NSA able to target offline computers using radio-waves for surveillance, cyber-attacks

reply to post by _R4t_


I do this sort of crap for a living. We are a lean, mean, MIC machine.

One has to wonder, now that the net neutrality rules have been thrown out, how long until the NSA changes its listening procedures to correspond to traffic going to non-sponsored websites (like this one)? Man the internet is becoming scary.

Bedlam
reply to post by _R4t_

 

It's a tough go with flat panels. When CRTs were king, there were two or three ways to skin that cat. Not only could you catch emissions off the electron beam, if you had a clear view into an office where a guy was working on a CRT, you could look at the light from the screen bouncing off a light colored surface and reconstruct the image from that.

LCDs have long decay times and they're written in several chunks simultaneously. At the same time, they've gotten a lot better at shielding leaks.

This topic came up before and I accepted what you had to say. Since then, this has caught my attention, and would be interested in your take on it.

www.omninerd.com...

Previously, TEMPEST attacks saw great success against high RF targets like CRT computer monitors. Analysts could piece together the signals from the ray tube coils and remotely reconstruct what appeared on the screen. At the time, LCD monitors were thought to be more troublesome for TEMPEST detection owing to their reduced emissions. Security researcher Markus Kuhn recently shattered that illusion using refined TEMPEST techniques to remotely reconstruct an LCD image by analyzing signals leaking from the video cable. Proper shielding will restore security from such RF exposure. However, in a 2002 IEEE paper, Markus Kuhn demonstrated the reconstruction of a remote display’s contents using nothing more than the ambient reflections of light on a wall (PDF). - See more at: www.omninerd.com...

And a little more here.

www.newscientist.com...

Let's face it, the NSA is being outed right and left.
Every single week some new revelation comes out about how they're spying on everyone.
Like every other government agency they will be forced to prove their "usefulness" to the state.
I'd bet we won't have to wait long before the US is hit with some kind of cyberattack that takes down part of the power grid or banking infrastructure.
A false flag is the best method for convincing the public what they do is for their own protection.

Do I ever miss the old days when they couldn't see and hear you wherever you were.
When privacy still existed and the government was forced to trust it's citizens.
I knew it would come to this.
The quiet before the storm that will forever alter the world as we thought we knew it.

reply to post by Indigent


GAAAHHHH! Does this mean it doesn't matter that I only use a hardline and keep unplugging it?

Great catch. F&S

back up source....
N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers

[Devil's Advocate]

Is it possible that the NSA set up these leaks, so like a broadcast transmission, everyone receives it but only the target(s) will modify their behavior because of it, and be unwittingly led in the direction NSA wants to take them?

[/Devil's Advocate]

The reason I say that is because a few journalists have copies of this information, plus a few others, and yet, NONE of these people have been arrested, yet they live in countries that could easily apprehend and extradite them to the USA.

Just a thought.

cuckooold

This topic came up before and I accepted what you had to say. Since then, this has caught my attention, and would be interested in your take on it.

I'll look at it. Like I posted, you DEFINITELY could do this to CRT's, I've seen it first hand. It's actually easier to snort a CRT with a telescope off a wall bounce or through curtains/blinds than to use a vanEck attack, if you can get a good line on it at night.

With LCDs, you have a problem with the slow decay times and the fact that they're updating more than one screen area at the same time. I can't get your link to open at www.publications.cl.cam.ac.uk. The last link states that they were talking about the CRT trick and could not get the LCD to work the same way.


If you had a low res single channel display, they do update with one feed. Looking at the date when this paper was written, that was probably true when Kuhn intercepted that image, but these days panels all use high speed differential links like HDMI, transfer more than one bit at a time and send multiple screen areas simultaneously. It's a lot easier to snort pixel-at-a-time analog.

cuckooold

Bedlam
reply to post by _R4t_

 

It's a tough go with flat panels. When CRTs were king, there were two or three ways to skin that cat. Not only could you catch emissions off the electron beam, if you had a clear view into an office where a guy was working on a CRT, you could look at the light from the screen bouncing off a light colored surface and reconstruct the image from that.

LCDs have long decay times and they're written in several chunks simultaneously. At the same time, they've gotten a lot better at shielding leaks.

This topic came up before and I accepted what you had to say. Since then, this has caught my attention, and would be interested in your take on it.

www.omninerd.com...

