Can home users be monitored realtime?

[Loren Booda]

As I use my new cable Internet service, can an outsider possibly scrutinize my screen realtime?

 

[chroot]

Your screen? No. Your network traffic? Very possibly.

- Warren

 

[light_bulb]

not in realtime but with some latency, one of the vnc's would do the job.

 

[chroot]

not in realtime but with some latency, one of the vnc's would do the job.

Only if you're dumb enough to be running a VNC server, with no permissions.

- Warren

 

[light_bulb]

no but if you let someone use your computer and didn't notice you could have an rdp session running, one of many possibility's when people get sneaky

 

[light_bulb]

btw i can't afford mu foil so i actually tried to shield the yoke and gunplexer with aluminum foil for my ghetto tempest protection but forgot why they don't do that, the monitor started arcing and making lightning noises lol.

rofl, I'm going to leave that the way it is haha, i ment rgb gun assembly.

 

[BoredNL]

As I use my new cable Internet service, can an outsider possibly scrutinize my screen realtime?

Do you want someone to or are you concerned someone might break into your computer and watch what you are doing from the internet?

There are possibilities of both, which is why you should have a good firewall, such as http://www.zonealarm.com/store/cont...lm/freeDownload.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en", running to help prevent hackers and trojans (virus-like software that allows hackers to take over your computer very easily) from allowing undesired access. Btw, you can use the "basic Zone Alarm firewall" and it will be just as good as the "Pro" version as a firewall, but will be free.

Now, if you DO want to allow someone to watch your screen, then you would use what is called a "VNC" (Virtual Network Computing) program such as http://www.tightvnc.org/" . You have to make sure you get one that is compatible with your operating system though. I don't know if TightVNC will work on Windos Vista. I definitely suggest that you put a password to the VNC server though if that's what you're doing.

Well, I hope this helps clarify things for you.

 

[NoTime]

As I use my new cable Internet service, can an outsider possibly scrutinize my screen realtime?

Not sure what cable has to do with this?
VNC would do it, but...

If you have a CRT (TV or Computer) then the claim is yes.
It is said to be possible to remotely read display EM emissions.
I don't know if they can use the same methods for LCD.
But in addition to pure EM methods I've heard about, I found this
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/emsec/optical-faq.html

Your ISP can always tell what you are doing with their link.
Not to mention someone with a packet sniffer.

 

[Loren Booda]

Somewhere in my office I saw a screen with "ghost" cursor movement and typing which imitated those of a remote unit. Now I find it scary that someone would relish my multiple typos and stunted hunt-and-pecking.

 

[BoredNL]

Somewhere in my office I saw a screen with "ghost" cursor movement and typing which imitated those of a remote unit. Now I find it scary that someone would relish my multiple typos and stunted hunt-and-pecking.

lol. It sounds like either a VNC server is set up or the computer is infected with a back door trojan that is allowing someone else to remote control the computer. These things have been around for years now. I used to use backdoor trojans to gain entry into my friend's computers when I was younger. I recommend a full virus scan and the use of installation a good firewall.

 

[Loren Booda]

Merely management checking up on employees. "Big Bother."

 

[BoredNL]

lol, nice.

I would be a pain in the butt then.. When I'd go on break, I'd start a key stroke simulator on my computer that loops a large text file with a bunch of nonsense sentences over and over.. slowly..

 

[int_80]

As I use my new cable Internet service, can an outsider possibly scrutinize my screen realtime?

Yes they could, through either; your computer being infected with a trojan, or like the person said a vnc server running. Having a vnc server running on your computer can be an involuntary event you know! The metasploit framework has a 'vnc DLL inject' payload which can be used against you through just browsing a page (using either a currently known exploit or a 0day one), or having exploitable services open to the internet.

http://www.metasploit.com/projects/Framework/docs/userguide/node52.html

One of the first DLL injection payloads developed was a customized VNC server. This server was written by Matt Miller and based on the RealVNC source code. Additional modifications were made to allow the server to work with exploited, non-interactive network services. This payload allows you to immediately access the desktop of an exploited system using almost any Win32 exploit. The DLL is loaded into the remote process using any of the staged loader systems, started up as a new thread in the exploited process, and the listens for VNC client requests on the same socket used to load the DLL. The Framework simply listens on a local socket for a VNC client and proxies data across the payload connection to the server.

The VNC server will attempt to obtain full access to the current interactive desktop. If the first attempt fails, it will call RevertToSelf() and then try the attempt again. If it still fails to obtain full access to this desktop, it will fall back to a read-only mode. In read-only mode, the Framework user can view the contents of the desktop, but not interact with it. If full access was obtained, the VNC server will spawn a command shell on the desktop with the privileges of the exploited service. This is useful in situations where an unprivileged user is on the interactive desktop, but the exploited service is running with System privileges.

 

[q3snt]

If you have a CRT (TV or Computer) then the claim is yes.
It is said to be possible to remotely read display EM emissions.

That stuff is ridiculous, I saw this hilarious scare piece on tv about that one time, they were trying to make it look like this was a credible threat to people's privacy, they had this guy on a crt screen computer sitting right near an open window in an "office" on the 1st floor of a building located on a busy street. Then they put this huge antenna right up next to the window, and they had this guy in a van who was able to pick up a blurry replica of the image on the screen of the computer, it was hilarious because the antenna was less than 10 ft from the computer, and directly in view of the person on the computer.

 

[Jordan`]

Yeah good old MetaSploit was what I was going to say. A MS 0day vulnerability/exploit or an unpatched system and it could be done easily, when the cursor flaw came out for all Windows systems I gave it a test and it works really well.

 

[Chris Hillman]

Van Eck/TEMPEST

As I use my new cable Internet service, can an outsider possibly scrutinize my screen realtime?

Try googling on "van Eck radiation" or "TEMPEST". The latter properly refers to a particular project but has become a general term for a technique which has been used in espionage (for example, I have read that at least one large aircraft manufacturer has used this successfully to steal information from a competitor). See for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPEST Despite the silly "demonstration" someone mentioned, this technique is said to be highly effective at ranges of a hundred yards (with a few thousand dollars worth of equipment). Furthermore, I am told that it is not hard to concoct a much more impressive demonstration even with jury-rigged off-the-shelf equipment.

Make of this what you will!

 

[Anttech]

As I use my new cable Internet service, can an outsider possibly scrutinize my screen realtime?

By shoulder surfing..