An Overview of Acoustic Side-Channel Attack

Need for security is an important aspect in protecting private information. Side channel attacks are a recent class of attacks that is very powerful in practice. Most side-channel attack research has focused on electromagnetic emanations (TEMPEST) and power consumption however; one of the oldest eavesdropping channels is acoustic emanations. This paper focuses on acoustic side-channel attack and surveys the methods and techniques employed in the attack; we will also see some of the different devices which can be under the threat of such attack and finally countermeasures against this attack, which helps in reducing the risk.