Using lasers to steal data

[k1kb0t]

Networkworld has a great article on how hackers are using electrical outlets and lasers for keylogging. It's pretty impressive and it only requires a cheap laser at that.

How to use electrical outlets and cheap lasers to steal data - Network World

Attackers point a cheap laser, slightly better than what is used in laser pointers, at a shiny part of a laptop or even an object on the table with the laptop. A receiver is aligned to capture the reflected light beam and the modulations that are caused by the vibrations resulting from striking the keys.

 

[GoRdOn_B]

i was reading about this the other day on slashdot. apparently certain government agency's have been using this for listening to phone calls as well. the article above notes the blackhat convention in vegas which is most likely defcon, but what isnt mentioned is that defcon founder Jeff Moss works for homeland security. i posted the story a while back but it didnt get as much attention as i thought. its crazy how far we are going with technology these days though. its buck rogers for sure. lasers are definetly the future of everything.
:tinfoil:

 

[jwc]

"Rats, he shifted an inch to the left; now we have to spend 3 hours calibrating this thing again."

 

[dr-ebert]

It's not causing me to lose any sleep!

 

[charliebruce]

Hmm, I think that human error will still result in security breaches, now back to my top-secret work...

ssh securesecretserver.com
sudo -s
secretpassw0rd

Oh wait, that's not the console! Whoops

Seriously, though, I don't think we're at risk of someone using an earth-tapping method or laser of getting any confidential data. More likely than that, someone putting a wire-tap around my data wires and spying on the connections, or human error (social engineering is a marvellous tool).

 

[pixelot]

LOL I saw this a while back on Slashdot or something and thought it was pretty cool, but that was before I even started my relationship with lasers.