J. G. Sandom ~ Author

4o4 — Millions of wireless keyboards are vulnerable to new KeySniffer attack!

This is a frightening development. Looks like all those wireless keyboards out there are vulnerable to KeySniffer! Time to upgrade. This hacking vulnerability and many others are explored in great depth in my latest novel, 4o4 - A John Decker Thriller, about the surveillance state, recently listed as a Top Ten Amazon Bestseller in Technothrillers. For more on this story, visit Gizmodo.

Millions of Wireless Keyboards Can Let Hackers See What You're Typing 

by Darren Orf

A newly discovered set of wireless keyboard vulnerabilities can let hackers take over your keyboard and secretly record what you type. It’s called KeySniffer, and it spells death for millions of wireless, radio-based keyboards.

According to security researchers at Bastille, the so-called KeySniffer vulnerability affects wireless keyboards that use a less secure, radio-based communication protocol rather than a Bluetooth connection. The affected keyboards come from eight different hardware makers and use transceiver chips or non-Bluetooth chips. These chips are cheaper than Bluetooth chips, but they also don’t receive Bluetooth’s frequent security updates. That’s a problem.

KeySniffer in action.

After researcher Marc Newlin reverse engineered these keyboards’ physical layer packets, he saw that the information being transmitted was unencrypted. This means someone within a several hundred yard radius and a $30 to $40 radio dongle (which you can buy on Amazon) could secretly see everything you type, including passwords, credit card numbers, and weird porn search terms.

Although KeySniffer isn’t the first wireless vulnerability ever discovered, it’s certainly one of the biggest. Previous vulnerabilities include weak encryption issues with a keyboard made specifically by Microsoft. These affected keyboards, many of them low-cost wireless keyboards, are in use in millions private homes, business, and government facilities. Here’s how a similar vulnerability called KeySweeper works. It’s terrifying:

Bastille says it hoped that hacks like last year’s KeySweeper would have been a “wake up call” regarding non-Bluetooth keyboards. Clearly, that’s not the case. Here are the eight manufacturers that KeySniffer is known to affect:

• Anker
• EagleTec
• General Electric
• Hewlett-Packard
• Insignia
• Kensington
• Radio Shack
• Toshiba

Bastille, which also uncovered a frightening peripheral hack this past February, built a dedicated website for the new KeySweeper threat. There you can find out if this set of vulnerabilities affects the exact make and model of your keyboard.

Unfortunately, there is no way to retroactively add security features to these keyboards, so you’ll just have to swap out with a more secure one. You might want to try one with a wire, or at the very least, Bluetooth.

dEATH in dAVOS

dEATH in dAVOS is available from Cornucopia Press.

Dexter meets Gossip Girl meets Kill Bill

 

A teen serial killer gets herself invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on the surface because of an app she's developed, though in reality to take out nefarious billionaires who've committed unspeakable crimes but whose great wealth and power insulates them from prosecution and punishment...but not from young Robin Beauvais.

 

Seventeen-year-old wunderkind Robin Beauvais is a teen dream. She’s earned a scholarship at one of the most prestigious prep schools in the nation. She’s a world-class biathlete. She’s a brilliant hacker and YouTube personality interviewing the rich and famous about tech. In fact, Robin’s just won a trip to Davos, Switzerland, to give a presentation at the World Economic Forum.

While in Davos, billionaires start dropping like golden flies. Robin gets caught up in the investigation after being in the wrong place at the wrong time on more than one occasion. In the midst of global economic giants, celebrities and hangers-on, Robin has to use all of her skills and faculties to make sure she doesn't end up becoming a permanent guest of the Swiss government . . . in jail.

As the Swiss Inspector working the case narrows down suspects, Robin is also narrowing down her list: a list of powerful men with terrible secrets and hideous lies . . . lies that Robin plans to get to the bottom of once and for all. And as Robin makes her list and checks it twice, the bodies continue to pile up.

If Robin were capable of empathy, she might feel sorry for the dead. If Robin were capable of feeling sorrow, she might fear the consequences. And if Robin were capable of fearing the consequences, she might not be a teen serial killer. Davos is an opportunity to die for . . . and Robin's out to make sure at least a few people do.

As Robin herself says, “When it comes to class warfare, as far as I’m concerned, there’s far too much class and not enough warfare.”

Check out the book trailer, below.

To purchase your copy @ Amazon, click here. [Possible Cast Ideas: Kiersey Nicolle Clemons; Nathalie Emmanuel.]

dEATH in dAVOS — My New Novel is Finally Available from Cornucopia Press

I'm thrilled to announce that my latest novel, dEATH in dAVOS, is finally available from Cornucopia Press.

“Dexter” meets “Gossip Girl” meets “Kill Bill”

A teen serial killer named Robin Beauvais gets herself invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, ostensibly because of an app she’s developed, though in reality to take out nefarious billionaires who have committed unspeakable crimes but whose great wealth insulates them from prosecution and punishment.

Get Your Revenge on the Billionaire Class Vicariously through Robin Beauvais,
the teen serial killer anti-hero of the controversial new YA novel, dEATH in dAVOS

Says Robin, “When it comes to class warfare, as far as I’m concerned, there’s far too much class and not enough warfare.”

To get your copy of dEATH in dAVOS @ Amazon, click here.