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Super Shielded PC Cases
mvw sent us an amusing link
for the super paranoid.
These cases
claim to be all shielded, all filtered, and emit none of the
stuff those snoopers like to listen to. Plus it looks like
it could be dropped from a low flying jet and keep ticking.
One thing they guy fails to mention is that these are about the HEAVIEST PC's you'll ever see. Also fails to mention that monitor really stinks.
That has been on the site since before defcon 6. And someone only found it now?
The government has purchased sheilded electronic equpment for years, as protection against tempest.
o nitoring.article
A quick search of IBM's patent server service revealed several interesting patents:
The best source of tempest info is this: http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/tempest.html
And for protecting yourself from EMP interference or doing it yourself, http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Security/tempest_m
and
http://jya.com/emp.htm
HERE is a really interesting company: http://www.codexdatasystems.com/
even paranoids have enemies.
If you want real TEMPEST equipment, check out Hetra Secure Solutions (shameless plug) They sell all sorts of cool TEMPEST stuff, including rugged laptops and stuff. This is real TEMPEST equipment. They also sell TEMPEST moniters, printers, scanners, servers, you name it... You must be a US citizen to buy it though. =)
All of the lines are filtered. If you are using approved cables, they are heavily shielded as well. (If you're not using approved cables, you've defeated the point of the case anyway). Since the point of the setup is not EMP protection, it all really depends on how over-designed it is.
If it's milspec, I'll give it better than average odds.
Another problem is that the video port emmits TEMPEST, the video cable (even the shielded ones) emmit radiation, and the power outlet that the display is plugged into emmits radiation.
The only real solution is to purchase certified TEMPEST equipment.
There's nothing more sinister-looking than a dark brooding Courier, with its row of hellish-looking red LEDs flashing.
;-)
So I'm not the only one that thought WOPR (from WarGames) was the damndest cool-looking computer ever?
(Okay, so it wasn't black, but it was definitely sinister-looking
iSKUNK!
That is a good way to do it. Syncing with the signal isn't too hard, it's just like the vertical and horizontal hold knobs on an old TV. With a little more sophistication, the horizontal and vertical; blanking can be analyzed for automated synching (but why bother, it's easy enough).
Heh, I have an old 286 that with a few modifications would be better shielded than these things. With the cover on, the components are surrounded by 14 (maybe thicker) gauge steel on all sides. :) It also weighs about 50 pounds.
They just don't make them like they used to.
Steven
In about 20 years time, the current top of the line data storage media will probably be unreadable by the future perhiperals.
However, a message carved on a stone tablet several thousand years ago will still be readable a thousand years from now.
--Steven's things to think about.
In my stint in the USAF, we used something very simular to these for secure data transfer (the data transfer bit used STU-III units). The difference between those pictured and what I remember was the drive area was covered by two swinging "doors". I'm thinking what is pictured is an earlier model.
These things were HEAVY. Obviously designed with more rugged services in mind (seemed more USA than USAF). They had wire mesh shielding along all contact poits (top of case, the aforementioned doors, etc). The idea is to direct all errant signal to ground instead of inadvertantly broadcasting them to whoever might be able to listen.
They were also woefully behind the times - when 486DX4s were going against the first Pentiums, we had a 386. They worked fine for their task. But man, were they slow.
I wouldn't be suprised t find out that these puppies are military surplus.
It looks like a well meaning person is trying to make money off the millenium.
I have seen a few milspec sheilded computers (no hard drive). They were not generally for use as a standalone unit. Most were encryption bridges. (With physical keys too! (embedded microchip a-la cadillac)) Monitors were too much of a security risk (if you can see it it is vulnerable).
All ports had milled blocks of aluminum bolted over them (unless they were hooked up with appropriate cable).
For all the trouble you will go through to shield your computer it will not work. Ever hear of X-10? Your computer broadcasts through the same power lines. An emp pulse will travel through the same lines.
If I ever get around to it I will pick up a goverment shielded box and post photos.
All the cables need to be twisted pairs, much like the phone company uses. This way the EMP (almost) cancels itself out.
Almost any computer can be dropped from an aeroplane and keep working. It's only when it hits the ground that you run into problems.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
...we all know the Feds will be using M$-designed surveillance software...
