In Brief

Hearing Is Seeing

Researchers have developed software that can analyze the sounds of someone typing on a keyboard for 10 minutes and then piece together as much as 96 percent of what's been typed.

By CSO Contributor

November 01, 2005 — CSO — Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed software that can analyze the sounds of someone typing on a keyboard for 10 minutes and then piece together as much as 96 percent of what's been typed. The technique works because the sound of someone striking the "A" key is different from the sound the "T" key makes, according to computer science professor Doug Tygar.

Two lessons emerged: First, even randomly generated passwords are not secure; researchers were able to guess 90 percent of the five-character passwords subjects generated within 20 tries. And second, a noisy environment can conceal what keyboard users are typing.

• Email
• Print
• Comments
• Digg This
• SlashDot