CRT Eavesdropping: Optical Tempest

PortalCell writes "LED status monitors may potentially leak data in a few applications, but worse: Markus Kuhn has now revealed (pdf) that it's possible to read your monitor indirectly just by observing how the blue flicker lights up the room! Forget taping up LEDs or living in a metal box - now you might have to do without sunlight to be secure!" Hopefully people will also stop submitting the LED story now.

Comments

Factoid.

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting fact:

The refresh rate on an LED is slower that the transmission rate of just about any current communications equipment.

Secondary Fact:

Most equipment uses LED's to show packet transfer.

Re:Sunlight==good

[los furtive]

Shucks, the more I think about it the more you're right. But at the same time, it cannot be stressed enough that for /. to succeed in the subscription world, they are going to have to get off their amateur asses and put out something a bit more solid in nature. For me to pull a fast/lazy one at the bottom of an on-topic comment is still fair enough. But next time I promise to include the tags ;-) In other news: there's no need to hide behind your anonymous coward style, I don't bite.