Security News > 2020 > May > Air gap security beaten by turning PC capacitors into speakers
Researchers have poked another small hole in air gapped security by showing how the electronics inside computer power supply units can be turned into covert data transmission devices.
Normally, if a computer is physically isolated from other computers it is seen as being more secure because there is no channel for data to be transmitted in or out of the device.
The famous Stuxnet attack on Iran in 2010 showed how air gapping could be beaten using infected USB sticks, since when researchers have started exploring more unusual methods to achieve the same end.
The fundamental problem is that computing devices are now too complex at every level of their design and operation for air to offer the isolation it once did.
Finding ways to beat air gaps might seem like an esoteric subject but understanding the possibilities could yet redefine how the next generation of hopefully ultra-secure computers is specified.