Giving Away Crypto Keys for $230

We all know that 256-bit AES is pretty near uncrackable when we throw lots of CPU power at it. In fact, we could turn on all the computers in the world, and let them run for a billion years, and we still wouldn’t be able to brute force it. But … it gives away its secrets for just $230 [here]:

The setup from researchers at Fox-IT and Riscure monitors the radiation from a processor and guesses the 256-bit key used within a few minutes:

The method used is known as Van Eck phreaking.

The equipment used includes: an antenna; an external amplifier; bandpass filters; and a software-defined radio receiver USB stick:

The research team think that the method could be used against standard mobile phones too, with the detection of the EM waves achieved at 30cm and for a 50 second scan.

Crypto leaks

The security community has produced some wonderful encryption algorithms, which are ultra secure, but eventually, all the bits end up in…