vandalais

July 15, 2009 at 6:30am

A laser would require line of site so why not use a pair of binoculars?

Caboose

July 14, 2009 at 12:58pm

 Dur! Macs are impervious to those hacking schemes! Its only you stupid Winderz lusers that have to worry about that! I'll be just safe with my super-safe mac!!

In all honesty, I think both are a load of giant smelly bull crap! Like many have said, the differences in computers, and keyboards make it very difficult, if not impossible for the laser thing to work, You'd have to have a database which has every single keyboard ever made catalogued with its frequency for each key press. And don't get me started on the "electrical impulses from your outlet" thing...

 

-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-

ween23

July 14, 2009 at 12:14pm

i think mythbusters should test this one

DavidWitteried

July 13, 2009 at 8:37pm

One of my favorite utilities is Roboform which stores my account info in encrypted files and enters the login info for me... no keystrokes, so there is nothing to capture. The bad guys would have to get physical access to the computer and my Roboform password to gain access to my accounts. Great software!

 David

I Jedi

July 13, 2009 at 3:56pm

More and more hackers are finding new ways to exploit vulnerabilities in computers in general. It's actually quite scary to think just how great they've become at finding ways to get our personal information in just a few short years. I personally think that hackers might be gaining the upper hand in online security. Too many people are uneducated in how to properly protect themselves better from attacks and software always seems to have vulnerabilities that hackers continue to exploit and companies are slow to fix.

Stinky Fartface

July 13, 2009 at 2:14pm

The laser technique sounds very plausible, and not particularly new. My father used to work for the US Defense department and told me all sorts of interesting spy techniques they had to prepare for. Apparently the windows (physical not OS) in govt. buildings use double paned vibration dampened glass to prevent spies from pointing lasers at the windows and then recoding the vibration, which could be translated back into sound to record conversations. And this was back in the 80's. The laser technique descibed here is just an extension on that, coupled with the fact that each key on a keyboard has a unique audio fingerprint.

lunchbox73

July 13, 2009 at 2:10pm

“make sure there is no line of sight to the laptop, move position
frequently while typing and pollute the signal by striking random keys
and later deleting them with the backspace key.”

It also helps if you wear a hat made out of aluminum foil and rub down your keyboard with eye of newt extract. Can't be too careful.