The notion of spying is a very sensitive topic after the September 11 attack of Terrorists in New York
The secret project Developed by NSA (National Security Agency of USA) and its allies is tracing every single transmission even a single of keyboard. The allies of USA UK Australia New Zealand Canada
Echelon is the technology for sniffing through the messages sent over a network or any transmission media, even it is wireless messages. Tempest is the technology for intercepting the electromagnetic waves over the air. It simply sniffs through the electromagnetic waves propagated from any devices, even it is from the monitor of a computer screen. Tempest can capture the signals through the walls of computer screens and keystrokes of key board even the computer is not connected to a network. Thus the traditional way of hacking has a little advantage in spying.
For the common people it is so hard to believe that their monitor can be reproduced from anywhere in one kilometer range without any transmission media in between the equipment and their computer. So we have to believe the technology enabled us to reproduce anything from a monitor of computer to the Hard Disks including the Memory (RAM) of a distant computer without any physical or visual contact. It is done with the Electromagnetic waves propagated from that device.
The main theory behind the Tempest(Transient Electromagnetic Pulse Emanation Standard.) is that any electronic or electrical devices emit Electromagnetic radiations of specific key when it is operated. For example the picture tube of computer monitor emits radiations when it is scanned up on vertical of horizontal range beyond the screen. It will not cause any harm to a human and it is very small. But it has a specific frequency range. You can reproduce that electromagnetic waves by tracing with the powerful equipments and the powerful filtering methods to correct the errors while transmission from the equipment. Actually this electromagnetic waves are not necessary for a human being because it not coming from a transmitter, but we have a receiver to trace the waves.
For the project named as Echelon the NSA is using supercomputers for sniffing through the packets and any messages send as the electromagnetic waves. They are using the advantage of Distributed computing for this. Firstly they will intercept the messages by the technology named as the Tempest and also with the Carnivore. Every packet is sniffed for spying for the USA
Interception of communications is a method of spying commonly employed by intelligence services, For an intelligence agency they are make use of the spies for the secret services for government to provide the security of government and the people. So they can use any methods to ensure the security of people including spying, it is not guilt. It depends on the target we are aiming. To capture the terrorists before they can make any harm to people, we must keep the technology ahead. We, Engineers are behind that project of NSA and so we have to aware of that technology for enabling our INDIA USA
While Considering about the limitations of the surveillance system, The issues depends in particular, upon worldwide interception of satellite communications, although in areas characterised by a high volume of communications only a very small proportion of those communications are transmitted by satellite; whereas this means that the majority of communications cannot be intercepted by earth stations, but only by tapping cables and intercepting radio signals, something which -as the investigations carried out in connection with the report have shown - is possible only to a limited extent; whereas the numbers of personnel required for the final analysis of intercepted communications imposes further restrictions; whereas, therefore, the UKUSA states have access to only a very limited proportion of cable and radio communications and can analyze an even more limited proportion of those communications, and whereas, further, however extensive the resources and capabilities for the interception of communications may be, the extremely high volume of traffic makes exhaustive, detailed monitoring of all communications impossible in practice.
2. TEMPEST AND ECHELON
Interception of communications is a method of spying commonly employed by intelligence services, whereas there can now be no doubt that the purpose of the system is to intercept, at the very least, private and commercial communications, and not military communications, although the analysis carried out in the report has revealed that the technical capabilities of the system are probably not nearly as extensive as some sections of the media had assumed.
2.1 The Need for an Interception System
Interception of messages is the major work for the intelligence agencies all over the world, to keep track of the spies and terrorists for preserving the security of the country from the leaking of sensitive documents and the terrorist attacks. By the work of the intelligence agencies the government is ensuring the security of the state. For that we have to enable our intelligence agencies with modern technologies like USA
The targets for the ECHELON system developed by the NSA are apart from directing their ears towards terrorists and rogue states; ECHELON is also being used for purposes well outside its original mission. In America
arguments and privilege claims by the intelligence agencies and theUS
arguments and privilege claims by the intelligence agencies and the
The existence and expansion of ECHELON is a foreboding omen regarding the future of our Constitutional liberties. If a government agency can willingly violate the most basic components of the Bill of Rights without so much as Congressional oversight and approval, we have reverted from a republican form of government to tyranny.
While considering about the political spying we have to consider many legal issues. It consists of spying the other parties and the messages sent by them. Since the close of World War II, the US
While considering about the Industrial Espionage we have to discuss we have to redefine the notion of National Security to include economic, commercial and corporate concerns. Many of the major companies helped NSA to develop the ECHELON system to tackle the mammoth task for setting up the largest computing power throughout the world.