Previously, TEMPEST attacks saw great success against high RF targets like CRT computer monitors. Analysts could piece together the signals from the ray tube coils and remotely reconstruct what appeared on the screen. At the time, LCD monitors were thought to be more troublesome for TEMPEST detection owing to their reduced emissions. Security researcher Markus Kuhn recently shattered that illusion using refined TEMPEST techniques to remotely reconstruct an LCD image by analyzing signals leaking from the video cable. Proper shielding will restore security from such RF exposure. However, in a 2002 IEEE paper, Markus Kuhn demonstrated the reconstruction of a remote display’s contents using nothing more than the ambient reflections of light on a wall (PDF). - See more at: www.omninerd.com...

And a little more here.

www.newscientist.com...

Then again I never said it was impossible but its a whole different game due to how LCD operates on a technical level comparatively to CRT. The main reason is LCD require alot less electricity and the video/image isn't directly controlled by a flyback transformer but its firmware based control instead of sending the image straight to the "cathode ray tube" as two interlaced image frames flashing quickly faster than the eye can perceive so you only see one image. Through LCD the video signal is sent pixels by pixels because its "digital" all 1's and 0's in a constant stream so there's alot more "data content" to deal with... This is why it make things more difficult, the more content you have to grab to reconstruct the image the harder and less feasable it becomes.

CRT's were ideal because they sent very strong EMF pulses further than the average other devices around. Lets not kid ourselves here everything around you sends EMF that can be picked up, the Van Eck Freaking methode could work on your wifi/non wifi keyboard too. This is how the gadget I mentioned in the other post pertaining on how to grab keyboard output through power outlets. Essentially its the same thing but through a different transfer medium, the signal wire leaks through electromagnetic pulses through the ground wire which goes directly to the power supply and leak in the form of pulses if you will through the power plugs through a house or building for several meters.

The reason the thing with CRT is they emit very strong EMF pulsed compared to the background noise or other EMF emited by other devices around. So its easier to get a "clear" signal because by contrast there's much less interference so you need a weaker antenna that will pickup less "noise"

LCD is a different story through emitting much less EMF and are weaker levels you require a much higher gain antenna which in the process ends up picking up ALOT more interference in the process. Which turns out to make the process of recreating the image much harder due to the fact that the signal is "camouflaged" through the other noises. Its called "signal to noise" ratio the better your signal is versus the noise the easier the job is.

Its to be taken in consideration that in that lab project the guys used a lab with all possible other sources of noises removed or reduced and only 1 monitor was being used with a directional antenna pointed straight at it. In other terms it was achieved under the best possible circumstances. Which means it works in "theory" but doesn't mean its going to be very practical in real life as an example try to point the antenna at a callcenter which 500 LCD monitors running at the same time... Especially if they are all the same make and model so you don't have any attack vectors you can use to try to isolate the signal from a device to another...

Even in my case I have a triple head monitor with one of the screen constantly updating quickly with random stuff, one I'm working directly on and the other often having a TV show playing... Should he runs the attack on me he would end up with 3 different screens layed ontop of the other.

Thats without considering other things that can cause "shielding" like the way my office is at the level of the monitors right behind them I have a 220V wire going around the wall and from the corner going up to the laundry room upstaires. This would had ALOT of noise thus making the job even more complicated due to poor signal to noise and signal loss caused through the constant EMF field of the 220v wire acting as a "shield" to the weaker signal leaked by my monitors.

I hope this clarifies things a little, as I said its possible but possible doesn't mean practical... I would be more worried about the other type of attack that reconstruct the image from light bouncing off the walls but even there its a matter of signal to noise ratio... If your in a dark room its easy but in a very well lite up room its a different story.

PS: For those whom might be technical to a "anal" levels I know above explanations does not 100% reflects how certain things I explained above work but for the sake of understanding for our lesser technical friends, please just bare with me for a second... Thanks!

AthlonSavage
reply to post by Indigent

 

I wonder how long it will be before people start flooding NSA with law suits.

American is not allowed to sue the federal government. NSA is a part of the federal government.

reply to post by Indigent


This reminds me of when the CIA started to find out china was sending mass keyboards with related tech. Maybe we are now coping them. I think the keyboards were being targeted to specific areas but us citizens could even have them.

reply to post by Bedlam


also works great with key boards!

reply to post by tencap77


I'm old enough I remember seeing the demo with the Selectric typewriter widget about 1995 - the school was still using them when the NSA guy came through recruiting.

