Introduction Echelon Developed by National Security Agency of USA. A secret project to spy on people by tracing their messages. To find out the terrorist activities across the globe. Developed with the highest computing power connected through the satellites all over the world. Sniffing of messages over a network or any transmission media, even wireless. Design Position intercept stations all over the world to capture all satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic communications. Process this information through the massive computer capabilities of the NSA. Use advanced voice recognition and optical character recognition (OCR) programs, and look for code words or phrases (known as the ECHELON Dictionary )
Tempest Stands for Transient Electro-Magnetic Pulse Emanation Standard. Main theory Any electronic or electrical device emits electromagnetic radiations of specific key when it is operated. Intercept electromagnetic waves over the air. It even sniffs signals emanating from computer screens (range of few Kilometers). Captures signals through walls. VDUs emits radiations when scanning up on vertical or horizontal range beyond the screen. Actual VDU Tempest receiver Fig 1: A Lab experiment
Need For An Interception System To keep track of spies and terrorists for preserving the security of the country. Also being used for purposes well outside its original mission. For political spying and industrial espionage.
Early Use Of Compromising Emanations The German army started in 1914 to use valve amplifiers for listening into ground return signals of distant British, French and Russian field telephones across front lines.
Inside TEMPEST TEMPEST is a short name referring to investigations and studies of compromising emanations (CE). Compromising Emanations(CE) are defined as unintentional intelligence-bearing signals. CE consist of electrical or acoustical energy unintentionally emitted by a source The emanations occur as Electromagnetic fields set free by elements of the plaintext processing equipment or its associated conductors. Text-related signals through (a) common circuit elements such as grounds and power supplies, (b) inductive and capacitive coupling. Propagation of sound waves from mechanical or electromechanical devices.
The Forms In Which Compromising Emanations Might Appear At An Interception Point lagging edges stray signals.
Electromagnetic Field Composition
Sources Of TEMPEST Signals a. Functional Sources: switching transistors, oscillators, Signal generators, synchronizers, line drivers, and line relays. b. Incidental Sources: electromechanical switches and brush-type motors
Types Of TEMPEST Signals RED Base band Signals Modulated Spurious Carriers Impulsive Emanations
Conclusion Tempest is the technology for spying from electronic equipments with out any physical contact. Echelon is the vast network formed by NSA and its allies all over the world to intercept the messages sent through any transmission media. Nothing can be hidden from the these systems. Corporate firms are protecting their companies from the Tempest attacks by use of software and equipments to prevent the Tempest attacks. Unfortunately our India does not have a Tempest equipment developed yet.
References EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Session document 11 July 2001 http://www.aclu.org/echelon/index.htm http://www.wired.com/news/ehelon.html http://cl.cam.ac.uk http://cryptome.org/nacsim-5000.htm http://lib.utexas.edu http://mit.edu http://www.eskimo.com