ECHELON is actually a vast network of electronic spy stations located around the world and maintained by five countries: the US, England
Canada Australia New Zealand
For these above reasons our country INDIA
3 INSIDE TEMPEST
TEMPEST is a short name referring to investigations and studies of compromising emanations (CE). Compromising emanations are defined as unintentiorial intelligence-bearing signals which, if intercepted and analyzed, disclose the national security information transmitted, received, handled or otherwise processed by any information-processing equipment. Compromising emanations consist of electrical or acoustical energy unintentionally emitted by any of a great number of sources within equipment/systems which process national security information. This energy may relate to the original message, or information being processed, in such a way that it can lead to recovery of the plaintext. Laboratory and field tests have established that such CE can be propagated through space and along nearby conductors. The interception/propagation ranges and analysis of such emanations are affected by a variety of factors, e.g., the functional design of the information processing equipment; system/equipment installation; and, environmental conditions related to physical security and ambient noise "compromising emanations" rather than "radiation" is used because the compromising signals can, and do, exist in several forms such as magnetic and/or electric field radiation, line conduction, (signal and power) or acoustic emissions. More specifically, the emanations occur as
1. Electromagnetic fields set free by elements of the plaintext processing equipment or its associated conductors.
2. Text-related signals coupled to cipher, power, signal, control or other BLACK lines through (a) common circuit elements such as grounds and power supplies or (b) inductive and capacitive coupling.
3. Propagation of sound waves from mechanical or electromechanical devices.
4. The TEMPEST problem is not one which is confined to cryptographic devices; it is a system problem and is of concern for all equipment which process plaintext national security data.
Sources of TEMPEST Signals:- In practice, the more common types of compromising emanations (CE )are attenuated RED(A term applied to wire lines, components, equipment, and systems which handle national security signals, and to areas in which national security signals occur.) base band signals, spurious carriers modulated by RED base band signals, and impulsive emanations.
1) Functional Sources. - Functional sources are those designed for the specific purpose of generating electromagnetic energy. Examples are switching transistors, oscillators. Signal generators, synchronizers, line drivers, and line relays.
2) Incidental Sources - Incidental sources are those which are not designed for the specific purpose of generating electromagnetic energy. Examples are electromechanical switches and brush-type motors.
Types of TEMPEST Signals: - In practice, the more common types of CE (compromising emanations) are attenuated RED base band signals, spurious carriers modulated by RED base band signals, and impulsive emanations.
RED Base band Signals -- The most easily recognized CE is the RED base band signal in attenuated but otherwise unaltered form, since it is essentially identical to the RED base band signal itself. This emanation can be introduced into electrical conductors connected to circuits (within an EUT) which have an impedance or a power source in common with circuits processing RED baseband signals. It can be introduced into an escape medium by capacitive or
inductive coupling, and especially by radiation with RED baseband signals of higher frequencies or data rates.
inductive coupling, and especially by radiation with RED baseband signals of higher frequencies or data rates.
Modulated Spurious Carriers -- This type of CE is generated as the modulation of a carrier by RED data. The carrier may be a parasitic oscillation generated in the equipment, i.e., the chopper frequency of a power supply, etc. The carrier is usually amplitude or angle-modulated by the basic RED data signal. or a signal related to the basic RED data signal, which is then radiated into space or coupled into EUT external conductors. See Figure below for time and frequency domain representations.
Impulsive Emanations -- Impulsive emanations are quite common in Equipment under Tests processing digital signal, and are caused by very fast mark-to-space and space-to-mark transitions of digital signals. Impulsive emanations can be radiated into space or coupled into Equipment under Test external conductors. See Figure 2 below for the time and frequency domain representations.
Other Types of Emanations -- Most CE resembles one of the types mentioned thus far. There are, however, other possible types of CE which are caused by various linear and nonlinear operations occurring in information-processing equipments and systems. Such CE cannot easily be categorized. In practice, these emanations often exhibit features which can frequently be related to one of the three types discussed.
Propagation of TEMPEST Signals: - There are four basic means by which compromising emanations may be propagated
1) Electromagnetic Radiation
2) Line Conduction
3) Fortuitous Conduction
4) Acoustics
Technology behind the TEMPEST: - We discussed that the TEMPEST uses the electromagnetic waves propagated from the electronic devices intentionally or non intentionally. For receiving the texts or data at the other end we have to screw up to a specific frequency range and just listen or replicate the data at the other end. Tempest is the technology, which can reproduce what you are seeing in your monitor, what you are typing in your keyboard from a couple of kilometres away. It traces all electromagnetic radiation from the victim’s monitor, keyboard, even pc memory and hard disk, and then it reproduces the signals. By using this technology it is possible to intrude (only listening) in to a person’s computer from a couple of kilometres away, even it is a computer which is not “Networked” and enables the intruder to hack without any connection to the victim’s computer.