I had an inkling that the NSA would try something like this, so here are some simple countermeasures:

1. The easiest is to not use a computer for sensitive information storage, a piece of paper hidden on a part of your body at all times is very secure.

2. An old, simple, purely mechanical type writer is also very difficult to monitor IF you take steps to reduce any acoustic and movement signatures. Be careful, type writers have ribbons which record what you have written, the letters may leave impressions in the rubber paper holder, and the keys may change ever so slightly after typing, so keep it on your person at all times.

2. Use an older computer built before the era of wifi and minuraturized radio components, operate the computer in a well engineered Faraday cage, that is designed to shield frequencies from kHz to GhZ and above.

3. To avoid monitoring via power plug, use an un-interruptuable power supply completely located in the Faraday cage, and insulated from the Faraday cage. It is probably best to build your own un-interruptable power supply using car batteries and homemade inverters using discrete components. A possible problem with a commercial UBS is that they may have extensive secret monitoring capabilities built in, also if you decide to build your own UBS using IC's, chips, or pre-built boards may allow surruptious monitoring, so using discrete components is safer. Now, even modern discrete components may somehow be compromised, so for the truly paranoid, finding older electronic products like radios or TVs built in the 60s or 70s and pulling out the needed discrete components may be an option.

4. Always remove the Hard drive, battery, and memory after turning your laptop off.

5. Use a fully functioning, well calibrated, spectrum analyzer, with a wide range to detect any suspicous RF emissions, or simply to test your Faraday cage. (you may want to borrow a spectrum analyzer, they are very very expensive)

6. Use jamming techniques, white noise signal generated at frequencies of suspected RF emissions and with higher power, outside the Faraday cage is quite effective. Now just in case they use acoustic technques to attempt to monitor your computer, use an acoustic white noise generator at power levels higher than that emitted by your computer outside the F-cage. Same goes if they try to monitor the electrical potential of the F-cage.

7. The secret government also has sensors/signal processing that can recieve E&M waves emitted by your brain, and yes even decipher what you are thinking, even what you are visualizing. I finally found a way to bypass this, the key word is IRON, 3 mm+ thick, make an entire room with IRON walls, AND then generate white noise from 0Hz to 200Hz+ using a series of Helmholtz coils outside your Iron room, one on each side of iron wall cube, at high power levels.

Use to protect your ideas and enhance your privacy, not to physically harm people.

reply to post by deloprator20000

1. The easiest is to not use a computer for sensitive information storage, a piece of paper hidden on a part of your body at all times is very secure.

2. An old, simple, purely mechanical type writer is also very difficult to monitor IF you take steps to reduce any acoustic and movement signatures. Be careful, type writers have ribbons which record what you have written, the letters may leave impressions in the rubber paper holder, and the keys may change ever so slightly after typing, so keep it on your person at all times.
2. Use an older computer built before the era of wifi and minuraturized radio components, operate the computer in a well engineered Faraday cage, that is designed to shield frequencies from kHz to GhZ and above.

Computers are not used to storage data only, they are used to process info. a typewriter cannot perform operations, older computers have lower processing power and you missed the detail in all this, the rf emitter is not part of your rig, its an external emitter.

I wonder how well could be controlled Iranian nuclear facilities with a typewriter.

The Faraday cage seems a good idea but you need to put an independent power source inside the cage, plugging your rig to the regular outlet would be the same as having no cage.

deloprator20000
I had an inkling that the NSA would try something like this, so here are some simple countermeasures:

1. The easiest is to not use a computer for sensitive information storage, a piece of paper hidden on a part of your body at all times is very secure.

2. An old, simple, purely mechanical type writer is also very difficult to monitor IF you take steps to reduce any acoustic and movement signatures. Be careful, type writers have ribbons which record what you have written, the letters may leave impressions in the rubber paper holder, and the keys may change ever so slightly after typing, so keep it on your person at all times.

2. Use an older computer built before the era of wifi and minuraturized radio components, operate the computer in a well engineered Faraday cage, that is designed to shield frequencies from kHz to GhZ and above.

