Internet security HA HA HA this will help protect you :)

[Anthea]

British and American intelligence agents attempting to hack the "dark web" are being deliberately undermined by colleagues, it has been alleged.

Spies from both countries have been working on finding flaws in Tor, a popular way of anonymously accessing "hidden" sites.

But the team behind Tor says other spies are tipping them off, allowing them to quickly fix any vulnerabilities.

The agencies declined to comment.

The allegations were made in an interview given to the BBC by Andrew Lewman, who is responsible for all the Tor Project's operations.

He said leaks had come from both the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the US National Security Agency (NSA).

By fixing these flaws, the project can protect users' anonymity, he said.

"There are plenty of people in both organisations who can anonymously leak data to us to say - maybe you should look here, maybe you should look at this to fix this," he said. "And they have."

Mr Lewman is part of a team of software engineers responsible for the Tor Browser - software designed to prevent it being possible to trace users' internet activity. The programs involved also offer access to otherwise hard-to-reach websites, some of which are used for illegal purposes.

The dark web, as it is known, has been used by paedophiles to share child abuse imagery, while online drug marketplaces are also hosted on the hidden sites.

Mr Lewman said that his organisation received tips from security agency sources on "probably [a] monthly" basis about bugs and design issues that potentially could compromise the service.

However, he acknowledged that because of the way the Tor Project received such information, he could not prove who had sent it.

"It's a hunch," he said. "Obviously we are not going to ask for any details.

"You have to think about the type of people who would be able to do this and have the expertise and time to read Tor source code from scratch for hours, for weeks, for months, and find and elucidate these super-subtle bugs or other things that they probably don't get to see in most commercial software.

"And the fact that we take a completely anonymous bug report allows them to report to us safely."

He added that he had been told by William Binney, a former NSA official turned whistleblower, that one reason NSA workers might have leaked such information was because many were "upset that they are spying on Americans".

In response, a spokesman from the NSA public affairs office said: "We have nothing for you on this one."

A spokesman for GCHQ said: "It is long-standing policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters. Furthermore, all of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework, which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate."

The BBC understands, however, that GCHQ does attempt to monitor a range of anonymisation services to identify and track down suspects involved in the online sexual exploitation of children, among other crimes.

The reporter Glenn Greenwald has also published several articles, based on documents released by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, alleging that both agencies have attempted to crack Tor as part of efforts to prevent terrorism.

A security expert who has done consultancy work for GCHQ said he was amazed by Mr Lewman's allegation, but added that it was not "beyond the bounds of possibility.

"It's not surprising that agencies all over the world will be looking for weaknesses in Tor," said Alan Woodward.

"But the fact that people might then be leaking that to the Tor Project so that it can undo it would be really very serious.

"So if that is happening, then those organisations are going to take this very seriously."

Illegal activity

Tor was originally designed by the US Naval Research Laboratory, and continues to receive funding from the US State Department.

It is used by the military, activists, businesses and others to keep communications confidential and aid free speech.

But it has also been used to organise the sale of illegal drugs, host malware, run money laundering services, and traffic images of child abuse and other illegal pornography.

Mr Lewman said that his organisation provided advice to law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the UK Serious Crime Agency (Soca), to help them understand how Tor worked in order to aid their investigations.

But he criticised cyberspies who carried out orders to undermine Tor's protections.

"We are around 30 people in total, and think of the NSA or GCHQ with their tens of thousands of employees and billions of pounds of budget," he said.

"The odds there are obviously in their favour.

"It's sort of funny because it also came out that GCHQ heavily relies on Tor working to be able to do a lot of their operations.

"So you can imagine one part of GCHQ is trying to break Tor, the other part is trying to make sure it's not broken because they're relying on it to do their work.

"So it's typical within governments, or even within large agencies, that you have two halves of the same coin going after different parts of Tor. Some protect it, some to try to attack it."



He added that the Tor browser had been downloaded 150 million times in the past year, and that it currently supported about 2.5 million users a day.

"Hundreds of millions of people are now relying on Tor," Mr Lewman said, "in some cases in life-and-death situations. And that's what we pay attention to.

"We would be very sad if anyone was arrested, tortured and killed because of some software bug or because of some design decision we made that put them at risk."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28886462

[Anthea]

Remember Tor may be accessed via Tails live distro

You should

NOT

Install Tor on your computer



Tails is a live operating system, that you can start on almost any computer from a DVD, USB stick, or SD card. It aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity, and helps you to:

use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship;
all connections to the Internet are forced to go through the Tor network;
leave no trace on the computer you are using unless you ask it explicitly;
use state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt your files, emails and instant messaging.

