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My professor that thinks a computer can be hacked through the power cable. True? - Page 2

post #21 of 26
4/30/07 at 6:54pm
If your professor is waxing theoreticals, then sure. Almost anything is possible if you have the right set of circumstances.

Heck, if your power supply had a weird transformer, and you could modulate the frequency and voltage, it might generate a low level transmission compatible with wireless, Bluetooth, etc, etc.

Of course, why not just light surge the power supply, force them to get it fixed, then gain physical access to the system then?
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post #22 of 26
4/30/07 at 7:57pm
Someone watched "The Recruit" and took the "ICE 9" virus a bit too seriously.

The only theoretical "hacking" that could be done over a power line is destructive - hack the local grid to send a surge to *disable* computer - and all other electronic - equipment.

Also, yes - it's also *possible* to use harmonics and EM on the same frequencies as wireless ethernet or bluetooth - but it's going to be noticed, and anyplace guarding their data enough is going to have their computers in no-reception zones. It also might be a reason Langley and Fort Meade operate on their own grids, not just for redundancy's sake. You're also going to be hard-pressed to get a solid connection *using* said medium, let alone sending complex instructions across it. Keep in mind a single break in a program structure will result in a runtime error, so anything transmitted would have to be infinitesmally small in size.
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post #23 of 26
5/3/07 at 10:08pm
To put the best possible spin on this, perhaps by saying something that on the surface seems somewhat possible, but is actually complete nonsense, he is challenging you to think logically? Or at least just think?

If you're learning about computers, they're not supposed to be magical block boxes that just do stuff. You need to think about what is happening with a computers circuits, and what goes on inside the computer chips and power supply. If a computer is just plugged into the wall, but there is no connection to a modem, is there a path for data to travel on? How do you know? What is actually coming out of the wall socket when you plug into it? How is it structured and delivered to the outlet? What actually goes on inside a power supply? How does the power get to the motherboard? What protections might be designed into the power supply and/or the motherboard to prevent fluctuations in the power supplied to the computer from affecting the CPU and it's calculations?

Just telling you the answers will not help you nearly as much as you looking them up for yourself.
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post #24 of 26
5/4/07 at 2:44am
People fantasized about hacking thru power lines in movies back in the 90's. The fact that your computer power supply is a transformer prevents any signal sent thru AC current from surviving the chnage the DC current. Once the power has been converted, cleaned, and regulated... not to mention all the noise filters on the motherboard along the way... would make it impossible to upload any kind of readable command into your system.

You are more likely to hack a system by using stronger radio waves directed at a machine to cause the HD to write specific data to a drive or atleast cause the machine to crash. A single sideband antenna on a CB cranking anything above 300watts can turn on a light bulb across the street, so eradiated power focused at an electronic item would seem like a more feasible method of attack than a power line that has about 50 obstacles to hurdle to be able to carry an identical sine wave of data from one end to the other successfully.
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post #25 of 26
5/4/07 at 5:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobzchemist
Just telling you the answers will not help you nearly as much as you looking them up for yourself.
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post #26 of 26
5/4/07 at 9:03pm
y think he's a nutcase, and for for the powering up after disconnecting, well most of us hae proven that our e1705 wouldn't last an hour with the geforce drawing full power on the battery so i don't think (yeah rigth) it can be powered using a 3.3v battery and capacitors as some said earlier LMAO
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