Monday, December 10, 2001		Bits & Bytes

Tempest: In computer technology, the name Tempest originated with the U.S. military in the 1960s as the name of a classified study of the security of telecommunications devices that emit electromagnetic radiation. Every electronic, electro-optical or electromechanical device gives off some type of electromagnetic signals, whether or not the device was designed to be a transmitter. This is why the use of cellular phones is not permitted on airplanes - their unintentional signals can interfere with navigational equipment. The name, Tempest, was the code name for the military operations in the 1960s and at a later stage the word became an acronym for Telecommunications Electronics Material Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions. The US Government began studying this phenomenon in order to prevent breaches in military security, but today the term has made its way into popular culture because of the proliferation of pervasive computing.