Hackers are using your typing habits to crack passwords

Researchers at the Southern Methodist University in Texas have recently found that new hacking methods, such as listening to people's typing habits, are helping hackers be increasingly more successful in cracking passwords.

Reports are claiming that hackers are listening to the typing habits through smartphones, which results in the possibility of them being able to replicate these patterns and successfully hack people.

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Not only this, but it has also been discovered that this detection of typing habits can be completed within seconds, regardless of your surroundings.

The research conducted at the Southern Methodist University in Texas found that hackers are using smartphones because they can pick up on sound waves that are created when typing on a keyboard.

They found that these sound waves can be analysed by someone with the right tools and skills, giving them the ability to decipher what keys were hit when and in what order.

The team experimented with this theory in a number of different environments (loud or quiet) and found that they were able to work out what was being typed at a 41 percent accuracy, which they then claimed is "a rate that could be improved if they looked to focus on the top 10 most commonly typed words".

Co-author of the study, Professor Eric Larson, said:

"We were looking at security holes that might exist when you have these 'always-on' sensing devices - that being your smartphone,"

" We wanted to understand if what you're typing on your laptop, or any keyboard for that matter, could be sensed by just those mobile phones that are sitting on the same table. The answer was a definite yes."

"A successful interception of this sort could potentially be very scary because there's no way to know if you're being hacked this way."