No matter how absurd it may seem, it’s a fact that ultrasounds are currently used to attack our mobiles and make them vulnerable without our knowlegde.

Recently, a report was publishedin which indicates that, security in our mobiles will be harmed by these ultrasonic attacks which are out of reach from the human ear.

The investigation comes from the University of Washington, in collaboration with the University of Michigan, University of Nebraska and other renown institutions. The report reveals that hackers are influencing mobiles without our realization, suchi s the case of the iPhone, who is the most affected by these attacks, since the ultrasounds activate Siri to control the phone and be able to make calls, take pictures or read the content of a text to a third person, all of this without the user’s consent.

Experts in the subject are making an alert call, since these ultrasonic waves propagate easily by any solid surface, reaching smartphones and enabling voice recognition option.

Investigators point out that these waves are sent through a hardware, reaching a 9-meter radius, also it can affect more than one phone within the radius. “If you know how to play with signals, you can manipulate them in such a way that phones interpret incoming sound waves, think it as receiving a command” adds Zhang, investigator in the subject.

On the other hand, they also experimented with other smartphones, specifically 17 phones from different companies; Apple, Samsung and Motorola. Of the 17 devices, 2 came out gracefully, the rest was affected by these waves.