[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
[FYI] Electronic eavesdropping is becoming mere child's play
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] Electronic eavesdropping is becoming mere child's play
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@t-online.de>
- Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 21:53:16 +0200
- CC: krypto@thur.de
- Comment: This message comes from the debate mailing list.
- Comments: Sender has elected to use 8-bit data in this message. If problems arise, refer to postmaster at sender's site.
- Organization: PA Axel H Horns
- Reply-to: horns@t-online.de
- Sender: owner-debate@fitug.de
http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19991106/newsstory6.html
------------------------------ CUT ----------------------------------
New-wave spies
Electronic eavesdropping is becoming mere child's play
SOFTWARE that allows a computer to receive radio signals could make
spying on other computers all too simple, according to two scientists
at the University of Cambridge. Such are the dangers that they are
patenting countermeasures that computer manufacturers can take to
foil any electronic eavesdroppers.
Spies can already read documents written on computers by intercepting
the radio-frequency emissions from their electronics, but the tuning
and antenna equipment needed to do this is not available off-the-
shelf and is very expensive. But a new breed of "software radio",
designed to let computers tune in to radio signals in any waveband,
promises to make this type of eavesdropping simple and cheap. A PC
circuit board with a plug-in aerial does all the tuning under
software control and has a digital signal processor chip to cut
noise.
"Equipment to do this [spying] would now cost at least £30 000, but
in five years it will cost less than £1000, and it's hackers who will
be writing the software," predicts Markus Kuhn, a research student
who has filed the patent with Cambridge cryptographic expert Ross
Anderson (see interview this issue, p 48).
[...]
------------------------------ CUT ----------------------------------