Even with the most advanced security software available on the market, with the newest hacking tool soon to be presented to the public, you can never be too sure.

Scientists at Tel Aviv University and research center Technion have come up with the Portable Instrument for Trace Acquisition or PITA. Deriving its name from the pita bread, which it takes after in terms of size and form factor, the device is the newest terrifyingly invasive development in the field of information hacking.

The PITA is a tool that allows hackers to obtain encrypted information such as security keys straight from your laptop. While technologies such as these have existed for a long time, these tools often intercepted local networks, Wireless connections or Bluetooth connectivity in order to gain information.

This device does not use any of these networks. Instead, it utilizes radio waves that all computers emit to obtain the encrypted data. Its small size allows a hacker to hide it basically anywhere - perhaps even to a high-security meeting. It is a gadget straight out of a spy movie - except it actually exists.

What is even more terrifying is that it is extremely cheap. Each PITA only costs about $300 and uses parts that are readily available on the market. Given the low cost of producing each one, it is likely that the device will be easy and cheap to buy if it is mass-produced.

According to BGR, the development team behind the device is planning to present it in its full state at the Workshop on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems in September - an event it is likely to be the star of.

The team says that the nature of the device will make it almost impossible to stop its functions - barring expensive equipment or advanced algorithmic techniques. For the average Joe, there are very few solutions. In the team's accompanying research paper "Stealing Keys from PCs using a Radio: Cheap Electromagnetic Attacks on Windowed Exponentiation" they described the difficulty of obtaining a proper countermeasure.

"Physical mitigation techniques of electromagnetic radiation include Faraday cages. However, inexpensive protection of consumer-grade PCs appears difficult," the researchers said. Another possible alternative they proposed was using algorithmic techniques to render the information that the hacker receives becomes muddled and less useful - however, these techniques come with penalties on those being attacked and require you to be aware that you are being hacked at the time.