UW Researchers Can Hack Voice ID With Pipes and Math
Voice-identification systems, like Siri and Alexa, are becoming common. But they do more than play music or give us directions, they’re now being used as a security measure, like a fingerprint. Banks are beginning to use them to grant us access to our bank accounts.
The only problem? They can be fooled. And not just by generating a computer-generated deepfake. By speaking through a PVC plastic tube.
We catch up with UW-Madison Electrical and Computer Engineering Ph.D. students Shimaa Ahmed and Yash Wani, and assistant professor Kassem Fawaz to learn how.
🗣️ Read their research.
💻 See their presentation at the Usenix Security Symposium.
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