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From: dat@hpcnoe.UUCP (dat)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Zenith-U.S. Government Contract
Message-ID: <10000001@hpcnoe.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 14-Oct-84 18:07:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: hpcnoe.10000001
Posted: Sun Oct 14 18:07:00 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Oct-84 05:46:53 EDT
References: <3365@ecsvax.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard - Fort Collins, CO
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Nf-ID: #R:ecsvax:-336500:hpcnoe:10000001:000:1939
Nf-From: hpcnoe!dat    Oct 18 14:07:00 1984



	Having worked on 'Tempest' terminals for a while, I can
say that they are yet another example of the extreme caution under
which the Government functions;

	The 'Tempest' is typically an enclosure for the computer
combined with a demonstrably secure central computing facility
(if needed) and secure communications lines that do NOT radiate
their signal outside of the wire (if needed).

	The enclosure and lines are to prevent an 'enemy' (generic
term, I suppose) from pointing some sensitive electronic equipment
tuned to the output bandwidth of the terminal screen (for example)
and sitting back and smiling while a duplicate of the screen is 
received on his equipment.  This can in fact be done, according to
some guru engineers that I have talked to!!  Similar with the
wire...if you can keep track of the traffic on a communications line,
you can decipher the information (especially if it is standard ASCII
or something.) The process is again somewhat analogous to a Ham radio
operator listening to the seemingly meaningless noise on a given
frequency and actually getting valid data from it!

	Even with this, there is a bit of a tendency to use a secure
environment which forces the users to be (up to) extremely uncomfortable
while using the computer.  The project I left was at the point where all
the computers and terminals were in a large safe..like a concrete bomb
shelter..with marines wandering in and out, and people being hussled off
to be interrogated if they made a mistake like mounting a 'classified'
tape on an 'unclassified' drive.  (This happened!)

	I suppose the alternative is to essentially broadcast all our
governmental secrets over the airwaves which would be bad news too!

	The only problem is that the Tempest machines tend to look like
late 50's rejects for futuristic computers.

		Further questions, to the limit I understand, can be
freely thrown at me.

					Dave Taylor
				now at  HP - CNO