"Um boss" "Yes?"
"We can't scan his machine." "Why not?"
"Our tools won't run on his machine! They require a Pentium III! He's got a 386!"
"Sneaky Bastard!"
"Dogs and cats, living together...it's mass hysteria!"
For some reason, most military stuff is incredibly uncute, rough and seems to be built with a hammer and an axe.
:-)
For non classified information, I'd still buy that cutie 1U Penguin rackable box I seen a banner for on slashdot lately. (I have no links to the compagny, but their site is worth visiting, their servers look really sexy). Maybe on the adfu page you can find their banner
Alexandre K. Golovanivsky http://datahit.com/
That's great and well for the CPU chassis, but if you want any output from the machine, the "snoopers" will have a much better target with that large electron gun you usually look at for results. (On a different note, that vendor does have documentation of EMI test results for each case to prove it meets the Tempest spec. right? =) Now if they sell boxes with lead walls, you may be able to purchase a secure working environment... until you need network connectivity, anyway.
How's my programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL
So will they protect my PC from an EMP? Somebody drops a nuke, and I could lose serious Quake Area play time.
Dirk
I keep trying to pick fights, but I can't shake this Excellent karma.
This guy's info is, at best, dated. "Tempest" hasn't been the approved term since 1996 -- "EMSEC" (Emissions Security) is now the official term. And last I checked, the EMSEC instructions don't provide allowances for all this shielding (whether they should is a different discussion) -- the "minimum spacing" requirements to separate classified & unclassified systems (and even classified systems rated for different levels of classification) would still hold.
Christopher A. Bohn
cb
Oooh! What does this button do!?
Did anyone else notice this "case" is a slightly modified IBM PC XT 5150?
Van-Eck video interception can work up to 1/2 mile away, depending on the monitor. Interception of useful information from the CPU is limited to a dozen or so meters, though. If you want to spend your money on keeping your data safe that way, get an LCD monitor.
There's a book thats basically an historical account of the British intelligence agencies during the World War II era and the autobiography of the author, Peter Wright. It seems to be out of print so I won't post an Amazon URL.
Anyway, one of their escapades was to insert a pair of microphones either in the room with or directly inside a typewriter keyboard. From the sounds recorded this way they could reproduce what the typist was typing. Sort of a low-tech (high-tech at the time!) implementation of a TEMPTEST-like scheme.
If you can find it try reading the book. It starts off as a fairly good read and reveals some of the real way espionage agencies can get information. The writing style deteriorates later on (fired the ghost writer or hired a different ghost writer?)
Van Eck Phreaking only works within a few meters of where the monitor is. The monitor is the biggest broadcaster (nice broadband at about 10dB), so all you really need to do if you're that paranoid is get a few ferrite cores and clamp them on the video signal cable and to the power cable. Don't forget your aluminum foil hats.
For those of us less paranoid, make sure that your case is closed. See them little metal springy thingies that are along the seams? Don't lose them. They keep the PC in FCC spec. Don't leave any rear IO fillers out either. Not only is it bad for airflow, but it lets EM radiation out too.
It's not the original case, though it's laid out for the XT/baby-AT, original motherboard.
Hey this thing looks damn cool. I'd wanna get my hands on one simply because of that. Perfect for skydiving too...
---------------------------(
Whoa, first one in a while that's made it to X = 10+. Party on, Wayne!
/. every 30 seconds.
1) Bomb Shelter
2) Garbage can for AOL 30 Day Trial CDs.
3) Office cot.
4) A nifty hat. Come on, you know you've been tempted!
5) Really expensive paperweight.
6) Something else to spill coffee on.
7) Bulletin board.
8) Dildo.
9) Something else to throw out the window and watch go "kerplunk".
10) A new comfy home for the hamster that runs everything by wheel power.
11) A superfast, top of the line, totally dedicated working environment for reloading
-
How many nerds do you know that actually use a computer case? :-)
---
Try PC Power and Cooling. Also, Silent Systems has some nice stuff quiet enough to use in sound studios.
Paranoia will destroy yah... honest, mum.
