Van Eck Radiations

[Aguiluz]

PART 1:

I have been watching cable tv lately, and I have seen experiments of these called "Van Eck Radiation."

Van Eck Radiation is a radiation emitted by computer monitors especially CRTs by the oscillation of their cables that connects from the GFX card to the screen.

They have used a device to try to read the pictures displayed on the CRT on a computer by "receiving" and "interpreting" the radiation emitted by the CRT. The process is called Van Eck Phreaking.

They partially succeeded, but they actually see the text and image displayed on the CRT!

So, is it possible for any creep (meaning unscrupulous hackers) to build one of these "TEMPEST units" and spy on our email and personals?

PART 2:

I learned that when I put my mobile phone inside our disused microwave oven, the signal on the operator gradually decreases until the signal goes out.

Would it be possible to build a "hardened system" using the oven as a case, and the shielding of the oven serve as a shielding to contain the comp's Van Eck radiation to evade these Van Eck Phreaks?


References and Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_radiation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking

http://the.jhu.edu/upe/2004/03/23/about-van-eck-phreaking/

http://www.erikyyy.de/tempest/

[Kheldar]

Re: Van Eck Radiations

well sort of.

if you built a screen like the door on the microwave with the holes in the screen at the precise wavelengths of the "Van Eck Radiation" then you could build a barrier.

the problem would be is that the Van Eck Radiation would be oscillating while the microwave radiation is at fixed frequency, so for your screen to be trully effective you'd need to make the holes in oscillate at the same time as your Van Eck Radiation.

personally I reckon it'd be easier to setup another pc & postion it so that the signals interfer with each other making it much harder to recombine the image.

let's face it, if you truely wanted a secure pc, fill your case with cement, bury it 12 m under ground, lose the map to its location and shoot anyone who knows you've buried a pc and then you might have a secure PC

[Aguiluz]

Re: Van Eck Radiations

let's face it, if you truely wanted a secure pc, fill your case with cement, bury it 12 m under ground, lose the map to its location and shoot anyone who knows you've buried a pc and then you might have a secure PC

An second thought, maybe I was just too overkill... Thanks anyway.

[casecutter]

Re: Van Eck Radiations

A tinfoil hat is also required so they don't also read your thoughts and steal your passwords..........

[Helix666]

Re: Van Eck Radiations

If you have Tinfoil hat Linux, there's a function that you can invoke that changes the screen to a colour combination that makes it extremely difficult to read by scanning the Van Eck Radiations.