The NSA is reportedly able to access offline computers thanks to radio wave tech - page 5.

Coin_Master

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Quote from: benjamindees on January 18, 2014, 03:07:23 PM

Do any of you actually read anything before posting?

Yes I read the Infowars article on Intel's 3G enabled chips, but this is not the place to discuss that issue.
This forum is called Bitcointalk. It is a forum for discussing Bitcoin related topics. Bashing the NSA for your own political propaganda campaign is completely off topic with respect to Bitcoin. Go away and create your own forum for anti NSA discussion.
Thanks.

benjamindees

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Do any of you actually read anything before posting?

Coin_Master

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Quote from: benjamindees on January 16, 2014, 10:23:56 PM

You people are seriously retarded if you think any of this is somehow technically impossible.

Not technically impossible, just completely irrelevant. This is not news, the title of this thread should be "NSA can access your computer if they insert a wireless device into it". Really?

Carlton Banks

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Seeing as we're referencing the InfoWars website, can you tell me how the development of the Chinese Death Star is coming along? Been chewing my fingers down to the knuckles about that revelation.

benjamindees

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You people are seriously retarded if you think any of this is somehow technically impossible.

Quote

In a promotional video for the technology, Intel brags that the chips actually offer enhanced security because they don’t require computers to be “powered on” and allow problems to be fixed remotely.

http://www.infowars.com/91497/

Carlton Banks

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Quote from: Snowfire on January 16, 2014, 05:44:06 PM

I think the claim about remotely accessing computers through unknown radio channels is mostly FUD, although there may be a few machines out there that could enable something like this in theory if the machine is on. Claims about this being possible with the machine off are total FUD.

Interesting the amount of FUD-like claims emanating from the Snowden files. I thought he was supposed to be a technical expert?

What reason could there be for someone who should know his stuff to lend his credibility to claims of surveillance techniques which are technically dubious? And why allow them to be released in this dripping tap style, instead of just dumping them all?

Snowden seems all too keen to play along with the format of a media circus. And about a serious topic that he took a moral stand over, at great risk to his own life and liberty?

Snowfire

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Quote from: RodeoX on January 15, 2014, 03:26:18 PM

A spookier technology, that has been around a while, monitors the radiated signal from each keystroke. In this system an antenna is aimed at the computer. It may or may not be connected to a network. Each time the user hits a key, a tiny bit of EM energy is broadcast. Using software on a computer attached to the antenna. The signal is turned back into characters and the keystrokes are revealed. Cool

That is actually fairly old tech (known as van Ecke phreaking.) But it cannot be done from any real distance; it requires a physical antenna and radio quite close by. A researcher also demonstrated that, given the right viewing angle and window placement, it is possible to reproduce and read the screen at which you are looking via the reflection off tour eyeball (think high-powered telescope in a neighboring building.) But this also requires dedicated boots on the ground at close range, (as do the old laser-off-a-windowpane mike trick or the track-you-in-your-home-by-wifi-signal trick) and would be unlikely to be used against you unless you are already a 'high-value target.' In the real world, hidden malware, Bios rootkits, keyloggers, and the like are far more of a concern, as they present issues even when no adversaries are physically present.

I think the claim about remotely accessing computers through unknown radio channels is mostly FUD, although there may be a few machines out there that could enable something like this in theory if the machine is on. Claims about this being possible with the machine off are total FUD.

Carlton Banks

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Christ, the whole world is going to be smothered in tinfoil before this NSA garbage ends.

Wilikon

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minds.com/Wilikon

Quote from: Xenophis on January 16, 2014, 01:00:18 AM

When in doubt, do what the Russians do (don't, most of the time).

Buy typewriters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/11/kremlin-typewriters_n_3579184.html

In theory having a set of microphones in an array in the room you want to spy on should pickup every keystroke individually and recreate any messages. Something between the audioscope and a gunfire locator. with the NSA budget they can make those very very small I am guessing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunfire_locator

Two physicists developed a new technology called AudioScope that apparently enables you to zoom in on sounds in huge, loud places like sports arenas or lecture halls. Physicists Morgan Kjølerbakken and Vibeke Jahr, formerly of the University of Oslo, were were experimenting with sonar when they hit upon the idea for the AudioScope, which is based on a circular array of 300 microphones and a video camera. They've now launched a company, Squarehead, to commercialize the system. From New Scientist:
The AudioScope software then calculates the time it would take for sound emanating from that point to reach each microphone in the circular array, and digitally corrects each audio feed to synchronise them with that spot. "If we correct the audio arriving at three microphones then we have a signal that is three times as strong," says Kjølerbakken. Doing the same thing with 300 microphones can make a single conversation audible even in a stadium full of sports fans.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19541-audio-zoom-picks-out-lone-voice-in-the-crowd.html

joschua011

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In the good old days when MTV actually played music and people were using these huge computer monitors with these ray tubes ( dont know how to translate this propperly ) one of the coolest ways to spy on someone was to receive the radio waves produced by those tubes and then use this information to duplicate the image on another monitor in a room next to the actual monitor, so you can see what someone was doing on his computer without ever touching it, installing software, or in some other way gain access to the machine.

