Beware the Haunted Cordless keyboard

dr. greenthumb writes "The norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reports about an incident where a computer suddenly seemed to develop a life of its own. A game which the user could not remember using that day suddenly appeared on the screen. When he went over to shut it off the screen displayed a message asking him if he "really wanted to delete this file?" His computer was receiving keystrokes from another computer (with the same type of wireless keyboard) 150 metres away! Check out the full story and a follow-up, where experts warns against using wireless keyboards." /me plans to destroy Hemos' sanity...

Infrared keyboards.

[Anonymous Coward]

So whatever happened to infrared keyboards?
Clear that "listening in" problem right up.

256 channels???

[g4dget]

The attitude companies have towards security is appalling. Wireless keyboards have to use strong cryptography or credit card numbers and personal information are being broadcast across the neighborhood. 256 channels isn't going to fix it.

FCC wont let me be

[++good-duckspeak]

This must violate FCC requirements - you know that text on the bottom of your keyboard and mouse.

This is only the beginning

[ShawnDoc]

With Bluetooth finally making an appearance, expect to see a lot more of this. Since Bluetooth devices are supposed to automatically find each other and just "work", this is only going to become more common. Imagine giving a very important PowerPoint presentation when everything goes hawire when someone giving a presentation of their own the next floor up has their Bluetooth remote starting giving signals to your computer.

I know there are security and other settings that when properly configured will help prevent these mistakes, but just look at the number of unsecured business wireless networks out there that don't even have WEP turned on. Its going to be nasty.

Re:256 channels???

[piranha(jpl)]

For those of us in the audience that didn't notice:

Särelind said the next generation of keyboards would use a new technology which would choose randomly between 256 available channels, and promised to send both Evjeberg and Helle a copy.

The "256 channels" isn't for their existing wireless keyboards, it's for their "next generation" models.

A bit shy of cryptographically secure, I'd say. Credit card numbers and personal information aren't all that's at stake; think about your passwords, PGP passphrases, etc.

Re:This is only the beginning

[ShawnDoc]

10 meters is about 30 feet. That'll easily cover 2 floors up or down from you.

Re:256 channels???

[RoundSparrow]

I like how you say you are sure, but you also say you don't know.

Humm....

What's the point of wireless keyboards?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why should I pay $20 more for a wireless keyboard when it never leaves my desk? I understand it on a mouse, since mice move around, but keyboards don't. I don't understand why some people pay extra money for something that requires batteries, is less reliable, costs more, and comes with security risks, when the wired alternative works just fine.

Re:256 channels???

[Anonymous Coward]

why would you not want this "secure mode"???

why is it even a choice?? So you can turn it off during those "special moments" when you want the world to see what you're typing?

Re:256 channels???

[Anonymous Coward]

Insightful? What the hell?

He said that it probably wasn't great encryption, but that it kept his stuff from being broadcast in "plain text."

I'd mod you "idiot" if i had the chance.

Re:This is only the beginning

[Tensor]

Yeah, well its open air 10mts so instead of 3 floors you have, at best, 1.5 floors centered on the device.

Remember that, in offices, floors and ceilings are covered with cables for telephone & networking and electricity. Which also helps to cut down on the range.

Re:Not quite as fun as VNC

[Anonymous Coward]

- Being the nice guy I am, I made up an instruction sheet detailing how to fix the problem, and printed it to whatever shared printers existed.

If there's an asshole at the other end, say a technically challenged CEO of some company, by doing that you're likely to be sued for breaching their systems.
Yeah, you're doing the right thing, but assholes just happen.

Re:Logitech Encryption Driver Releases

[Krelnik]

Now, will someone please explain to me how updating drivers for a 3 year old wireless keyboard will encrypt the path from the keyboard to the receiver?

There could be a number of legitimate ways this happened:

1. The encryption feature was there all along, but they didn't get around to supporting it in the software until now. This often happens in commercial hardware products, when you hit a deadline and the drivers just aren't ready. Although 3 years does seem a bit excessive.

2. The driver actually downloads code to the controller in the keyboard, thereby "upgrading" it to include encryption.

3. The hardware supported it all along, but they were having trouble getting their government paperwork to ship a product with encryption. So they just yanked the feature out of the driver until such time as the paperwork is done. Now its done so they are shipping the drivers.