[Anthea]

Cyborg Unplug Won’t Allow Drones Or Google Glass To Connect To Wi-Fi Networks



Technology has rapidly progressed over the past few years and consequently the debate about privacy has heated up. For example, those who preach wearable devices would find no fault with Google Glass, but privacy activists might point out how easy Google’s wearable device makes it to take someone’s picture or record video without their knowledge. Same goes for quadcopters or “drones” that are already causing headaches for many people. A new device will be available soon that will allow people to have a bit of fun with these gadgets.

The device is called Cyborg Unplug. One simply needs to stick it in a power plug and wait when Cyborg Unplug sounds an alarm as it detects devices like Google Glass, drones, or devices with hidden cameras or microphones. Not only does it sound an alarm when such devices are detected, it can even barr them from connecting to the user’s Wi-Fi network.

Cyborg Unplug also has a feature that might not be legal. It has an “All Out Mode” which will prevent these devices from connecting to any Wi-Fi network in its range. Even the person behind Cyborg Unplug advises potential customers against using the mode as its legality can be called into question.

Julian Oliver came up with Cyborg Unplug. What it does is detect devices and block them based on MAC addresses. Oliver initially wrote code that allowed people to kick Google Glass off Wi-Fi networks, the idea ultimately took the form of this device. There’s one important distinction to be made here. Even though the device doesn’t allow such gadgets to connect to Wi-Fi networks, it can’t stop them from saving photos or recorded video to the local storage. Cyborg Unplug will soon go on sale for up to $100.

[Anthea]

Shodan - your friend - your ememy



Locate ANY device that's connected to the Internet

Shodan is the world's first computer search engine that lets you search the Internet for computers.

Find devices based on city, country, latitude/longitude, hostname, operating system and IP.

Check out Shodan Exploits if you want to search for known vulnerabilities and exploits. It lets you search across Exploit DB, Metasploit, CVE, OSVDB and Packetstorm with one simple interface.

Shodan pinpoints shoddy industrial controls.

It greatly lowers the technical bar needed to canvas the Internet...

'Shodan for Penetration Testers' presented at DEF CON 18

It's a reminder to many to know what's on your network...

Shodan is the Google for hackers.

Shodan vereinfacht die Suche nach SCADA-Systeme erheblich...

Firmen öffnen Stuxnet und Co. selbst die Tür.

Computerangriffe werden einfacher. Zumindest für die Nutzer von Shodan.

http://www.shodanhq.com/

[Anthea]

The DC22 torrent flood rolls on!

First up for your next leech 'n seed, we have the video for all the Wireless Village talks. That's three days worth of talks about subjects like Software Defined Radio, Bluetooth and yes, the Pineapple. Get on it, and you could have a significantly higher Wi-Q by Monday.

Wifi Village Talks at DEF CON 22 - Torrent Torrent Icon

https://www.defcon.org/index.html

[Anthea]

Imagine you are connected to public wireless network and want to check some admin panel that does not support HTTPS. Then you are in trouble and you need some simple trick to do the job. In this case you can create SSH tunnel to remote host and traffic to this host will be encrypted and there is nothing to worry about. Your real connection goes over SSH tunnel and its purpose is to allow traffic to pass securely through that tunnel to a remote host.

SSH tunneling is very handy in following situations:

– Accessing sensitive web resources via encrypted channel;
– Bypassing ISP/Corporate network restrictions. For example you can bypass some ports or hosts.

http://www.howopensource.com/2014/10/cr ... ion-putty/

[Anthea]

Anonabox

A Kickstarter project called “Anonabox” offers a tiny Tor router for anonymous
Internet use running OpenWRT Linux on a MediaTek MT7620n WiFi chipset.

Tiny $51 Tor router runs OpenWRT Linux

The Anonabox is a “completely open source and open hardware” networking device that provides anonymous Internet access and encryption, says Chico, Calif.-based project leader August Germar on the Anonabox Kickstarter page. The device has already blasted past Germar’s $7,500 funding goal, which was intended to “help us move out of our garage, into full production.” With the $340,000 the Anonabox has garnered so far, Germar should be able to afford some nicer digs, indeed.

The $45 early bird round has already been spoken for, but you can still get the device for $51 through Nov. 11. A $99 version offers the Anonabox preconfigured “with the SSID of your choice.”


