Private Keys - are not private...

[JPage]

Oh uh! http://bgr.com/2015/07/08/hacking-tools-pita-encryption-keys-radio-waves/

Does this cheap easy to use device mean the end for bitcoin's encryption?

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[Kprawn]

Why would it be the end of bitcoin's encryption? They themselves said this " the cryptographic software can be changed, and algorithmic techniques employed to render the emanations less useful to the attacker. "

We do not live in a world were nothing changes... For every hack, people created a stronger counter measure was developed. This has been seen in the telecommunication system for years. Remember the first public telephone booths worked on physical coins.. then people got ways to phone for free {Coins on a string etc. etc.} They then converted the coin operated telephones to accept pre-loaded smart cards.. and so on.. and so on..

You get the picture... We know technology where money is involved, would be challenged, and we also know that the companies losing money, would come up with counter measures to stop them.    

[BayAreaCoins]

Oh uh! http://bgr.com/2015/07/08/hacking-tools-pita-encryption-keys-radio-waves/

Does this cheap easy to use device mean the end for bitcoin's encryption?

All your private keys are listed on Buttcoins.com too.

[Lauda]

Actually this isn't even a big deal, especially if your main wallet is at your home.
It clearly says:

up 19 inches away, the device can swipe RSA and ElGamal data and decrypt it.

Exactly how I someone going to get within 19 inches of your PC with this is beyond me. However, I'm more interested in how the device is supposed to decrypt it. According to the authors of this hacking tool, GnuPG is safe from this as they've helped implement some algorithmic techniques against it. This means that Bitcoin could implement something similar after the right amount of research.

[gogxmagog]

I've long had this picture in my head of criminals with data collectors like these pita things, driving around like the google maps car, stealing everyone's passwords. William Gibson stuff. But 19 inches kinda throws water on that.

It also says just a second or two. Like it's in your handbag as you stroll around the library...

You say the good guys are on it, adjusting the software and backend (?) but surely the industry isn't that quick. Who's getting breached? These pitas have been in the news for a while. Smoke but where's the fires? Do people even know what happened even after they got robbed?

You think there would be a big uptick in online fraud? Not necessarily BTC but all sorts of encryption protected stuff. Don't you think so?

[AGD]

This topic has been disussed here already: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1100545

[pawel7777]

The device, which is assembled using about $300 worth of parts that are widely available, is about the size of a piece of pita bread. Not by coincidence, the team is calling it PITA (Portable Instrument for Trace Acquisition).

Here’s how it works: the PITA consists of a bunch of off-the-shelf parts and it runs on four AA batteries. Using an antenna that can read electromagnetic waves emitted by computer processors from up to 19 inches away...

Just make sure there's no suspicious pita-bread sized device within 19 inches and you're safe.

[lucaspm98]

Honestly, there may be threats to bitcoins encryption at some point, but whatever this is does not seem to be threatening.

[Amph]

still this thing can't do shit against cold storage, were the majority of your coins should reside

nothing to worry about as usual

[Mowcore]

'bangs head against wall repeatedly'

[lemipawa]

The only reason they could do this was because of

a few carefully-crafted ciphertexts, and when these are decrypted by the target computer, they trigger the occurrence of specially-structured values inside the decryption software. These special values cause observable fluctuations in the electromagnetic field surrounding the laptop, in a way that depends on the pattern of key bits (specifically, the key-bits window in the exponentiation routine). The secret key can be deduced from these fluctuations, through signal processing and cryptanalysis.

So in order to exploit this, someone must be decrypting those specific ciphertexts, so it must be a targeted attack. Also, Bitcoin doesn't do encryption and decryption so this attack would not work with Bitcoin private keys.