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Radio Frequency Attacks

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Definition

All attacks on the functioning of an electric circuit by means of electromagnetic field.

Background

Summary: Conquest without fight is the basic idea of Sun Tzu in The art of warwritten 2,500 years ago. Force an enemy to retreat immediately, strike with high precision without leaving of the origin of the blow, shut down an adversary’s communications networks, disrupt its power supplies, yet still leaving buildings intact are the properties conferred to an attack that uses electromagnetic waves at the right frequencies. Most types of matter are transparent to microwaves, and waves coming from an electromagnetic blast are difficult to stop in an appropriate manner. A mastered generation of microwaves may not only disrupt or damage electronic equipment, but may also create faults and even completely destroy it. Solar storms constitute a good illustration of the kind of disruption that an electronic equipment might be submitted to when exposed to electromagnetic disruptions...

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Recommended Reading

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Quisquater, JJ., Samyde, D. (2011). Radio Frequency Attacks. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A., Jajodia, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5906-5_133

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