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Wireless mice are hackable up to a city block away

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wraith808:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-wireless-mouse-idUSKCN0WP21I
Wireless mice (but not bluetooth) are hackable up to 180 meters away from the home device.

What can hacking a mouse do?  (The first question that came to mind)

From the article:

Wireless mice from companies like HP, Lenovo, Amazon and Dell use unencrypted signals to communicate with computers.

"They haven't encrypted the mouse traffic, that makes it possible for the attacker to send unencrypted traffic to the dongle pretending to be a keyboard and have it result as keystrokes on your computer. This would be the same as if the attacker was sitting at your computer typing on the computer," said Newlin, a security researcher at Bastille. 

--- End quote ---

Alarming?  Alarmist?

MilesAhead:
I never used a wireless mouse/keyboard.  Don't they use IR?  If it is infrared then wouldn't the source(the hacker) have to be line of sight into the computer room?

Funny I haven't heard this mentioned before.  Unless it is the cause of those "I didn't change anything.  All of a sudden I cannot index my files" or whatever?

rgdot:
Most are radio frequency these days, up to 2.4GHz.

mwb1100:
Does any of this apply to wireless keyboards?

Given the state of the industry, I'd guess that there's a decent chance that many (non-bluetooth) wireless keyboards have similar design to these mice and are also unencrypted.  If that's the case then your passwords are probably readily readable if you use one of them.

*That* would be cause for some alarm.

hamradio:
Does any of this apply to wireless keyboards?

Given the state of the industry, I'd guess that there's a decent chance that many (non-bluetooth) wireless keyboards have similar design to these mice and are also unencrypted.  If that's the case then your passwords are probably readily readable if you use one of them.

*That* would be cause for some alarm.

-mwb1100 (March 28, 2016, 06:44 PM)
--- End quote ---

According to a certain 2009 pdf by logitech: Advanced_24_Unifying_FINAL070709.pdf

Not sure how much still applies today or if it has advanced further...

Part of Section 4
Computer keyboards process very private or sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, or personal messages. Since the range of an Advanced 2.4 GHz device may reach several tens of meters in an open environment, it is critical to take adequate measures to prevent eavesdropping. Advanced 2.4 GHz applies state-of-the-art encryption to the keyboard reports. Since the displacements of a mouse would not give any useful information to a hacker, the mouse reports are not encrypted.
--- End quote ---

My ... So to all the ones who buy a cheaper wireless keyboard is it worth investing in a better keyboard instead of a cheaper alternative if you do not know if it encrypts the data...
(I am not affiliated with any keyboard/mice company just my observation.)

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