NTT Research and Development 2008 Review of Activities

Information technology appliances such as PCs unintentionally radiate electromagnetic waves when they are being used. This electromagnetic radiation includes components such as the image signals sent to the display device and the input signals generated by the keyboard, which could conceivably be intercepted at a remote location and processed to reproduce these signals, allowing information to be stolen without leaving any trace whatsoever. At NTT Laboratories, to protect our customers' important information from such threats, we have been researching and developing countermeasures to prevent data theft via electromagnetic radiation as part of our technology for increasing network security.

Taking PCs as an example, conventional technology for preventing electromagnetic data theft works by installing multiple filters on the terminals of power supply lines and signal lines to suppress the external electromagnetic radiation, or by shielding the entire room in which the PC is situated (EM shielding). However, NTT Laboratories have now developed a new data theft prevention technique whereby the risk of information leakage via electromagnetic waves can be greatly reduced simply by attaching a small leakage suppression device to the PC's external video port.

In the future, we will continue to work at implementing countermeasures with greater performance and lower cost, and we will investigate the application of this technology to other types of equipment besides PCs.