From Fox6News Report: Covert Mobile Malware Channels:

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have discovered a new, subtle way for evildoers to take control of your smartphone: through ambient sound and light. Eep.

This isn’t a hack so much as a trigger; for it to work, malware already has to be installed on your phone. But the research finds that, once certain kinds of malware is installed, it can be triggered or controlled with hidden messages, undetectable to humans, embedded within innocuous sounds or lights. Music, music videos, and light from the TV could call previously-installed malware to action or tell it what to do.

The research paper “Sensing-Enabled Channels for Hard-to-Detect Command and control of Mobile Devices” was presented in China by Sharms Zawoad.