IP: New Scientist Article on Do-it-yourself Evesdropping

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.2+CL 2/24/98
> To: martin.minow () thinklinkinc com
> cc: cypherpunks () toad com, cryptography () c2 net, risks () csl sri com
> Subject: Re: New Scientist Article on Do-it-yourself Evesdropping
> X-URL: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/
> Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 19:56:22 +0000
> From: Markus Kuhn <Markus.Kuhn () cl cam ac uk>
>
>
> Martin Minow wrote on 1999-11-08 17:43 UTC:
> > <http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19991106/newsstory6.html>
> >
> > "SOFTWARE that allows a computer to receive radio signals could make
> > spying on other computers all too simple, according to two scientists 
> at the
> > University of Cambridge. Such are the dangers that they are patenting
> > countermeasures that computer manufacturers can take to foil any
> > electronic eavesdroppers. "
>
> This New Scientist article refers to some work that we have been doing
> here over a year ago and which was published already as
>
>   Markus G. Kuhn, Ross J. Anderson: Soft Tempest: Hidden Data Transmission
>   Using Electromagnetic Emanations, in David Aucsmith (Ed.): Information
>   Hiding, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1525, Springer-Verlag,
>   ISBN 3-540-65386-4, pp. 124-142.
>   http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ih98-tempest.pdf
>
> The New Scientist just stumbled last week across a related patent
> application that was recently finally published after the usual 18
> months. Read the above paper if you are interested in the full story.
>
> If you are interested in the sort of equipment on which I was quoted and
> what I consider to be an appropriate platform for production-grade
> compromising emanations attacks (automatic character recognition from
> VDU signals, utilization of data-dependent emissions of firewall systems
> for cryptanalysis, etc.), then have a look at for instance
>
>   http://www.tm.agilent.com/tmo/datasheets/English/HPE3238S.html
>
> and its components: an 8-MHz wideband tuner covering 2-2600 MHz, a 20
> MHz and 21 bit A/D converter, followed by an array of powerful DSPs that
> can do various processing steps and turn the digitized IF signal
> directly into your output. That plus suitable software and a set of good
> antennas and coupling probes is roughly what I would expect to find in
> the better versions of the unmarked spook van in the neighborhood.
> Turning equipment like this into a GSM phone, GPS receiver, TV set, or
> specialized compromising emanations receiver is just a matter of what
> software you load into it. At the moment, lab setups of such flexible
> "software radios" still cost in the > £20000 range. However, the
> technology is moving quickly and has the potential to enter the mass
> market in the next few years, probably at first via it's use in
> multi-mode reprogrammable cellular base stations.
>
> With prices for suitable components for software radios (especiall the
> ADC and DSP section) dropping with Moore's law, we can look forward to
> home amateur priced software radios that will allow us to build
> sophisticated Tempest DSP experiments which are today only in the reach
> of military research labs. Though it will not become "child's play" - as
> the New Scientists reporter wrote in the above article - sophisticated
> EM snooping technology might very well come into the reach of the
> advanced information security hobbyist or the determined criminal in the
> next 5-10 years. The field will certainly remain interesting, any if you
> study information security, it might not be unwise to add a
> high-frequency electronics and DSP course to your curriculum today.
>
> Markus
>
> --
> Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK
> Email: mkuhn at acm.org,  WWW: <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/>

_____________________________________________________________________
David Farber
The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems
University of Pennsylvania
Home Page: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~farber
Email: farber () cis upenn edu

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