CDR: Secure Keyboards

sunder sunder at sunder.net
Fri Nov 17 10:13:40 PST 2000


"A. Melon" wrote:
>    Speaking of secure keyboards, what would one look for inside the keyboard
> to determine if it were compromised? Or would the best approach be to buy a
> new keyboard, open it, and photograph the interior with a good camera under
> good light at close range, perhaps subtly marking various items first and
> recording the marks. And perhaps also using some sort of sealant on the edges
> when closing it back up that would show any tampering?

Not of a hell of a lot with PC keyboards.

1. You can epoxy shut the keyboard itself so it can't be opened.
But, they can tap the cable, or get another keyboard of the same brand
and epoxy it shut the same way you did.

2. If you protect the cable as well, they can use a keyboard capture
program, or they can tempest detect your keystrokes.

3. Further, the usual trick is to hide a pinhole camera above where your
keyboard is (ceiling tiles usually), so you'd have to sweep for cameras.

It's not a pretty situation.

-- 
----------------------Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos---------------------------
 + ^ + :Surveillance cameras|Passwords are like underwear. You don't /|\
  \|/  :aren't security.  A |share them, you don't hang them on your/\|/\
<--*-->:camera won't stop a |monitor, or under your keyboard, you   \/|\/
  /|\  :masked killer, but  |don't email them, or put them on a web  \|/
 + v + :will violate privacy|site, and you must change them very often.
--------_sunder_ at _sunder_._net_------- http://www.sunder.net ------------





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