Keyboard sniffers to steal data!

Keyboard sniffers to steal data!

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

The attacks were shown to work at a distance of 20 metres

The attacks were shown to work at a distance of 20 metres

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”.

Better attacks

The attacks were dreamed up by doctoral students Martin Vuagnoux and Sylvain Pasini from the Security and Cryptography Laboratory at the Swiss Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL).

The EPFL students tested 11 different keyboard models that connected to a computer via either a USB or a PS/2 socket. The attacks they developed also worked with keyboards embedded in laptops.

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