Blog

Radio trick secretly turns laptop into a spy speaker that talks through walls

Security researchers at the University of Florida and the University of Electro-Communications in Japan have revealed that modern digital microphones used in laptops and speakers can leak audio as electromagnetic signals.

This could lead to the creation of a new network of wireless eavesdropping without needing any malware, hacking, or even physical access to your device.

In the aftermath, this vulnerability could affect billions of devices worldwide, exposing private conversations to corporate spies and government surveillance.

How does this attack work?

All devices, such as speakers and laptops, have MEMS microphones, which are a tiny part of the system tasked with converting audio into digital pulses that contain remnants of the original speech. These pulses create weak radio emissions that can be captured by invisible broadcasts.

“With an FM radio receiver and a copper antenna, you can eavesdrop on these microphones. That’s how easy this can be,” said Sara Rampazzi, a professor of computer and information science and engineering at the University of Florida who co-authored the new study. “It costs maybe a hundred dollars, or even less.”

The experiment that proved it all

The team of researchers proved their theory using eerie sounds. A woman’s distorted voice emerged from the radio equipment as she spoke test sentences like “The birch canoe slid on the smooth planks.” and “Glue the sheet to the dark blue background.” Each transmission penetrated through concrete walls up to 10 inches thick.

Laptops proved to be the weakest link as their microphones are connected through long internal wires that act as antennas, amplifying the leaked signals.

Now comes the dangerous part. For the leak to happen, your microphone does not necessarily need to be in an active state. Simply having applications like Spotify, Amazon Music, or Google Drive – can enable the microphone to leak radio signals.

AI in the scenario

The researchers didn’t just stop at this stage. They went beyond and processed the intercepted signals with AI speech-to-text tools from OpenAI and Microsoft. These LLMs then cleaned the audio and converted the recordings into clear, searchable text.

Surprisingly, in tests, the attack had recognized spoken digits with 94.2% accuracy from up to 2 meters away, even through a concrete war. It kept a 14% transcription error rate, making majority of the conversations understandable.

Keep reading

Minnesota Lawmaker ShootingsPerson of Interest Vance Boelter Works in Security …Trained By Military Personnel, Private Firms

Vance Boelter — the man authorities say is a person of interest in the fatal shooting of a Minnesota politician — has training from military personnel and experience with security situations in foreign countries.

A profile for Boelter on the Praetorian Guard Security Services website lists him as the Director of Security Patrols … and, it describes his various experiences in the security field.

According to the site, Boelter has “been involved with security situations in Eastern Europe, Africa, North America and the Middle East, including the West Bank, Southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.”

He is also said to have training from both private security firms and people in the U.S. military … though it does not say he served in the armed services himself.

Worth noting … we don’t know who wrote this profile or if it’s at all embellished — but, it gives an insight into how the company was marketing Vance and his experiences.

Boelter has allegedly worked for large corporations in the U.S., Switzerland and Japan … and, the profile ends by adding his experience will ensure the security service provided “covers the needs you have to keep your family and property safe.”

It appears Vance works alongside his wife, Jenny, in the company where she serves as CEO. TMZ reached out to her for comment … so far, now word back.

The company offers a variety of services — and appears to outfit personnel in tactical gear — and offers SUVs with flashing lights.

Keep reading

Suspect Had More Names Scribbled in Manifesto… Gunman Still at Large

12:14 AM PT — Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar were also reportedly on the target list.

10:55 AM PT — The hit list found in the Minnesota suspect’s car contained nearly 70 names. A law enforcement official told CNN the names included abortion providers, pro-abortion rights advocates and lawmakers in Minnesota and other states.

The official added law enforcement also found a Father’s Day card addressed to the suspect in a bag full of ammunition.

The suspect on the run for the shooting death of Minnesota’s Democrat State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband reportedly wanted to slaughter even more lawmakers.

The gunman’s manifesto was found in the SUV he drove to the Hortman residence before their murders, according to NewsNation’s Brian Entin — and the suspect had written down “names of many lawmakers and other officials.”

Police also found flyers for planned “No Kings” demonstrations across Minnesota in the suspect’s car … and are now urging the public to avoid such gatherings “out of an abundance of caution.”

Keep reading

‘That’s their fault’: Florida drivers have right to hit protesters if they fear for their safety, DeSantis says

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told drivers in his state that they would not be held responsible if they hit demonstrators during protests so long as it’s because they fear for their lives.

“If you are driving on one of those streets and a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety,” DeSantis said on an episode of “The Rubin Report” podcast that was released Wednesday night. “And so if you drive off and you hit one of these people, that’s their fault for impinging on you.”

“You have a right to defend yourself in Florida,” the governor added.

Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.

