"Van Eck Phreaking" - WTPhreak?

[SoJer]

Well now I've heard Everything.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking

Have-heard of / researched a bit about Wifi / RFID 'sniffers', and Other-such 'clandestine monitoring', but.. CRTs, LCD screens and Keyboards?? That is some Next-Level phreaky..

Discuss.
jd

 

[Supervisor42]

Well now I've heard Everything.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking

Have-heard of / researched a bit about Wifi / RFID 'sniffers', and Other-such 'clandestine monitoring', but.. CRTs, LCD screens and Keyboards?? That is some Next-Level phreaky..

Discuss.
jd

It is not very new.
Even 40 years ago the cable companies had trucks that could resolve what channel you were playing on your TV to find people 'stealing cable'.
Since the statute of limitations has run out, I bought boxes of surplus 'cable boxes', and reprogrammed them to get every channel on cable including all 'pay-for-view' channels and live forever . (they had a built-in 4-day 'death-timer' that would lock them up, unless fixed)
A person that had 'basic-cable' ($13/month) ch2-13 could watch EVERYTHING!
My friend used one for years and wasn't busted until the truck stopped in front his house and they 'scanned' him.
They only tacked a small 'fine' on his cable bill.
Oddly enough, I was the only one that couldn't use one because I always had 20-30 of the boxes in my apartment in the 'upgrade' process.

 

[Haertig]

Just surround yourself with a bunch of old monitors, each displaying a random moving screensaver, facing outwards from you while using your real monitor inside this protective box of extraneous signal emitters. Put on a tinfoil hat to cause additional spurious reflected signals (this use of a tinfoil hat may actually work!)

 

[SoJer]

..Even 40 years ago the cable companies had trucks that could resolve what channel you were playing on your TV to find people 'stealing cable'...

Yeah, but were they doing it 'wirelessly', by 'sniffing' the CRTs? Or simply 'sampling the neighborhood trunk' off some Jxn-box? That'd be pretty academic..

Just surround yourself with a bunch of old monitors, each displaying a random moving screensaver, facing outwards from you while using your real monitor inside this protective box of extraneous signal emitters. ...

Hmmm..

jd

 

[Supervisor42]

Yeah, but were they doing it 'wirelessly', by 'sniffing' the CRTs? Or simply 'sampling the neighborhood trunk' off some Jxn-box?

They were sniffing the RF produced by a CRT with a dish on the truck.

 

[SoJer]

They were sniffing the RF produced by a CRT with a dish on the truck.

..in 1982??

jd

 

[Supervisor42]

..in 1982??

jd

Yep. (well maybe it was 1985, but not later than that.) I forgot to add how many years he had been watching PREMIUM and PPV channels for FREE.

 

[bkt]

When I worked at Martin Marietta Aero and Naval Systems from 1986-1990, the CRTs and other equipment was hardened - they had special shielding to block those signals. Office windows also had devices that gently vibrated the glass so laser microphones couldn't be used to listen in on conversations inside.

 

[SheepDog]

Without the high voltage electromagnetic signals (old cathode ray tube monitors) it won't work. The newer flat screen monitors don't emit those signals (no HV flyback coils).
How much power does it take to generate enough signal to be picked up remotely?

 

[SoJer]

...The newer flat screen monitors don't emit those signals (no HV flyback coils). ..

I would have thought so, as well, but.. Van Eck phreaking - Wikipedia

"In April 2004, academic research revealed that flat panel and laptop displays are also vulnerable to electromagnetic eavesdropping. The required equipment for espionage was constructed in a university lab for less than US$2000."

..and, check out 'Section 4' of this PDF: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/pet2004-fpd.pdf (sorry for an 'external link', but I see no way to 'Upload' a PDF, herein..)

..Seems like a 'weak spot' are (some-types of) signal Cables, actually (!) DVI, in particular.. I would think that a ferrite-bead, inline, would attenuate much of any 'leakage', but apparently, it's "not enough", and/or it's not quenching the 'right' bands of frequencies..

Dunno, but.. Truly, "digital security" (for Us 'civvies') is as elusive as-ever..

jd