Is there really any point to these 'beasts' ? I know that there are reasons to encrypt data, and that MI5 sand-blast their hard drives after use, but surely there must be a limit...
Yeah, who needs a POS 486 box that's shielded? I'd much rather have a mid-tower or server box that's beefed up like this thing purports to be. Looks like someone got bored with their old-skool packard bell case and spray painted the ugly thing black. Sucks.
That's a good start. The pairs should also run inside a shield grounded to the case. Not too hard to construct.
FYI: This is available now, and is built in to the PGP windows client.
On the issue of the case, it is almost exactly the opposite of what I need! My perfect case might have some of these qualities:
1) Ultra-light frame
2) Maximum internal size versus frame size
3) Quicklock removable case - to access the insides in a hurry, while closing quickly for transport (no more combing the carpet for a screw)
4) Case handles for easy luggability
5) built in CD Rack
etc.
anyone else care to contribute?
I have a so called "tempest" PC case that must date from 1985. Before that there were 8080 and Z80 systems in these kind of boxes. Reason is the government requires it for some project and has for many years. Your typical CRT acts something like a bradcast transmitter.
The other use for these, and the millitary buys them by the thousands is to resist EMP, like when a nuke goes off, unless your computer is in a Faraday cadge it is gonna get fried
The US gov. has been buying these for decades, it is not new.
GTE makes systems similar to this. They aren't Tempest shielded (the systems sit in metal shelters on the back of Hummers -- when the doors are closed on the shelters, the systems are Tempest protected), but they are called 'ruggedized'. Basically, this means these things can sit out in the desert in all the dust and have no problems. One came back from the field with a cup full of sand and it's not uncommon to find rocks in them. The systems can operate after being dropped (just don't drop them on anything you like, they are -way- heavy) and they can operate while being bounced around. One of the cool things is that these are high end systems. Ultra 2's and 10's with major memory and disk space. Basically, they're decent systems designed for harsh environments (the Army's battlefield, for instance).
More info at: http://chs2.gte.com/product.htm
You can't really make a quiet case; you really need the airflow. On the other hand, you really can build a quiet system. I have one at home (mostly).
Step 1: I replaced the fan in my power supply with a whisper-quiet new Panaflow fan
Step 2: I underclocked my K6-2/400 CPU to 300mhz, and replaced the heat sink+fan with just a big-ass heat sink. It stays well within AMD's recommended thermal specs.
Step 3: I'm going to replace my hard drive with one of the current quiet models. Fujitsu makes some drives that are virtually inaudible. Right now, I'm also investigating the noise level from an IBM drive known to be quiet (although not as quiet), but that is cheaper, faster, and probably more reliable.
- pmitros at mit.edu
The components are dated and the information is out of spec. I assume the whole thing is a joke - some of the pictures look just like an original PC spraypainted black. Hey! I've got one running still (with an 8088) so you know what? I'm going to paint it black and sell it too!
ls:
(A)bort, (R)etry, (I)gnore?
I need to get one of these!
I have felt the need to keep all of my top-secret, classified data safe. Hell... maybe the shielded case will speed up the 8088 he was using. I always wondered what it would take to speed up the 386 I run this US DoD datacenter on....
Serioiusly: Who do you kinow that runs sensitive information from a 386? Or an 8088 like this guy mentioned?
Gimme a break!
"It compiles, SHIP IT!" -Overheard at Microsoft's development lab
[1] UK, not Massachusetts, thank you.
-- Arm yourself when the Frog God smiles.
When I went to Naval Intellegence school in 1992 these cases were everywhere. Even the MFM and Floppy disk cables had a thick mesh around them. We had to disassemble a few dozen for scrap, took us all day. They were mostly designed to meet standards for electronic emmissions for computers at sea. The requirements these days are much less strict. As for the 8088 processor, thats about right, although I can recall a few retrofitted with 386 upgrades. We ran Zenix on the 386's using a thick coax lan, and the system was designated "PC NIPS" for Naval Intelligence Processing Systems.
People think Microsoft is the answer. Microsoft is just the question, "No" is the answer.
Metal cases, and they even painted it BLACK! I had to wipe away a tear of joy. Black equipment is always the best. Why do you think people were really interested in the NeXT cube? It wasn't really because of the software; they just pretended to like Nextstep later, after the cubes stopped being made. (Had to rationalize.)
