Question about 'TEMPEST'

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I`m sorry to ask such a stupid question.  Is 'TEMPEST' an acronym, and
if so, what
exactly does it represent?

Thank you,

T
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--
Erik P. Sonnwald <hermit@citrus.infi.net>
Public key available via public keyservers.
Fingerprint: 6205 7AF1 1874 6CA5 F705  6C40 48B2 42CA 2B61 1C33

At 7:56 PM -0800 12/22/98, Tiny wrote:
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>I`m sorry to ask such a stupid question.  Is 'TEMPEST' an acronym, and
>if so, what
>exactly does it represent?

It was not originated as an acronym, though some have labored to find the
words to make it one, sort of. Best to treat it as not being an acronym.

It's a set of specs and testing methods for measuring and controlling RF
emissions by computers and other electronic equipment. Shielding with metal
enclosures, with filters on inputs and outputs, and so on.

The full TEMPEST specs are more or less classified, as might be expected.
(Because one does not lightly tell one's enemies what one is measuring for.)

Contrary to popular rumor, it is not "illegal" to shield computers, to "use
TEMPEST methods," as it were.

--Tim May

We would go to their homes, and we'd kill their wives and
their children. We would kill their families
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.

On Tue, 22 Dec 1998, Tiny wrote:

> I`m sorry to ask such a stupid question.  Is 'TEMPEST' an acronym, and
> if so, what
> exactly does it represent?

Some have turned it into an acronyms.

Originally it was just a code-word referring to emanations security. 

See http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/tempest.html

Of interest:

"..the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs that give 
delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
will hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices.."

>From Shakespeare's "The Tempest" .. the benefits of a liberal education.

Michael J. Graffam (mgraffam@idsi.net)
"Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine."
			Henry David Thoreau "Civil Disobedience"

Just curious, if a computer is connected to the electric power through a UPS,
does that reduce emissions leaked into the electrical system?:wq

At 09:39 AM 12/23/98 -0600, Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
>Just curious, if a computer is connected to the electric power through a UPS,
>does that reduce emissions leaked into the electrical system?:wq

It should probably reduce them a bit, depending on your UPS design,
but if you have to worry about people monitoring your electricity
for contraband bits, you've got a whole raft of other things
you'd better start taking care of, like disk encryption and
offsite backups and signs on the door indicating that you
will or will not shoot at police if they do or do not have warrants....

The converse is that if you've got an electrical filtering system
as part of your TEMPEST protection, whether it's in your computer's
power supply or separate or both, you tend to have really nice
clean power feeding your computer, which is a Good Thing.

				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639

Bill Stewart wrote:
> 
> At 09:39 AM 12/23/98 -0600, Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
> >Just curious, if a computer is connected to the electric power through a UPS,
> >does that reduce emissions leaked into the electrical system?:wq
> 
> It should probably reduce them a bit, depending on your UPS design,
> but if you have to worry about people monitoring your electricity
> for contraband bits, you've got a whole raft of other things
> you'd better start taking care of, like disk encryption and

Very true. I thought about this too. The question that I ask is, 
how much $$ am I worth to whoever might want to snoop at me? And
then I spend money/time (my time is freely convertible to money)
accordingly.

> offsite backups and signs on the door indicating that you
> will or will not shoot at police if they do or do not have warrants....

Well, I personally hate these signs, they are very unfriendly.

> The converse is that if you've got an electrical filtering system
> as part of your TEMPEST protection, whether it's in your computer's
> power supply or separate or both, you tend to have really nice
> clean power feeding your computer, which is a Good Thing.

Hmmm, nice point. 

Now... Just curious, if I simply make my study into a faraday cage via
use of fine (< 1/2 inch) chicken wire, and insulate my power system from
the computer emenations, would that be enough? Chicken wire is not that
expensive, and I think that I could make it look nice on walls.

igor

> 				Thanks! 
> 					Bill
> Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
> PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639
> 



	- Igor.

Igor Chudov @ home wrote:

>  Now... Just curious, if I simply make my study into a faraday cage via
> use of fine (< 1/2 inch) chicken wire, and insulate my power system from
> the computer emenations, would that be enough? Chicken wire is not that
> expensive, and I think that I could make it look nice on walls.

