November 17, 2022Researchers discover how music could be used to trigger a deadly pathogen releaseResearchers at the University of California, Irvine have discovered that the safe operation of a negative pressure room—a space in a hospital or biological research laboratory designed to protect outside areas from exposure to deadly pathogens—can be disrupted by an attacker armed with little more than a smartphone.According to UCI cyber-physical systems security experts, who shared their findings with attendees at the Association for Computing Machinery's recent Conference on Computer and Communications Security in Los Angeles, mechanisms that control airflow in and out of biocontainment facilities can be tricked into functioning irregularly by a sound of a particular frequency, possibly tucked surreptitiously into a popular song.They tested their hypothesis on eight industry-standard DPSs from five manufacturers, demonstrating that all the devices operate with resonant frequencies in the audible range and are, therefore, subject to tampering."When sound waves collide with the diaphragms inside a DPS, it starts vibrating with the same frequency," said lead author Anomadarshi Barua, UCI Ph.D. candidate in electrical engineering and computer science.Al Faruque said that this research project demonstrates the vulnerabilities of embedded systems to random attacks but stressed that with a little planning and forethought, facilities can be hardened against sabotage."