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Researchers Sniff Keystrokes From Thin Air, Wires

Posted by timothy on from the making-a-tempest-of-themselves dept.

narramissic writes "Two separate research teams have found that the electromagnetic radiation that is generated when a computer keyboard is tapped is actually pretty easy to capture and decode. Using an oscilloscope and an inexpensive wireless antenna, the Ecole Polytechnique team was able to pick up keystrokes from virtually any keyboard, including laptops — with 95 percent accuracy over a distance of up to 20 meters. Using similar techniques, Inverse Path researchers Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco picked out keyboard signals from keyboard ground cables. On PS/2 keyboards, 'the data cable is so close to the ground cable, the emanations from the data cable leak onto the ground cable, which acts as an antenna,' Barisani said. That ground wire passes through the PC and into the building's power wires, where the researchers can pick up the signals using a computer, an oscilloscope and about $500 worth of other equipment. Barisani and Bianco will present their findings at the CanSecWest hacking conference next week in Vancouver. The Ecole Polytechnique team has submitted their research for peer review and hopes to publish it very soon."

5 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Much ado about nothing? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds like a TEMPEST in a teapot to me.

  2. Good news, tinfoil hat crowd! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tinfoil keyboards! Accessorize, baby!

  3. thin air: the new menace by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Funny

    I couldn't help but think of drugs when I read the headline: Researchers sniffing lines of keystrokes, complaining about how thin the air has gotten since when they were young. By god, back then the electrons were so thick they had to use thick 8 gauge wiring to make anything work. Why, these days, the electrons have been used and re-used so much that we can use 24ga wiring for communications. Hey, are you gonna finish that line of qwertyuiop?

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    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
  4. I knew this day would come by loconet · · Score: 5, Funny

    I knew it. Many others have been discussing the potentials for this type of eavesdropping for many years. Ha! and they laughed at me when I started protecting my stuff...

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    [alk]
  5. FUD by sgt+scrub · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is a plot by GUI users to spread fear uncertainty and doubt upon cli applications. May CLI live forever!

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    Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.