Question about 'TEMPEST': UPS

Igor Chudov @ home ichudov at Algebra.COM
Wed Dec 23 13:05:03 PST 1998



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 at pobox.com
> PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639
> 



	- Igor.






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