Electronics engineers specialized in wireless communications often highlighted the great promise of metasurfaces for the widespread implementation of 6G networks. In a hypothetical future, these carefully engineered surfaces could be easily integrated in everyday objects, for instance on wallpapers or window glasses, to provide these objects with electromagnetic properties and optimize wireless channels.

The tests carried out by this team of researchers show that despite their huge promise for enhancing 6G wireless communications, in their present state metasurfaces could be maliciously used by attackers in both passive and active ways. Specifically, an attacker could use a metasurface to eavesdrop on confidential communications over a wireless network, while also potentially disrupting the network's functioning or falsifying data transferred between devices.

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