3. To avoid monitoring via power plug, use an un-interruptuable power supply completely located in the Faraday cage, and insulated from the Faraday cage. It is probably best to build your own un-interruptable power supply using car batteries and homemade inverters using discrete components. A possible problem with a commercial UBS is that they may have extensive secret monitoring capabilities built in, also if you decide to build your own UBS using IC's, chips, or pre-built boards may allow surruptious monitoring, so using discrete components is safer. Now, even modern discrete components may somehow be compromised, so for the truly paranoid, finding older electronic products like radios or TVs built in the 60s or 70s and pulling out the needed discrete components may be an option.

4. Always remove the Hard drive, battery, and memory after turning your laptop off.

5. Use a fully functioning, well calibrated, spectrum analyzer, with a wide range to detect any suspicous RF emissions, or simply to test your Faraday cage. (you may want to borrow a spectrum analyzer, they are very very expensive)

6. Use jamming techniques, white noise signal generated at frequencies of suspected RF emissions and with higher power, outside the Faraday cage is quite effective. Now just in case they use acoustic technques to attempt to monitor your computer, use an acoustic white noise generator at power levels higher than that emitted by your computer outside the F-cage. Same goes if they try to monitor the electrical potential of the F-cage.

7. The secret government also has sensors/signal processing that can recieve E&M waves emitted by your brain, and yes even decipher what you are thinking, even what you are visualizing. I finally found a way to bypass this, the key word is IRON, 3 mm+ thick, make an entire room with IRON walls, AND then generate white noise from 0Hz to 200Hz+ using a series of Helmholtz coils outside your Iron room, one on each side of iron wall cube, at high power levels.

Use to protect your ideas and enhance your privacy, not to physically harm people.

edit on 17-1-2014 by deloprator20000 because: (no reason given)

I am _R4t_ and I approve this message...

2nd line >

AthlonSavage
reply to post by Indigent

 

I wonder how long it will be before people start flooding NSA with law suits.

Our Court system will just simply ignore them.

deloprator20000
I had an inkling that the NSA would try something like this, so here are some simple countermeasures:

1. The easiest is to not use a computer for sensitive information storage, a piece of paper hidden on a part of your body at all times is very secure.

2. An old, simple, purely mechanical type writer is also very difficult to monitor IF you take steps to reduce any acoustic and movement signatures. Be careful, type writers have ribbons which record what you have written, the letters may leave impressions in the rubber paper holder, and the keys may change ever so slightly after typing, so keep it on your person at all times.

2. Use an older computer built before the era of wifi and minuraturized radio components, operate the computer in a well engineered Faraday cage, that is designed to shield frequencies from kHz to GhZ and above.

3. To avoid monitoring via power plug, use an un-interruptuable power supply completely located in the Faraday cage, and insulated from the Faraday cage. It is probably best to build your own un-interruptable power supply using car batteries and homemade inverters using discrete components. A possible problem with a commercial UBS is that they may have extensive secret monitoring capabilities built in, also if you decide to build your own UBS using IC's, chips, or pre-built boards may allow surruptious monitoring, so using discrete components is safer. Now, even modern discrete components may somehow be compromised, so for the truly paranoid, finding older electronic products like radios or TVs built in the 60s or 70s and pulling out the needed discrete components may be an option.

4. Always remove the Hard drive, battery, and memory after turning your laptop off.

5. Use a fully functioning, well calibrated, spectrum analyzer, with a wide range to detect any suspicous RF emissions, or simply to test your Faraday cage. (you may want to borrow a spectrum analyzer, they are very very expensive)

6. Use jamming techniques, white noise signal generated at frequencies of suspected RF emissions and with higher power, outside the Faraday cage is quite effective. Now just in case they use acoustic technques to attempt to monitor your computer, use an acoustic white noise generator at power levels higher than that emitted by your computer outside the F-cage. Same goes if they try to monitor the electrical potential of the F-cage.

7. The secret government also has sensors/signal processing that can recieve E&M waves emitted by your brain, and yes even decipher what you are thinking, even what you are visualizing. I finally found a way to bypass this, the key word is IRON, 3 mm+ thick, make an entire room with IRON walls, AND then generate white noise from 0Hz to 200Hz+ using a series of Helmholtz coils outside your Iron room, one on each side of iron wall cube, at high power levels.

Use to protect your ideas and enhance your privacy, not to physically harm people.

edit on 17-1-2014 by deloprator20000 because: (no reason given)

Jamming equipment, faraday cages, spectrum analyzers, iron walls and coils......sounds reasonable.