Blue Note - How Intentional Acoustic Interference Damages Availability and Integrity in Hard Disk Drives and Operating Systems

Explore a groundbreaking conference talk that delves into the vulnerability of hard disk drives to intentional acoustic interference. Learn how audible and ultrasonic sound can cause persistent errors, file system corruption, and operating system reboots in desktop and laptop computers. Discover the physics behind these risks, from material properties to the I/O request stack in operating systems. Examine experimental findings showing how audible sound causes head stack assembly vibrations and ultrasonic sound triggers false positives in shock sensors. Understand the challenges this poses for legacy magnetic disks in critical applications like medical devices. Gain insights into a proposed solution: a new feedback controller deployable as a firmware update to mitigate acoustic interference. Investigate the sensor fusion method designed to prevent unnecessary head parking by detecting ultrasonic triggering of shock sensors.