A method to steal PC data isolated from the net from "electric wire" appeared

byAsh Edmonds

As a security method for preventing data from being stolen from a computer, isolate the computer itself without connecting it to the Internet or a local networkAir gap (physical interruption)there is. It seems to be safe because the air gaped computer is not connected to the network, but what "It is possible to steal data of air gapped computer from fluctuation of electric current transmitted through electric wireResearch papers claiming that "is published.

Hacker Can Steal Data from Air-Gapped Computers through Power Lines
https://thehackernews.com/2018/04/hacking-airgap-computers.html

(PDF file) PowerHammer: Exfiltrating Data from Air-Gapped Computers through Power Lines
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1804.04014.pdf

The way to steal data from air-gapped computers has beenheatYaUltrasonic waveThere was pointed out a method of hacking using such as. Meanwhile, a research team at the Negev-Ben-Glion university in Israel announced "Power Hammering", a method of stealing computer data that was air-gapped from fluctuations in current traveling through wires. Power hammering is a hacking method that uses malware to control the CPU usage of a computer, convert the data to binary format of 0 or 1, and transmit information to the outside by fluctuating current like Morse code.


In this way, it is necessary to attach a device that constantly monitors the current somewhere and decode it from the detected current fluctuation into data. For hacking by current operation, the research team says that there are two ways of "power line hammering" which attaches decryption equipment to electric wires in the building, "phase level hammering" to be attached to the distribution board .


In fact, when the research team conducted an experiment to steal data by power line hammering, data was acquired at 1000 bits per second from a PC equipped with an Intel Haswell generation CPU, at 100 bits per second from a server equipped with Inter Xeon E 5-2620 , And there was almost no error in the contents of the data read in either case.

Also, when we performed experiments by phase level hammering, we succeeded in reading the data in the PC at the maximum speed of 3 bits per second at the latest. In the distribution board that connects equipment with phase level hammering, it shares electricity with lights, air conditioners, other PCs and so on, and the speed will inevitably drop compared with power line hammering. "In phase level hammering, only researching small data such as passwords and encryption keys can be stolen," the research team insists.

byRob Glover