BY: NICK DOWNER TEMPEST EMISSIONS

OVERVIEW What are tempest emissions? Detecting tempest emissions Security concerns How to protect against leakage

WHAT IS TEMPEST? “TEMPEST is the name of a technology involving the monitoring (and shielding) of devices that emit electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in a manner that can be used to reconstruct intelligible data.” -sans reading room

WHAT ARE LEAKAGES OR “EMANATIONS” Every electronic device gives off some type of electromagnetic signal, or “emanations” A proper design will limit these emanations but there will always be some level of leakage Like crosstalk on phone lines Examples Shaver Radio’s from cellphones Hard Drives (like a fingerprint)

THE EARLY YEARS OF TEMPEST The name TEMPEST has no definite meaning… Early government code word Telecommunications Electronics Material Protected from Emancipating Spurious Transmissions Transient Electromagnetic Pulse Emanation STandard Also referred to as “Van Eck Phreaking” after the Dutch scientist Wim can Eck

THE EARLY PROOF Wim can Eck demonstrated that he could easily pick up nearby computer monitor emissions and display them on a TV monitor Used a normal TV receiver made suitable for the purpose of capturing the emissions Was able to display video from a computer monitor on a separate TV monitor May be feasible up to 1km

THE EARLY PROOF In his 1986 book, Peter Wright explains how MI5 spied on messages sent by the French during England’s negotiations to join the European Economic Community (EEG) They were interested in what the French thought of England entering the EEG MI5 tried to break the French diplomatic cypher but failed However, they noticed the encipher traffic carried a faint secondary signal, and constructed equipment to recover it It turned out to be plaintext

DETECTING TEMPEST TEMPEST eavesdropping reconstructs the electromagnetic signals put off by electronics Equipment needed Sensitive receivers are used which can capture a wide range of frequencies Software to turn the raw findings into the original data Problems that can occur Can contain other EMR/interference from outside sources

TEMPEST TESTING EQUIPMENT Codex Data Systems Produces a device called D.I.R.T (Data Interception by Remote Transmission) The army buys the $20,000 units but the company agreed to a Pentagon request to halt sales to anyone else Allows stealth monitoring of all activity on one or more target computers No physical access is necessary

IMPACTS OF TEMPEST Loss of Integrity Confidentiality Availability Reduces effectiveness of encryption Can mirror screen

TEMPEST STANDARDS National Communications Security Committee Directive 4 sets TEMPEST standards Very costly and classified Private sector started ZONE More cost effective but less secure 3 categories 1 is extremely secure and only available to US government 2 is somewhat less secure but still requires US government approval to use 3 is for general commercial use

HOW TO PROTECT Covering the device/cabling in a faraday cage Buy a TEMPEST certified computer Purchase equipment that meets modern standards for emission Use only shielded cable for all system interconnections Keep cable runs as short as possible Encrypt all information being sent and received from the device

TEMPEST….FACT OR FICTION James Atkinson a telecommunications engineer, president of Granite Island Group has worked with TEMPEST for 20 years Claims TEMPEST is not a spying technology and anyone who says it is is misinformed or lying Claims todays PC’s are shielded to prevent leakage and disturbing other connections Says taking a peek at someone else's computer screen from a distance is possible, but its very difficult to do, costly, and often impractical

MORE EVIDENCE Wayne Madsen from the Electronic Privacy Information Center claims Todays computers are unlike that of the old cathode-ray tube days They’re more ruggedized and heavily shielded so these emissions are a lot harder to pick up/detect TEMPEST isn’t as big of a problem as it once was, but engineers hype the problem

EVIDENCE John Young a New York architect says he often designs TEMPEST security features into buildings for law firms and banks He has an interest in tempest and has filed several freedom of information requests with the US government to declassify NSA documents dealing with TEMPEST.

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN? There is debate among professionals as to the severity of TEMPEST emanations Not much is known since most TEMPEST material is classified by the government

SO WHAT CAN WE DO Use common sense with encryption Keep cable runs short Buy highly insulated cables

QUESTIONS? Any Questions?

RESOURCES vacy/introduction-tempest_ empest.html releases-se/