could be captured with specialized equipment to reconstruct what appeared on the screen, seriously compromising the privacy of governments and companies. However, the advent of LED panels and HDMI connections seemed to have put an end to this type of attack, as these signals are much more complex and have higher frequencies.

However, TechRadar reveals that this vulnerability still exists. In a study published in the scientific repository arXiv, it has been demonstrated that, using artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques, it is possible to decrypt the electromagnetic signals emitted by HDMI cables. This, in turn, made it possible to reconstruct screenshots from the attacked monitors.

This is possible thanks to a physical phenomenon known as TEMPEST, which refers to the unintentional electromagnetic emissions from electronic devices. Although previous attempts to attack digital screens yielded blurred, unintelligible, and inconclusive results, the new approach based on neural networks manages to map the signals captured and reconstruct the text appearing on the monitor much more accurately, opening a dangerous door in the field of cyber espionage and corporate espionage.

Although individuals are at low risk of suffering attacks of this type, this technique poses a major threat to governments and businesses. Even so, there are several ways to prevent signals from being captured using this method, such as using shielded HDMI cables, installing physical barriers to reduce signal leakage, applying different signal filtering techniques, or the simplest of all: keeping monitors and equipment susceptible to attack away from windows.

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