Protests referred to as “No Kings” are planned across the United States on Saturday, including several in Florida, where one sheriff declared protesters would be killed “graveyard dead” if they get violent or threaten law enforcement.

The most significant protests, which are mostly in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests, have taken place in Los Angeles, California. The demonstrations, which have at times become violent, prompted President Donald Trump to call in the National Guard last week, an action to which California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats, have expressed their fierce opposition.

The protests in the southern California city have caused road closures and traffic jams, which can constitute safety concerns. However, there have been numerous examples in recent years, including at the recent protests, of people using their vehicles to ram into crowds, causing injuries and even deaths.

DeSantis, like other Republican leaders, has been strongly opposed to heated protests, including those in 2020 following the death of George Floyd. His recent comments suggest his stance has not changed.

“You have no right to commandeer streets,” the governor, who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, said. “First of all, it’s just wrong; second of all, that has huge impacts on people’s quality of life.”

Keep reading

US quietly sent hundreds of Hellfire missiles to Israel before Iran attack

The US quietly delivered hundreds of Hellfire missiles to Israel before its unprecedented attack on Iran on Friday, Middle East Eye can reveal. 

The US sent around 300 Hellfire missiles to Israel on Tuesday in a large-scale stock-up of supplies before its attack, and as the Trump administration was saying it was ready to continue engaging Iran in nuclear talks. 

The transfer of such a large quantity of Hellfires suggests that the Trump administration was well-informed of Israel’s plans to attack the Islamic Republic of Iran, two US officials told MEE on the condition of anonymity. 

The US’s delivery of Hellfires or other large quantities of weapons in the lead up to Friday’s attack has not been previously reported. 

The US military helped shoot down Iranian missiles that were headed towards Israel, two US officials told Reuters on Friday.

Hellfires are laser-guided air-to-ground missiles. They would not be useful for Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, but for precision strikes. 

Israel’s military used more than 100 aircraft in its attack on Friday, which used precision tracking to target senior military officials, nuclear scientists, and command centres.

“There is a time and place for Hellfires. They were useful to Israel,” one senior US defence official told MEE. 

Israel killed scores of senior Iranian officials and nuclear scientists on Friday. 

Keep reading

Strange radio pulses detected coming from ice in Antarctica

A cosmic particle detector in Antarctica has emitted a series of bizarre signals that defy the current understanding of particle physics, according to an international research group that includes scientists from Penn State. The unusual radio pulses were detected by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, a range of instruments flown on balloons high above Antarctica that are designed to detect radio waves from cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere.

The goal of the experiment is to gain insight into distant cosmic events by analyzing signals that reach the Earth. Rather than reflecting off the ice, the signals—a form of radio waves—appeared to be coming from below the horizon, an orientation that cannot be explained by the current understanding of particle physics and may hint at new types of particles or interactions previously unknown to science, the team said.

The researchers published their results in the journal Physical Review Letters.

“The radio waves that we detected were at really steep angles, like 30 degrees below the surface of the ice,” said Stephanie Wissel, associate professor of physics, astronomy and astrophysics who worked on the ANITA team searching for signals from elusive particles called neutrinos.

She explained that by their calculations, the anomalous signal had to pass through and interact with thousands of kilometers of rock before reaching the detector, which should have left the radio signal undetectable because it would have been absorbed into the rock.

“It’s an interesting problem because we still don’t actually have an explanation for what those anomalies are, but what we do know is that they’re most likely not representing neutrinos,” Wissel said.

Keep reading

The Spectacle Of A Police State: This Is Martial Law Without A Formal Declaration Of War

Reporter: “What’s the bar for sending in the Marines?”

Trump: “The bar is what I think it is.“

In Trump’s America, the bar for martial law is no longer constitutional—it’s personal.

Indeed, if ever we needed proof that Donald Trump was an operative for the Deep State, this is it.

Despite what Trump would have us believe, the Deep State is not the vast numbers of federal employees who have been fired as part of his government purge.

Rather, the Deep State refers to the entrenched network of unelected bureaucrats, intelligence agencies, military contractors, surveillance firms, and corporate lobbyists that operate beyond the reach of democratic accountability. It is a government within a government—an intelligence-industrial complex that persists regardless of who sits in the Oval Office and whose true allegiance lies not with the Constitution but with power, profit, and control.

In other words, the Deep State doesn’t just survive presidential administrations—it recruits them. And in Trump, it has found a showman willing to turn its agenda into a public performance of raw power—militarized, theatrical, and loyal not to the Constitution, but to dominance.

What is unfolding right now in California—with hundreds of Marines deployed domestically; thousands of National Guard troops federalized; and military weapons, tactics and equipment on full display—is the latest chapter in that performance.

