Dear John,

PGP has a tempest prevention font, although I don't know if
it is effective.

PGP's TEMPEST-prevention font is certainly effective for what it offers, which is a way of displaying in fairly low contrast the text on screen. It makes for much more work for the van Eck tuner, trying to get his screen to show the text due to the low contrast.

However, PGP is extremely vulnerable to keystroke logging.
Clipboard pasting your PGP password simply shifts the
vulnerability to clipboard logging.  And the PGP private
key would seem to be something one could grab off the
user's hard drive over the 'net.

As well, many people compose online.  So, you have the
vulnerability of a PGP message while it is being composed.
It could be viewed in the composition stage either by
'net warez or by van Eck phreaking.  Then it is encrypted
and sent.  It is nearly invulnerable as a set of data
packets while it is transmitted, although these could be
duplicated en route for the Ft. Meade supercomputers if
passwords have been logged and private keys purloined.

Once it arrives at its destination it can be viewed in
TEMPEST-secure font, but then the recipient goes to
compose a reply.  So, again, his reply can be viewed
by 'net warez during composition and before encryption,
or by van Eck phreaking.

In other words, PGP is a good idea.  It is like putting
an envelope around your letters instead of sending
everything by postcard.  But, just as with an envelope,
it is a thin veil of privacy.  It can be penetrated.

So, anyone who is writing things under PGP security
that he wouldn't want anyone to read is probably making
a dreadful mistake.

Regards,

Jim


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