Computer security -- Fiction; Didactic fiction; Privacy, Right of -- Fiction; Records -- Access control -- Fiction
Duncan was expecting more than a two word answer that was abso-
lutely meaningless to him. "What? What is Van Eck? The ex-
pressway?" He said referring to the New York Expressway that had
been a 14 mile line traffic jam since it opened some 40 years
ago.
"Not Van Wyck, Van Eck. Van Eck Radiation. That's how they get
the information."
Duncan was no engineer, and he knew that Scott was proficient in
the discipline. He was sure he had an education coming. "For us
feeble minded simpletons, would you mind explaining? I know
about Van Allen radiation belts, nuclear radiation . . .but ok, I
give. What's this Van Eck?"
Scott had not meant to humble Tyrone that much. "Sorry. It's a
pretty arcane branch of engineering, even for techy types. How
much do you know about computers? Electronics?"
"Enough to get into trouble. I can wire a stereo and I know how
to use the computers at the Bureau, but that's about it. Never
bothered to get inside those monsters. Consider me an idiot."
"Never, just a novice. It's lecture time. Computers, I mean
PC's, the kind on your desk and at home are electronic devices,
that's no great revelation. As you may know, radio waves are
caused by the motion of electrons, current, down a wire. Ever
heard or seen interference on your TV?"
"Sure. We've been down this road before, with your EMP-T bombs."
Tyrone cringed at the lecture he had received on secret defense
projects.
"Exactly. Interference is caused by other electrical devices
that are running near the radio or TV. Essentially, everything
that runs on electricity emanates a field of energy, an electro-
magnetic field. Well, in TV and radio, an antenna is stuck up in
the air to pick up or 'hear' the radio waves. You simply tune it
in to the frequency you want to listen to."
"I know, like on my car radio. Those are preset, though."
"Doesn't matter. They still pick the frequency you want to
listen to. Can you just hold that thought and accept it at face
value?" Scott followed his old teaching techniques. He wanted
to make sure that each and every step of his explanation was
clearly understood before going on to the next. Tyrone acknowl-
edged that while he wasn't an electronic engineer, he wasn't
stupid either.
"Good. Well computers are the same. They radiate an electromag-
netic field when they're in use. If the power is off then
there's no radiation. Inside the computer there are so many
radiated fields that it looks like garbage, pure noise to an
antenna. Filtering out the information is a bitch. But, you can
easily tune into a monitor."
"Monitors. You mean computer screens?" Tyrone wanted to clarify
his understanding.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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