Anybody know what in the hell I'm talking about?

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

This might be the wrong community for it, but hell, we're all geeks. Somebody might know what I mean...

I'm doing research for a presentation/paper on TEMPEST. I have a good amount of data, but I want to make reference to a sort of device that can be placed on top of a phone line or networking cable that will pick up EMI fluctuations and can translate them into voice or data. Just to clarify, I'm not talking about a physical splicing of the line, but rather the interception of emanations from the cable (which is actually the fundamental basis for TEMPEST).

So, does anybody know what in the heck device I'm talking about? What's it called? Does it even exist, or am I just being hopeful?

_MaH

Comments

[synthe.livejournal.com]

off the top of my head I don't know, but I would check out the books (nonfiction) of Winn Schwartau, he's really into that stuff.

Re:

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

Yep. He's quoted in our textbook. Wrote Information Warfare back in (i believe it was) 1981

_MaH

[synthe.livejournal.com]

and "Cybershock - Surviving Hackers, Phreakers, Identity Thieves, Internet Terrorists, and weapons of Mass Disruption" in 2000

Re:

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

Hmmm..... Think I'll find that book and check it out....

_MaH

[akage.livejournal.com]

I tried working on a similar homebrew item like that a couple of years back (only mine was called an "induction tap"). The way I had mine configured, it was almost like a blood pressure cuff that you slapped around the hardline (phone cable, Ethernet, pretty much anything other than fiber). I was testing it on Ethernet, but I never could get a discernible pattern when test packets were sent.

I'd never heard of anyone else trying this before (until now).

Oh, and I found this site as well:
http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/tempest.html

Re:

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

yeah i've been using that site too. check out:

http://cryptome.sabotage.org/nsa-tempest.htm

for a bunch of declassified NSA documents on TEMPEST.

_MaH

Quick thought

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

Data packets need more integrity to be picked up than voice. You said you couldn't get it to work well with data, have you tried it as a form of voice telecommunication eavesdropping?

I'm betting it'll work much better than the data test.

_MaH

Re: Quick thought

[akage.livejournal.com]

Hmm...no, hadn't bothered with voice traffic (I was mainly looking to make a better, easier tool to find cable faults).

If I can remember where the hell I stashed it (if I didn't take it apart), I'll have to play with that.