Anonabox connections: WAN (left), LAN, and power

The Anonabox is a hardware router implementation of the open source Tor networking server. Tor was originally developed by the U.S. Navy, but is now widely used by journalists, dissidents, and others attempting to cover up their cyber-trail. It works by generating a complex network of virtual tunnels that hides one’s IP address.



While Tor devices such as Pogoplug’s $49 Safeplug are designed primarily for anonymizing one’s web browsing sessions and hiding identity and physical location, the Anonabox can also bypass filtering systems designed to censor Internet content, say the developers. In fact, the device was inspired in part by the Arab Spring protests, and is aimed primarily at dissidents and others who want to communicate anonymously and bypass censorship in places where access to the Internet is limited.

With the Anonabox, all traffic coming out of or going into one’s computer or network is encrypted with Tor. The device is said to be free from the back-doors and security flaws common to other commercially available routers. The Anonabox “hides your location, as well as all the other personal data that leaks through ordinary Internet use,” says the Anonabox team. A default firewall configuration is said to protect one’s computer or network from outside access.


See how small this router is

Unlike software implementations of Tor, typically via a modified version of Firefox called the Tor browser bundle, or Vidalia, the Anonabox hides all computer data from prying eyes, not just web activity, says the Anonabox team. “As more people use the Tor network, more people accidentally reveal information about themselves by using the software incorrectly, or by simultaneously running other software that compromises their security,” say the developers.

The Anonabox also allows lets you use programs over Tor that never supported it before or required complex configuration, such as Skype, Safari, and Filezilla, say the developers. There are no downloads, configuration procedures, login credentials, or registration.

The 2.4 x 1.6 x 0.5-inch Anonabox is small enough to be sent through the mail, and to be easily concealed. Two of them can fit inside a cigarette pack.

The device runs OpenWRT on a MediaTek MT7620n chipset clocked at 580MHz. The MT7620n is one of the MIPS-based WiFi connectivity chips associated with MediaTek’s acquisition of Ralink.



The device is further equipped with 64MB of RAM, 16MB of flash ROM, 802.11n, and both a LAN and WAN port. A micro-USB port serves the 5v @ 2A power supply. OpenWRT Linux source code for the Apache-licensed gizmo has already been posted on the Anonabox website.

Specifications listed for the Anonabox include:

Processor — MediaTek MT7620n (1x MIPS 24KEc core @ 580MHz) with 2.4GHz 802.11n and 5p FE switch
Memory — 64MB RAM; 16MB flash
Wireless:
802.11n @ 2.4Ghz
150Mbps max. speed
WEP, WPA, and WPA2 personal and enterprise; RADIUS security
Networking — 10/100Mbps LAN port; 10/100Mbps WAN port
Power — 5v @ 2A via micro-USB port
Operating temperature — 0 to 55°C
Weight — 26.8 g
Dimensions — 2.4 x 1.6 x 0.5 inches
Operating system — OpenWRT Linux with Tor server

The Anonabox is available on Kickstarter through Nov. 11, starting at $51, and will ship in January. More information may be found at the Anonabox Kickstarter page and at the Anonabox website.

http://www.torouter.com/home.php

[Anthea]

phpBB [video]

[Anthea]

How to verify the authenticity and integrity of a downloaded file on Linux

When you download a file (e.g., an installer, an ISO image, or a compressed archive) from the web, the file can be corrupted under a variety of error conditions, e.g., due to transmission errors on the wire, interrupted download, faulty storage hardware, file system errors, etc. Such failure cases aside, a file can also be deliberately tampered with by determined attackers during or before download. For example, an attacker with a compromised certificate authority could mount a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack, tricking you into downloading a malware-ridden file from a bogus HTTPS website.

To protect yourself against these kinds of problems, it is often recommended that you verify the authenticity and integrity of a file when you download it from the web. Especially when you downloaded rather sensitive files (e.g., OS images, application binaries, executable installers, etc), blindly trusting downloaded files is not a good habit.

One quick and easy way to verify the integrity of a downloaded file is to use various checksum tools (e.g., md5sum, sha256sum, cksum) to compute and compare checksums (e.g., MD5, SHA or CRC). However, checksums are vulnerable to collision attacks, and also cannot be used to verify the authenticity (i.e., owner) of a file.

If you would like to verify both authenticity (owner) and integrity (content) of a downloaded file, you need to rely on cryptographic signatures instead. In this tutorial, I am going to describe how to check file authenticity and integrity by using GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard).

