[4538] in WWW Security List Archive
Re: ERM Surveillance Information
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Laverty)
Thu Feb 20 16:30:18 1997
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 13:27:19 -0500
To: billj@i2020.net (Bill Joynt)
From: Jim Laverty <laverty@adra.com>
Cc: <jwp@checfs1.ucsd.edu>, <www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu>
Errors-To: owner-www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
What you are looking for is Tempest equipment.
At 09:28 PM 2/19/97 -0500, Bill Joynt wrote:
>I've heard some about this. Apparently first developed by the military,
>then copied by a company. Apparently the moniter emmisions carry up to a
>block (one report said picked up by cables/wires). The company claimed to
>have a working model, and were able to eavesdrop on computers from
>financial institutions to government.
>
>Shielded moniters are available, I believe, although expensive. Doesn't
>sound like a practical threat yet, but I have talked to a few people who
>are fairly good authorities that say it definitely exists.
>
>Just my two cents.
>Bill Joynt
>
>----------
>> From: jwp@checfs1.ucsd.edu
>> To: www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
>> Subject: Re: ERM Surveillance Information
>> Date: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 11:22 PM
>>
>> > 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.
>
>
