Submitted By

GAYATHRY K V
R7 – A
ROLL NO. 27

Under the guidance of SHILPA KAMALAN

 INTRODUCTION

• Interception of communications is a method of

spying done by intelligence agencies
• Keep track of the spies and terrorists
• Preserves security of our country
• Preventing from terrorist attacks
 TEMPEST
 Transient Electro Magnetic Pulse Emanation Standard
 Refers to investigations and studies of compromising
emanations(CE)
 CE
Unintentional intelligence bearing signals
Consists of electrical or acoustical energy emitted
by systems processing security information
Lead to discovery of plain text
Recovery depends on certain factors
Eg:-electromagnetic fields,soundwaves,text related
signals
 Sources of TEMPEST signals

• Functional resources
 Designated for the specific purpose of
generating electromagnetic waves
 eg:-switching transistors,oscillators
• Incidental resources
 Not designated for specific purpose of
generating electromagnetic waves
 eg:-electromechanical switches,bushtype
motors
 Types of TEMPEST signals

• RED base band signals

Most easily recognised CE
Produced by capacitive or inductive coupling
During high data rates
• Modulated spurious carriers
Generated as modulation of a carrier by RED
data
Amplitude or angle modulated
 Ctd...
Radiated in to space or coupled into EUT
external conductors
• Impulsive emanations
Common in EUT processing digital signal

Caused by very fast mark_to_space or

space_to_mark transition of digital signal
 Technology behind TEMPEST

• Reproduce the view in the monitor kms away

• Computer is not networked
Ctd..

• Techniques enable software on computer to control electromagnetic

radiation it transmits

• Used for both attack and defense

• Here’s an example of how TEMPEST information gets out:

Message -----> Message -----> Communications -----> Intended

Sender Encoder | Channel Recipient
|
|-----> TEMPEST -----> Unintended
Channel Recipient
 Attacks
 Short wave attacks
 Spying kit consists of radio receiver connected to an
audio cassette recorder
 VDU produce audible tones on radio
 Power lines acts powerful than antennas
 Implants attack sofware using virus
 Software uses frequency shift keying with 0 and 1
 Broadband transmission attacks
 Professional attack affects only small part of screen
layout
 Reception using modified TV sets
 Requires exact horizontal and vertical deflection
frequencies to adjust pulse generators
 Spread spectrum techniques are used
 Noise signals can be separated by averaging the
periodic signal over a period of time
 Protection from TEMPEST attacks
 TEMPEST testing
 Performed to prove that information handling system
processing security information provide emission
security

 3 types of tests
Electric radiation tests
Magnetic radiation tests
Conduction tests
 EUT: Equipment under test
 Visualised as a box receiving input signal and
produces an output signal
 TEMPEST fonts
 Used to protect computers from spying
 Software for this calculates power dissipation of
normal fonts and filters the text
 Filtered text looks blurred and unpleasant
 Loss in text quality unnoticeable for the user
at computer screen
 TEMPEST proof walls

 Special walls used to reflect electromagnetic waves

back to same room

 Protects databases from hackers

 ECHELON

 Stands for NSA’s secret Global Surveilance System

developed for intercepting messages allover the
world
 Espionage
 Is simply the organised theft of information.
 Systematic collection and evaluation of information about
certain situations in other states.
 Serves as a basis for decisions concerning the armed
forces, foreign policy.
 Account for at least 80% of the work of the intelligence
services.
 Processing of electromagnetic signals

 Uses satellite photography

 SIGINT:-Signals intelligence
 Intercepting any kind of electromagnetic signals

 ELINT: Electronic intelligence

 Intercepting electromagnetic signals in military fields
 INTERCEPTION

 Interception on spot
 Conversations
Using microphones or laser equipments
 Screens
By picking up radiations
 Telephones, fax and e-mail messages
By tapping cables
 SCOPE FOR INTERCEPTION

 From aircrafts and ships

 AWACS:-Airborne Warning and Control System
Used for locating other aircraft
Uses radar equipment in conjunction with a detection
system
 Slow flying EP-3 spy plane
Intercepts microwave,USW and shortwave
transmissions
 Surface ships and sub marines
Intercepts military radio transmissions
 SCOPE FOR INTERCEPTION BY SPY
SATELLITES

 Back bone of ECHELON

 Low-orbit Signals Intelligence Satellite
 lock on to target transmitter for fewer minutes
 Filtering individual signals impossible during higher
density of transmitters
 Quasi-geostationary SIGINT satellites
 High earth orbit(42000km)
 Inclination between 3 and 10degree
Ctd.....
Elliptical orbit
Cover large area
Used for military purposes
24Ghz downlink frequency
Fig:-NSA’s listening station with radomes in England
 AUTOMATIC ANALYSIS OF
INTERCEPTED COMMUNICATION
 Filtering of communications using keywords and
dictionaries
 Eg:-system recognizing a voice
 Filtering is restricted by :
 Capacity of computer
 Language problem
 Limited number of analysts who read and assess
filtered messages
 Keywords
 Sensitive words to find out messages which carries
sensitive information
 Only few messages and phone calls are recorded
 Messages producing keyword hits are tagged
 Keywords relates to:-
Military
Drug trafficking
International crimes
 ECHELON dictionaries
 Power of ECHELON lies in
decryption,filtering,examining and codifying messages
 Filtering done using
Speech recognition technique
Optical character recognition software
 Dictionaries are databases containing keywords
 Each station has a dictionary
 Dictionary manager
 Responsible for:-
Adding, deleting or changing keyword search criteria
 Each station has a code
 Eg:- COWBOY for Yakima facility
 PROBLEMS OF ECHELON

 Privacy of people at home and abroad

 Military secrets
 Helps terrorists
 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
 Unfortunately our India does not have a Tempest
equipment developed yet.