Talk:Tempest (codename)

Tempest for Eliza -- a program that uses your computer monitor to send out AM radio signals. You can then hear computer generated music in your radio.

Van Eck Radiation
Maybe someone should make Van Eck radiation it's own page. This article is about a national security agency specification/certifcation, but for some reason someone made Van Eck radiation redirect here, it mentions it, but something more direct would be better/less confusing. The snare (talk) 06:18, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Untitled
"TEMPEST is a U.S. government code word" -- really? other countries use it as well, is there any information on the source?

Siemon/TERA material
I noticed some Siemon link-spam in other articles (for example, a link masquerading as "Optical Fiber Cabling Standards" on the Optical fiber page). I noticed the same editor posted stuff here about his company's product. I have removed it and put it here on the talk page:

"To prevent signal radiation on data networks between computer networking devices, the TERA Category 7/class F connector is the only copper network cabling to meet the US government's TEMPEST/EMSEC security guidelines. It utilizes fully-shielded S/FTP cable and fully shielded connectivity. Each cable pair is individually shielded and an overall braid shield surrounds all conductors to eliminate any potential security gap caused by signal radiation or emission. Additional shielding is integrated into the outlets and plugs to eliminate all potential signal emissions."

See User talk:65.209.123.130 for more information on material removed elsewhere. --A. B. 23:10, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Superflous Paragraph
This technique is used as a plot point in Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon and in the Numb3rs Season 1 episode, 'Sacrifice'.

This could be moved to a "trivia" section in this article.


 * Indeed... If there was a trivia section. Since there isn't and since there's no reference for this I've removed it for now. Wiki-Ed (talk)

Conversational tone
''Actually, according to the Certified Information Systems Security Professional, training states that it stands for: Transient ElectroMagnetic Pulse Emanations Standard. The CISSP is a standard and its training has been validated by numerous security professionals, including military components.''

This is written like a response, rather than as part of the article, and is not a well written paragraph to begin with, nor does it have any citations. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.19.145.156 (talk) 22:06, 23 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Moved and reworded as "Tempest stands for Transient ElectroMagnetic Pulse Emanations Standard according to Certified Information Systems Security Professional training." But it needs a better citation. RJFJR (talk) 14:39, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

TEMPEST is an unclassified short name referring to investigations and studies of compromising emanations. Compromising emanations are unintentional intelligence-bearing signals that, if intercepted and analyzed, will disclose classified information when it is transmitted, received, handled or otherwise processed by any information processing equipment.

Stephen A. Cambone. (2006, February 28). nispom2006-5220.pdf. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from Defense Security Service (DSS): http://www.dss.mil/isp/odaa/documents/nispom2006-5220.pdf

TEMPEST: TEMPEST attacks involve the remote or external detection and collection of the electromagnetic signals emitted from a cryptographic module and associated equipment during processing. Such an attack can be used to obtain keystroke information, messages displayed on a video screen, and other forms of critical security information (e.g., cryptographic keys). Special shielding of all components, including network cabling, is the mechanism used to reduce the risk of such an attack. Shielding reduces and, in some cases, prevents the emission of electromagnetic signals.

William Mehuron, Director, Information Technology Laboratory. (2001, May 1). fips1402.pdf. Retrieved August 24, 2010, from NIST: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips140-2/fips1402.pdf

Decopauge123 (talk) 01:33, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

NIST defines the ACRONYM in their publication http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/secpubs/tempest.txt

Mrpatrickstanton (talk) 17:45, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Maybe note recent events
There was a study that found you could very accurately reproduce keystrokes just by the unique sound of each key as it's typed (sorry, can't find the article at the moment). If I recall the original document correctly, I believe audio is the redacted portion. 96.233.8.195 (talk) 12:54, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

NATO Zones/Zoning
The section TEMPEST measurement standards discusses standards for TEMPEST testing covering NATO zones 0, 1, and 2; however, it then goes on to discuss AMSG 799B, defining NATO zones 0 to 3. Does anybody know what then is NATO zone 3, and what standards apply to TEMPEST testing for that zone's equipment? Graham Fountain 14:06, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

Source of TEMPEST
The word TEMPEST comes from Shakespeare.

"The play opens as Prospero, having divined that his brother, Antonio, is on a ship passing close by the island, has raised a tempest which causes the ship to run aground."

and...

"Possessing magic powers due to his great learning, Prospero is reluctantly served by a spirit, Ariel" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tempest

It should be obvious. 89.242.109.93 (talk) 22:58, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Defeats and other discussions
This news article suggests a mechanism to use "cloud computing," as a substitute for supercomputing. http://www.nextgov.com/cloud-computing/2012/10/op-ed-encryption-not-restriction-key-safe-cloud-computing/58608/

While the article appears to endorse the fallacy that large numbers of slow computers can do massively parallel and embarrassingly parallel tasks well enough to replace dedicated clusters, the de facto security solution might work even on a "Tempested" box.

Encryption specialists speculate on side channel attack. If Tempest were employed in creative ways, it might afford much simpler computing attacks such as a sympathetic delete executed on the listening machine.