How effective is aluminum foil (crinkled and layered)? It's cheap, easy to install
and remove, and in concert with some halogen lighting, be host to any number of
suspicious activities.

At 05:21 PM 12/23/98 -0500, Frederick Burroughs wrote:
>Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
>>  Now... Just curious, if I simply make my study into a faraday cage via
>> use of fine (< 1/2 inch) chicken wire, and insulate my power system from
>> the computer emenations, would that be enough? Chicken wire is not that
>> expensive, and I think that I could make it look nice on walls.
>
>How effective is aluminum foil (crinkled and layered)? It's cheap, easy to install
>and remove, and in concert with some halogen lighting, be host to any number of
>suspicious activities.

Neither one will make a dent from a Tempest perspective,
though the foil might disperse heat enough to protect your dope farm :-)
Bettter to build an RF-tight box for your PC and use fiber cables,
and you'll still need to do really special power filtering.

The Army used to use copper screen cages for computers back in the 70s,
which got about 60dB worth of shielding.  When I ran a TEMPEST-shielded
room in the mid-80s, the specs said (roughly) that you needed 100dB
of shielding for a room with computers in it, and the room technology
we used gave about 110-120dB depending on how tight our door gaskets were.
It used particle board with sheet metal on both sides and special
edge/corner joints, and you packed copper-wool into any loose area
and copper tape on any flat areas that had leaks.  

At the time you needed to be very careful about joints between anything,
because RF just _leaks_, and we watched frequencies up to about 450MHz,
since then-current computer equipment didn't have harmonics at
anything like that high a frequency - but it still didn't take much
of a leak to peg the meters, in spite of that being a .6 meter wavelength.
Well, 1.5MIPS Vaxen are a bit out of date now, 300MHz Pentiums are common,
and they've got all sorts of harmonics out there.
If you want a penetration in the walls, e.g. for air or fiber optic cables,
you needed some ratio I've forgotten between the depth and width of the hole;
A two-inch deep hole could be about 1/4" across -- your 1/2" flat chickenwire
would be pretty transparent.

There's newer stuff now - some kind of carbon-fiber cloth with aluminum in it
that's really nice to wallpaper with, but you still need to handle
all the joints, which is tough to do.


Other than protecting your dope farm, tin foil's not real useful,
though I suppose you could line your hat with it to keep microwaves out :-)
What's scary is that I _have_ seen a catalog (mostly NewAgey health scams)
that sold RF-shielded hats; I forget if they were metal-lined or carbon-fiber.
				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639

At 09:39 AM 12/23/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Just curious, if a computer is connected to the electric power through a UPS,
>does that reduce emissions leaked into the electrical system?:wq
>

While I can't anwser that question, I do know of a technique where you look
at the rises and falls in resistance on an ic (like a cpu, or other
microprosser) and be able to tell what instructions were being executed.
The problem was that you needed to

A) Know what instructions were being executed so you could assign them to
different patterns (calibrate first).

B) Do A every time you switch ic's. (recalibrate every time you change ic's)

Of corse you need a clean power supply to begin with, and some way to
measure nearly imperceptable changes in resistance.

There once was a file I read on "Real Programmers (substutite with any
computer profession).
This is from my memory so don't quote me:
"
Real Programmers don't eat quiche.
They eat microwave popcorn.

Real Programmers don't pop their microwave popcorn in microwaves.
They use the heat of the cpu.

Real Programmers don't use Gate Emulators.
They can tell what instruction is being executed at any given time by the
rate of the popcorn popping.
"

I thought it was appropiate.

-Kevlar
<Webmaster@max-web.com>

Does God know Peano Algebra? Or does she not care if strong atheists
couldnt reason their way out of a trap made of Boolean presumptions?

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing, but zero knowlege is
absolutely subversive.

Overspecialization breeds in weakness. It's a slow death.

Beat your algorithms into swords, your dumb terminals into shields, and
turn virtual machines into battlefields... Let the weak say, "I am strong"
and question authority.