Microsoft’s wireless keyboards cracked

The swiss based company Dreamlab Technologies has shown that it is possible to capture and decrypt keystrokes, meaning that user names, passwords, bank details or confidential correspondence can be very easily eavesdropped.  According to their Press Release they found a way to sniff the data traffic between Microsoft’s wireless keyboards and their base stations, which communicate with each other on the 27 MHz band.  The devices use a simple XOR mechanism for encryption and the keys are only one byte long.

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