Oh.. and why do I use a USR Courier instead of a Sportster? Duh. Because it's black, of course. There's nothing more sinister-looking than a dark brooding Courier, with its row of hellish-looking red LEDs flashing.
Of course, I used to use a black Micropolis drive, but it died, and now I use silver-white Quantum. Oh well, no theory is perfect.
As for the metal cases.... I don't really care about shielding; I just like heavy metal computers. Yep. Like IBM keyboards ... *drool* .. oh, don't get me started on IBM keyboards.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
This is completely pointless. Tempest works by listening to your monitor signal. The computer's internal signals are much more difficult (maybe impossible) to decode. We need a Tempest-proof monitor and monitor cable, mostly. Sony used to put steel cages around the monitor tubes, but stopped (actually around the time Tempest probably came into being, but this is most likely a coincidence).
I understand that that monitor is build to prevent Van-Eck video interception. But the last time I used a monochrome monitor was a TSR-80.
Hey people, does anyone know how hard it is to pick up signals from an LCD monitor? I figured they are low-powered and would require completely different equipment to pick up an any signals it could put out. But I don't believe it puts out any signals. Thoughts?
Later
Erik Z
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
If you read his site he gets into EMSEC as well
Not likely...the case might be able to ground out the blast, but you'll get a spike from every wire attached to the beast....everything from the power cable to the keyboard...
I work for a USAF contractor. We are provided GFE (government furnished equipment) for test reference. One machine is a GTSI desktop PC that, at one point, was used by most of the Air Force's COMSEC (communications security) people. Supposedly, as long as you use certified periphials and properly shielded cables, the thing has no problems with EMSEC (emissions security, the result of the TEMPEST program).
:-)
The funny part is, it is an IBM Aptiva with a new sticker pasted on the front of it. Apparently, you don't need to use a two-inch-thick, lead-lined case for TEMPEST after all.....
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Go here...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
For those of you who have not clicked this link, I urge you to! It is the entrance page to a DIA site, which has a notice that "USE OF THIS OR ANY OTHER DEPT. OF DEFENSE INTEREST COMPUTER SYSTEM (DODICS)
CONSTITUTES AN EXPRESS CONSENT TO MONITORING AT ALL TIMES." and then some other blurb in the same vein... And then an "AGREED" button.
I did not click it, fearing of course that the NSA or suchlike would be taking my pc's to bits (well, more to bits) within the hour... but then the page automatically agreed for me after 30s.
Nice
Talking off the top of my head (hey this *is* slashdot, right?) wasn't the easiest way to snoop a CRT to get at the light intensity variation?
;-) simply closing the curtains probably won't help.
i.e. We don't care where the electron beam is pointing, it is just illuminating (or not) one pixel at a time. So feed the light (any light, reflected or otherwise) from the room into something which chops it up at the right frequency (which is presumably one of a small number of standard ones) and you're away.
Whilst a windowless room should be proof against this (as long as you black out the gap under the door
[And yes, I know light is also electromagnetic radiation. By 'EM' I mean the stuff which a Faraday cage is hoping to ground out. Sorry if this is insufficiently pedantic.]
I would care a whole lot more if someone would sell a nice quite case. I am really getting sick of all the whiring noises in my offices.
I don't know about the TEMPEST protection, but I suspect that whoever build this just shielded everything and figured that it could defeat the government. I seem to remember reading (many years ago) an article on a device that could read the emissions of a CRT (at least the older kind) from a respectable distance. The fact that this guy has put an old-style monocrome, probably high-radiation type, on that makes me think that he doesn't know what he's doing. It'd be interesting to know if anyone has actually TESTED his system. As far as being able to take abuse goes, my old Xerox 8086 looks like it could handle more than that PC clone could. That thing's built like a tank and has survived: :)
Being dropped from a height of 1.5 meters.
a power surge which fried a power strip.
being run with a tesla coil next to it. (for fun! Made it reset, but no other damage)
Lets see this spy-tech computer do that!
"Remember, it's not falling out the airplane that kills you. It's the sudden STOP!"