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 optimize 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 minimize the energy of these emissions.
When snooping in to a computer’s VDU, similar periodic averaging and cross-correlation techniques can be used if the signal is periodic or if its structure is understood. Video display units output their frame buffer content periodically to a monitor and are therefore a target, especially where the video signal is amplified to several hundred volts. Knowledge of the fonts used with video displays and printers allows maximum likelihood character recognition techniques to give a better signal/noise ratio for whole characters than is possible for individual pixels.
Similar techniques can be applied when snooping on CPUs that execute known algorithms. Even if signals caused by single instructions are lost in the noise, correlation techniques can be used to spot the execution of a known pattern of instructions. Bovenlander reports identifying when a smartcard performs a DES encryption by monitoring its power consumption for a pattern repeated sixteen times. Several attacks become possible if one can detect in the power consumption that the smartcard processor is about to write into EEPROM. For example, one can try a PIN, deduce that it was incorrect from the power consumption, and issue a reset before the non-volatile PIN retry counter is updated. In this way, the PIN retry limit may be defeated.
Smulders showed that even shielded RS-232 cables can often be eavesdropped at a distance. Connection cables form resonant circuits consisting of the induction of the cable and the capacitance between the device and ground; these are excited by the high-frequency components in the edges of the data signal, and the resulting short HF oscillations emit electromagnetic waves.
It has also been suggested that an eavesdropper standing near an automatic teller machine equipped with fairly simple radio equipment could pick up both magnetic stripe and PIN data, because card readers and keypads are typically connected to the CPU using serial links. A related risk is cross-talk between cables that run in parallel. For instance, the reconstruction of network data from telephone lines has been demonstrated where the phone cable ran parallel to the network cable for only two metres. Amateur radio operators in the neighbourhood of a 10BASE-T network are well aware of the radio interference that twisted-pair Ethernet traffic causes in the short-wave bands. Laptop owners frequently hear radio interference on nearby FMradio
receivers, especially during operations such as window scrolling that cause bursts of system bus activity. A Virus could use this effect to broadcast data.
receivers, especially during operations such as window scrolling that cause bursts of system bus activity. A Virus could use this effect to broadcast data.
Compromising emanations are not only caused directly by signal lines acting as parasitic antennas. Power and ground connections can also leak high frequency information. Data line drivers can cause low-frequency variations in the power supply voltage, which in turn cause frequency shifts in the clock; the data signal is thus frequency modulated in the emitted RFI. Yet another risk comes from `active' attacks, in which parasitic modulators and data-dependent resonators affect externally applied electromagnetic radiation: an attacker who knows the resonant frequency of (say) a PC's keyboard cable can irradiate it with this frequency and then detect key-press codes in the retransmitted signal thanks to the impedance changes they cause. In general, transistors are non-linear and may modulate any signals that are picked up and retransmitted by a line to which they are connected. This effect is well known in the counterintelligence community, where `nonlinear junction detectors' are used to locate radio microphones and other unauthorised equipment.
Short wave attacks:-
If one wants to spy to a computer, then an important design criterion is the cost of the receiver. While intelligence services may already possess phased array antennas and software radios, such equipment is not yet generally available. The graduate student's Tempest spying kit is more likely to be just a radio receiver connected to an audio cassette recorder.
In order to get a computer VDU to produce audible tones on our radio, we have to design a screen image that causes the VDU beam current to
approximate a broadcast AM radio signal. If this latter has a carrier frequency fc and an audio tone with a frequency ft, then it can be represented as
approximate a broadcast AM radio signal. If this latter has a carrier frequency fc and an audio tone with a frequency ft, then it can be represented as
The timing of a digital video display system is first of all characterised by The pixel clock frequency fp, which is the reciprocal of the time, in which the electron beam in the CRT travels from the centre of one pixel to the centre of its right neighbour. The pixel clock is an integer multiple of both the horizontal and vertical deflection frequencies, that is the rate fh = fp/xt with which lines are drawn and the rate fv = fh/yt with which complete frames are built on the screen. Here, xt and yt are the total width and height of the pixel field that we would get if the electron beam needed no time to jump back to the start of the line or frame. However the displayed image on the screen is only xd pixels wide and yd pixels high as the time allocated to the remaining xtyt - xdyd virtual pixels is used to bring the electron beam back to the other side of the screen.
Attack software can read these parameters directly from the video controller chip, or find them in configuration files. For instance, on the ones Linux Workstation, a line of the form
ModeLine "1152x900" 95 1152 1152 1192 1472 900 900 931 939
in the X Window System server configuration file /usr/lib/X11/XF86Config indicates that the parameters fp = 95 MHz, xd = 1152, yd = 900, xt = 1472 and yt = 939 are used on this system, which leads to deflection frequencies of fh = 64.5 kHz and fv = 68.7 Hz.