In this example, I am going to verify a disk image file available for download from https://onionshare.org. In this website, the publisher offers their official public key, as well as its fingerprint for key verification purpose.



As for a file to download, the publisher offers its corresponding PGP signature as well.



Install GnuPG and Generate a Key Pair

Let's start by installing GnuPG on your Linux system.

On Debian, Ubuntu, and other Debian-derivatives:

To see how it is done please follow the link:

http://xmodulo.com/verify-authenticity- ... -file.html

Anthea: with the ever increasing risk of cyber attacks we all have to take
extra procautions to protect our identities - our information - our contacts

[Anthea]

Leave No Trace Online or Offline with the Tails 1.2 Linux-Based OS

Tails, or The Amnesic Incognito Live System, is a Linux distribution that has a single purpose, to protect its users from prying eyes and to insure total anonymity, whether online or offline.

Tails is, above all else, a Linux distribution and is based on Debian. It shares some of the characteristics of the Linux base, but it integrates a unique collection of applications that are available for users who want to remain anonymous.

For this purpose, the OS has cryptographic tools that allow people to encrypt anything, ranging from files and folders to simple email messages, users don't leave any sort of trace on the computer that is running this OS, and all the network traffic is routed through the Tor network, making it hard (if not impossible) to track the data.

This latest iteration of Tails doesn't have a lot of new features, but the developers have made some important modifications to the system, especially in regard to some of the packages, like the Internet browser.

Tails 1.2 is available for download

A very interesting aspect is that the developers are not known. They work together for this project, but no one really knows who they are. This helps keep the project clean and no one can really point any fingers if someone were to look for them.

"It is a complete operating system designed to be used from a DVD, USB stick, or SD card independently of the computer's original operating system. It is Free Software and based on Debian GNU/Linux. Tails comes with several built-in applications pre-configured with security in mind: web browser, instant messaging client, email client, office suite, image and sound editor, etc."

"Using Tails on a computer doesn't alter or depend on the operating system installed on it. So you can use it in the same way on your computer, a friend's or one at your local library. After shutting down Tails, the computer can start again on its usual operating system," say the devs.

One of the most important changes in Tails 1.2 is the replacement of the Iceweasel Internet browser with Tor Browser, which is based on the latest 4.0 release and Firefox 31.2 ESR. Also, all the applications are now confined with Apparmor, the Linux kernel has been updated to version 3.16.5-1, and VirtualBox guest additions should now work by default, improving the performance of the OS in a virtual machine.

Link to more info and FREE download:

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/O ... 7487.shtml

[Anthea]

How to encrypt files and directories with eCryptFS on Linux

Last updated on October 27, 2014 Authored by Christopher Valerio

You do not have to be a criminal or work for the CIA to use encryption. You simply don't want anybody to spy on your financial data, family pictures, unpublished manuscripts, or secret notes where you have jotted down startup ideas which you think can make you super rich.

I have heard people telling me "I'm not important enough to be spied on" or "I don't hide anything to care about." Well, my opinion is that even if I don't have anything to hide, or I can publish a picture of my kids with my dog, I have the right to not do it and want to protect my privacy.

Types of Encryption

We have largely two different ways to encrypt files and directories. One method is filesystem-level encryption, where only certain files or directories (e.g., /home/alice) are encrypted selectively. To me, this is a perfect way to start. You don't need to re-install everything to enable or test encryption. Filesystem-level encryption has some disadvantages, though. For example, many modern applications cache (part of) files in unencrypted portions of your hard drive, such as swap partition, /tmp and /var folders, which can result in privacy leaks.

The other way is so-called full-disk encryption, which means that the entire disk is encrypted (possibly except for a master boot record). Full disk encryption works at the physical disk level; every bit written to the disk is encrypted, and anything read from the disk is automatically decrypted on the fly. This will prevent any potential unauthorized access to unencrypted data, and ensure that everything in the entire filesystem is encrypted, including swap partition or any temporarily cached data.

Available Encryption Tools

There are several options to implement encryption in Linux. In this tutorial, I am going to describe one option: eCryptFS a user-space cryptographic filesystem tool. For your reference, here is a roundup of available Linux encryption tools.

Filesystem-level encryption

EncFS: one of the easiest ways to try encryption. EncFS works as a FUSE-based pseudo filesystem, so you just create an encrypted folder and mount it to a folder to work with.
eCryptFS: a POSIX compliant cryptographic filesystem, eCryptFS works in the same way as EncFS, so you have to mount it.

