Watch How a Hacker’s Infrared Laser Can Spy on Your Laptop’s Keystrokes
www.wired.comHacker Samy Kamkar is debuting his own open source version of a laser microphone—a spy tool that can invisibly pick up the sounds inside your home through a window, and even the text you’re typing.
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Random unrelated thought I just had, can you guys think of any interesting musical applications to a laser microphone? I found this super cool video when I tried to look it up (there’s practically nothing)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ja6gsoNJCY
Great, now hackers and spies can detect my typing instead of using RATs or Trojans or packet sniffers, or just beating me with a $5 wrench (XKCD)
Also:
So… Closing the curtains is all it takes to defeat this amazing technological method. GG.
I’m not sure why you’re so dismissive of this? It’s kind of asinine.
Does everyone everywhere only ever use computers in an enclosed room? Is everyone with something value to exfiltrate easily accessible to kidnap and beat with a wrench?
This is valuable for corporate espionage, political purposes, or for nation states. If miniaturized, even easier for targeted attacks where it might be difficult to inject malware, or for broad attacks on office workers.
And the best part is that it doesn’t leave a trace which beating someone with a wrench and malware would do…
You’re not James Bond. Or a 1337 haxx0r. This technology isn’t even new. Why are you stanning this guy? It’s an assinine position to take.
Came to find out about the audio quality of this exceptional microphone.
:(
My keyboard is loud enough that it can be heard that far away anyway
So they can hear me type p + enter into my browser?
Ah, another pterodactyl aficionado!
Laughs in DVORAK. This is some pretty funny Schitzotroll.
it’s heuristic, so it doesn’t matter what layout you use.
Ah fuuck
On screen keyboard rides again!
Binoculars
Oddly enough - all my keystrokes sound exactly the same which makes this person’s claim so much bullshit.
Maybe to you, but with a proper algorithmic analysis of the sounds differences can be fingerprinted and differentiated.
Riiiiiight…
Another great reason to use a custom, constantly shifting keyboard layout
RIP touch typing
I use blank key caps, and I find it leads to much more comfortable touch typing.
Slower, sure, but cozier also
fiojvd gff uiig fvg. Hh
Exactly
Why would blank keycaps matter for touch typing
It’s just a question of matching pattern with most used words against languages…
The article doesn’t mention how it compensates for different keyboards. Like wouldn’t different switches and wear change the sound?
It sounds like bs but its cause that’s been solved since around Roman times, heres a pretty interesting website on the technique
So how do we fix this? Dumb nerds never think about the consequences of their creations.
Close the blinds
At an office building where other people are inside the building with you? This is going to cause problems if it gets cheap enough
Probably not because you can detect the beam with an iPhone camera.
Oh that’s good to know. I’m gonna go pull a laser designator warning off of a wrecked tank.
Everyone needs a hobby.
From the article: “Even knowing that Kamkar’s silent, invisible, long-distance laser spy trick exists, how does anyone hide their secrets from it? He suggests that companies install double-paned or reflective glass. Some security device companies also sell protection devices that affix to windows and vibrate them to prevent laser microphone spying, and Kamkar concedes he hasn’t tested his attack against those. But he also suggests a safer countermeasure: “Don’t work on computers visible from a window,” he says. “Or just have dirty windows.””
Companies can’t even be convinced to have longer passwords on their wifi. And open office plans mean every computer faces a window
Then companies deserved to be hacked. shrug
The problem is the companies aren’t suffering the majority of the consequences of the security breaches, it’s the people these companies have personal information on & that includes people who have never done business with these companies but that these companies purchased data on.
But I work at companies and I would like my info to not be hacked. Their fuck ups affect employees and customers
And they should be held liable for the costs occurred to employees and customers.
deleted by creator
Sorry I can’t hear you over my jet engine case fans
What a strange response.
he look silly
And perhaps he was named Billy
And perhaps he has a willy.
Uhm… what was the topic again?
deleted by creator
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_JNGI1dI-e8
Agent 1: “yeah. hes the sex offender.”
Everybody is offended by an idea of a sex with them
Make it a UV laser and it would be invisible.
Infrared is not visible
To humans
Infrared doesn’t pass through windows.
I’m not going to argue with you but you should read the article perhaps? It’s pretty specific about where the laser is aimed vis a vis windows and whatnot
actually thats UV. transition lenses won’t change with a glass window thats not open. infrared is basically heat and does indeed pass through. Cars in the sun would not get hot so fast if they did not let in infrared.
Some UV is blocked by glass. Either UVA or UVB. It doesn’t block both.
yeah I encountered it when looking at infrared for another convo in the thread. its uvb for what we think of as glass. the clear stuff. which is what causes sunburns and the transition lenses to activate.
I have an IR camera and windows look like mirrors. Might depend on the type of glass idk.
if this yahoo from the internet I found in a search is right then its both:
“Glass will bock low frequency IR (red hot), but allow the passage of high frequency (white hot) IR. Hence, the heat of the sun will easily pass into a greenhouse, but once this energy is converted into low frequency heat by the objects within that absorb it, then the resulting low frequency heat is trapped. Hence, the Greenhouse Effect.”
That makes a lot of sense, thanks for doing the homework!
It is visible to security cameras
Ahh ok, that’s what you meant before I guess
Since that function is usually meant for night vision, I wonder how well a security camera can pick out the laser during the day i.e. when the IR sensors are being swamped by daylight also coming in through the window
It’s already infrared. Also, UV is partially visible to humans in some scenarios.
Dude in the thumbnail looks like an un-and-coming Bond villain.
Dude in the thumbnail is Samy. He’s been a bond villain for a long time now.