Re: Mixmaster On A $20 Floppy?

[jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>]

At 03:50 PM 1/6/96 -0500, you wrote:

>>Someone can get one of those tiny devices that slips on the end of a  
>>keyboard connector and captures all the scan codes - you're better off  
>>bringing the whole computer (laptop) along with your floppy.  
>> 
> 
>First, I am not convinced that such devices exist in the real, practical
>world. They would require either storage hardware or radio transmitters,
>all in a package small enough to be undetectable to the naked eye. 

As a ham I can tell  you that such devices will ALMOST CERTAINLY exist, at least in arbitrarily small quantities against high-value, rare targets.  All that's needed is an VHF/UHF/microwave oscillator whose frequency is varied slightly in response to a change in control voltage (which in this case would be the data line voltage).   The antenna would be the data line itself.   Commercially, they are called VCO's (voltage controlled oscillator) or VCXO's (voltage controlled crystal oscillator).  Historically, many were/are built in packages the size of large oscillator modules, with pinouts compatible with 14-bit dips.  These are the dinosaurs of the current era.  More modern are surface-mount parts substantially smaller than a TO-92 transistor case. 

It is probably possible to put a VCO in an SOT-23 package, which is so small that unless your vision is good it's hard to see!  Embedding these in a custom, one-off cable for a black-bag job would be rather easy, even for an organization far less sophisticated than the NSA/CIA. Another option would be to make the thing look like a surface-mount resistor or capacitor, and replacing an existing bias/decoupling component in an existing keyboard product.  I think chances are very good that the NSA/CIA buys at least "one of" EVERYTHING sold (especially keyboards) to plan for just such jobs.

>Second, I do not think it practicable that the cosmic-nasties (of one's
>chosen social bias) could, in the real, practical world, run black-bag jobs
>on tens of thousands of surburban garages as a prophylactic measure against
>teenagers "playfully" setting up Mixmaster sites.

_THAT_ is probably true, given "tens of thousands."  But individual hardware can indeed be attacked.