[Year 12 IPM] Security News

[Donna Benjamin]

*Acoustic spying decodes typists' tapping*

Sounds from typing on computer keyboards are distinctive enough to be
decoded, allowing security breaches caused by "acoustic snooping,"
researchers say.

Researchers at the University of California say they were able to feed
sound recordings of typing on keyboards into a computer and use an
algorithm to recover up to 96 per cent of the keyboard characters
entered by typists.

"It's a form of acoustical spying that should raise red flags among
computer security and privacy experts," said Doug Tygar, a Berkeley
professor of computer science and information management.

"If we were able to figure this out, it's likely that people with less
honorable intentions can - or have - as well," he said.

The research builds on earlier work by International Business Machines
researchers who were able to recover 80 per cent of text from keyboard
recordings.

That research relied on the same typist using the same keyboard and an
algorithm trained with known text and corresponding sound samples.

By contrast, the algorithm in the Berkeley study adapts to typing
patterns of multiple typists and overcomes background noise such as
music or ringing mobile phones.

Also no special recording equipment was required; keystroke noise could
be recorded using off-the-shelf gear.

"The message from this study is that there is no easy escape from this
acoustic snooping," Professor Tygar said.

But computer security expert Peter Tippett says while such research is
interesting, the prospect of such spying should not concern individuals
worried that employers would use it to monitor them or businesses
fretting over possible snooping by rivals.

"It's like worrying about anvils dropping on automobiles," Mr Tippett,
founder of Cybertrust, an information security services company, said.

"There are all kinds of attacks like these but they are only relevant to
top-secret organisations."

- Reuters
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1460695.htm

-- 
Donna Benjamin - VITTA web team
donna.benjamin at vitta.org.au
Victorian IT Teachers Association
http://www.vitta.org.au