🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2dpegi$t8t@jake.esu.edu> kender@esu.edu writes:

>Yes, it's called TEMPEST (or, is that the name of protection AGAINST such
>an attack?).  I've heard a bit about it, read some stuff on it, and gotten
>email from people who have seen videos of it in operation (as well as
>one from someone who accidently did it with a sony watchman!).

Way back when, there was a Dutch engineer named Van Eck who got a bee in
his bonnet about computer security.  He knew that computer monitors,
serial cables, keyboard cables, etc. spewed RF out into the aether with
abandon, and that anyone could detect these signals.  He proposed to
NATO HQ that they tighten up their security, and they ignored him.  In
order to drive his point home, he mounted a dish antenna in the back of
a van, hooked it to a regular TV, parked the van on the street in front
of NATO HQ, and happily read all sorts of information that people inside
the building were typing into their terminals.  *That* got NATO's
attention!

One result of this stunt was that the process of detecting the RF emissions
from computer terminals became known as "Van Eck Phreaking".  The other
result was TEMPEST, which is a construction standard that manufacturers
of electronic stuff must meet.  TEMPEST is nothing more than a way to
force manufacturers to do some rudimentary shielding of their devices
so as to cut down on RF emissions, and concerns stuff like making sure
that the cables are coax-like shielded and real high-tech stuff like
that.

Now, you, as Mr./Ms. Consumer, do not buy electronic items that have
*any* shielding in them.  So, yes, it is quite possible for your neighbor
to "Van Eck Phreak" what you are watching on TV, quite easy for your
local cable TV provider to tell also, almost guarenteed that your radio/
TV/stereo will be hosed by radio phones and CBs and garage-door openers
and dimmer switches.  The lack of shielding in consumer electronics is
why we can buy VCRs for $125.  The trade-off is that they have that
little FCC notice on them that says (roughly) "This device must not
interfere with anything else, and must accept interference from
everything".

---Bill VanHorne