Washington: Scientists have developed a malware that transmits information between computers using high-frequency sound waves inaudible to the human ear.

This allows the malware to transmit keystrokes and other sensitive data even when infected machines have no network connection.

The new malware uses high-frequency audio signals to bridge the ‘air gap’ — a type of security where network is secured by keeping it separate from other local networks and the Internet.

Using just the built-in microphones and speakers of standard computers, the researchers from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing, and Ergonomics were able to transmit passwords and other small amounts of data from distances of almost 65 feet.

The software can transfer data at much greater distances by employing an acoustical mesh network made up of attacker-controlled devices that repeat the audio signals.

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