ZhouHacking is the new spying. And, as we’ve learned time and time again, both government and private organizations are using cyber-spy techniques to gain as much intelligence as they can.
But getting this data can be difficult. In fact, some of the most previous of digital information is safeguarded by machines that have no contact with the outside world.
So can this internet-less data be hacked? Well, yes. With some help from the research of the security firm Kaspersky Lab, as well as some of our own personal digging, here’s a look into some of the insane and creepy technologies used to hack offline devices.
Both the US and the USSR have spent decades looking into the electromagnetic radiation that an electronic device emits. Kaspersky Lab writes that once a device is plugged into a power line it “generates electromagnetic radiation that can be intercepted by proven technologies.”
Now people have figured out how to harness this information to track keystrokes. Writes Kaspersky Lab: Keystrokes can be remotely tracked with high accuracy at the 67-feet (20-meter) distance by using a homemade device that analyzes the radio spectrum and costs around $5,000.
It is interesting to note that the attack is equally effective against common cheap USB keyboards, expensive wireless keyboards with a signal encryption, and built-in notebook keyboards.