physorg.com — Researchers warn against an entirely new threat to computer security: peripheral devices – such as keyboards – which could be physically bugged in an attempt to steal data. A class of devices that could covertly transmit data across an existing network connection without the user's knowledge has been identified. They are called JitterBugs.
Aug 7, 2006 View in Crawl 4
burritovisionAug 8, 2006
it probably has a built-in keylogger and stores it in a cache file which is periodically distributed when one the internet without asking the user.also, WHERE IS MY 4TH AMENDMENT!!!??? this is outrageously and unequivocally unlike the 4th amendment. I don't care about some loophole through private companies. The state cannot receive this information, and corporations have no right to break the amendments of consumers without their knowledge.it offends people. <a class="user" href="http://www.house.gov/contact">http://www.house.gov/contact</a>
nofxjunkeeAug 8, 2006
RTFAA (read the f**king article again)
mouskyAug 8, 2006
We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Fear is a wonderful marketing tool.
perfectreignAug 8, 2006
Funny. I was just reading in the latest issue of Blacklisted 411 - <a class="user" href="http://www.blacklisted411.net/">http://www.blacklisted411.net/</a> - about a DIY hardware keylogger, which can be attached to a PS/2 keyboard. <a class="user" href="http://www.keelog.com/diy.html">http://www.keelog.com/diy.html</a> I'm sure that USB versions aren't far behind for the DIY crowd, or you can purchase one of several versions. The beauty of these is that they're currently not being detected. (Though I'm sure one could write a routine to check the voltage expected from the keyboard and potentially determine a difference. Dunno - I'm not an electrical engineer.)
rideagainAug 8, 2006
graystar asks: Does anyone know is there anyway to guarantee an internet cafe is safe for say doing online banking? Flash Linux?If it's not your machine, then it's unsafe. Lots of public machines have keyloggers installed, it would be a really bad idea to do banking on a machine like that.If you bring your own laptop then the risk becomes much smaller: just people watching you type your password or people stealing it off the network. If your bank is worth its salt (unfortunately not always the case) the whole connection will be secured using SSL (you'll see the "https" instead of "http" in the address bar and there's a lock icon in your browser) and you're OK. But it's very important that the whole thing be protected by SSL, starting from the bookmark you clicked or the URL you typed from memory ("<a class="user" href="https://mybank.com">https://mybank.com</a>" or some such).
protogenxlAug 8, 2006
USB sticks already start running and installing garbage programs without the users knowledge <a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3</a>
nofxjunkeeAug 8, 2006
Right, I guess I overlooked the word entirely. They're not entirely new. Mea culpa.
mattb5Aug 8, 2006
Didn't they talk about something like this on TWIT a few weeks ago. Some guy found a keyboard driver from HP, I believe, that was phoning home what function keys people were using and not using. Turned out it was some guy in engineering just doing some of his own market research.