Protecting your data from predatory sight of hackers has become even more difficult, courtesy a new technique which enables hackers to detect every key you press on your wireless keyboard.
The technique called ‘keysniffer’ was revealed by researchers at cybersecurity firm Bastille, reported CNET. Using the keysniffer technique a hacker can pick up all the data you enter on your wireless keyboards, i.e. passwords, credit card numbers, private information and so on.
And it gets worse as a hacker can carry on this attack sitting 250 feet away from the victim wireless keyboards.
“When we purchase a wireless keyboard we reasonably expect that the manufacturer has designed and built security into the core of the product,” said Bastille Research Team member Marc Newlin, responsible for the keysniffer discovery, reported Business Wire.
“Unfortunately, we tested keyboards from 12 manufacturers and were disappointed to find that eight manufacturers (two-thirds) were susceptible to the KeySniffer hack,” added Newlin.
Keyboards manufactured by Hewlett-Packard (HP), Toshiba, Kensington, Insignia, Radio Shack, Anker, General Electric, and EagleTec are affected, informed Newlin. Whereas, Bluetooth keyboards and higher-end wireless keyboards like Logitech, Dell, and Lenovo are not susceptible to this attack.
Bluetooth keyboards are safe because its transmissions are encrypted, so intercepting that data without the encryption key is not possible. Other than that Bluetooth also has shorter range than radio transmissions waves, meaning that a potential hacker needs to be in much closer proximity, explained Forbes.
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