The Keyboard That Could Phone Home

An anonymous reader writes "University of Pennsylvania researchers have developed a keylogger they call the JitterBug that can modulate passwords or other information into normal traffic by adding imperceptible delays to keypresses as people use keyboard and network-intensive apps like telnet and remote desktop. The idea is that the delays in keypresses cause delays in packets, and data can be encoded in those delays. There's no software or extra network activity that the victim can see, but anyone who can see the traffic (even if it's encrypted) could grab the data. Here's the scary part: the researchers say that it could be manufactured into a keyboard, making these keyloggers widespread and virtually undetectable."

Comments

Hmm...

[bcat24]

This threat, however far-fetched, seems particularly relevant in light of the U.S. government's decision in May to use computers built by Lenovo only for processing unclassified data. The Chinese government owns 28% of Lenovo, information that has sparked fears of espionage. As it turns out, numerous keyboards are also manufactured in China.

With Communist computer, keyboard spy on YOU!

Manufactured into a keyboard

[Anonymous Coward]

The "Made in Nigeria" had me worried, but with a quality name like Sony on the keyboard, I decided not to worry.

Re:Could you get around this...

[NemosomeN]

The more likely workaround would be devices you put between your keyboard and the computer. Easier? No. Cheaper? No. Marketable? Maybe.