Keyboards "not safe to transmit sensitive information"

[edesignuk]

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

By analysing the signals produced by keystrokes, Swiss researchers have reproduced what a target typed.

The security researchers have developed four attacks that work on a wide variety of computer keyboards.

The results led the researchers to declare keyboards were "not safe to transmit sensitive information".

BBC.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yes, I read that earlier today when perusing the news sites. Interesting and thought-provoking. It examines a piece of earlier research and takes it further, but is certainly worth noting. Thanks.
Cheers

 

[sangosimo]

these attack are cool but how would you filter keystrokes. I wonder if I wifi antenna could be tuned to get capture this. With a cantenna + laptop you could drive around cracking wifi networks and stealing keystrokes.

 

[SilentPanda]

I wonder how this would work when targetted at an office building. Would they be able to single out a user or would they just get a random smattering from all the employees. The article seemed to state they used a laptop to reduce interference. I'm guessing that while they can do it, it's only feasible to do it on a single isolated target at the moment.

 

[ChrisA]

twenty five year old news

BBC.

Back in the early 1980's there was an already long established program called "tempest". It was widely known back that that information could be extracted from a computer using electronics contained in a van parked outside the building. No, this had nothing to do with networks and wireless. The computer itself, the monitor, keyboard and so on all send out signals that can be intercepted if you have the right equipment. "Tempest" was the name of the program that tested and certified special built and shielded computers. In other words this problem was well enough known even 30+ years ago that people spent many millions of dollars to address it.

Read about it here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPEST

 

[Gray-Wolf]

My question would be, with so many ways of getting data from computers, why would any one really be interested in this?

Something similar happened when cordless phones came out. Get a scanner and listen in. But the fad and interest died out.

 

[synth3tik]

A whle back I read a book where the bad guy was able to get an employees password by listening to her keystrokes from a mic he had placed in her purse.... The author was able to see into the future.

 

[alexlovesmacs]

What about those keyboard apps on the app store are those safe?

 

[inkhead]

This kind of stuff has been done for a long time now. Back in the 1960, Russian used remote electronics to send signals to a hard drive in the US embassy. The idea was the make the drive spin in a way that through the air the data could be read. Instead it ended up catching the drive on fire....