If we de_ne t = 0 to be the time when the beam is in the centre of the upper left corner pixel (x = 0, y = 0), then the electron beam will be in the centre of the pixel (x,y) at time
For all 0 _ x < xd, 0 _ y < yd and n 2 IN. Using the above formula with the frame counter n = 0, we can now calculate a time t for every pixel (x,y) and set this pixel to an 8-bit greyscale value of [255/2+S(t)+R] with amplitudes, A = 255/4 and m = 1, where R is in between 0 and 1 is a uniformly distributed random number that spreads the quantization noise (dithering) for screen contents generated this way to broadcast an AM tone.
It is not necessary to fill the entire screen with the pattern, but the energy of the transmitted signal is proportional to the number of pixels that display it. Ideally, both fc and ft should be integer multiples of fv to avoid phase discontinuities from one line or frame to the next.
This will work everywhere in the labs and in nearby rooms, while reception over longer distances was good so long as the receiver antenna was held close to power supply lines. As one might expect from the wavelengths involved, the power lines appear to propagate more RF energy than the parasitic antennas in the PC do. In addition, the handheld radio used for this demonstration had only a simple untuned dipole antenna, so with a better antenna we would expect to get reasonable reception at several hundred metres.
The shortwave (HF) radio bands in the 3{30 MHz range seem to be the best for this attack. They are the highest bands that normal radios can pick up and that are well below the pixel frequency fp. Although computer monitors and video cables are too small to be efficient antennas for these frequencies, the lower frequency bands would be even worse, while the VHF frequencies at which electronic components radiate well are too close to current pixel frequencies for software to modulate efficiently, especially using FM. (Of course, as time passes, rising pixel frequencies might bring VHF FM radio within reach.)
In a typical low-cost attack, the eavesdropper would place a radio and cassette recorder near the target and implant the attack software using standard virus or Trojan techniques. Since the broadcast patterns will be visible, the attack should take place after business hours while avoiding times when the chosen frequency is swamped by ionospheric propagation of interfering stations. Many PCs are not turned off at night, a habit encouraged by the power management features of modern systems. If monitors are also left powered up, then the attack software might monitor network traffic to detect the presence of people in the department. Where monitors are turned off but PCs are not, a serviceable signal can usually be picked up: as well as the power
line, the VDU cable can be a quite adequate antenna. In these cases, the attack software can broadcast unobtrusively in the evening and early morning hours.
line, the VDU cable can be a quite adequate antenna. In these cases, the attack software can broadcast unobtrusively in the evening and early morning hours.
The attack software can use frequency shift keying, with 0 and 1 represented by tone patterns like those shown in Fig. 3. These would be loaded into two video buffers which would be switched at the frame rate fv. Fast switches between screen patterns and real-time amplitude modulation can also be accomplished using the colour lookup table. The bit pattern would be encoded first to provide forward error correction before its bits are used to select the sequence of tones transmitted.
Broadband Transmission attacks:-
Above dither amplitude modulation of large readable letters was designed to allow easy low-cost reception of hidden broadcast information with a modified TV set. A professional eavesdropper is more likely to select a method that affects only a small part of the screen layout and that is optimized for maximum range and robust reception with sophisticated equipment. In this section, we outline what such a system might look like.
Reception of monitor emanations with modified TV sets requires either exact knowledge of the horizontal and vertical deflection frequencies or a strong enough Signal to adjust the sync pulse generators manually. With larger distances and low signal levels, the emitted information can only be separated from the noise by averaging the periodic signal over a period of time, and manual adjustment of the synch is difficult.
In a professional attack, one might use spread-spectrum techniques to increase the jamming margin and thus the available range. The
attack software would dither one or more colours in several lines of the screen layout using a pseudorandom bit sequence. A cross-correlator in the receiver gets one input from an antenna and sees at its other input the same pseudorandom bit sequence presented with the guessed pixel clock rate of the monitor. It will generate an output peak that provides the phase difference between the receiver and the target. A phase-locked loop can then control the oscillator in the receiver such that stable long-term averaging of the screen content is possible. Information can be transmitted by inverting the sequence depending on whether a 0 or 1 bit is to be broadcast. Readers familiar with direct sequence spread-spectrum modulation will find the idea familiar, and many spread-spectrum engineering techniques are applicable.
attack software would dither one or more colours in several lines of the screen layout using a pseudorandom bit sequence. A cross-correlator in the receiver gets one input from an antenna and sees at its other input the same pseudorandom bit sequence presented with the guessed pixel clock rate of the monitor. It will generate an output peak that provides the phase difference between the receiver and the target. A phase-locked loop can then control the oscillator in the receiver such that stable long-term averaging of the screen content is possible. Information can be transmitted by inverting the sequence depending on whether a 0 or 1 bit is to be broadcast. Readers familiar with direct sequence spread-spectrum modulation will find the idea familiar, and many spread-spectrum engineering techniques are applicable.
