2nd Kanazawa Workshop, WAVE11-P14, March 2006

Electromagnetic security for electromagnetic disturbance that contains information

Toshihide Tosaka(1) , Kazumasa Taira(2) , Yukio Yamanaka(1) , Atsuhiro Nishikata(1),(3) , and Mitsuo Hattori(4)
(1)

N ational Institute of Inf ormation and Communications T echnology, 4 2 1 N ukui Kitamachi, Koganei shi, T okyo 184 8795 Japan. tosaka@nict.go.jp M inistry of Internal Af f airs and Communications, 2 1 2 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda ku, T okyo 100 8926 Japan
(3) T okyo Institute of T echnology, 2 12 1 Ookayama, M eguro ku, T okyo 152 8550 Japan (2)

N T T Advanced T echnology Corporation, 3 9 11 M idoricho, M usashino shi, T okyo, 180 0012 Japan ABSTRACT Electromagnetic disturbances that leak from a laser printer contain some information. In this paper we measured the electromagnetic eld at a distant point and reconstructed the printed images. We made measurements at an anechoic chamber, at a corridor, at an oce, and at an entrance hall. Then we evaluated whether or not the electromagnetic disturbances contained sucient information to reproduce a printed image. Using our measurement setup, we found that the printed image could not be reproduced from the emitted electromagnetic disturbances if the distance from the source was 200 cm or more. I. INTRODUCTION Recently, the use of electric devices is increasing in the technology of electronics, information and communications, and the use of electromagnetic waves is increasing. Essentially, the communications tools that we use for communicating with someone require a wired line network or a wireless network. Nowadays, we give much attention to the handling of our personal information. These personal data are used on our information tools that include a PC; and therefore the security is a question of growing concern. It is said that we can avoid the leakage of personal data by using a rewall for a network port. However, electromagnetic disturbances are leaked from electric devices that are not used directly for communication. Some of these electromagnetic disturbances do not contain information that was used for driving an electronic circuit. But, other electromagnetic disturbances might possibly contain such information. If someone monitors these waves and reconstructs these data, the personal data will be eavesdropped. In fact, the reconstruction of the information that was emitted from a PC display has been reported [1]. We have already tried to reconstruct printed images from the near eld magnetic eld emitted from laser printers [2]. In this paper, we apply the method to the electric eld, and we attempt to reconstruct the printed image from measured time domain data of the electromagnetic eld at a distant point. From these data, we reconstructed the printed image in the same manner as for the case of the magnetic eld measurements. In this paper, we measured the level of the electromagnetic eld at an anechoic chamber, at a corridor, at an oce, and at an entrance hall, and we reconstructed the printed image at each place. Finally, we evaluated the reconstructed image as a function of the distance that from a printer to the observation point. II. MEASUREMENT SETUP We measured a laser printer that is sold commercially. The measured printer is a black and white gray-scale A4 printer and the resolution is 600 dpi. The laser printer was connected to a PC using a USB cable. The writing time of the laser printer is about 820 s/line. Fig. 1 shows the measurement setup. The dipole antenna (Kyoritsu KBA-511A) is connected to a spectrum analyzer (Rohde & Schwarz ESIB7) through the pre amp (SONOMA310: 9 kHz1 GHz, Gain 32 dB, NF 2 dB). The IF output (22.4 MHz) is connected to the digital oscilloscope (LeCroy SDA3000A). In order to reconstruct the printed image, we selected the parameters of the digital oscilloscope for measurement of the electromagnetic eld was as follows: the sampling speed was 100M Samples/s, the number of samples was 100M samples, the measurement span was 1 s, and the RBW was 10MHz. We used the data shown in Fig. 2. Panel (A) of Fig. 2 shows black and white stripes. Panel (B) of Fig. 2 shows the printed characters that were written in 12 point type. Using these images, we tried to observe the electric eld and reconstruct the printed images from the time domain data of the electric eld that was emitted from the laser printer.

