Your data can now be stolen through your speaker!

After reading this post you'll understand the importance of unplugging your mics or speakers when not used.

According to a research held by the team from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing, and Ergonomics, Hacking through your speaker is possible. The trick behind this process is constructing a covert between two different computers which can be used for audio modulation/demodulation to transfer data between these computers through the air medium. For those who are unaware, a covert channel is simply a type of attack which enables one to transfer information objects through processes that are not meant to communicate. Data transferred through this act is in the shape of waves that are inaudible to Human Ears. One problem which can cause security issues is that covert channel cannot be controlled because it can't be detected by any hardware based security mechanism as it transfers information between two undesirable processes!
This process was experimented on Lenovo T400 laptops in a standard computer lab without any audio disturbance and it was found that data can be transmitted at the rate of 20bits/sec over a distance of 20 meters. The researchers successfully transferred keystroke information from one computer to another. Through this process user log-in keys, passwords, private encryption keys and even small-sized text files can be successfully transferred from your computer to any hacker's PC nearby. There are future plans for training dogs for sensing these waves so that a user's data shall be safe from this aspect of hacking too.