The advantages of using spread-spectrum techniques are that higher data rates and reception ranges can be achieved, and that only the pixel clock frequency and (perhaps) the carrier frequency have to be selected. This enables fast lock-on and fully automatic operation.
A practical benefit is that it may only be necessary to use a small number of lines-perhaps in the toolbar, or even off the visible edge of the screen. If a spreading sequence coded as a series of black and white pixels is too different from the normal grey toolbar expected by the user, then phase modulation can be used instead. The amplitude of the dither pattern can be reduced smoothly for a few pixels at phase jumps to avoid visible bright or dark spots.
PROTECTION FROM TEMPEST ATTACKS:-
There are three ways to protect the computers from TEMPEST attacks, They are
1) TEMPEST testing and selection of appropriate devices
2) TEMPEST Fonts
3) TEMPEST Proof walls
Among these three protective measures the TEMPEST –Proof walls are the most effective one (It is not like the firewall and it is a physical wall which reflects the entire signals back to the room)
TEMPEST testing and selection:-
TEMPEST tests are performed to prove that all or a part of communications or information handling systems which are to process national security information do, in fact. Provide emission security. An equipment or system tested is called equipment under test (EUT). An EUT can be visualized as an input/output box which receives an input signal and produces an output signal. The figure shows this
In most cases, only EUT input and/or output conductors carry the intentional RED signals; all other conductors usually carry signals devoid of classified data. Because of design weaknesses, poor component quality or location, improper wiring layout, and inadequate shielding by the chassis
cabinet, some unintentional signals may be generated in an EUT and emitted through space or on external conductors. Such unintentional signals are the object of detection and measurement during TEMPEST tests, and of particular interest are those signals which may be similar to the RED signals because they are compromising emanations (CE).
cabinet, some unintentional signals may be generated in an EUT and emitted through space or on external conductors. Such unintentional signals are the object of detection and measurement during TEMPEST tests, and of particular interest are those signals which may be similar to the RED signals because they are compromising emanations (CE).
Test types are of three, they are
1. Electric radiation tests are performed to detect and measure emanations escaping from an EUT in the form of E-fields
2. Magnetic radiation tests are performed to detect and measure emanations escaping from an EUT in the form of H-fields.
3. Conduction tests are performed to detect and measure emanations escaping from an EUT as voltage and current on conductors (including returns and grounds) interfacing an EUT with other equipments and power sources.
TEMPEST FONTS:-
TEMPEST fonts are used for protecting the computers form the eavesdropper. There is some specific software for this and these softwares will calculate the power dissisipation of the normal fonts and if it is vulnerable to the TEMPEST attack, the software will filter that software and show that font as the most convenient way
The filtered text looks rather blurred and unpleasant in this magnified representation, but surprisingly, the loss in text quality is almost unnoticeable for the user at the computer screen, as the magnified photos in the lower half of Fig. 4 show. The limited focus of the electron beam, the limited resolution of the eye, as well as effects created by the mask and the monitor electronics filter the signal anyway.
fig 4:-The text on the left is displayed with a conventional font, while the text on the right has been filtered to remove the top 30% of the horizontal frequency spectrum. The graphics in the upper row show the pixel luminosities, while below there are magnified screen photographs of a 21_5 mm text area. While the user can see practically no difference between the fonts, the filtered text disappears from the eavesdropping monitor while the normal text can be received clearly.
TEMPEST PROOF WALLS:-
TEMPEST proof walls are developed for preventing from TEMPEST attacks. These walls are specially designed for reflecting the electromagnetic waves back to the same room it self. Many of the corporate firms have the TEMPEST proof walls for protecting the databases from the hackers and spies, otherwise the secret data will be leaked and the eavesdropper will cause threat to that corporate firm.