If you knew a little bit about electronics this was actually not so hard to do.

I guess what is described in this article is simillar to this, it reminds me of a paper i read where researches listened to the sound that a CPU makes while de/encrypting data and from that sound calculating the key ( = passphrase) that was used. This even worked if they recorded the sound with a cellphone. This sounds crazy but this totally works, in fact this audio stuff is becoming a huge problem in IT Security.

I am a Programmer and i know a quite a bit about this IT Security stuff, if the NSA could/would do this it wouldn't suprise me.

EDIT: I just found the paper where i first read this, if you really want to get into this ( highly recommended ) read it:
http://www.tau.ac.il/~tromer/papers/acoustic-20131218.pdf

guybrushthreepwood

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Quote from: Xenophis on January 16, 2014, 01:00:18 AM

When in doubt, do what the Russians do (don't, most of the time).

Buy typewriters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/11/kremlin-typewriters_n_3579184.html

What if they typewriters are bugged?

Xenophis

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When in doubt, do what the Russians do (don't, most of the time).

Buy typewriters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/11/kremlin-typewriters_n_3579184.html

krach

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Get Rekt

rasberry pi does not have any wifi, bluetooth or other radio outputs, thats why its great for an offline wallet

benjamindees

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All it takes is a software defined radio integrated with a multi-core processor. The same hardware that powers your wi-fi connection can be used to access your PC, even while it's powered off. Even while you're using it. You would never know. It's been in the works for a decade now. Soon it will be standard, in every computer. I'm telling you, this is not science fiction. It's very real. And it's being implemented at the lowest possible level.

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240163228/Intel-makes-breakthrough-on-digital-radio-chips

Quote

Intel has incorporated this breakthrough into a system-on-chip (SoC) codenamed Rosepoint, which features two Intel Atom core processors and a Wi-Fi transceiver on the same die.

RodeoX

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The revolution will be monetized!

If it is just using a radio implanted into the PC then this is not a big deal. The computer would have to be specifically built to have this ability.
A spookier technology, that has been around a while, monitors the radiated signal from each keystroke. In this system an antenna is aimed at the computer. It may or may not be connected to a network. Each time the user hits a key, a tiny bit of EM energy is broadcast. Using software on a computer attached to the antenna. The signal is turned back into characters and the keystrokes are revealed. Cool

Spendulus

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Quote from: TwentyGotoTen on January 15, 2014, 12:34:34 PM

I heard this same story on boston public radio 89.7 wgbh an hour or so ago, seems legit, even if you're not doing anything wrong, THEY'RE STILL WATCHING YOU, LOL

of course most people don't even know that all computer wireless runs on 'radio waves'.

So the interesting thing about this story is that ....

A) the NSA can attach a wireless modem to a computer, like by USB
B) MICROSOFT OPERATING SYSTEMS DO NOT REPORT THAT THE COMPUTER IS ONLINE

Bit of shouting now over.

TwentyGotoTen

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I heard this same story on boston public radio 89.7 wgbh an hour or so ago, seems legit, even if you're not doing anything wrong, THEY'RE STILL WATCHING YOU, LOL

Carlton Banks

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Quote from: Wilikon on January 15, 2014, 01:09:41 AM

Quote from: Romyen on January 14, 2014, 11:13:50 PM

I guess we need to keep our offline computers enclosed within a copper wire mesh.

Make sure the whole room is a Faraday cage.

Even computers need a tinfoil hat! Cheesy

If this is indeed possible, I don't think it would work on a massive scale, and I also don't think it would work for every possible environmental case. Sure, somewhere without much metal and without much background EM waves would be ideal, but you're not going to get that for anything but a small number of situations IRL. It defies common sense that a busy city environment would be an easy place to target a computer in this way, and if there was another agent trying to do the same to another target a couple doors down, you'd probably have to work in shifts. NSA can't bend the laws of physics in the same way they bend the law of the land. Unless we're actually in The Matrix.

Spendulus

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Quote from: Ekaros on January 15, 2014, 08:46:15 AM

Offline doesn't always mean turned off...

I stand corrected on that.

I guess also the hack would be to get the USB/whatever device in place, then use it in conjunction with a virus/worm, proceeding to mod the bios as required.

Ekaros

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Offline doesn't always mean turned off...

Topic: The NSA is reportedly able to access offline computers thanks to radio wave tech - page 5. (Read 7640 times)