By Robert Lemos
The sensors inside modern smart phones present a range of security threats. An attacker who compromises a phone can, for example, track the owner’s location by GPS, use the camera to see the phone’s surroundings, or turn on its microphone to record conversations.
At a conference in Chicago on Thursday, a group of computer researchers from Georgia Tech will report on another potential threat. The researchers have shown that the accelerometer and orientation sensor of a phone resting on a surface can be used to eavesdrop as a password is entered using a keyboard on the same surface. They were able to capture the words typed on the keyboard with as much as 80 percent accuracy.
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/38913/?p1=A3