BSA deploys imaginary pirate software detector vans

[Neil Johnson]

The general idea is to pick up and decode the RF emissions generated by the
CPU, Memory, I/O and Video systems to figure out what the computer is doing.

It takes some work (not as much as you would think), but there have been
documented demonstrations where the video signals from a PC were picked up
and reproduced on another monitor several hundred feet away.

TEMPEST is the "code" name for the U.S. Governments standards for shielding
computer equipment used for classified work inorder to prevent such
eavesdropping.

The technique is often referred to as "Van Eck Phreaking" (sic).


Neil M. Johnson
njohnson at interl.net
http://www.interl.net/~njohnson
PGP Key Finger Print: 93C0 793F B66E A0C7  CEEA 3E92 6B99 2DCC


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tib" <tib at tigerknight.org>
To: "Ian BROWN" <I.Brown at cs.ucl.ac.uk>
Cc: "Neil Johnson" <njohnson at interl.net>; "cypherpunks"
<cypherpunks at EINSTEIN.ssz.com>; "cryptography" <cryptography at c2.net>;
"cypherpunks" <cypherpunks at cyberpass.net>; <ross.anderson at cl.cam.ac.uk>
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2000 4:32 PM
Subject: Re: BSA deploys imaginary pirate software detector vans


> On Fri, 10 Nov 2000, Ian BROWN wrote:
>
> > >Wasn't there some articles some time ago about Microsoft doing research
into
> > >Tempest/Van Eck (sp) radiation ? It was speculated  at the time that
they
> > >were going include software to "broadcast" their serial numbers so that
> > >illegal copies could be detected.
> >
> > This was a suggestion by Markus Kuhn and Ross Anderson (at Cambridge
> > University). The paper is at
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ih98-tempest.pdf
> >
> > "Our suggestion is that software packages include in their screen layout
a few
> > lines with a signal that encodes the license serial number plus a random
value
> > . . . a "software detector van" can be used to patrol business districts
and
> > other areas where software piracy is suspected. If the van receives
twenty
> > signals from the same copy of a software from a company that has only
licensed
> > five copies, then probable cause for a search warrant has been
established."
> > p.13
>
> Hope I'm not being totally naive about the capability of computer
hardware, but
> I sure don't recall my PC (or any that I have ever had or can think of
> seeing) having short range broadcasting capabilities. How would this be
> theorheticly possible (despite the utter nonsense that the rumor must be)
to
> accomplish, if at all?
>
> <EOL>
> Tib
>