Understanding your Assignment brief

Assignment summary:

Have you ever wondered how an eavesdropper gains information about you? Well, this is to do with emanations that can be detected.

Every electronic, electro-optical or electromechanical device, whether or not it was designed as a transmitter, gives off some type of electromagnetic signals or emanations. Thus, proper design minimises the unintentional signals given off by a device, but some unintentional signals will always be present. When a device processes information, such as printed text or voice, it may leak that information through unintentional signals.

TEMPEST is the name of a technology that involves the monitoring and shielding of devices that emit electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in a manner that can be used to reconstruct intelligible data.

The TEMPEST project was established as a security standard for the electronic or electromechanical devices that transmit electromagnetic signals.

There are two different interpretations of the TEMPEST acronym:

• Telecommunications Electronics Material Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions
• Transient Electromagnetic Pulse Emanation Standard

TEMPEST started as a classified project of the US government in the 1950s. The idea was that compromising emanations from computers could be captured and then reconstructed.

Assignment Requirements

Conduct some independent research and then consider how you would answer the questions below on the TEMPEST standard, you will be asked to submit your answers in the following step:

• How does the TEMPEST framework work?
• What are the potential application areas of TEMPEST?
• What are the pros and cons of this standard
• How does TEMPEST compare to other existing security standards related to electric devices?

You will then be asked to peer review a fellow student’s submission, providing feedback based on the assignment guidelines listed further below.

This assignment contains 4 parts. In the submission step you will be asked to submit 4 different items. For each criterion you will receive either 1 point or 0 point, depending on whether your marker feels you have evidenced the criterion or not.

Task Prompt 1: How does the TEMPEST framework work?

This first Prompt is graded against the following criteria:

Criteria: Have learners described how the TEMPEST framework works?

Task Prompt 2: What are the potential application areas of TEMPEST?

This second Prompt is graded against the following criteria:

Criteria: Have learners described at least one potential application area of TEMPEST?

Task Prompt 3: What are the pros and cons of this standard?

This third Prompt is graded against the following criteria:

Criteria: Have learners described at least one pro, and one con of the TEMPEST standard?

Task Prompt 4: How does the TEMPEST framework compare to other existing security standards related to electric devices?

This fourth Prompt is graded against the following criteria:

Criteria: Has the learner provided at least one comparison of the TEMPEST framework to another existing security standard related to electric devices?

The next step is where you’ll submit your responses to these Task Prompts. You need to submit them all at the same time, so don’t start until you’re ready. You may choose to actually draft your work there, but you may wish to work offline or in a separate tab or document to perfect your ideas before you submit and share with your course peers.

Please note – you’ll be Prompted to give your assignment an overall descriptive title. It’s your chance to get creative, or you could keep this simple and descriptive.