‘Keyboard sniffing’ is not, as it may sound, the latest craze of youngsters looking for their next high or, indeed, the antics of the office perv checking out the finer details of his latest fixation.
It is, however, something that should concern us all. It involved hackers being able to work out exactly what keys are hit on a keyboard and in the exact sequence by picking up on radio signals emitted from the wires that connect a keyboard to a PC.
This can be done from up to twenty metres away and even through walls. It puts the safety of internet banking and internet shopping in the arena once again as it means that passwords and login details will possibly be picked up by hackers.
So far, it is only known that researchers at the Security and Cryptography Laboratory at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland have this ability but it won’t be long before hackers have the technology to do so. The equipment to hack in this way is a little sophisticated, but not something that hackers can’t get their hands on. The right antennae and a little bit of luck will see our personal details in the wrong hands once typed onto a keyboard.
There is some speculation that it is easier to hack into information transmitted through the cheaper keyboards and has led government and health institutions to upgrade.
At the moment, there is no immediate answer other than to be as cautious as possible, to keep internet security software up to date and to do a little research into what to look for on fake websites and scams whilst we wait for software to become available to beat the hackers of for keyboards to meet the standard that means they can’t be hacked.
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