-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2331772,00.html?chkpt=hpqs014 <A HREF="http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2331772,00.html?chkpt=hpqs 014">ZDNN: Zap! ... and your PC's dead</A> ----- Zap! ... and your PC's dead Ex-Navy engineer David Schriner demos his homemade, bargain-basement, computer-killing 'gun.' By Kevin Poulsen, ZDNN September 9, 1999 5:44 PM PT WASHINGTON -- With $500 and a trip to the hardware store, saboteurs can build a device capable of remotely disrupting computers, automobiles, medical equipment and nearly anything else dependant on electronics, according to a California engineer who demonstrated a homebrew computer death-ray at the InfowarCon '99 conference here Wednesday. Former Navy engineer David Schriner showed off an unwieldy device constructed from a parabolic reflector, a horn antenna and two automotive ignition coils, which he aimed at two personal computers about 20 feet away. Add your comments to the bottom of this page. When an assistant activated the Rube Goldberg contraption by connecting it to a car battery, the conference room filled with a loud buzzing from the PA system and a PowerPoint presentation on the projection screen flickered and scattered. One of the computers instantly dropped out of its screen saver. When the device was switched off, both PCs were frozen, and wouldn't respond to keyboard input. HERF emissions a killer The effects of High Energy Radio Frequency (HERF) emissions on electronics are well known among engineers, and info-warriors have expressed concern that adversarial nations may someday include computer-killing devices in their arsenals. MORE FROM ZDNET: Info war or electronic saber rattling? ZDNN's Special Report (1998): Cyber wars Cyberwar: Proper vigilance or paranoia Military aircraft are built with hardened electronics designed to survive the electromagnetic pulse created by a nuclear detonation. Schriner theorized that a single nuclear weapon designed specifically for the purpose, "would probably take out all of the electronics on the East Coast." But Schriner, who has devoted his research to small-scale electronic warfare, said the demonstration was intended as a "wake up call" to show that even low-budget saboteurs can create viable electronic weapons. Wal-Mart-powered weapon "We bought the car battery at Wal-Mart yesterday," said Schriner. "It's all stuff you can buy at the hardware store." The HERF gun is not particularly high-tech, either. The device uses technology dating back to Tesla, essentially pushing a 20 megawatt burst of undisciplined radio noise through an antenna. The energy is enough to interfere with sensitive computer components nearby, creating unpredictable results ranging from minor anomalous behavior, to complete burnout. Schriner said he's built larger HERF guns capable of crashing computers and disabling automobiles at a range of 100 feet, with a cost as low as $300. That's going in the script Jonathan Lemkin, a screenwriter working on an infowar script for Paramount, was particularly impressed with the dramatic display and menacing hardware. "That's definitely going in the movie," he said. The computers targeted in today's demonstration worked fine after rebooting, and Schriner said permanent damage is uncommon. "But if that happens to be a computer in a tank, or in a piece of medical equipment, how long does it take to reboot? . . . By that time you could be dead." Conference organizer and infowar author Winn Schwartau said Wednesday's demonstration validates a threat he first tried to warn Congress about in 1991. "They asked if I thought they should add HERF guns to the Brady Bill," Schwartau recalls. See also: ZDNN's Computing section TalkbackThe display maybe dramatic to t... - Felix Luk How do these things work on ste... - Lauren Smith This sounds like a very deadly ... - Brandon Rosenblum Okay, So wasn't the NSA/FBI wor... - Chris What a crock. That's just Sta... - Carlotta Rossi Death to taxes! It seems appar... - Dana Willis I crashed my computer downloadi... - Sandra Gay What's interesting about this r... - Raymond Chuang Why do news services even run s... - jenkins Our own police forces are looki... - john byrne This is actually quite funny, i... - Chris Charabaruk Sorry, Bill Gates beat him to i... - Tim Sullivan I see many of the posts here po... - S. M. Big deal, Microsoft makes a num... - Tom Samuel 1990 Technology. Old School. T... - Dennis Dohrman It is a rough model, but I supp... - William Housley "Who would use this weapon? ... - Recluze Oh, by the way... Just take ... - Bill Housley Who needs a computer "Death-Ray... - Joe Bolin RE; Carlotta Hmm . You say y... - Observant Some has probably already minat... - jeri Ward Wow! This guy should team up w... - A Hunter It's called Jammin and is techn... - Jerry Forsythe crashing computers is easy, if ... - dan lynge Think what the Pentagon could d... - Tom Downs Interesting... This reminds me ... - V. Lee A police Leutenant told me of u... - Dave Davison This just what we need. With so... - bill You only need to reboot a PC if... - Rob Rosenberger Very promising technology. I un... - Paul Fisette Why spend 500 bucks at Wal-mart... - Luca L'Aurora Lauren -- forget the noisy neig... - Max Rizley, Jr. This is NOT new. I did th... - Stephanie Coning I was reading this dumb article... - Jim Archer Well, we can always look at the... - Mark Morrison Bad headline... should be "Zap.... - DC "One of the computers instantly... - Dennis as with any new item, they are ... - stephen lapausky With $500 dollars and the same ... - John Pescatore Future warfare will use this ty... - Mark F. Kamoski Now that this article has gotte... - lmoses This Should NOT be public knowl... - DKPhantom This is not something someone's... - David Clark Several readers have mentioned ... - Bob Powell I wonder what FCC thinks about ... - Kevin O'Malley Just using your computer can yi... - Mark For most people, HERF weapons a... - GoodNub Build safeguards into their PCs... - kieran dot dill Death to taxes? Gimme a break.... - Alan Schuman I think this is great, it sound... - Donald C. Copeland It's not like you really need i... - .stefan How long until they develop a h... - Pete Heffner This is definitely not some... - Jim L A version of this kind of thing... - damien morton To some of the others who are s... - Stephen Sadowski It seems that several people ar... - Dave Britt **IMPORTANT EDITORS NOTE - P... - Tammy Cavadias - ZDNN Talkback Sysop If you have to roll this huge c... - Mark Bell September 11, 1999 AM 06:26a U.S., Russia plan joint Y2K missile center 06:26a Wendy's sues alleged cybersquatter *** 09/10/1999 04:56p CGI's stock jumps following Microsoft deal 04:28p U.S. extends Internet names test period -- again 04:16p Red Hat makes peace Microsoft: All bluster, no proof Dreamcast: Huge sales, 'massive' returns AMD cuts chip prices U.S., Russia plan Y2K missile center Retailers take to Mac OS 9 Andreessen dialing back at AOL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get Personal News Alert ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright (c) 1999 ZDNet. 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