a ghostly touch that opens doors to your privacy

Scientists from Zhejiang University (China) and Darmstadt University of Technology (Germany) discovered a circuit that allows you to simulate commands for touch displays using electromagnetic signals – it was called GhostTouch, that is, “ghostly touch”.

GhostTouch allows a potential attacker to unlock the phone and gain access to sensitive information stored on it, including passwords and banking applications. In addition, a cybercriminal may install malicious software.

It should be noted that the scheme has certain limitations: the equipment for implementing the attack must be located at a distance of up to 40 mm from the victim’s smartphone. However, an attacker could bypass this limitation by placing the device on the back of a table in a library, coffee shop, or conference room, where people usually lay out their smartphones.

Nine smartphone models, including the iPhone SE (2020), Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G, Redmi 8, and Nokia 7.2, have now been confirmed to be vulnerable to GhostTouch.

It is worth considering that such an attack does not go unnoticed: when using GhostTouch, the user will see how the smartphone is unlocked by itself. Therefore, the best way to protect against such an attack is to use a PIN code, pattern, or biometric data.