A while back, an engineer friend was designing some data communications gear for the military. He was showing me the schematics and asking for my opinion on his design. My "day" job is in cybersecurity, but he farms out the occasional side project to me when he gets really busy.
I looked at the part of the circuit where he had a few LEDs. I asked about them, and he said that the client wanted some LEDs to show data activity. He just connected the LEDs through a buffer, directly to the transmit and receive data signals. I told him "wow, all someone needs to eavesdrop on the communications is a simple phototransistor". I went on "with a telephoto lens, it could even be done from a distance". That's when the oh, sh** moment hit him. I told him to at least put a one-shot device on the LED signal with long on-time. Engineers don't often think like an attacker.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
