TEMPEST AND ECHELON

A SEMINAR BY
ROHIT RAJ
ROLL NO-07130
VII TH SEM
BRANCH – CSE I
 INTRODUCTION

ECHELON
- Developed by National Security Agency of USA.
- A secret project to spy on people by tracing their message.
- 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,
microwaves , 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
“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 electro-magnetic waves over the air.
- It even sniffs signals emanating from computer screens(range of few
kilometers).
- Captures signal through walls.
- VDUs emit radiations when scanning up on vertical or horizontal
range beyond the screen.
Actual VDU

Tempest
Receiver

Figure : 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.
 INSIDE TEMPEST:

 TEMPEST is a short name referring to investigations and studies

of compromising emanation(CE).
 Compromising emanations(CE) are defined as unintentional
intelligence bearing signals.
CE consists of electrical and acoustical energy unintentionally
emitted by a source.
 The emanations occur as:

- text-related signals through

a)common circuit element such as ground and power
supplies.
b)inductive and capacitive coupling.
- propagation of sound waves from mechanical and
electromechanical sound waves.
 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.

 PROTECTION FROM TEMPEST ATTACK :-

There are 3 methods to protect the computer from TEMPEST attack.

TEMPEST testing and selection of

appropriate devices.
TEMPEST fonts.
TEMPEST proof walls.
 PROBLEMS OF ECHELON AND TEMPEST:-

This system will not provide any privacy for our own people in
home and abroad . It will not provide any security of data for the
corporate world.

Every military secret is public to NSA and it’s allies so if anything

goes wrong mass destruction will occur.

 As stated , echelon can protect us from terrorist attack but we

have to ensure that these systems are protected from intrusion. If
not so then result will be hazardous.

Tempest equipments are only available in AMERICA and it is

prohibited to be exported from there so that no terrorist will get
these equipments .
 CONCLUSION
 Tempest is the technology for spying from electronic
equipments without any physical contact.

 Echelon is the vast network formed by NSA and its

allies all over the world to intercept the messages send
through any transmission media.

 Nothing can be hidden from these systems.

 Corporate firms are protecting there companies from

tempest attacks by the use of software and equipments

 Unfortunately our INDIA does not have a tempest

equipment developed yet.
 Future scope of tempest&echelon

These can be used to empower intelligence

agencies to do their job better than before.

As INDIA is not having a tempest equipment

developed yet so we have to develop one for
empowering our intelligence agencies and military
agencies in order to protect our secret data from
them.
 References:

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT session document 11’th

july 2001
http://www.aclu.org/echelon/index.html
http://www.wired.com/news/echelon.html
http://mit.edu
http://cl.cam.ac.uk
THANK

YOU…….
 ANY

QUERIES?????