(4)

III. MEASUREMENT OF ELECTRIC FIELD FROM A LASER PRINTER We had already known the relation between the printed image and time domain data of the magnetic eld [2]. From our experience, we measured three types of data: the print-on signal, the print-o signal, and the carriage return signal. Using these three types of data, we can easily reconstruct the printed images. We rst measured the electromagnetic eld at each places as shown Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6. Fig. 3 shows the measurement in an anechoic chamber, Fig. 4 shows the measurement at an oce, Fig. 5 shows the measurement at a corridor, and Fig. 6 shows the measurement at an entrance hall. Figs. 7, 8, 9, and 10 show the measured electric eld strength at 328.3MHz at each place when we printed the information that is shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 7 shows the measured electric eld strength in an anechoic chamber, Fig. 8 shows the measured electric eld strength at an oce, Fig. 9 shows the measured electric eld strength at a corridor, and Fig. 10 shows the measured electric eld strength at an entrance hall. We measured these electric eld strengths for the cases where the distances from the laser printer to the receiving antenna are 0 cm, 10 cm, 30 cm, 50 cm, 100 cm, and 200 cm, respectively. From these gures, we found that as the distance from a laser printer to the receiving antenna becomes much larger, the electric eld strength when we printed Fig. 2 approaches a value close to the background noise level. When the dierence is close to zero, it is expected that the reconstruction of the printed image will be dicult. In our experience, we already know that if the dierence between the printed signal and the background noise is not 1 dB or more, we can not reconstruct the printed image. For this reason, we measured the electric eld strength until the dierence was less than 1dB. The resulting measured distances to reach the background level were dierent at each place. IV. RECONSTRUCTION OF PRINTED IMAGE AT EACH PLACES For reconstruction, we used Visual C++ [3]. In this research, we measured the electromagnetic eld at each place as shown Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6. Figs. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 show the reconstructed images from the observed electric eld of a laser printer. The reconstructed images are about roughly 40 - 50 % of the size of A4 paper. There is a limit to the reconstruction of the printed image area that depends on the memory of the digital oscilloscope. Fig. 11 shows reconstructed images from the measurements in an anechoic chamber when panel (A) of Fig. 2 was printed. Panel (1) shows the reconstructed image at 0 cm from the laser printer. Panel (2) shows the reconstructed image at 10 cm from the laser printer. Panel (3) shows the reconstructed image at 30 cm from the laser printer. Panel (4) shows the reconstructed image at 50 cm from the laser printer. Panel (5) shows the reconstructed image at 100 cm from the laser printer. Panel (6) shows the reconstructed image at 200 cm from the laser printer. Panel (5) shows a noisy image, but we can still nd the printed image. Fig. 12 shows reconstructed images from the measurements in an anechoic chamber when panel (B) of Fig. 2 was printed. Panel (1) shows the reconstructed image at 0 cm from the laser printer. Panel (2) shows the reconstructed image at 10 cm from the laser printer. Panel (3) shows the reconstructed image at 30 cm from the laser printer. Panel (4) shows the reconstructed image at 50 cm from the laser printer. Panel (5) shows the reconstructed image at 100 cm from the laser printer. Panel (6) shows the reconstructed image at 200 cm from the laser printer. Panel (5) shows a noisy image, but we can still nd the printed image. Fig. 13 shows reconstructed images from the measurements at an oce when panel (A) of Fig. 2 was printed. Panel (1) shows the reconstructed image at 0 cm from the laser printer. Panel (2) shows the reconstructed image at 10 cm from the laser printer. Panel (3) shows the reconstructed image at 30 cm from the laser printer. Panel (2) shows a noisy image, but we can still nd the printed image. Fig. 14 shows reconstructed images from the measurements at an oce when panel (B) of Fig. 2 was printed. Panel (1) shows the reconstructed image at 0 cm from the laser printer. Panel (2) shows the reconstructed image at 10 cm from the laser printer. Panel (3) shows the reconstructed image at 30 cm from the laser printer. Panel (2) shows a noisy image, but we can still nd the printed image. Fig. 15 shows reconstructed images from the measurements at a corridor when panel (A) of Fig. 2 was printed. Panel (1) shows the reconstructed image at 0 cm from the laser printer. Panel (2) shows the reconstructed image at 10 cm from the laser printer. Panel (3) shows the reconstructed image at 30 cm from the laser printer. Panel (4) shows the reconstructed image at 50 cm from the laser printer. Panel (3) shows a noisy image, but we can still nd the printed image. Fig. 16 shows reconstructed images from the measurements at a corridor when panel (B) of Fig. 2 was printed. Panel (1) shows the reconstructed image at 0 cm from the laser printer. Panel (2) shows the reconstructed image at 10 cm from the laser printer. Panel (3) shows the reconstructed image at 30 cm from the laser printer. Panel (4) shows the reconstructed image at 50 cm from the laser printer. Panel (3) shows a noisy image, but we can still nd the printed image. Fig. 17 shows reconstructed images from the measurements at an entrance hall when panel (A) of Fig. 2 was printed. Panel (1) shows the reconstructed image at 0 cm from the laser printer. Panel (2) shows the reconstructed image at 10 cm from the laser printer. Panel (3) shows the reconstructed image at 30 cm from the laser printer. Panel (4) shows the reconstructed image at 50 cm from the laser printer. Panel (5) shows the reconstructed image at 100 cm from the laser printer. Panel (6) shows the reconstructed image at 200 cm from the laser printer. Panel (5) shows a noisy image, but we can still nd the printed image.

