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Researchers 'Eavesdropping' on Computers Via Keyboard Emissions

by Paul Miller on October 21, 2008 at 07:02 AM



We always knew those electromagnetic emanations would amount to no good, and now here they go ruining any shred of privacy we once thought to possess. Some folks from the Security and Cryptography Lab at Switzerland's EPFL have managed to eavesdrop on the electromagnetic radiation shot off by shoddy wired keyboards with every keystroke. They've found four different ways to listen in, including one previously-published general vulnerability, on eleven keyboard models ranging from 2001 to 2008, with PS/2, USB and laptop keyboards all falling to at least one of the four attacks. The attack works through walls, as far as 65 feet away, and analyzes a wide swath of electromagnetic spectrum to get its results.

With wireless keyboards already feeling the sting of hackers, it's probably fair to say that no one is safe, and that cave bunkers far, far away from civilization are pretty much our only hope now. Videos of the attacks are after the break.

[Thanks, Dave]


Tags: eavesdropping, electromagnetic, electromagnetic emanations, ElectromagneticEmanations, hack, keyboard, keyboard hack, KeyboardHack, keylogger, safety, spy, spying, wired keyboard, WiredKeyboard

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