COMPANIES that have spent a small fortune trying to thwart hackers now face a completely new security threat. It’s called optical hacking.
Computer scientists at Cambridge University say plain text on a computer screen can now be read at a distance simply by capturing the diffuse glow from the screen. And it works even if the light has bounced off walls and passed through curtains.
Markus Kuhn of the university’s computer lab will explain how optical hacking works at an IEEE security conference in Oakland, California, in May. And he’ll tell delegates why it could be every bit as effective as snooping on stray radio signals…