Fig. 18 shows reconstructed images from the measurements at an entrance hall when panel (B) of Fig. 2 was printed. Panel (1) shows the reconstructed image at 0 cm from the laser printer. Panel (2) shows the reconstructed image at 10 cm from the laser printer. Panel (3) shows the reconstructed image at 30 cm from the laser printer. Panel (4) shows the reconstructed image at 50 cm from the laser printer. Panel (5) shows the reconstructed image at 100 cm from the laser printer. Panel (6) shows the reconstructed image at 200 cm from the laser printer. Panel (5) shows a noisy image, but we can still nd the printed image. From the measured electric eld strengths shown in Figs. 7, 8, 9, and 10, and the reconstructed printed information shown in Figs. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18, we found that as the distance from the laser printer to the receiving antenna becomes larger, the reconstructed image becomes noisy. Even with measuring in the low noise environment of the anechoic chamber, we could not reconstruct the printed image at the 200 cm position. From these results, we found that it was dicult to reconstruct the printed image at 200 cm or more distance from a laser printer using our measurement setup when we measured the electric eld outside of an anechoic chamber. V. CONCLUSION In this paper, we measured at various places the electric eld strength at several distances from a laser printer and reconstructed the printed images from the time domain data of the emitted electromagnetic eld that contained the printed images. From these results, we found that it was dicult to reconstruct the printed image at the 200 cm position in an anechoic chamber with low NF pre amp, and it was dicult to reconstruct the printed images and the distances were shorter when we measured outside of the anechoic chamber using our measurement setup. But, if the printed image information was changed to include color information, the level of electromagnetic disturbance became larger which means the printed image ows out to more distant points. Therefore, we have to pay attention to electromagnetic disturbances that contain printed information. VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to thank the IST (Information Security Technology study group in Japan) Task Force members for discussions about this research. We would like to thank the Director Mr. Takashi Shinozuka at the EMC Project Oce of NICT for making arrangements for this research, and we also thank Mr. Mamoru Sato at EMC Center of NTT Advanced Technology Corporation for his help in making the measurements. REFERENCE [1] Y. Yamanaka, H. Ohno, and M. Hattori, Reconstruction of information by receiving unwanted emission from information technology equipment, Tech. Report of IEICE, EMCJ2004-140, pp. 5560, Jan. 2005. [2] T. Tosaka, K. Taira, Y. Yamanaka, A. Nishikata, and M. Hattori, Feasibility study for reconstruction of information from near eld observations of the magnetic eld of a laser printer, Proc. of the 17th Intl Zurich Symp. on EMC, pp. 630633, Feb. 2006. [3] Microsoft Visual C++ .Net Standard Version 2003 Manual, Part No. X09-24199. FIGURES

Figure 1: Measurement setup

Figure 2: Printed information

Figure 3: Measurement at an anechoic chamber

Figure 4: Measurement at an oce

Figure 5: Measurement at a corridor

Figure 6: Measurement at an entrance hall

Figure 7: Electric eld at an anechoic chamber

Figure 8: Electric eld at an oce

Figure 9: Electric eld at a corridor

Figure 10: Electric eld at an entrance hall

Figure 11: Reconstruction of (A) of Fig. 2 at an ane- Figure 12: Reconstruction of (B) of Fig. 2 at an anechoic chamber choic chamber

Figure 13: Reconstruction of (A) of Fig. 2 at an oce Figure 14: Reconstruction of (B) of Fig. 2 at an oce

Figure 15: Reconstruction of (A) of Fig. 2 at a corridor Figure 16: Reconstruction of (B) of Fig. 2 at a corridor

Figure 17: Reconstruction of (A) of Fig. 2 at an en- Figure 18: Reconstruction of (B) of Fig. 2 at an entrance hall trance hall