When would you say that x86 computers became "black boxes"?

[Zare]

Doesn't sound much untill you see reports of passwords for servers being morse-code imprinted onto the time span between network packets.

Is this hypothetical or verified?

 

[Zare]

some tiny binary in mouse or keyboard firmware, HDMI ends on random cables

I can speak as 'insider' on this topic, as much as I am able to.

You're fully correct. In EU the court can impose active or passive measures of monitoring against a possible criminal in a lawful investigation. The same way the court would allow snoops to wiretap somebody decades ago, or enter his home to place a bug.

The bugs today are in the peripherals and if the target is high profile or high complexity to warrant active measures against them, the specialists will enter their premises and replace the peripherals with bugged ones. Keyboards are the prime target.

 

[RetroComputingCollector]

I can speak as 'insider' on this topic, as much as I am able to.

You're fully correct. In EU the court can impose active or passive measures of monitoring against a possible criminal in a lawful investigation. The same way the court would allow snoops to wiretap somebody decades ago, or enter his home to place a bug.

The bugs today are in the peripherals and if the target is high profile or high complexity to warrant active measures against them, the specialists will enter their premises and replace the peripherals with bugged ones. Keyboards are the prime target.

The FBI can do this in the US. It's called the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) act. Newspeak at it's finest.

 

[Zare]

Yeah but as far as I understand PATRIOT is/was controversial due to enabling extra-judicial measures that agencies could use against a wide array of people. In EU they are under civil laws and if you find yourself under measure, there is a reasonable doubt or proof that court has in possession, which is the basis to get a Lawful Interception act. Every piece of data extracted by that intrusion of court in your private life must be coupled with an ID generated by the court, must come out of 'attested' interception systems. As with any court evidence, the validity of gathering and management of the bare evidence is susceptible to checks and balances, and criminal's attorney can bring down the entire case if any of the digital evidence wasn't caught correctly.

 

[Crivens]

Is this hypothetical or verified?

There was a talk about that some years ago on the CCC congress. I would need to dig trough the archives. Maybe it was the "to protect and infect" ones, if not those then most likely that year. But those two will give you pause to thibk what was done years ago, and what is being done today

 

[blackbird9]

Apparantly high definition optical mouse can be used as a microphone!

How your mouse could eavesdrop and rat you out

: Mic-E-Mouse can roar by literally vibe hacking speech

www.theregister.com

It struck me after reading that, if they can record voice, they can record keyboard sounds too. Which reminded me of this:-

The sound of you typing on your keyboard could reveal your password

Researchers have found a way to guess passwords from keyboard sounds recorded by a smartphone with 95% accuracy.

www.malwarebytes.com

Not that I'm paraoid...

 

[Espionage724]

Apparantly high definition optical mouse can be used as a microphone!

How your mouse could eavesdrop and rat you out

: Mic-E-Mouse can roar by literally vibe hacking speech

www.theregister.com

It struck me after reading that, if they can record voice, they can record keyboard sounds too. Which reminded me of this:-

The sound of you typing on your keyboard could reveal your password

Researchers have found a way to guess passwords from keyboard sounds recorded by a smartphone with 95% accuracy.

www.malwarebytes.com

Not that I'm paraoind...

While I don't need a security reason to want to use an old Microsoft InteliMouse Optical 1.1A (confident it doesn't have the DPI or Hz for voice), that's a cool reason too; and I'd like to see different keys somehow deciphered from a Model M

Older tech is more secure

 

[blackbird9]

Well, I guess they can't record sound from a thinkpad trackpoint... ?