van Eck phreak peeping

Today's top secret information is shared and delivered in rooms that are Faraday's cages. The technological development in reading electromagnetic radiation has given birth to a new level of digital surveillance - the van Eck phreak peeping.

With a common radio antenna, radio receiver and computer, it is possible to read the electromagnetic radiation coming from different digital inputs and outputs. This means that a single person can eavesdrop on your computers monitor output and keyboard input through thick walls and long distances.

Hijacked image through van Eck phreaking @Markus Kuhn

The process of digitalization that transforms analog input to digital format, like speaking to a mobile phone, typing a computer, sending a fax etc., can thus be eavesdropped. This so called van Eck phreaking cannot be shielded with common encryption, because the actual digitalized information decoded or encoded always emits radiation uncoded and decrypted whenever it is displayed to the end-user.

Only found solution to prevent van Eck phreak peeping, is to use digital electronics in a room retrofitted as an "Faraday's cage". An hollow object made of highly conductive material with an active electric outage creates an electric field that forces outside or inside electromagnetic radiation or electricity to be absorbed in to the electric field. The Faraday's cage thus neither is able to receive nor broadcast electrical bursts or electromagnetic radiation to the outside. Planes are the most common example of Faraday's cages, as only their radio antenna is vulnerable to lighting.

The potential of van Eck phreak peeping is devastating to the privacy of common people, as it is easily creatable with quite common and cheap equipment and hard to defend against. The software creation requires effort, but is quite easily obtainable once the software starts to spread through internet. The van Eck phreak seems as distant as it was in 2007, when these studies were done. None-less the governments of the world have prepared for the threat with building of specials rooms.

The government of Finland for example has taken active steps to include the Faradays cages as common security measure among every office dealing with sensitive material. With Finland's fairly strict information law (tietoturvalaki), we will see a create deal of electronic retrofitting in our society.

In the near future the office rooms turned into Faraday cage's will be a common feature.

Lähteet:
http://markusjansson.blogspot.fi/2008/10/langallisetkin-nppimistt.html
http://markusjansson.blogspot.fi/2007/04/tempest-hykkys-vaarantaa-tietoturvaa.html
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faradayn_h%C3%A4kki
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/04/seeing-through-walls.html