Re: E-BOMB

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: Darren Reed <darrenr () reed wattle id au>

In some email I received from InfoSec News, sie wrote:
> Forwarded from: Russell Coker <russell () coker com au>
>
> On Fri, 21 Sep 2001 09:39, you wrote:
> > http://popularmechanics.com/science/military/2001/9/e-bomb/print.phtml
> >
> > BY JIM WILSON
> > September 2001
> >
> > In the blink of an eye, electromagnetic bombs could throw
> > civilization back 200 years. And terrorists can build them for
> > $400.
>
> This is a very interesting article, but it fails to mention one
> crucial point.  What is the effect of an EMP weapon on magnetic
> storage?

Somewhere in that article, it mentions "magnetic field", if I recall
correctly.  I don't remember enough physics to recall the interfaction
between faraday cages and magnetic fields (of what strength even?).

Elsewhere on this topic mention of faraday cages has been made.

On that topic someone said that isn't enough.  The most important
point is you _cannot_ have _any_ wires going in or out of that faraday
cage - it needs to be completely eletrically isolated.  No data leads,
no power leads going in or out of it that contain a conductor.  For
data, this is an easy problem: fibre.  100BaseFX, ATM, GigE, FDDI come
to mind.  But how do you fix the problem of power?  Does anyone know
of any mechanical (or other) means of getting power into/out of a
faraday cage without there being any conductive path through ?  Where
do you go to buy such equipment (assuming it is unclassified) ?  Can
you buy, for example, laser based power couplers ?  (power in one
side, laser beam over 6 inces, power out the other side).

I'm almost 100% sure a UPS is not going to save you.  Their reaction
times are too slow for the rise generated by an E-Bomb and even then
some of them will switch out to save themselves and your equipment
goes "boom".

Darren



-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org

To unsubscribe email majordomo () attrition org with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY
of the mail.