Hackers Can Use The Heat From Your Fingertips To Steal Your Money

The secret codes typed in by banking customers can be recorded using the residual heat left behind on the keypad, says a group of researchers from the University of California at San Diego.

The group’s paper, presented earlier this month at the USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies, shows that a digital infrared camera can read the digits of a customer’s PIN number on the keypad more than 80 percent of the time if used immediately. And if the camera is used a minute later, says Keaton Mowery, a doctoral student in computer science at UCSD, it can still detect the correct digits about half the time.

The camera they used costs $18,000 so not any old Joe will be doing this, but still….. LifeFiles