[4509] in WWW Security List Archive
Re: ERM Surveillance Information
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ammon)
Wed Feb 19 18:11:55 1997
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 15:25:12 -0600
To: www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
From: Ammon <ammon@ikx.org>
In-Reply-To: <199702190422.UAA15281@checfs1>
Errors-To: owner-www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
At 08:22 PM 2/18/97 -0800, you wrote:
> > From: Matthew Petteys <matt@arcticmail.com>
> >
> > Does anyone have any information on a device that can be used to monitor
> > the electro-magnetic radiation that a computer monitor emits.
>
>Poke around in computer security on Yahoo for a while and you'll find
>a company based in NYC (I think) that claims to be able to do this.
>Personally, I doubt that it's possible in any significant sense.
>
>I asked a friend who's been with Merdan Group for 20+ years about this
>once. He was as vague as he usually is about things that might be work
>related, or might have been at sometime in the past, or might be at
>sometime in the future, but the general gist seemed to be that it wasn't
>worth worrying about with modern computers and monitors.
>
>It'd be fairly easy to check, really. The first thing of interest is,
>under ideal conditions, how far away can you detect that the thing's
>turned on and drawing on the screen? [If detectable emissions exist at
>all, they'll come from the monitor.] Then you ask the same question
>when looking through walls, with a number of monitors in the room, and
>the fluorescent lights on, etc, etc. Good luck.
>
Yes, this does exist, and I believe is titled under the TEMPEST program.
Basically, all computer monitors emit specific ammounts of radiation, which
have been detected up to 100 yards away. Obviously, there would be
background radiation, but the idea is serious enough to warrant a large
discussion in several of the DoD's rainbow books, and coverage in many
respectible security journals.
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