From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 95 07:23:49 PDT
To: Simon Spero <ses@tipper.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Simple Hardware RNG Idea
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.91.951002225219.7461A-100000@chivalry>
Message-ID: <199510031423.KAA01406@frankenstein.piermont.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Simon Spero writes:
> On Tue, 3 Oct 1995, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> > Radio signals can be interfered with or listened to -- never
> > underestimate the opponent. Computer interfaced radiation detectors,
> > in spite of Tim's claim to the contrary, are pretty cheap and very
> > hard to interfere with.
> 
> What about a beam of high intensity ionising radiation aimed at the 
> detector?

If you are paranoid, put the detector in a lead box and you are
done. Its not hard to get the lead thick enough that tampering
attempts would be noticed very easily. Trying to shield an object from
radio signals and still manage to get meaningful numbers out (rather
than self generated signal) is a hard problem, but this can be done by
a high school student.

Perry