One of the sessions I attended yesterday involved the vulnerability of cordless mice. To hackers vulnerability means that there is a way that the device can be used or controlled by a person who has no right to mess with it. For instance if you have an electric outlet on the outside of your house anyone with a plug can use your power without your permission. If you had a phone jack on your back porch someone could come into your yard with a plug in phone and make calls. You are vulnerable.
Wireless mice have that little gizmo that you plug into the USB port on your computer. It is designed to receive the signals from the mouse you bought with it. Evidently there is a simple way for a hacker to send a signal through that gizmo and make the computer think you are typing on the keyboard. Think of the fun you could have in a classroom with teachers that leave their computers on all the time.
I don’t understand the tech. I am not a geek but my son and I have begun to make it a habit to pull the gizmo out when we are not using our laptops. We have over 30,000 hackers and wanna be hackers at this convention and the odds are that some deviant person is trying the tricks that were shared.
Be alert. They are out to get you.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.