Full-disk encryption

Loop-AES: the oldest disk encryption method. It is really fast and works on old system (e.g., kernel 2.0 branch).
DMCrypt: the most common disk encryption scheme supported by the modern Linux kernel.
CipherShed: an open-source fork of the discontinued TrueCrypt disk encryption program.

Basics of eCryptFS

eCryptFS is a FUSE-based user-space cryptographic filesystem, which has been available in the Linux kernel since 2.6.19 (as ecryptfs module). An eCryptFS-encrypted pseudo filesystem is mounted on top of your current filesystem. It works perfectly on EXT filesystem family and others like JFS, XFS, ReiserFS, Btrfs, even NFS/CIFS shares. Ubuntu uses eCryptFS as its default method to encrypt home directory, and so does ChromeOS. Underneath it, eCryptFS uses AES algorithm by default, but it supports others algorithms, such as blowfish, des3, cast5, cast6. You will be able to choose among them in case you create a manual setup of eCryptFS.

Like I said, Ubuntu lets us choose whether to encrypt our/home directory during installation. Well, this is the easiest way to use eCryptFS.

Anthea: Mint also allows us to encrypt our/home directory during installation

Link to Full Article and Easy to Follow Instrustions:

http://xmodulo.com/encrypt-files-direct ... linux.html

[Anthea]

The easiest way is to get or force the mobile phone carrier to provide unencrypted access to a mobile switching center.

At this point identifying and interperting packets and the data the cary is exactly equivenlent to using a packet sniffing tool like wireshark. Given the limitations of cellphones and smartphones it is easier to identify the applications generating data traffic.

Recognition of plain text words or phrases is trivial and a monitoring for target words or phrases is likely.

It is also possible to intercept Voice over IP data traffic and perform a speach to text conversion, although this would be significantly more complicated and take a fair amount of resources.

Wireshark

Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer. It lets you see what's happening on your network at a microscopic level. It is the de facto (and often de jure) standard across many industries and educational institutions.

Features

Wireshark has a rich feature set which includes the following:

Deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, with more being added all the time
Live capture and offline analysis
Standard three-pane packet browser
Multi-platform: Runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and many others
Captured network data can be browsed via a GUI, or via the TTY-mode TShark utility
The most powerful display filters in the industry
Rich VoIP analysis
Read/write many different capture file formats: tcpdump (libpcap), Pcap NG, Catapult DCT2000, Cisco Secure IDS iplog, Microsoft Network Monitor, Network General Sniffer® (compressed and uncompressed), Sniffer® Pro, and NetXray®, Network Instruments Observer, NetScreen snoop, Novell LANalyzer, RADCOM WAN/LAN Analyzer, Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor, Tektronix K12xx, Visual Networks Visual UpTime, WildPackets EtherPeek/TokenPeek/AiroPeek, and many others
Capture files compressed with gzip can be decompressed on the fly
Live data can be read from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP/HDLC, ATM, Bluetooth, USB, Token Ring, Frame Relay, FDDI, and others (depending on your platform)
Decryption support for many protocols, including IPsec, ISAKMP, Kerberos, SNMPv3, SSL/TLS, WEP, and WPA/WPA2
Coloring rules can be applied to the packet list for quick, intuitive analysis
Output can be exported to XML, PostScript®, CSV, or plain text

https://www.wireshark.org/about.html

[Anthea]

Remember:

DO NOT TAKE YOU PHONE WTH YOU TO MEETINGS



viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15665

STAY SAFE - STAY FREE - TRUST NO-ONE

[Anthea]

International Business Times

A Computer Science Professor Found A Way To Identify Most 'Anonymous' Tor Users
By Dylan Love

Tor was supposed to be an anonymous means of browsing the Internet, but a study by computer science professor Sambuddho Chakravarty reveals that 81 percent of those using Tor can be de-anonymized by exploiting a technology in Cisco routers called Netflow. The exploit reveals a user's originating IP address, which is analogous to identifying someone's home address even though he or she uses a P.O. Box.

By facilitating anonymity online, Tor enables people around the world to communicate securely and get around firewalls that might block certain sites in their countries. It's also the technology that facilitated the notorious Silk Road (and subsequent iterations), seeing people trade Bitcoins for assorted black market paraphernalia through the mail. The non-profit project enables freedom of press around the world and, for at least a time, presented a means to mail-order drugs.