4 INSIDE ECHELON
ECHELON stands for NSA’s (National Security Agency of America) secret Global Surveillance System developed for intercepting the messages over the world. As said in the Medias NSA is No Such Agency, but it is not the truth. This massive surveillance system apparently operates without the oversight of either Congress or the courts. Shockingly, the NSA has failed to adequately disclose to Congress and the public the legal guidelines for the project. Without those legal guidelines and an explanation of what they allow and forbid, there is no way of knowing if the NSA is using Echelon to spy on Americans in violation of federal law. In April 2000, the House Intelligence Committee held a hearing to deal with credible reports that suggest Echelon is capturing satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic communications worldwide. The House Intelligence Committee intended the hearing to help ensure that ECHELON does not circumvent any requirement in federal law that the government obtains a warrant from a court before it eavesdrops on a conversation to, from, or within the United States
ESPIONAGE, what does it means..:-
Governments have a need for systematic collection and evaluation of information about certain situations in other states. This serves as a basis for decisions concerning the armed forces, foreign policy and so on. They therefore maintain foreign intelligence services, part of whose task is to systematically assess information available from public sources. The rapporteur has been informed that on average this account for at least 80% of the work of the intelligence services. However, particularly significant information in the fields concerned is kept secret from governments or
businesses and is therefore not publicly accessible. Anyone who nonetheless wishes to obtain it has to steal it. Espionage is simply the organised theft of information.
businesses and is therefore not publicly accessible. Anyone who nonetheless wishes to obtain it has to steal it. Espionage is simply the organised theft of information.
Espionage targets
The classic targets of espionage are military secrets, other government secrets or information concerning the stability of or dangers to governments. These may for example comprise new weapons systems, military strategies or information about the stationing of troops. No less important is information about forthcoming decisions in the fields of foreign policy, monetary decisions or inside information about tensions within a government. In addition there is also interest in economically significant information. This may include not only information about sectors of the economy but also details of new technologies or foreign transactions.
Espionage methods
Espionage involves gaining access to information which the holder would rather protect from being accessed by outsiders. This means that the protection needs to be overcome and penetrated. This is the case with both political and industrial espionage. Thus the same problems arise with espionage in both fields, and the same techniques are accordingly used in both of them. Logically speaking there is no difference; only the level of protection is generally lower in the economic sphere, which sometimes makes it easier to carry out industrial espionage. In particular, businessmen tend to be less aware of risks when using interceptible communication media than does the state when employing them in fields where security is a concern.
Processing of electromagnetic signals
The form of espionage by technical means with which the public are most familiar is that which uses satellite photography. In addition, however, electromagnetic signals of any kind are intercepted and analysed (.signals intelligence, SIGINT). In the military field, certain electromagnetic signals, e.g. those from radar stations, may provide valuable information about the organisation of enemy air defences (.electronic intelligence, ELINT). In addition, electromagnetic radiation which could reveal details of the position of troops, aircraft, ships or submarines is a valuable source of information for an intelligence service. Monitoring other states, spy satellites which take photographs, and recording and decoding signals from such satellites, is also useful. The signals are recorded by ground stations, from low-orbit satellites or from quasi-geostationary SIGINT satellites. This aspect of intelligence operations using electromagnetic means consumes a large part of services. Interception capacity, however, this is not the only use made of technology.
Processing of intercepted communications
The foreign intelligence services of many states intercept the military and diplomatic communications of other states. Many of these services also monitor the civil communications of other states if they have access to them. In some states, services are also authorised to monitor incoming or outgoing communications in their own country. In democracies, intelligence services, monitoring of the communications of the country’s own citizens is subject to certain triggering conditions and controls. However, domestic law in general only protects nationals within the territory of their own country and other residents of the country concerned
The interception on the spot
On the spot, any form of communication can be intercepted if the eavesdropper is prepared to break the law and the target does not take protective measures.
· Conversations in rooms can be intercepted by means of planted microphones (bugs) or laser equipment which picks up vibrations in window panes.
· Screens emit radiation which can be picked up at a distance of up to 30 metres, revealing the information on the screen.
· Telephone, fax, and e-mail messages can be intercepted if the eavesdropper taps into a cable leaving the relevant building.
· Although the infrastructure required is costly and complex, communications from a mobile phone can be intercepted if the interception station is situated in the same radio cell (diameter 300 m in urban areas, 30 km in the countryside).
· Closed-circuit communications can be intercepted within the USW-radio range.
The worldwide interception system
Nowadays various media are available for all forms of intercontinental communication (voice, fax and data). The scope for a worldwide interception system is restricted by two factors:
· Restricted access to the communication medium
· The need to filter out the relevant communication from a huge mass of communications taking place at the same time.
Access to communication media
Cable communications:- All forms of communication (voice, fax, e-mail, data) are transmitted by cable. Access to the cable is a prerequisite for the interception of communications of this kind. Access is certainly possible if the terminal of a cable connection is situated on the territory of a state which allows interception. In technical terms, therefore, within an individual state all communications carried by cable can be intercepted, provided this is permissible under the law. However, foreign intelligence services generally have no legal access to cables situated on the territory of other states. At best, they can gain illegal access to a specific cable, although the risk of detection is high.
