1996-12-05 - Re: Laptops and TEMPEST

Header Data

From: Alan Olsen <alan@ctrl-alt-del.com>
To: stewarts@ix.netcom.com
Message Hash: c2f35573a5a7d66dcecd02ff8a2125544017fa0e8208875ef51fa78c30752f00
Message ID: <3.0.1.32.19961205114746.011fbf84@mail.teleport.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1996-12-05 19:52:49 UTC
Raw Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 11:52:49 -0800 (PST)

Raw message

From: Alan Olsen <alan@ctrl-alt-del.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 11:52:49 -0800 (PST)
To: stewarts@ix.netcom.com
Subject: Re: Laptops and TEMPEST
Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19961205114746.011fbf84@mail.teleport.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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At 01:44 AM 12/5/96 -0800, stewarts@ix.netcom.com wrote:

>Take a basic television with big rabbit-ear antennas.
>Tune to the football game on Channel 6.
>Take your AT&T Globalyst 250P (which is a gray NEC Versa with a Death Star),
>with the 16-million-color 640x480 screen in 65536-color mode, 
>and pop up a DOS command window in white-on-black.
>Type a few lines of text, then look at the TV.
>
>The sync wasn't quite right, but there were about three copies of
>my DOS window.  It may have been scrolling slowly vertically or horizontally,
>but it was relatively readable given the lack of resolution of the screen.
>A good receiver run by a Bad Guy ought to be able to set its scan rates
>correctly to pick up the screen at better resolution.
>There are obviously more variables to be explored, but other people
>who were present at the time considered the football game to be
>more important :-)

Wow!  I am amazed the FCC has not come down hard on AT&T for something that
noisy.  (I have run my system with an open case and never gotten
interference that bad.)

<paranoia>
Or maybe it is a plot to keep an eye on Matt Blaze.  ("Here...  Have this
free company laptop!")
</paranoia>

Now the truly paranoia will not only cover their heads with tinfoil, they
will cover their laptops as well.

But seriously, it does not sound good.  I know there is specialized
equiptment used by ham radio operators to locate leakage of radio
frequencies.  Maybe someone could use it to find who the worst offenders
are and how bad the problem is.

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