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Wim van Eck is a Dutch computer researcher who was the first to publish about the vulnerability of displays to electromagnetic eavesdropping in 1985, a technique later named after his pioneering research as Van Eck phreaking.[1][2]
Life and education
[edit]Van Eck was born in Zeist, Netherlands.[1] He graduated from the Twente University of Technology in 1981 with a thesis on "Automatic On-Line Exercise Electrocardiography in Patients Unable to Perform Leg Exercise." After graduating, he became a member of the Bio-engineering Group within the Electronics Department at the university.[1]
In January 1982, he joined the Propagation and Electromagnetic Compatibility Department at the laboratories of the former state company Netherlands PTT, a telecommunication, telegraphy, and mail provider. There, he was in charge of several EMC research projects, ranging from NEMP protection to the emission and susceptibility aspects of telecommunications equipment.[1]
In 1985, Van Eck published the first open reports about the dangers of eavesdropping on displays in the Computers & Security journal,[1] which became openly discussed as Van Eck's "phenomenon" in the popular press and was followed up by contributions from different researchers and multiple supplementary reports by the journal.[3]
Popular culture
[edit]- Numb3rs: Episode 11, Season 1 "Sacrifice" as inventor of Van Eck phreacking
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e van Eck, Wim (1985). "Electromagnetic radiation from video display units: An eavesdropping risk?". Computers & Security. 4 (4): 269–286. doi:10.1016/0167-4048(85)90046-X.
- ^ Hiranandani, Vanmala (2010-06-07). "Under-explored Threats to Privacy: See-Through-Wall Technologies and Electro-Magnetic Radiations". Surveillance & Society. 8 (1): 93–98. doi:10.24908/ss.v8i1.3476. ISSN 1477-7487.
- ^ Highland, Harold Joseph (1988). "Electromagnetic eavesdropping machines for christmas?". Computers & Security. 7 (4): 341. doi:10.1016/0167-4048(88)90567-6.