Re: US slaps on the wardriver-busting paint
The paint sounds like yet another sting operation to catch the goofuses who think they can hide RF on the cheap. The folks on the TSCM-L list think the paint is pure snake oil, that the electrophysics of it are crap. Still, phony Tempest protection is a pretty good business, no doubt promoted by the spooks who get better results from signals calling attention to themselves by way of half-assed protection: -- here, look at me trying to shield my nonsense. Several US companies have done quite well selling so-called NSA-grade Tempest protection, even requiring an export license for the hoakum, in cahoots with the agency which welcomes the pointers to users. Joel McNamara's Tempest site has a several references to RF snake oil, some of which appears to be honeypot-grade. Relatedlhy, we assume that the only reason NSA released to us a batch of Tempest docs was to promote the sale of weak systems. Docs which describe the truly good protection have never been released, presuming there is such high-quality of RF security. Tempest could be a diversion from more intricate and interception. Over-confidence in a security system is a bellweather for successful attack. Someday, now 5 years and counting, we hope to get NSA FOI docs on the Brit's Non-Secret Encryption which allegedly was invented before the PK if Diffie Hellman Merkle, and whether any of that pre-PK information was leaked so that DHM could access it, by guile or by accident, NSA by then having developed a crack, and set in motion the faith-based use of unbreakable public crypto.
Re: US slaps on the wardriver-busting paint
At 09:35 AM 1/14/05 -0500, R.A. Hettinga wrote: It only remains for us to say that DefendAir costs a cool $69 per gallon (US gallon, presumably). How much is the TV tax in the UK? How long to pay off the costs of paint to hide one's IF oscillator from the White Vans? Surprising that the Register didn't pick up on this. The Al foil over the windows and screen over the appliance-vents might be telling. Otherwise its a waste of paint. And haven't these paint-scammers heard of foil-backed insulation?
Re: US slaps on the wardriver-busting paint
At 10:00 AM 1/16/2005, Major Variola (ret) wrote: At 09:35 AM 1/14/05 -0500, R.A. Hettinga wrote: It only remains for us to say that DefendAir costs a cool $69 per gallon (US gallon, presumably). How much is the TV tax in the UK? How long to pay off the costs of paint to hide one's IF oscillator from the White Vans? You weren't reading the how it works description carefully. It works by blocking RF, so if you put enough paint on to block outgoing RF from your IF oscillator, you'll also block incoming RF headed for your tuner, unless your TV set does a good job of isolating the IF from the antenna. Similarly, if it's doing a good enough job of blocking RF to keep 802.11 WLANs from getting out, it's also keeping cell phone signals from getting in. RF is surprisingly leaky stuff. Back when I ran a TEMPEST-shielded room, we'd find easily-measurable leaks if the copper-wool filler in the joints wasn't packed tightly, or if we stuck a paper clip in one of the fiber-waveguide holes. We were measuring at 450 MHz, which was a really high frequency for the mid 1980s when computers ran at 10 MHz, and our room was about 120 dB tight when everything was working. Looks like the tax is UKP 116, so if the paint is only sold in whole gallons, and the white vans come around monthly to test, it could pay off in 3-4 months if it worked, except that it probably won't work. Bill Stewart [EMAIL PROTECTED]