Trump is flexing his presidential muscles with a costly, violent, taxpayer-funded military display intended to intimidate, distract and discourage us from pulling back the curtain on the reality of the self-serving corruption, grift, graft, overreach and abuse that have become synonymous with his Administration.

Don’t be distracted. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t be sidelined by the spectacle of a police state.

As columnist Thomas Friedman predicted years ago, “Some presidents, when they get into trouble before an election, try to ‘wag the dog’ by starting a war abroad. Donald Trump seems ready to wag the dog by starting a war at home.”

This is yet another manufactured crisis fomented by the Deep State.

When Trump issues a call to “BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” explaining to reporters that he wants to have them “everywhere,” we should all be alarmed.

This is martial law without a formal declaration of war.

This heavy-handed, chest-thumping, politicized, militarized response to what is clearly a matter for local government is yet another example of Trump’s disregard for the Constitution and the limits of his power.

Political protests are protected by the First Amendment until they cross the line from non-violent to violent. Even when protests turn violent, constitutional protocols remain for safeguarding communities: law and order must flow through local and state chains of command, not from federal muscle.

By breaking that chain of command, Trump is breaking the Constitution.

Keep reading

EPA cancels limits for several PFAS chemicals in drinking water

More than 150 million Americans drink water contaminated with toxic forever chemicals. Last year, after decades of inaction, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set limits to protect public health. Now, that same agency is undoing those defenses.

Some protections designed to save lives from a dangerous class of chemicals in drinking water are being shut off.

It’s a move being called “devastating” by some experts, including Melanie Benesh, Vice President for Government Affairs at the Environmental Working Group.

“Every time we look at these chemicals, we discover that they are more toxic than we had previously thought,” Benesh said.

She’s been working to protect Americans from PFAS chemicals for years.

Linked to developmental issues in kids, cancer, and reproductive harm, these toxic “forever” chemicals contaminate the water supply from industrial releases, landfills, and firefighting foam.

Keep reading

Former appointee of Tim Walz sought in deadly shootings of Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, had ‘No Kings’ flyers in car: sources

A former appointee of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is being sought in connection with the assassination of a state lawmaker and the shooting of another, police sources said.

Vance Luther Boelter allegedly posed as a police officer when he shot Sen. John Hoffman and his wife in their Champlin home early Saturday, leaving them seriously injured before moving on to former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman’s house — where he is believed to have slaughtered her and her husband, sources told The Post.

Boelter, 57, was appointed by Walz in 2019 to serve a four-year stint on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board, documents show.

He previously served on the Governor’s Workforce Development Council in 2016 under then-Gov. Mark Dayton.

The killer had flyers with the words “No Kings” in his car, a reference to Saturday’s planned protests against the Trump Administration, as well as a “manifesto” and a list of other politicians’ names, said police, who briefly cornered the shooter at Hortman’s home before the suspect fled.

Keep reading

Biden Officials Fear “Tiananmen Square Moment” as Trump Plans Patriotic Military Parade to Honor America

Biden officials and their allies in the legacy media are sounding the alarm over President Donald Trump’s upcoming patriotic military parade, scheduled to coincide with the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary — and his 79th birthday.

The parade will feature 7,000 soldiers, 150 Army vehicles, and more than 60 aircraft.

Instead of celebrating American strength and military excellence, top former Pentagon brass and New York Times reporters are melting down, suggesting the event might become a “Tiananmen Square moment.”

Appearing on The Daily podcast, New York Times host Michael Barbaro and Pentagon reporter Helene Cooper revealed that retired generals and Biden-aligned officials are “very worried” about the optics of Trump putting tanks in the streets of D.C. to honor the troops.

Far-left Mediate reported:

While the White House insists the event is a tribute to the armed forces, it follows stark escalations in Los Angeles following the president’s deployment of National Guard and Marines to support police trying to contain anti-ICE protests, which are entering their second week.

Speaking to Michael Barbaro, host of New York Times’ The Daily podcast, the outlet’s Pentagon correspondent Helene Cooper warned that many officials were anxious.

“There’s a very real possibility of the president now presiding over this parade Saturday night, showcasing the US military’s most fearsome weapons and most fearsome soldiers,” Barbaro said. “And the message in that context, in the context of what’s going on in LA, may feel more intended or as intended for a domestic audience than as impressing or intimidating our foreign adversaries.”

Cooper replied: “They’re very worried about that, and especially in the former uniform world where these are retired army officials, retired Marine generals, I’ve been on the phone with. They’re really worried about this image.”

She continued: “They are also worried about a potential Tiananmen Square moment where you have a protester standing in front of a tank. That is not what America is supposed to look like. And this is another one of those potential scary things that we could see on Saturday.”

Keep reading