Sniffing wireless signals

[robbie 348]

http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/14/thi...usaolp00000591

[mastablasta]

cool. and if the keyboard is not wireless?

[grahammechanical]

Some months ago in the UK there was a report about someone gaining access to a bank's computer by pretending to be service engineers and they attached a wireless device that picked up and transmitted information.

[Dragonbite]

There was somebody a while ago that walked around some computer security convention (not sure if it was a black hat) with a rolling suitcase that was picking up peoples wireless transmissions and capturing their credentials. Later the person posted on the screen a list of usernames and passwords picked up previously to get his point across.

[bashiergui]

cool. and if the keyboard is not wireless?

The device sniffs and hijacks the bluetooth signals in a wireless keyboard. So a non wireless one won't be affected by this particular device.

To intercept bluetooth signals requires close physical proximity, like under 10 feet. This device is useless across the Internet.

There was somebody a while ago that walked around some computer security convention (not sure if it was a black hat) with a rolling suitcase that was picking up peoples wireless transmissions and capturing their credentials. Later the person posted on the screen a list of usernames and passwords picked up previously to get his point across.

They do that every year at Defcon and at a few other conferences. It's called the Wall of Sheep
http://www.wallofsheep.com/pages/about-us
They use a device that pretends to be a wireless access point. When you connect it captures all your traffic including passwords. There are cheap and portable devices that will allow anyone with the knowledge to set up something similar anywhere they like such as cafes. This is why it is vital that you are careful about what you do on free wifi. Use a VPN so that your traffic is encrypted as it passes through any interceptor like this.