Instrument detects electromagnetic attacks
Moviegoers remember the film ‘Ocean Eleven’: In this movie, George Clooney’s gang cripple the electricity supply of Las Vegas by transmitting a strong electromagnetic pulse which plays havoc with controls, switches and electronic circuits. "Attacks like this are not entirely unrealistic", says Fraunhofer INT researcher Michael Jöster. "Electro-magnetic attacks are conceivable in reality".
The research institute busies itself with the question how such attacks can be detected and measured. Towards this end they developed an instrument that can determine intensity, frequency and direction of such an attack. The challenge: This instrument must be able to measure very high field strengths of very short pulses without being impaired or destroyed.
The instrument includes four specific antennae which scan the environments of the object to be protected. Each one covers a range of 90 degrees and senses all kinds of electromagnetic sources. An RF module pre-processes the data for a measurement to determine the exact timing of an electromagnetic pulse. A computer, located in a control centre and connected through a fibre-optical link, calculates the exact values and displays them on its screen.
Electronic devices can withstand a certain level of electromagnetic radiation, measured in Volt per metre (V/m). This unit describes the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). Depending on the field of application, every electronic equipment must meet certain EMC limits. For equipment to be used in industrial environments, this level is significantly higher than for consumer electronic devices such as smartphones or TV sets. Examples are safety-relevant applications in automotive technology. "In the future, we will increasingly depend on electronic components", says Jöster. "While it is theoretically possible to completely protect all devices from electromagnetic fields, in practice this would be much too expensive. For this reason, there is a demand for systems that detect such attacks. Only who knows how an attack is structured can take the appropriate measures".
There are many realistic threat scenarios for electromagnetic attacks: Criminals can cripple computer networks of banks, government agencies or enterprises. They can cause confusion to pass control points or disable alarm installations to enter protected areas. The researcher hints at a real-world example where an electromagnetic attack has been performed: In Berlin, thieves disabled the security systems of luxury cars by means of electromagnetic waves. Their arms, no bigger than a small suitcase, contained high-power microwave systems. Depending on the field strength, attackers can be several metres away from their target.
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