Naval Battles Could Be Fought With Sound Waves

Maritime standoffs could be resolved through sound waves that can “jump the air gap” — or hack a machine that is not on a network — to paralyze a ship’s control systems.

Capt. Mark Hagerott, deputy director of cybersecurity for the U.S. Naval Academy, said at a summit in Washington organized by Government Executive Media Group feels that supervisory control and data acquisition systems that control industrial operations, “would disrupt the world balance of power if you could begin to jump the air gap,” Hagerott said.

It’s conceivable sound waves can be transformed into malicious electrical signals. An air disruption causes the diaphragm of a speaker to create an electrical signal made up of ones and zeros. Targeted ones and zeros can override a computer-driven ship.