posted Jan 25th 2009 8:13pm by Eliot Phillips
filed under: security hacks, wireless hacks
tempest
TEMPEST is the covername used by the NSA and other agencies to talk
about emissions from computing machinery that can divulge what the
equipment is processing. We've covered a few projects in the past that
specifically intercept EM radiation. TEMPEST for Eliza can transmit via
AM using a CRT monitor, and just last Fall a group showed how to monitor
USB keyboards remotely. Through the Freedom of Information Act, an
interesting article from 1972 has been released. TEMPEST: A Signal
Problem (PDF) covers the early history of how this phenomenon was
discovered. Uncovered by Bell Labs in WWII, it affected a piece of
encryption gear they were supplying to the military. The plaintext could
be read over that air and also by monitoring spikes on the powerlines.
Their new, heavily shielded and line filtered version of the device was
rejected by the military who simply told commanders to monitor a 100
feet around their post to prevent eavesdropping. It's an interesting
read and also covers acoustic monitoring. This is just the US history of
TEMPEST though, but from the anecdotes it sounds like their enemies were
not just keeping pace but were also better informed.
Go there...
Don
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