Cellular Modem TEMPEST

[Michael Bacon]

This story sounds rather reminiscent of the tales surrounding the US
computers in Saigon that the VC allegedly compromised by replacing various
circuit boards (I heard printer drivers) with identical units but
incorporating a radio transmitter.  The story has it that the US permitted
local Vietnamese access to the computer rooms (as cleaners) - and since they
didn't wear black pyjamas to work the US didn't recognise them as VC.

In a previous incarnation I recommended the use of mobile phones and
cellular modems for covert penetration testing in clients.  Install in (say)
a wiring closet and dial in whenever you want.

Michael (Streaky) Bacon
  ____
~(____)>
  "  "
The views expressed herein are my own and
do not necessarily reflect those of my employer



> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Young [mailto:jya@pipeline.com]
> Sent: 27 March 2000 12:45
> To: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk
> Subject: Cellular Modem TEMPEST
> 
> 
> Last summer World Net Daily published an article on
> a hacker group called "Hong Kong Blondes" in which
> the hackers claimed  that compromising electromagnetic
> emanations from computer equipment could be acquired
> by cellular modems. 
> 
> Can cellular modems be used for this purpose? If so,
> what is involved in setting them up for it?
> 
> Here's the article excerpt:
> 
>   As time progressed, members of the Hong
>   Kong Blondes leadership told WorldNetDaily
>   they began actually to install codes within the
>   PLA computer mainframes. By using cellular
>   modems, they were able to monitor the
>   electromagnetic signals emitted by PLA
>   computers by remote means. The Blondes even
>   planted transmitters within the offices of the
>   Chinese government, People's Liberation Army
>   and foreign corporate headquarters in order to
>   monitor their activities and infiltrate their
>   computer networks.
> 
> -----
> 
> 
>