New security loophole allows spying on internet users’ online activity

A new security loophole has been discovered by researchers at Graz University of Technology. The researchers monitored changes in the speed of a user’s internet connection, allowing them to spy on the user’s online activities and figure out what websites the user was visiting. The vulnerability has been named SnailLoad. The flaw does not require malicious code or the interception of traffic, the victim simply needs to have one direct contact with the attacker. This could be through visiting a website, during which the victim downloads a harmless file without their knowledge. All online content has a unique fingerprint, meaning that “the latency of the internet connection fluctuates in a specific pattern that depends on the particular content being used.” The slower the user’s rate of internet connection is, the higher chance a hacker has for a successful attack. This security gap will be virtually impossible to close.