From the telegraph age onwards, intercontinental cable connections have been achieved by means of underwater cables. Access to these cables is always possible at those points where they emerge from the water. Electric cables may also be tapped between the terminals of a connection, by means of induction (i.e. electromagnetically, by attaching a coil to the cable), without creating a direct, conductive connection. Underwater electric cables can also be tapped in this way from submarines, albeit at very high cost.
In the case of the older-generation fibreoptic cables used today, inductive tapping is only possible at the regenerators. These regenerators transform the optical signal into an electrical signal, strengthen it and then transform it back into an optical signal. However, this raises the issue of how the enormous volumes of data carried on a cable of this kind can be transmitted from the point of interception to the point of evaluation without the laying of a separate fibreoptic cable.
The conditions apply to communications transmitted over the Internet via cable. The situation can be summarised as follows:
· Internet communications are carried out using data packets and different packets addressed to the same recipient may take different routes through the network.
· In the internet communication the routes followed by individual data packets were completely unpredictable and arbitrary. At that time, the most important international connection was the 'science backbone' between Europe and America
· The commercialisation of the Internet and the establishment of Internet providers also resulted in a commercialisation of the network. Internet providers operated or rented their own networks. They therefore made increasing efforts to keep communications within their own network in order to avoid paying user fees to other operators. Today, the route taken through the network by a data packet is therefore not solely determined by the capacity available on the network, but also hinges on costs considerations.
Scope for interception from aircraft and ships:-
It has long been known that special AWACS aircraft are used for the purpose of locating other aircraft over long distances. The radar equipment in these aircraft works in conjunction with a detection system, designed to identify specific objectives, which can locate forms of electronic radiation, classify them and correlate them with radar sightings .They have no separate SIGINT capability. In contrast, the slow-flying EP-3 spy plane used by the US Navy has the capability to intercept microwave, USW and short-wave transmissions. The signals are analysed directly on board and the aircraft is
used solely for military purposes. In addition, surface ships, and in coastal regions, submarines are used to intercept military radio transmissions.
used solely for military purposes. In addition, surface ships, and in coastal regions, submarines are used to intercept military radio transmissions.
The scope for interception by spy satellites (The Backbone of Echelon):-
Provided they are not focused through the use of appropriate antennae, radio waves radiate in all directions, i.e. also into space. Low-orbit Signals Intelligence Satellites can only lock on to the target transmitter for a few minutes in each orbit. In densely populated, highly industrialised areas interception is hampered to such a degree by the high density of transmitters using similar frequencies that it is virtually impossible to filter out individual signals19. The satellites cannot be used for the continuous monitoring of civilian radio communications.
Alongside these satellites, the USA
The automatic analysis of intercepted communications (The Backbone of Echelon):-
When foreign communications are intercepted, no single telephone connection is monitored on a targeted basis. Instead, some or all of the communications transmitted via the satellite or cable in question are tapped and filtered by computers employing keywords ñ analysis of every single communication would be completely impossible.
It is easy to filter communications transmitted along a given connection. Specific faxes and e-mails can also be singled out through the use of keywords. If the system has been trained to recognise a particular voice, communications involving that voice can be singled out. However, according to the information available to the rapporteur the automatic recognition to a sufficient degree of accuracy of words spoken by any voice is not yet possible. Moreover, the scope for filtering out is restricted by other factors: the ultimate capacity of the computers, the language problem and, above all, the limited number of analysts who can read and assess filtered messages
When assessing the capabilities of filter systems, consideration must also be given to the fact that in the case of an interception system working on the basis of the vacuum-cleaner principle, those technical capabilities are spread across a range of topics. Some of the keywords relate to military security, some to drug trafficking and other forms of international crime, some to the trade in dual-use goods and some to compliance with embargoes. Some of the keywords also relate to economic activities. Any move to narrow down the range of keywords to economically interesting areas would simply run counter to the demands made on intelligence services by governments; what is more, even the end of the Cold War was not enough to prompt such a step.
The Echelon System developed by NSA and it allies’ uses this type of filtering of the messages by use of Directories and Keywords. Thus the system filters the messages using the modern techniques for searching by use of the sophisticated searching algorithms. In this method the NSA uses sophisticated Speech Recognition Softwares and the OCR softwares for searching or sniffing through the packets. The searching through the packets is done by the specific keyword and Directories. These keyword and Directories are the power of an Echelon System. It is told that an echelon system can intercept about billions of messages every hour. This makes the echelon system as the largest spying network of the world using the largest computing power that the human kind ever experienced. The Power of the Echelon System is Dictionaries containing Keywords.
Keywords:-
When sniffing through the packets and sending the information to the destination of agencies the computers in the part of Echelon system uses some “Sensitive Words” to find out the messages which carries the sensitive information. These words are known as the Keywords. The computers automatically search through millions of intercepted messages for the ones containing the pre-programmed keywords and then ship the selected messages off to the computers of the requesting agency.
