[117976] in Cypherpunks
Re: Emissions Security Requirements?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Stewart)
Thu Sep 16 23:50:25 1999
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990916185602.009d0690@idiom.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 18:56:02 -0700
To: Adam Shostack <adam@zks.net>
From: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>
Cc: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
In-Reply-To: <19990915164454.C4864@zks.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Reply-To: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>
Are you trying to do this for a very small number of boxes at ZKS HQ,
or a medium number of boxes (at Freedom node ISPs)
or a large number of boxes (users)?
Very Small is easy - you can get TEMPEST enclosures and filters
that you can stick regular computers in, and use fiber optic LAN connections.
Medium is the interesting case; Large is impractical.
Emissions levels are dependent on distance from other things
(e.g. from that black van parked out front.)
Back when I ran a TEMPEST-shielded lab, the game was much easier.
Vaxen are big and clunky so you knew you had to use them in a shielded room,
rather than trying to get certified low-emission versions,
and their clock frequencies were only a few MHz, so there was basically
not much energy at 450 MHz, much less the 10 GHz or so you need to get
short really penetrating wavelengths (though our 450MHz test meter
would peg if there were surprisingly small leaks.)
Nowadays, 450 MHz is Last Year's $1000 PC, and there's probably
a lot more RF.
Low-emission PCs of a few years later basically had slightly heavy cases with
tight fittings and shielded cables, heavy monitors, and keyboards
that were much heavier than today's wimpy plastic ones.
Good grounding is your friend.
At 04:44 PM 9/15/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Has anyone ever written a set of requirements docs for emissions
>security (TEMPEST)? Are you able to discuss them?
>
>I'm currently doing security requirements for the Zero Knowledge PKI,
>and handling EMSEC made the top level requirements, now I need to get
>specific as to (at least) levels of attenuation and frequencies that
>we're concerned about.
Thanks!
Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639
