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Boffins convert typing sounds into text with 95% accuracy (www.theregister.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

147 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Researchers in the UK claim to have translated the sound of laptop keystrokes into their corresponding letters with 95 percent accuracy in some cases.

That 95 percent figure was achieved with nothing but a nearby iPhone. Remote methods are just as dangerous: over Zoom, the accuracy of recorded keystrokes only dropped to 93 percent, while Skype calls were still 91.7 percent accurate.

In other words, this is a side channel attack with considerable accuracy, minimal technical requirements, and a ubiquitous data exfiltration point: Microphones, which are everywhere from our laptops, to our wrists, to the very rooms we work in.

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[–] FrankTheHealer 19 points 7 months ago (6 children)

Can we normalise good but quiet keyboards. Like, I like the tactile feel of using a mechanical, but I hate the sound. Quieter mechanical keyboards aren't a thing but they should be. Now as a security measure if nothing else.

Also Dvorak keyboards I guess

[–] Pinecone 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There are tons of quiet mechanical keyboards. I'm using a low profile optical switch that's quieter than my mouse clicks

[–] FrankTheHealer 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Are those optical switches expensive though?

[–] Pinecone 1 points 7 months ago

[–] VelociCatTurd 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There are definitely quiet tactile switches. The reason why they can still make sound is because they’re bottoming out which you don’t have to do.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

As a partial solution, you can put o-rings in the keycaps. I had some of the bands for braces laying around at one point and used those, and it worked fairly well.

[–] NAXLAB 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Dvorak is a cypher of Qwerty tho. Anything typed in Dvorak but transcribed as english can be reliably identified and decyphered

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I went out of my way to find a keyboard with Cherry MX Clear switches. They're basically a high-force tactile feel, but no clicky sound like MX Blue switches. I absolutely love them for typing, and I've been using them for years.

I'm not sure if there's newer options now for silent switches? I know they had a couple models with extra internal damping.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I used boba u4 silents on my custom keyboard. Absolutely love them. Wish they made a consumer-grade keyboard with them (or maybe they already do?) But I've been working on a MacBook recently and tbh the keyboard there is pretty good now. So next step for me is to build a low profile keyboard

[–] Garbanzo 4 points 7 months ago

normalise good but quiet keyboards

Oh man, if Topre became popular enough to bring the price down through scale that would be pretty rad

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Dvorak

vi tho.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

On my colemak keyboard I put arrow keys on another layer under where hjkl are on qwerty. Beyond that, most of the keys are remembered by mnemonic rather than position imo

[–] FrankTheHealer 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

That awkward moment when you use Nano

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Up against the wall

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I always uninstall nano the first time it shows itself