Processing millions of messages every hour, the ECHELON systems churn away 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, looking for targeted keyword series, phone and fax numbers, and specified voiceprints. It is important to note that very few messages and phone calls are actually transcribed and recorded by the system. The vast majority are filtered out after they are read or listened to by the system. Only those messages that produce
keyword “hits” are tagged for future analysis. Again, it is not just the ability to collect the electronic signals that gives ECHELON its power; it is the tools and technology that are able to whittle down the messages to only those that are important to the intelligence agencies.
keyword “hits” are tagged for future analysis. Again, it is not just the ability to collect the electronic signals that gives ECHELON its power; it is the tools and technology that are able to whittle down the messages to only those that are important to the intelligence agencies.
The Echelon System compares the intercepted messages with the keywords and when a “Hit” occurs the system will forward the messages to the corresponding agencies.
The ECHELON Dictionaries:-
The extraordinary ability of ECHELON to intercept most of the communications traffic in the world is breathtaking in its scope. And yet the power of ECHELON resides in its ability to decrypt, filter, examine and codify these messages into selective categories for further analysis by intelligence agents from the various UKUSA agencies. As the electronic signals are brought into the station, they are fed through the massive computer systems, such as Menwith Hill’s SILKWORTH, where voice recognition, optical character recognition (OCR) and data information engines get to work on the messages.
The database containing the keywords may be huge, these huge database is called as the Dictionaries. Each station maintains a list of keywords (the “Dictionary”) designated by each of the participating intelligence agencies. A Dictionary Manager from each of the respective agencies is responsible for adding, deleting or changing the keyword search criteria for their dictionaries at each of the stations. Each of these station dictionaries is given codeword, such as COWBOY for the Yakima
for the Waihopai facility. These codewords play a crucial identification role for the analysts who eventually look at the intercepted messages.
for the Waihopai facility. These codewords play a crucial identification role for the analysts who eventually look at the intercepted messages.
· By the rise of post-modern warfare – terrorism – gave the establishment all the justification it needed to develop even greater ability to spy on our enemies, The satellites that fly thousands of miles overhead and yet can spy out the most minute details on the ground; the secret submarines that troll the ocean floors that are able to tap into undersea communications cables.
The Problems of Echelon:-
Even the technology made us to access the sophisticated spying methods and prevention of terrorist activities up to certain extend. The Echelon system has its drawbacks.
· The Echelon system will not provide any privacy for our own people in home and abroad. Every thing is monitored by the Big- Brother. It will not provide any security of the data of the corporate firms. It will result in the complete destruction of the industries and it will lead to the 19th century colonialism. It will cause a threat to our modern culture.
· Every military secret is public to NSA and it’s allies, even though if we are hiding that from their eyes. They will hear and see with a sixth-sense…yes….. the computers. It will lead to the mass destruction of human kind. Even a single war can cause the complete destruction of the man-kind.
· As stated above the Echelon systems can be developed to protect us from the terrorist attacks, but we have to ensure that these systems are protected from intrusion and weather it occurs the result will be hazardous. If the terrorists got the sensitive information about the military secrets and the intelligence secrets, the terrorists can cause a world war.
5. CONCLUSION AND FUTURESCOPE
The interception of communication is the main function done by the intelligence agencies all over the world. The intelligence agencies are searching for the sophisticated methods for surveillance and spying from its own people and from its enemies. Here the scientists in the NSA developed the modern techniques for finding the interception of messages. And they developed a network known as the Echelon System. It made them to leap ahead of the hackers in one step.
The main topics discussed here is Tempest and Echelon. Tempest is the technology for spying from electronic equipments with out any physical contact. It is the wonderful technology which people ever experienced. It enables us to replicate the data on an electronic equipment from a couple of kilometres away. We can replicate the computer monitor and Hard disk (or even Memory) of computer system by this way.
Echelon is the vast network formed by NSA and its allies all over the world to intercept the messages sent through any transmission media. It plays a major role in the intelligence related work of the NSA and its allies. It uses the largest computing power of distributed systems. It uses search algorithms and sophisticated softwares like speech recognition and OCR software….
Even though we discussed about the advantages of the Echelon and Tempest there is some major disadvantages for these systems. These systems are “GOD-LIKE” and nothing can be hidden from the Echelon system. But the Echelon system will not provide any secrecy for the common people. It will only preserve the states policies. This will cause the leaking of
the sensitive data of the industries and it will cause harm to that companies. And again the Tempest equipments are available inUSA
the sensitive data of the industries and it will cause harm to that companies. And again the Tempest equipments are available in
Discussing about the future scope of Tempest and Echelon, we can say that these can be used to empower our intelligence agencies to do their job better than before. Unfortunately our India
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