The Tor browser works by way of decentralization. Your web traffic doesn't come directly to you, but instead arrives by way of a number of relays. Each relay makes it increasingly difficult to identify the traffic's ultimate destination, shielding you from being associated with it. The trade-off is one of speed for purported anonymity, but this Netflow exploit is only the latest in a few incidents that seem to be punching holes in the browser's popular conception as a bulletproof security fiend.

"That general understanding is wrong," said Kevin Johnson, CEO of independent security consulting firm SecureIdeas. "Tor runs on top of a complex series of interconnections between apps and the underlying network. To expect that everything in that system is going to understand and respect it, it becomes very complex."

Consider Web traffic as though it were regular automobile traffic flowing down a highway. To assume that all Web traffic will follow Tor's anonymizing "rules" is akin to assuming that every car on the highway follows all the traffic regulations, but "as we know by looking at any news report, a number of people have accidents every day," said Johnson. "The exact same thing happens with Tor. It’s a highway system with an application that says 'go this way,' and we expect all of our apps to follow those signs."

Johnson says that Cisco's Netflow, which sits at the heart of the exploit that can deanonymize these Tor users, is comparable to the Department of Transportation's analytics on a given stretch of road. Instead of identifying the types of traffic — 15 percent motorcycles, 25 percent sedans, 40 percent semi trucks, and so on — Netflow can break down Internet traffic into its various types, say 50 percent email, 35 percent Web traffic, and the remainder being Tor. Chakravarty's technique for exploiting Netflow works by injecting a repeating traffic pattern, such as the common HTML files that most Tor users are likely to be accessing, into the connection and then checking the router’s flow records to check for a match. If it is, then the user is no longer anonymous.

"When you’re looking at those kind of attacks, they're done by government state agencies, usually foreign governments suppresing protestors or tracking dissidents. It's harder to do in America because there's so much other traffic," said Jayson Street, who bears the job title of Infosec Ranger at security assessment firm Pwnie Express.

The takeaway is clear: Tor used by itself is hardly some one-stop shop to ensure anonymity online. "End users don’t know how to properly configure it — they think it’s a silver bullet," said Street. "They think once they use this tool, they don’t have to take other precautions. It's another reminder to users that nothing is 100 percent secure. If you're trying to stay protected online, you have to layer your defenses."

http://www.ibtimes.com/computer-science ... rs-1724964

Anthea: Always use proxy servers

[Anthea]

Bloomberg

Hackers Can Steal Data Wirelessly From PCs That Aren't Even Online
By Gwen Ackerman

When governments, utilities and corporations need to protect their most sensitive data, they create what's called an air-gap network. It involves storing information on computers that are never connected to the Internet, an extreme method of isolation designed to prevent any chance of data leaking out.

Air-gap networks were once considered the "magic bullet" for securing data, but researchers from Ben-Gurion University in Israel have found a way to compromise those machines. Once a computer is infected with a particular kind of virus, hackers can trick the PC into relaying information that can be wirelessly retrieved from a mobile phone located outside of the room.

Anthea: I always keep at least one computer that is NEVER connected to the internet

The technology won't be used to steal something as innocuous as your Gmail password. This is some Mission Impossible stuff that a cyber-espionage gang or state-sponsored hacker might use to access extremely valuable secrets.

“The scenario is that you go to a secure facility and leave your cell phone at the entrance,” said Dudu Mimran, chief technology officer at Ben-Gurion's cybersecurity labs. "The virus will send the data to your phone."

Computerized medical equipment, military defense and critical infrastructure systems are usually isolated from the Internet. The university's findings have ignited a discussion within cybersecurity circles about the effectiveness of air-gap networks. Since the lab published its findings, its web site and YouTube video got more than 100,000 views combined, according to the university. Not bad for university research on a highly technical topic.

The researchers are now working on ways to mitigate the effects of such a breach. They say they have yet to find a way to protect against the attack other than to store equipment in special metal enclosures or to build walls thick enough to scramble radio frequencies and block the transmission.

Even with paper-thin walls, the heist wouldn't be simple to pull off. Before you can siphon data out, you'd need to somehow get the virus onto the computer. That would probably involve getting a person with physical access to the hardware to, knowingly or unknowingly, plug in an infected USB stick. The malware can reprogram the PC's graphics card to transmit signals over the display cable that can be picked up by a nearby mobile device. The signals are sent over an FM radio frequency, which many modern phones are capable of receiving.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-1 ... nline.html