[Spooky23]

Security is tough because you a mix of complete idiots trolling for attention, business, or jobs, vendors seeking fud to drive sales, and incredibly talented people reverse engineering and discovering things.

I suspect that some the worst are seeded and encouraged by parties who benefit from a lack of trust in research and maximum chaos.

[locacorten]

Great point.

But there should be a distinction between academic conferences where professors from U. Mich are publishing and practitioner conferences aimed at industry (including sales, etc.).

My criticism is about academic conferences -- there's little skepticism left when reviewing papers describing attacks. As long as it's cool, it's in.

Look at the title above: "Hard Drive of Hearing: Disks that Eavesdrop...". It's not far off from the headlines on CNN or Fox News. At this rate, I predict by 2025 we'll have Breaking News red banners on academic conferences sites.

Let me re-assure everyone out there ... No, your disks are not eavesdropping. Disks eavesdropping should be the least of your worries security-wise.

[jaclaz]

>Let me re-assure everyone out there ... No, your disks are not eavesdropping. Disks eavesdropping should be the least of your worries security-wise.

Sure, but think about how many people will refuse your statement and - thanks to the article - will start to believe that aliens use hard disk recordings before abducting them.

The damage has alas already been done, on - quite frankly - a very thin basis, your general criticism is very well founded, a "reputable" institution would (should) never accept those clickbaity titles.