Forwarded From: Elizabeth Genco <nocgrrl@mail.dti.net>
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9808/17/hacking.clinton/
Guarding Clinton's testimony from hackers
August 17, 1998
Web posted at: 9:42 a.m. EDT (1342 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton's testimony on Monday about his
relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky is supposed to
be a top-secret telecast -- and security experts are trying to make sure
that hackers don't find a away to intercept it. The testimony will be
telecast from the White House, where Clinton will answer the questions, to
the U.S. courthouse, where the grand jury is seated.
"If you're talking about the standard computer hackers, they would love to
get their hands on Clinton's testimony just for the fact they could say
they got it," security expert Ira Winkler told CNN.
The telecast will likely be broadcast via fiber optic lines and the signal
will be scrambled by encryption, making it next to impossible for hackers
to steal the president's testimony, experts said.
"The best anybody could possibly do is cut the wire and interrupt it. And
if they interrupt it, they're not capturing data," Winkler said.
However, security experts do worry about the television set that the
jurors will use to watch Clinton's statements. Radiation emitted from the
TV screen can be picked up by using a special antenna called a Tempest
receiver. If monitors are not specially protected, the testimony could be
viewed from a distance of up to a quarter-mile away from the courthouse.
It is not difficult to get information about a Tempest receiver. In fact,
one can buy a kit off the Internet, along with instructions on how to
convert a TV set into such a receiver. Tempest receivers can also be
bought by mail order, at a cost of about $800.
The technology also works on computer monitors, according to Winkler and a
man known as Kingpin, a member of a Boston-based hacker group known for
testing vulnerabilities in telecommunication and computer security.
"I can pick up (information from) a computer terminal from my van outside.
Basically, the distances vary on whether you're in a city or an office
building -- you can get a hundred, even a thousand feet away," Kingpin
said.
But Winkler said that the weakest point, really, is the human factor --
leaks from the people watching the testimony.
Correspondent Ann Kellan contributed to this report.
-o-
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Received on Tue Aug 18 08:44:26 1998