"Jim Watt" <jimwatt@aol.no_way> wrote in message
news:ulcvj154hccagjqj7b08g24g0k9af1ju8r@4ax.com...
> On 1 Oct 2005 19:36:15 -0700, "Theo" <theo@keyghost.com> wrote:
>
> >Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
>
> What a stupid idea, its hardly a covert device.
>
> Having alerted us about what to look for, there is no need for
> future product anouncements to this newsgroup - or spam as
> some might say.

Actually, Jim, it's not that simple.

The BBC news report I saw used a USB device (Theo, take note) shoved around
the back of a machine. When dealing with somewhere like a trading floor,
with all machines shoved under the desk, you get pretty much limitless
access to what's being typed on a particular box.

Being USB, it's something that a cleaner can insert in full view of CCTV
without averting suspicion.

I suspect the new version is based on the relatively new MicroChip USB PIC
library. One of the early demos was a serial keyboard reader; shouldn't take
a genius to combine the two.

The trick is to either close the USB facility altogether (often impractical)
or simply kill the main ports in the BIOS. Any active USB can, of course, be
potentially also used for a diskey type of device.

H1K