LED lights

[thor]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/0...eut/index.html

[lkennedy.guru]

I say this artical posted on slashdot 2 or 3 days ago. I think it is a bit periniod to pad up you led lights so no one cas see them. Although it is thechnicaly interesting, I don't see it being put into practical use. If anyone see things dif. let me know.

[Gepeto]

lkennedy: It all depends, of course for us it doesn't really matter, But I suppose under some very extreme cases where security is needed, you take all the precautions you can!

[jcmcb]

I'll bet the NSA has been able to do this for years....and read the stray electrons from your screen!

[BrainStop]

Here's ZDNet's take on it:

The best security warning of the week, however, must be a new scientific paper from reputable engineering types, which unveils the threat posed by exposed LEDs -- yes, those inoffensive little red lights that make your computer room look like a Christmas tree when you turn the lights off. The co-author of this masterpiece of deduction has discovered that you can decode the data passing through, say, a modem or router simply by reading the blinking lights on the front of it, much in the same way that Sherlock Holmes was able to follow Watson's exact train of thought by observing his facial expressions and the objects upon which his eyes alighted around the room. The existence of this insidious lapse apparently occurred to the co-author as he was passing the time one day by staring for several hours at the blinking lights on his modem.

There's only one problem with this, of course -- as the paper makes clear, the exploit only works if you're basically standing across the room, in the dark, and your target is a 9600bps modem , which is unlikely these days to be carrying any data of significance. These modems are at risk from up to 10 metres, in the dark, after which the signal quality drops radically; at faster rates, or if the lights are on, you no doubt need to place your spy device right next to the LED. On the other hand, it might just be easier to con somebody into telling you their password, or just read what they're typing on the screen.

News Schmooze: Security alert! or How the world learned to fear flashing LEDs

Cheers,

BrainStop

[jcmcb]

I just finished reading the White Paper, and I think most people missed the most interesting part...

At the tail end of the paper the authors discuss a program to link the scroll look LED with the data that is being sent by the computer...and they suggest placing a small infra-red transmitter next to the LED to transmit that data to an external source...

Now that is truely scary, as I don't think anyone of us has ever examined the keyboards that we use....I know I have never checked to see if it gives off infra red signals! This is just more proof that your online security is only as good as your physical security.

[jcmcb]

I just finished reading the White Paper, and I think most people missed the most interesting part...

At the tail end of the paper the authors discuss a program to link the scroll look LED with the data that is being sent by the computer...and they suggest placing a small infra-red transmitter next to the LED to transmit that data to an external source...

Now that is truely scary, as I don't think anyone of us has ever examined the keyboards that we use....I know I have never checked to see if it gives off infra red signals! This is just more proof that your online security is only as good as your physical security.

[strug]

so these articles are saying a home computer with a high speed modem is not at risk????

[strug]

so these articles are saying a home computer with a high speed modem is not at risk????

[jcmcb]

strug -

There was an earlier thread with the link to the pdf file for the white paper, and if you want it you can PM me...

My reading of this was that if your modem has a certain kind of LED (called a Class III), then the blinking would be linked to the data transmitted. A person could then either do traffic signal anaylsis, or read the data as bits, using a program to reconstruct it. They only tested certain types of hard hardware, and only some old modems and some cisco routers were vulnerable...

Of course if your worried some tape will fix the problem....not scotch tape of course!