4 ms·

Quite old trick actually. At Cold War time, in USSR, American spy device was discovered that was placed on the street outside the wall of main frame computer i

Quite old trick actually. At Cold War time, in USSR, American spy device was discovered that was placed on the street outside the wall of main frame computer installation nearby drum printers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_(computing)#/media/File:Drum-printer.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_(computing)#/media/Fil...). The device was recording signals from them and retransmitted recording in compressed form to satellite.

xenadu02 9y ago
Do you have a link to more information about this?
- c-smile 9y ago
  We were told about this by our lecturer in university (USSR). Discipline was "data protection / security" ("Защита данных" in Russian). The device was masqueraded as a canned "Килька черноморская в томате" (Canned fish: Black Sea sprat in tomato) and was transmitting short narrow beams upstream on schedule.
  - shabble 9y ago
    maybe something more like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_cryptanalysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_cryptanalysis ? I suppose it could be capturing EM emissions from the printers rather than acoustic, but that would make it fundamentally more like the other TEMPEST hacks as a way to exploit unintentional emissions, rather than as a sneaky covert channel where you have control over the computer equipment, but don't have access to external interfaces to offload your stolen data. Unless I'm misunderstanding some part of your description, anyway.
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      With the printers and mainframes of old being big, couldn't it be just recording vibrations of the wall?
- Piskvorrr 9y ago
  It does sound very similar to the Selectric hack - similar capabilities existed on both sides of the Iron Curtain, one would guess. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/how-soviets-used-ibm-selectric-keyloggers-to-spy-on-us-diplomats/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/how-s...

xenadu02 9y ago

Do you have a link to more information about this?

c-smile 9y ago
We were told about this by our lecturer in university (USSR). Discipline was "data protection / security" ("Защита данных" in Russian). The device was masqueraded as a canned "Килька черноморская в томате" (Canned fish: Black Sea sprat in tomato) and was transmitting short narrow beams upstream on schedule.
- shabble 9y ago
  maybe something more like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_cryptanalysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_cryptanalysis ? I suppose it could be capturing EM emissions from the printers rather than acoustic, but that would make it fundamentally more like the other TEMPEST hacks as a way to exploit unintentional emissions, rather than as a sneaky covert channel where you have control over the computer equipment, but don't have access to external interfaces to offload your stolen data. Unless I'm misunderstanding some part of your description, anyway.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    With the printers and mainframes of old being big, couldn't it be just recording vibrations of the wall?
Piskvorrr 9y ago
It does sound very similar to the Selectric hack - similar capabilities existed on both sides of the Iron Curtain, one would guess. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/how-soviets-used-ibm-selectric-keyloggers-to-spy-on-us-diplomats/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/how-s...