Just like every other
thing, whatever that has advantage also has disadvantage. It turns out that
even something as seemingly benign as your mouse can put your personal
information at risk. That’s according to a report by security firm Bastille, which says that hackers
could in theory take control of your computer through its wireless peripherals.
Yahoo Tech reports that the hack, which the company
calls MouseJack, affects nearly every wireless mouse and keyboard on the market
and could give hackers complete access to your personal computer or to the
network at your office.
 |
| Photo Credit: Yahoo Tech |
The hack isn’t exactly sophisticated either.
According to Bastille, all a would-be hacker needs is about $15 worth of
computer hardware, which he could then use to send commands from his computer
to yours.
The hack works because while your wireless keyboard
sends information in encrypted form to your computer’s wireless dongle (so
hackers can’t see what you’re typing), your mouse doesn’t.
As a result, hackers can send signals designed to
perform keyboard commands to your dongle. Those signals can then be used to
hijack your system.
“Wireless mice and keyboards are the most common
accessories for PCs today, and we have found a way to take over billions of
them,” said Marc Newlin, Bastille’s engineer responsible for the MouseJack
discovery, in a statement.
So how do you protect yourself? Well, some wireless
mouse and keyboard manufacturers developed their devices so they can be patched
via firmware updates. Other companies’ offerings, however, can’t be updated and
will simply have to be replaced.
Fortunately, Bastille has published a list of the
impacted hardware, as well as information about how some peripherals
companies have responded to the hack.
Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment