ted@imsvax.UUCP (07/17/86)
This one isn't for the private individual out to make a few extra bucks; it's for the owner of a small/mid-sized firm which either imports or produces PC compatibles and is looking for some little known niche in the market to investigate. Have you ever heard the term "TEMPEST"? A "tempestized" computer (or device of any sort) is one which has been sealed off, either electronically or by actually being encased in steel or cast aluminum, from any possibility of it "leaking" radio-frequency noise which could be picked up by some Russki or Haitian or Polish spy out in the parking lot with a device made with $20 worth of radio shack parts (don't laugh TOO hard... it has actually been done) which lets him see what is going on on the computer in question, even though it's inside a building. There are only about five or six manufacturers of such equipment in the USA, Zenith being the only one which charges anything remotely close to reason for such stuff (about three times the going rate for PC class stuff). Everyone else charges 5 to 10 times the going rate for tempestized equipment (as opposed to normal PC components), typically $7000 to $11000 for an XT class microcomputer (ever wonder where your tax-payer dollars go?). It pisses me off completely to have to deal with these people, which I do frequently, since I feel bad about being involved in spending ANYBODY's money that way and I end up walking away feeling like I've just been talking with Al Capone or Frank Nitty, and it pisses the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) off so badly that they have taken the extraordinary step of tempestizing THEIR ENTIRE BUILDING, which now looks like an aluminum-foil building, so as not to have to buy such equipment. Nonetheless, the government and some private firms buy this stuff like crazy. As near as I can tell, it cost somewhere between $35K and $100K to get into this game, mostly money spent on setting up testing and certification procedures, after which the individual components simply CAN'T be expensive to manufacture (especially if you go with the method of tempestizing by enclosure), and the game itself seems to me to almost be a license to print money. Amazingly enough, users pay MORE for the varietys which have been tempestized by enclosure, which seems to me by far the cheaper approach to manufacture; there's no rhyme or reason to it. Anyone who got into this game with Taiwanese generic stuff and only charged double the going rates for this kind of equipment would be loved by God, his banker, AND the federal government.
vizard@dartvax.UUCP (Todd Krein) (07/21/86)
> > > This one isn't for the private individual out to make a few extra bucks; > it's for the owner of a small/mid-sized firm which either imports or produces > PC compatibles and is looking for some little known niche in the market > to investigate. Have you ever heard the term "TEMPEST"? A > "tempestized" computer (or device of any sort) is one which has been > sealed off, either electronically or by actually being encased in steel > or cast aluminum, from any possibility of it "leaking" radio-frequency > noise which could be picked up by some Russki or Haitian or Polish spy > out in the parking lot with a device made with $20 worth of radio > shack parts (don't laugh TOO hard... it has actually been done) which > lets him see what is going on on the computer in question, even though > it's inside a building. > > > Anyone who got into this game with Taiwanese generic stuff and only > charged double the going rates for this kind of equipment would be loved > by God, his banker, AND the federal government. *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** Just a question... Have YOU ever tried to make anything TEMPEST class? It's a hell of lot harder than just a new enclosure, having tried to do something similar, and having talked w/ people who do it for a living. Todd Krein vizard @ dartvax
gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) (07/25/86)
In article <4867@dartvax.UUCP>, vizard@dartvax.UUCP (Todd Krein) writes: > > Anyone who got into this game with Taiwanese generic stuff and only > > charged double the going rates for this kind of equipment would be loved > > by God, his banker, AND the federal government. > > Just a question... Have YOU ever tried to make anything TEMPEST class? > It's a hell of lot harder than just a new enclosure, having tried to > do something similar, and having talked w/ people who do it for a living. Most of the reason for charging 5 or 10 times the "standard" rate for a "tempested" version is because the only customer is the government, and it's become a science among a set of companies as to good ways to rob the government blind. (The gov't goes along with the robbery, so it's hard to fix 100% of the blame on the companies, though I think they are immoral by my standards. Then again, I think anybody who customizes their products for the military is immoral by my standards.) Yes, it is hard to make a useful piece of electronics that doesn't radiate RFI. A lot has been learned about it since the FCC started requiring tougher standards for everybody. Even to meet Tempest standards should probably not double the cost of a workstation or Fece clone. Some more competition in the Tempest field would do the world some good. And at least it's not a weapon, it's just a computer that other people can't listen in on. The moral problem comes in when you consider what they *do* with that computer -- typically, use it to spy on people like me, or hold the results of such spying, or hold the plans for weapons to kill people like me, etc. -- John Gilmore {sun,ptsfa,lll-crg,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu jgilmore@lll-crg.arpa May the Source be with you!