## Congress Probes NSA's TEMPEST: Electromagnetic & Acoustic Spying Risks in Modern Computers
A pair of US lawmakers are calling for an investigation into how easily spies can steal information based on devices’ electromagnetic and acoustic leaks—a spying trick the NSA once codenamed TEMPEST. The technique, which dates back to at least World War II, involves capturing the unintended radio or sound emissions from electronic equipment like computers, monitors, and keyboards to reconstruct sensitive data. The concern is that despite the age of the method, modern devices may remain vulnerable to these forms of "side-channel" attacks, potentially allowing adversaries to intercept classified or proprietary information without direct network access. The congressional push highlights ongoing anxieties about the security of critical infrastructure and government systems against sophisticated, non-traditional espionage vectors. The request for an investigation seeks to assess the current scale of the threat and evaluate whether existing defenses and standards are sufficient.
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- **Source**: 
- **Sector**: The Network
- **Tags**: spyware, electromagnetic leaks, acoustic leaks, side-channel attacks, espionage
- **Credibility**: unverified
- **Published**: 2026-03-07 00:12:39
- **ID**: 2829
- **URL**: https://whisperx.ai/en/intel/2829