Echelon › Developed by National Security Agency of USA. › A secret project to spy on people by tracing their messages. › To find out the terrorist activities across the globe. › The allies of USA in this project- UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. › Developed with the highest computing power connected through the satellites all over the world. › Sniffing of messages over a network or any transmission media, even wireless.

› Stands for “Transient Electro-Magnetic Pulse Emanation Standard”. › Main theory - Any electronic or electrical device emits electromagnetic radiations of specific key when it is operated. › Intercept electromagnetic waves over the air. › It even sniffs signals emanating from computer screens(range of few Kilometers). › Can detect keystrokes without network connection. INTRODUCTION (cont:)

Refers to the study of compromising emanation. Compromising Emanations(CE) are defined as unintentional intelligence-bearing signals. CE consist of electrical or acoustical energy unintentionally emitted by a source THE energy may relate to the original message, which leads to the recovery of plain text. Can propagate through space and near by conductors.

Sources of TEMPEST › Functional Sources: › Incidental Sources:. Propagation of TEMPEST Signals  Electromagnetic Radiation  Line Conduction  Fortuitous Conduction  Acoustics

 Uses the electromagnetic waves propagated from the electronic devices intentionally or unintentionally.  It traces all electromagnetic radiation from the victim’s monitor, keyboard, even pc memory and hard disk, and then it reproduces the signals.  Enables the intruder to hack without any connection to the victim’s computer.

Snooping in to a computer’s VDU > Video display units output their frame buffer content periodically > Use character recognition techniques to give a better SNR Snooping on CPUs  Execution of a known pattern of instructions  If signals caused by any instruction are lost in the noise, correlation techniques can be used.

 Protection from TEMPEST  TEMPEST testing and selection of appropriate devices  TEMPEST Fonts  TEMPEST Proof walls

An equipment or system tested is called equipment under test (EUT). An EUT can be visualized as an input/output box which receives an input signal and produces an output signal. The figure below shows this. Fig 2 Tempest Testing And Selection

 Because of design weaknesses, some unintentional signals may be generated in an EUT and emitted through space.  Such unintentional signals are the object of detection and measurement during TEMPEST tests.  Test types are of three, they are 1. Electric radiation test 2. Magnetic radiation test 3. Conduction test

 TEMPEST fonts are used for protecting the computers form the eavesdropper.  The software will filter that text and show that font as the most convenient way  The filtered text looks rather blurred and unpleasant in the magnified representation.  The loss in text quality is almost unnoticeable for the user at the computer screen

True text Filtered text The text on the left is displayed with a conventional font. Text on the right has been filtered to protect itself from interception. User can see practically no difference between the fonts Text disappears from the eavesdropping monitor Fig 3

o TEMPEST proof walls are developed for preventing from TEMPEST attacks. o These walls are specially designed for reflecting the electromagnetic waves back to the same room it self. o TEMPEST –Proof walls are the most effective one

 Satellite photography  Electromagnetic signals(SIGINT) of any kind are intercepted and analysed  Radar stations, may provide valuable information about the organisation of enemy air defences  Monitoring other states, spy satellites is also useful

On spot  Conversations: planted microphones (bugs) or laser equipment which picks up vibrations in window panes.  Screens emit radiation.  Telephone, fax, and messages can be intercepted if the eavesdropper taps into a cable leaving the relevant building.  Mobile phone can be intercepted if the interception station is situated in the same radio cell.

 AWACS aircraft are used for the purpose of locating other aircraft over long distances.  The slow-flying EP-3 spy plane used by the US Navy has the capability to intercept microwave and short-wave transmissions.  Submarines are used to intercept military radio transmissions.

 The satellites move in a complex elliptical orbit, to cover a larger area of the earth in one day.  The signals received are transmitted to the receiving station by means of a strongly- focused, 24GHz downlink.

 Use of Directories and Keywords.  Using the modern techniques for searching by use of the sophisticated speech recognition software and OCR software.  An echelon system can intercept about billions of messages every hour.

 KEYWORD - “ Sensitive Words” to find out the messages which carries the sensitive information.  DICTIONARIES - The database containing the keywords  Each of these station dictionaries is given codeword

 The Echelon system will not provide any privacy for our own people in home and abroad.  Every military secret is public to NSA and it’s allies, even though if we are hiding that from their eyes.  We have to ensure that these systems are protected from intrusion and if it occurs the result will be hazardous.

 Tempest is the technology for spying from electronic equipments with out any physical contact.  Echelon is the vast network formed by NSA and its allies all over the world to intercept the messages sent through any transmission media.  Nothing can be hidden from the these systems.  Unfortunately our India does not have a Tempest equipment developed and we are not a part of Echelon network developed by NSA  We have to develop one such for empowering our intelligence agencies and military agencies.

Thank you