Unfortunately, the standards have fallen. The security community is one of the worst instances of the lack of skepticism in the science arena. The community has started to reward clickbaity papers because they "sell". It's a race to the bottom.
It is valuable research if someone can take it to the next step. Inasmuch, it is definitely worthy of publishing.
I suspect that some the worst are seeded and encouraged by parties who benefit from a lack of trust in research and maximum chaos.
But there should be a distinction between academic conferences where professors from U. Mich are publishing and practitioner conferences aimed at industry (including sales, etc.).
My criticism is about academic conferences -- there's little skepticism left when reviewing papers describing attacks. As long as it's cool, it's in.
Look at the title above: "Hard Drive of Hearing: Disks that Eavesdrop...". It's not far off from the headlines on CNN or Fox News. At this rate, I predict by 2025 we'll have Breaking News red banners on academic conferences sites.
Let me re-assure everyone out there ... No, your disks are not eavesdropping. Disks eavesdropping should be the least of your worries security-wise.
Sure, but think about how many people will refuse your statement and - thanks to the article - will start to believe that aliens use hard disk recordings before abducting them.
The damage has alas already been done, on - quite frankly - a very thin basis, your general criticism is very well founded, a "reputable" institution would (should) never accept those clickbaity titles.