Researchers log keystrokes from afar with an antenna

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/20/With_an_antenna_researchers_log_keystrokes_from_afar_1.html

by snydeq • 18 years ago

19 11 18 years ago

Russelldb• 18 years ago

Jumping the gun I know since there is no verification but this, if true, is totally world changing, isn't it?

shutter• 18 years ago

The article noted this: "They faulted cost pressures on keyboard manufacturers for not making keyboards more snoop proof."

So if this is true, at least it appears that new keyboards could be improved to block eavesdropping.

maximilian• 18 years ago

It would probably be pretty easy to kill the EM emanating from the keyboard. If all the circuitry was surrounded by tinfoil and the cable had better shielding, it'd probably cut the radiation a lot. If anything, i'd bet its the cable that does all the radiating? I'll have to think about that one a bit.

Its totally badass though. I kinda wanna go home and build something like that. Probably harder than it looks though.

pmorici2• 18 years ago

Not really. Attacks against unintended emissions have been around for years, whats one more for the pile. The other thing I would question is wether or not this can actually capture and decode the signals at actual typing rates versus the hunt and peck speed demonstrated in the video...

khafra• 18 years ago

Considering researchers have been able to read CRTs without looking at them by Van Eck phreaking, and more recently even get LCDs (http://www.omninerd.com/news/TEMPEST_Attack_on_LCD) it's not really even game changing for a realistically secured facility. http://www.tscm.com/TSCM101tempest.html is a primer, and http://cryptome.org/nsa-tempest.htm is an in-depth guide, if you think it's worth your time and money to mitigate this kind of vulnerability.

delano• 18 years ago

The researchers put a site up with the videos mentioned in the article: http://lasecwww.epfl.ch/keyboard/

jodrellblank• 18 years ago

"Researchers" are always doing unlikely sounding fun things.

It's like the "Doctors recommend X" or "scientists {anything}" sentences which are mostly indicators of poor content, but "Researchers do/create XYZ" is often a good indicator.

davidkellis• 18 years ago

I'm quite certain that this isn't a recent discovery.

DanielBMarkham• 18 years ago

I didn't RTA, but reading keyboards (and monitors) from EMR is at least 30 years old in intelligence circles.

Source? Geesh. Seems like I read this in one of the biographical spy books I got into a decade or so ago. The amount of stuff you can pull out of the air with the right equipment is completely amazing.

mhb• 18 years ago

TEMPEST: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPEST

Researchers log keystrokes from afar with an antenna

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