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Soft Tempest: Hidden Data Transmission Using Electromagnetic Emanations

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Information Hiding (IH 1998)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1525))

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Abstract

It is well known that eavesdroppers can reconstruct video screen content from radio frequency emanations. We discuss techniques that enable the software on a computer to control the electromagnetic radiation it transmits. This can be used for both attack and defence. To attack a system, malicious code can encode stolen information in the machine’s RF emissions and optimise them for some combination of reception range, receiver cost and covertness. To defend a system, a trusted screen driver can display sensitive information using fonts which minimise the energy of these emissions. There is also an interesting potential application to software copyright protection.

Supported by a European Commission Marie Curie training grant

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QG, UK

    Markus G. Kuhn & Ross J. Anderson

Authors
  1. Markus G. Kuhn
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  2. Ross J. Anderson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Intel Corporation JF3-373, Hillsboro, OR, 97124-5961, USA

    David Aucsmith

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© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kuhn, M.G., Anderson, R.J. (1998). Soft Tempest: Hidden Data Transmission Using Electromagnetic Emanations. In: Aucsmith, D. (eds) Information Hiding. IH 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1525. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49380-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49380-8_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65386-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49380-8

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