Under those conditions, a subject machine that was overclocked in BIOS, and equipped with a large heat sink, could undertake a CPU intensive computation increasing CPU temp, and fry the CPU on the listening terminal in sympathetic harmonics.

How is Tempest different from quantum entanglement? Without being identical, do quantum entanglement problems and nomenclature afford more exact discussion? Hamiltek (talk) 17:43, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Article section - In popular culture
Whilst I see where this section relates to emission of information, etc., unless the TV show actually used the term "TEMPEST", or at the very least clearly alluded to the processes of testing, etc., I don't see the specific relevance in this article. If the show did use the term, etc., then the text in the section needs to say so, and, ideally, quote. If not, then there are undoubtedly lots of sources in popular culture that relate to the emission of information, but not TEMPEST, and I can see no reason to link any of them to this subject.

I also think, as an inverted sentence with both the subject and the predicate coming after another clause, the text wants of a comma between that clause and the subject; but I acknowledge that that's a style thing and minor. I also think it need a definite article before "TV", but, again, that's trivial.

Anyway, are there any arguments against just deleting the section?

Graham.Fountain | Talk 09:43, 15 July 2013 (UTC)


 * @Graham.Fountain i so totally agree on this. I know nearly ten years have passed since your post, but what some character in some computer game has as backstory or abilities is irrelevant to this article. 84.215.194.30 (talk) 20:23, 8 November 2022 (UTC)

Early mention of the Tempest name (1998)
In this video on of the members of l0pht mentions Tempest during a court briefing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVJldn_MmMY

Fairly early on (<10m) 75.132.51.208 (talk) 22:04, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

Source of codename
That TEMPEST is a codename assigned by the NSA was added to this article in the revision as of 00:48, 10 January 2014 by 69.92.79.97. However, there is no citation or reference given for this asertion. Therefore, should it be flaged as "citation required" or should that particular assertion just be removed and it left uncertain which arm of the, presumably US government, thought it up? Graham.Fountain | Talk 12:01, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

TEMPEST name origin
So this is the story of the name TEMPEST as relayed to me by an individual who attended the meeting where the name was coined. At the time I did not realize the significance of the story and the original teller's name and most of the specifics are lost to me. The Soviet Union was found to be intercepting teletype and other secure information using the emanating electromagnetic radiation from various U.S. Navy shipboard devices. So (my best guess) sometime in the early 1960's, a group of senior military officers and civil service employees convened to be apprised of the issues and discuss what actions should be taken. During the explanations, one senior officer commented that it sounded, "Like a tempest in a teapot." to him. After the presentations were completed, another officer raised the key question; "What are we going to do about this little tempest problem?" The name stuck and TEMPEST was born. 65.102.33.13 (talk) 22:20, 1 January 2015 (UTC)


 * Interesting stuff. I do think the lead section of this article needs a serious coat of looking at. As part of that, it would be nice to have a source for the code name, but we'd need something citable, and without even a name of the "individual who attended the meeting", that'll be difficult. I'm sure I asked about the source when I worked, in a very minor role, at Plessey's Abbey Works in 1980-1, and no one there knew then.


 * The other thing I'm not happy about in this article is the diversions away from the Tempest programme's primary role in preventing the emissions that may be used in Signals intelligence gathering (SIGINT), through testing and manufacturing techniques, to the use of similar techniques in SIGINT. Whilst there is plenty of speculation, I can't see any reliable sources for the role of Tempest, as a programme or as a code, in the offensive side of SIGINT, only the defensive. So I think that stuff should go in an article or articles on SIGINT, etc., and be linked to from here. I also think there should be a section on the SIGINT page on defence that links to this page, and have already posted that on the SIGINT talk page.


 * Graham.Fountain | Talk 12:17, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 4 one external links on Tempest (codename). Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20131223081405/http://cryptome.org/dodi/2013/afssi-7700.pdf to http://cryptome.org/dodi/2013/afssi-7700.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20100116082307/http://www.cse-cst.gc.ca:80/its-sti/services/industry-prog-industrie/citp-ptic-eng.html to http://www.cse-cst.gc.ca/its-sti/services/industry-prog-industrie/citp-ptic-eng.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110716131809/https://www.bsi.bund.de/cae/servlet/contentblob/471342/publicationFile/62606/TL_03305eng_pdf.pdf to https://www.bsi.bund.de/cae/servlet/contentblob/471342/publicationFile/62606/TL_03305eng_pdf.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110519033223/http://www.cesg.gov.uk/publications/media/directory.pdf to http://www.cesg.gov.uk/publications/media/directory.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 02:55, 17 October 2015 (UTC)

2016, Tempest using WiFi interference
Sounds interesting : a "keystroke inference framework that allows an attacker to infer the sensitive keystrokes on a mobile device through WiFi-based side-channel information." 0xfhtagn (talk) 11:37, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Codename of acronym?
I've heard TEMPEST is an acronym for "Tiny Electromagnetic Pulses Emanating Secret Shit". 57.135.233.22 (talk) 09:28, 27 September 2023 (UTC)