Keyboard sniffers to steal data

Keyboard sniffers to steal data

news.bbc.co.uk

Computer criminals could soon be eavesdropping on what you type by analysing the electromagnetic signals produced by every key press.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I've heard of key logger devices that plug inbetween the usb/ps2 ports at the back of the computer, and I've heard of the key loggers trojans. But this method doesn't do either! This could mean someone only needs to plant a device outside your home, in your office, or perhaps somebody sat down reading the paper in McDonalds.

If this technology gets out it could mean some serious changes need to be done to our keyboards!

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by fill0000


It would seem that a keystroke logger would be a lot easier than this. I guess it is possible, but it seems like a very difficult way to go about it.

But if they COULD "go about it" then wouldn't that be trick?
Imagine the wardriving revolution that would create.
Kinda reminds me of THIS technology. No doubt being fully utilized at this point...somewhere.

Feels like we are on the verge of gaining new insight into feilds and other ways to do things without physical contact.
This kind of research won't just be about keylogging, though...it will spawn new types of detectors and other technologies that will be used elsewhere and perhaps not for such sinister sounding purposes...at least one can hope, right?

I was hoping this would be a reference to the infamous Richard Blackwood appearance on the Brass Eye Paedogeddon special where he and other media worthies supported ludicrous claims over paedophiles and their activities:

spoken by Richard Blackwood

Online paedophiles can actually make your keyboard release toxic vapours that make you suggestible. (sniffs keyboard) You know I must say I actually feel more suggestible and that's just from one sniff.

EDIT: removed Brass Eye link.

As for the keyboard sniffing mentioned in the OP, I can't see this being that feasible at least as an attack against home users. How often are people actually sending potentially sensitive data? Think how rarely you actually do type your credit card details &c and then think that someone is going to have to be lurking outside your home with an antenna at that particular moment in time. Surely, by the time this gets sensitive enough to be pick up signals over a large area, there's going to be that so much interference from various devices, that I can't see how this is going to be that useful.

[edit on 21-10-2008 by Merriman Weir]

What?! This is old news. I saw on the Discovery Channel way back in the 90s that spies had been using such a method for the longest time.

Originally posted by eldard
What?! This is old news. I saw on the Discovery Channel way back in the 90s that spies had been using such a method for the longest time.

This has been a problem for decades, however, a big difference is how, even back in the 90s, computers weren't as prevalent as they are now. How many people had computers 15 or 20 years ago compared to now? Think of how much more potentially useful data is being transmitted.

Also, think of how similarly potentially exploitable technology is now very much more common place such a ATM machines and the like.

My keyboard is somewhere between a Camembert and and maybe a Gruyere, with faint cinnamon undertones and a nutty finish . . .


Basically, your screen gives off a lot more EM radiation than striking the keys does. But this would allow you to pick up the keystrokes that are often encrypted with asterixes while the typist enters passwords.

Nothing a standard Faraday cage, or some conductive plastic sheeting won't fix. All the spy exposes on 20/20 leave out the fact that many modern homes and offices are basically giant orgone accumulators, and have so much ambient em fields that you'd neved SEVERAL monitors at different locations to factor out ambient radio noise.

Yes, I'm sure it is easy to whiff the radio energy given off by a computer being used in a silent home, with one occupant and nothing else going on. But add in the interference caused by my old cathode ray TV sets, the kids games, cell phones, wifey's hairdryer, the neighbors wifi routers for their homes, and my "dirty" cell phone that actively checks for texts every 90 seconds, and you begin to see that the DC current generated by keystrokes would not be so easy to decipher in real time.

That, and the fact that I'm hanging out on social sites instead of doing actual work. . . . it starts to add up quickly to a big waste of time for the conspiracy, who write my paychecks in the first place.

all the best.

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