Re: NSA coughs up secret TEMPEST specs ... posted on Cryptome

[solaar () hushmail com]

Hi Michael,
I'm sorry you felt the subject header was a tease and that the information 
on Cryptome wasn't what you expected. I'm sure that if the Tempest tech 
specs are ever released Cryptomr will be the first to post them. As for 
the headline, I was relaying an article from the Register and as such just 
fowarding it on, I must admit I've seen this before on list, but from now 
on I'll make it much more precise. Also, I am in no way, shape or form a 
part of  Cryptome, so please don't refer to it as my site. As for my name,
 I usually do sign it, this morning I forgot. 
Mea culpa ... 
solaar (aka elyn)
 


        

At Thu, 11 Jan 2001 11:22:20 -0600, "Michael Sorbera" <msorbera () rbfcu org> 
wrote:

> Solaar,
> I commend your efforts to obtain and post information like this on the 
> web.
> My one suggestion is that you not play the headline game, but be truthful
> about what is really on the document.  Your write-up here lead me to 
> believe
> that there is actually some real *meat* about how to protect/keep our 
> equip
> emanations quiet.  Once I read the actual referenced document on your 
> site
> (http://cryptome.org/nstissi-7000.htm), I found that not to be true.
> The -7000.htm document might seem a little juicy to the untrained eye,
> but
> is nothing more than the document saying what measures would be taken 
> where
> and when.  It doesn't say how to do them.  No one will now know how 
> to
> actually do something to make their computer emanations less from reading
> the article, and that's what you lead us to believe by your narrative 
> below.
> Bottom line, when you post stuff on this newsgroup, be factual, keep 
> the
> headline garbage for the tabloids, and we all also sign our names to 
> what we
> post.
>
> Later,
> Michael Sorbera
> Ex. TEMPEST inspector
> "In the land of the clueless, he who has half a clue is King!"
> and, to quote Sid Ismail, "Remember, amateurs built the Ark, professionals
> built the Titanic!"
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <solaar () hushmail com>
> To: <firewall-wizards () nfr com>
> Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 6:46 AM
> Subject: [fw-wiz] NSA coughs up secret TEMPEST specs ... posted on Cryptome
>
>
> > NSA coughs up secret TEMPEST specs
> >
> > http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/15743.html
> >
> > The first of several documents related to the US government's TEMPEST
> programme,
> >  obtained by Cryptome.org's John Young under a Freedom of Information 
> Act
> > (FOIA) request, have been posted on his Web site. His original request 
> was
> > denied, but the persistent Young sought an appeal of that decision,
> which
> > was recently granted in his favour.
> >
> > No one is quite sure what TEMPEST stands for (some say it's an acronym
> for:
> > Telecommunications Electronics Material Protected From Emanating Spurious
> > Transmissions". Others say it is a nothing more than a code word),
> but
> what
> > it means is quite simple: electromagnetic and acoustic signals which 
> can
> > be remotely detected and interpreted by a spy.
> >
> > We live in a veritable ocean of electromagnetic radiation, produced 
> by
> every
> > gizmo we use at home and at work. They all produce signals; and believe
> > it or not, our input to the devices, and their output, create modulations
> > which can be 'read'.
> >
> > The video signals leaking from your monitor change as you type using 
> a
> text
> > editor or word processor. It is (just barely) possible to capture 
> the
> signals
> > and correlate these changes with the actual text, enabling a spy to 
> read
> > over your shoulder, so to speak.
> >
> > Practically speaking, reading the signals from a person's monitor 
> is no
> > longer feasible, as they are now well shielded due to health paranoia. 
> But
> > then, modems are a notoriously loud class of item, from which the 
> 'noise'
> > can easily be overheard and reconstructed. So are speaker phones,
> intercoms,
> >  outdated CRT monitors, much R&D equipment, you name it. They're all 
> loud
> > enough to be monitored without the physical implantation of any bugging
> > device.
> >
> > Electrical wiring and telephone lines can transmit such signals by
> conduction;
> > walls can vibrate subtly, as can pipes, beams, ducts, and the like. 
> The
> > only fix is to silence the equipment, or to actively distort its signal
> > emanations.
> >
> > The NSA's concern, obviously, is any government equipment which process
> > national security information in plain text. Hence its TEMPEST programme,
> >  which explains how to shield equipment and buildings against such
> exploitation.
> > And now, thanks to Young, we will all soon be able to figure out how 
> to
> > make our electronic equipment as quiet as the government's. This could 
> be
> > quite useful to academic and corporate researchers, whose activities 
> are
> > of sufficient value to make them targets of TEMPEST-style exploitation.
> >
> > It will also offer great comfort to the many paranoid boneheads whose 
> egos
> > dispose them to imagine that their deluded rants are of interest to
> national
> > security operators. Many a blissful hour may now be spent pulling 
> down
> walls
> > and ceilings and ripping the guts out of suspect computers, televisions,
> >  telephones, stereos, microwave ovens, clocks and radios.
> >
> > Hey, if it keeps them off the streets, we're all for it.