as an alternative to pointing a laser at the back of a laptop, I propose pointing a camera at the front.

Posted at 6:55 pm on Mar 20th, 2009 by amk

I recently discovered that you could pick up the scancodes on a PS/2 keyboard quite easily by just holding a fox/hound sensor next to it (such as are used by telecoms technicians for finding lines in a bundle etc)

Posted at 7:30 pm on Mar 20th, 2009 by ex-parrot

amk, your idea is blowing my mind!

;D

Posted at 8:02 pm on Mar 20th, 2009 by Jack

my P4 laptop is so loud no one will be able to hear keystrokes ;)

Posted at 8:18 pm on Mar 20th, 2009 by therian

Soon keyboards will be replased whit touch screens …or atleast thats what I hope. Well the camera thing would stil work on that :)

Posted at 2:56 am on Mar 21st, 2009 by dnny

Some government agencies (which will remain nameless), have used fiber-optic cable interconnects between keyboards, mice, and printer s to a PC.

Posted at 3:21 am on Mar 21st, 2009 by none

@dnny:
i don’t think that keyboards will be replaced by touchscreens in the next couple of years. they still remain the most practical way of typing text, no touchscreen system can compete to them by now

Posted at 7:26 am on Mar 21st, 2009 by styko

Dubious but worthy of respect as thinkably possible. Absent a live reproducible by peers demo I won’t go farther in holding it as credibile. As for the projected keyboard or touch screens replacing things like button or membrane keyboards anytime soon? All depends on user acceptance more than any other factor. The operative meme to be eternally mindful in tech is a simple one with a few variants. It’s a .Sig for posts in places like this.

“The first one costs >$1million. Serial #oneMillion costs <$1. And past a certain point selling your tech know-how makes the widget have a negative cost per piece”

Posted at 10:09 am on Mar 21st, 2009 by Oren Beck

>>Soon keyboards will be replased whit touch screens
no way, iphone proof opposite

Posted at 11:57 am on Mar 21st, 2009 by therian

just because it’s dubious doesn’t mean it’s not possible. so how do we protect against these attacks?

1) your laptop – should the back be covered with acoustic damping material? can a reflective shade be set up behind it to avoid laser eavesdropping?

2) take the power outlet you use with your desktops and run a detached, separate ground straight to earth from the plug, then hope nobody taps into your wall at that point?

Eh.

keyboards won’t be replaced with touch screens until the touch screens can be made with flexible, expandable material that gives us tactile feedback identical to that of a keyboard. woot.

Posted at 1:58 pm on Mar 21st, 2009 by Dan Fruzzetti

none said: “Some government agencies (which will remain nameless), have used fiber-optic cable interconnects between keyboards, mice, and printer s to a PC.”

Oh really, Mr. Fake Spook?

I started working with computers in 1977, and stay fairly on top of the tech scene.

So just WHERE is this technology?

A White Paper would have appeared “somewhere” about this technology.

And it would have “trickled down” to us regular users, but it’s NOWHERE to be seen.

Let’s SEE some “proof” to back up your spooky statement.

Posted at 2:27 pm on Mar 21st, 2009 by Mister X

uh, dont mean to be a buzz kill but if you have a uninteruptable power supply, it has filters that filter out the whole electronic noise shenanigans. and your computer shouldnt be using the ground anyways?!?!! The ground is only if your computer has a short on the case or power supply, and when that happens its usually dead…

Posted at 2:37 pm on Mar 21st, 2009 by nick

Not to even mention the computers that have only a 2 wire power cord from the power supply brick to the wall. Or people like me that have multiple series AC filters to the power supply. And unplugging the laptop to run on battery during sensitive work further defangs the ground spike exploit. A Panasonic Toughbook metal case laptop with touchscreen and the silicone keyboard skin being coated with clear conductive coatings could decrease RF sniff range a bit…

Posted at 3:17 pm on Mar 21st, 2009 by Oren Beck

Just attach a vibrating motor to the laptop case and have it twitch in random patterns.
Or type while a waterfaucet is running over it.

Posted at 3:34 pm on Mar 21st, 2009 by Wwhat

I knew there was a good reason to make stealth laptops!

In all seriousness, some laptops have much better hinges than others. If you switched keyboard layouts I think it would really mess up any processing / acoustic methods, especially if you essentially have to touch type as most key presses will look the same.

Posted at 4:26 pm on Mar 21st, 2009 by cptfalcon

If you’re wondering why this hasn’t been shown before, it’s because it’s not even remotely practical even with the best possible software and hardware configuration. You’d get fragments of inconsistent data.

Posted at 4:36 pm on Mar 21st, 2009 by TJHooker

can someone imagining how this will looks, one dude staring at you laptop focusing tripod on you and other dude with laptop connected blackbox focusing lenses at you staring at you laptop too and yell to other dude to move triode little bit left or right

and in the end they get some mix of fan, HD and birdsong.. with keystrokes noises

Posted at 9:18 am on Mar 22nd, 2009 by therian

So can this only get the time that you press keys? Doesn’t sound very useful.

Posted at 3:44 pm on Mar 22nd, 2009 by Tim

Wonder how long it will be until someone figures out how to tap the human, not the laptop.

Posted at 10:54 pm on Mar 22nd, 2009 by Heath Jones

Pfft, just use an external keyboard, or isolate the keyboard on some silicone rubber standoffs.

Not to mention the option of using a half-moon keyboard and a wearable PC.

Posted at 10:08 am on Mar 23rd, 2009 by nubie

Mister X, Tempest rated equipment is available from many sources. European countries are well aware of the problems of emsec. Its only the US that ignores the risk outside of classified computer systems.

Posted at 9:24 pm on Mar 25th, 2009 by Mister Y

google “van eck” for more tempest info.

Posted at 10:54 pm on May 19th, 2009 by tempest in a tea pot

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Posted at 3:51 am on Jul 4th, 2009 by Sheila

You guys are so innocent! the N.S.A. and its partners in the other 4 major English-speaking countries (Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand) can hack into your PC through the power outlet and take control of your mouse and keyboard, thereby your entire PC!

Posted at 9:11 am on Oct 5th, 2009 by lloyd dettering

They’ve let me post the above just to frighten you. But, remember, they’re human like the rest of us and must have an Achilles heel!

Posted at 9:12 am on Oct 5th, 2009 by lloyd dettering

I couldn’t even download the keyprowler software (trial version), or rather I wasn’t allowed. What are they afraid of? Microsoft gave them the Source Code for all of its Operating Systems (that’s why Microsoft got off lightly in the anti-trust case with Netscrape). So, no anti-malware program, which depends on the O/S first starting up, is of any use.

Posted at 9:16 am on Oct 5th, 2009 by lloyd dettering