[LINK] US voting machines - problems already

Kim Holburn kim at holburn.net
Wed Nov 1 15:47:56 AEDT 2006


Yeah by vulnerable I meant CRTs are more vulnerable to  
eavesdropping.  CRTs are vulnerable to soft tempest as well as  
tempest/van eck.  Soft tempest is much simpler and may even be done  
with a video camera.  CRTs produce considerably more EM radiation  
than LCDs.  LCDs are still vulnerable to EM (van eck style)  
eavesdropping.  I don't believe van eck would allow you to do  
anything more that eavesdrop.

http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/kuhn02optical.html
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/kuhn04electromagnetic.html

While I would think this is important in a country that has secret  
ballots.   I'm surprised that AFAIK this has not been talked about by  
the anti-e-voting people in the US.

When I look at the register article really carefully it does seem to  
be about eavesdropping but it's not spelled out very clearly.

On 2006/Nov/01, at 11:14 AM, brd at iimetro.com.au wrote:

> I doubt that anyone could hack into a system through a CRT. They  
> could eavesdrop
> but it's an output device and so it's like trying to change a word  
> document by
> writing on the computer screen - notwithstanding jokes about [pick  
> a group you
> want to insult] word processing operators and whiteout.
>
> Quoting Kim Holburn <kim at holburn.net>:
>
>> That'd be?:
>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/31/ 
>> dutch_votingmachines_inadequate/
>>
>> It doesn't mention tempest though.  It appears to be some kind of   
>> active hacking through wireless.  These days CRT screens are much   
>> more vulnerable to van eck and optical tempest.  LCD screens can   
>> probably be shielded fairly simply.
>>
>>
>> On 2006/Nov/01, at 10:14 AM, Martin Barry wrote:
>>
>>> $quoted_author = "Howard Lowndes" ;
>>>>
>>>> There's also a story, I think at The Register, that the Dutch have
>>>> banned them because the screen radiation can be read at a distance.
>>>> Think TV detector vans in the UK and the Tempest standard.  I   
>>>> think the
>>>> radiation is called super heterodyne radiation.
>>>
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking
>>>
>>> "...is the process of eavesdropping on the contents of a CRT or  
>>> LCD  display
>>> by detecting its electromagnetic emissions."
>>>
>>> cheers
>>> marty
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Tanuki:		What is the collective term for more-than-one ninja?
>>> Matt S Trout:	Not right, but "a silence of ninjas" appeals to me   
>>> somehow.
>>> Tanuki:		Or maybe a "stealth" of Ninjas?
>>> Mike Andrews:	I believe that the correct answer is: A       of  
>>> ninjas.
>>> Tanuki:		I sense deep wrongness here: is it not Zen-axiomatic that
>>> 		any Ninja who announces himself as such is _not_ a Ninja?
>>> Joe Block:	So the perfect disguise would be for the ninja to  
>>> walk  around
>>> 		in a ninja suit, trying not to hide, then?
>>> Tanuki:		Ah, the old argument that sometimes the best way to  
>>> truly  hide
>>> 		something is to put it where it will be obvious.
>>> 		From now on this will be known as "Security by Blatancy"
>>>
>>> alt.sysadmin.recovery usenet thread - start at <LOd8IKA8msYBFw  
>>> $v at demon.co.uk>
>>
>> Awesome.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Kim Holburn
>> IT Network & Security Consultant
>> Ph: +61 2 61258620 M: +61 417820641  F: +61 2 6230 6121
>> mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
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>>
>> Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
>>                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961
>>
>>
>>
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--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +61 2 61258620 M: +61 417820641  F: +61 2 6230 6121
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request
Cacert Root Cert: http://www.cacert.org/cacert.crt
Aust. Spam Act: To stop receiving mail from me: reply and let me know.
Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD] http://www.saqqara.demon.co.uk/ 
datefmt.htm

Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961






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