Some Wireless Keyboards Found To Be Vulnerable To Snooping

You know those wireless keyboards that some of you might herald as the next best thing due to its wireless connectivity? Turns out that there are some of them that aren’t as secure as they could be, which means that you as a user could be compromised if hackers were to figure out the vulnerabilities.

According to security researchers, it seems that several wireless keyboards made by the likes of HP, Toshiba, Kensington, Insignia, Radio Shack, Anker, General Electric, and EagleTec are affected by this vulnerability, which has been dubbed “KeySniffer”. Basically if a hacker knew what they were doing, they would be able to snoop in on you and be able to extract information like your credit card numbers, passwords, security questions, answers to the security questions, and more.

Marc Newlin, the researcher with Bastille Networks that discovered the vulnerability said that out of the 12 keyboards they tested, 8 did not even have encryption, meaning that it was relatively easy to hack into it to begin with. This means that every keystroke made was sent in clear text, and that anyone regardless of their tech knowledge would be able to read it.

He also states that there is nothing these companies can do to patch the keyboards, meaning that users who use any of these keyboards are probably better off just switching to a brand new one, like a wired model or maybe Bluetooth.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: Security