Information Security News: TEMPEST Brewing for PC privacy?

[mea culpa <jericho () DIMENSIONAL COM>]

From: William Knowles <erehwon () kizmiaz dis org>

TEMPEST Brewing for PC privacy?

(Wired News) [10.26.99] WASHINGTON -- Plenty of people worry about their
privacy online, but few consider that someone may be eavesdropping on what
they're typing -- through a wall or even across the street.

It's something government snoops have been able to do for at least the
last decade, according to newly released documents from the US National
Security Agency. Spy agencies have dubbed the concept TEMPEST, a code name
for technologies used to intercept and decipher the electromagnetic
signals that all computers emit.

Spooks have known about TEMPEST technologies at least since the 1960s --
some people have even patented ways to shield computers. But details that
aren't classified have been relatively scarce.

John Young hopes to change all that. This week he began to publish on his
Web site the results of TEMPEST documents he obtained from the NSA through
a Freedom of Information Act request.

[...]

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