http://hackaday.com/2008/10/20/eavesdrop-on-keyboards-wirelessly/

Apparently your keyboard transmits distinct radio noise depending on what keys you hit. According to this it can be decoded and read from up to twenty meters away.

Wow!

Im suprised the FBI isnt at my home yet.

Actually this is old news. I remember watching that show "Beyond 2000" way back in the mid 90's on this. I talked to this tech head neighbor of mine and her did a demonstration on various ways to do this. The same techniques can be used for anything which transmits a signal via a keypad.. IE: Phones, keyboards, mice, microwave oven timers, alarm clock settings, etc.

Yes it scares me... I say tinfoil the house! lol

even... atm keypads? In the wrong hands that could make some serious money. Then again its not like cards don't already get skimmed. still-

they are, as long as you consider being high up in the sky and made of metal as being in your home

buy a Faraday cage

lol why buy one when you can just as well use wire mesh or tin-foil. Also its a bit cumbersome to use a computer wrapped in any kind of conductive material- store bought or otherwise.

atm keypads are hardwired to the machine

so no radio noise? not even a little? im going to do some experiments.

Maybe a minute electromagnetic pulse, but i think that wouldnt even extend past the insulation. You have better luck walking into an airport with a sign saying "im a terrosist", and carrying a large backpack then getting info from an atm keypad's signal.

Wireless keyboards/mice are viable to obtain info, but you have to know where to look, and what to listen for. Sometimes they have variable frequencies.....or are just messedup or low powered.

yes the wireless ones probably have a much bigger radio footprint- but the link I posted was all about the frequency emitted by wired keyboards. This is why i was a little freaked out. Also, you are probably right about the equipment i would need looking suspicious. Maybe their satellites have better luck?

I saw a show about this on the history channel or science channel or something. Anyway, a scientist figured this out in the 30's, back when they were using mechanical coding machines. No one believed him at first, then he proved it by capturing the signal from another building like 30 feet away. I don't remember all the details, but the US started shielding their rooms soon after. It became a huge issue during the Cold War.

Similar to what the Brits do with their TV licenses.

"Detection of evasion of television licences

In many jurisdictions, television licences are enforced. The BBC states 'television detector vans' are employed by TV Licensing in the UK.[58] Besides claims of (usually undisclosed) sophisticated technological methods (such as TEMPEST[citation needed]) for the detection of operating televisions, detection of illegal television sets is normally limited to simple methods such as the observation of the lights and sounds of an illegal television in a user's home at night[citation needed]. Detection is made a lot easier because nearly all houses do have a licence, so only those houses that do not have a licence need to be checked."

Huh... Do they use detector vans to pick up the radio emissions of the Radio/TV IF Transformers? Or just peek in the window?

I've wondered about the radio emissions of lighting systems used by people growing things that the government would prefer they don't? :) HPS must radiate like a mother.

All you really need to do to get around it is add some extra letters or digits, then delete them.

atm keypads are hardwired to the machine

And keyboards aren't? The video clearly shows a wired keyboard.

We could always resort to on-screen keyboards.

Touchscreens are a pain in the ass.

Use this ploy in combination with their ability to listen in on a cell phone even if it is turned off and you have quite the eavesdropping session going on. The cell phone picks up the tones of the keyboard, since most persons have their cell phone very close to their computer, or right on their person when at the computer, and the feds have the ability to monitor your room conversations and your Internet conversations simultaneously. The more we rely on modern technology, the more of our personal lives we have to surrender to the system.

Lol.

The BBC men just wait outside the address of someone who doesn't have a licence and then knock on the door when CSI is scheduled to start.

And if they don't have a search warrant, tell 'em to **** off.

And keyboards aren't? The video clearly shows a wired keyboard.

That's what I was thinking, although I've heard of a similar method that listens to the sound an individual key makes as it's struck. With enough data the listener can work out which sound relates to which key. It may even be possible to predict the notes a specific keyboard might 'play' based on where it was manufactured, i.e. by taking notes from an identical model.

Some interesting supplemental reading on this further invasion of our privacy by the thugs in the back rooms:

"Keyboards (sometimes incorrectly referred to as membrane keyboards) are the most common type in use in the 2000s. When a key is pressed, it pushes down on a rubber dome sitting beneath the key. A conductive contact on the underside of the dome touches (and hence connects) a pair of conductive lines on the circuit below. This bridges the gap between them and allows electric current to flow (the open circuit is closed). A scanning signal is emitted by the chip along the pairs of lines in the matrix circuit which connects to all the keys. When the signal in one pair becomes different, the chip generates a "make code" corresponding to the key connected to that pair of lines."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_keyboard#Control_processor

The same techniques can be used for anything which transmits a signal via a keypad.. microwave oven timers

How do you arrest someone based on the grounds of microwave cooking times? I understand what you're saying, but I don't understand how signal interception could be applied to such a mundane appliance.

How do you arrest someone based on the grounds of microwave cooking times? I understand what you're saying, but I don't understand how signal interception could be applied to such a mundane appliance.Animal cruelty cases... countries where popcorn is strictly banned... unsupervised jail communities where electronics are prohibited... offenders to the health care system who continually under-cook their TV-dinners.. the list goes on and on really.

countries where popcorn is strictly banned...

such as?

such as?

Iran? As the symbolic foodstuff of the Great Satan, America, and its kafir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafir) citizens?

I mean I don't know, I'm just amusing myself with the thought of the Mutaween (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality_police) foaming at the mouth, upon discovering Ali Mohammed's secret-floorboard stash of Jiffy Pop. Wait until they find the Hustler mags underneath his sister's contraband Victoria's Secret underwear. Haha.