Do you hear what I hear?
You ever see the movie “The Transformers?” If not, you’re probably unaware that hottest new “elite” digital forensics tecnique involved listening to hackers to hear what their electronic attacks sound like. But thanks to the mind of Russ Handorf, it’s obvious that <sarcasm>once again Hollywood really is “elite” and that we could stand to learn a lot from their brilliance.</sarcasm> Enter another weapon in the no-tech hacker’s arsenal: the power of hearing.
Take a moment to click on each of these links, each of which plays a specific sound. After each one, ask yourself the question, “What’s a hacker hear?”
1. First Sound
2. Second Sound
3. Third Sound
4. Fourth Sound
5. Fifth Sound
6. Sixth Sound
Were you able to recognize each of these devices? Could you determine the type of device and it’s capabilities? In the case of a PC, were you able to determine operating system version based only on the sound?
Which system is the most secure?
Which system is the least secure?
Which sound means the system is no longer a valid target?
Read the rest of the article for the answers to these questions!
1. First Sound: Active Sync. This means there’s a Windows Mobile device that has just activated syncing. Not only does the PC have a copy of the device’s data (which may or may not be of value, depending on the profile of the owner), but the device might be vulnerable to bluetooth sniffing.
2. Second Sound: “Indigo,” the error sound from MacOS versions 6 though 9. This is an OLD machine. memories
3. Third Sound: Ubuntu Linux startup sound. The machine is running Linux. The user is a well-informed geek. That could mean lots of things 
4. Fourth Sound: Windows 95 startup sound. Think it’s easy to hack an operating system that has no listening services by default?
5. Fifth Sound: Windows 2000 and ME startup sound. Is it fair to hack an OS like ME that has such a horrible self-image because of all that extra weight?
6. Sixth Sound: Windows XP shutdown sound. A juicy enough target, but sadly it’s turned off now.
7. Seventh Sound: Another Windows mobile device. You can tell the provider, make and model of certain phones because they’ve copyrighted their own ringtones. Someone have a custom ringtone? Look out to see if they have “bling it on”.
See? Hollywood was really on to something. Who knows. Maybe one day you won’t need a computer to be (or beat) an awesome hacker. You’ll just need good ears. Until that mournful day, just remember that bluetooth and Wi-Fi aren’t the only things hackers are listening to.
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