chronology

This chronology is under development. The site offers a broader communications, information technology and media timeline.

1867 German Confederation abolishes passport requirements

1873 Maxwell publishes paper on electromagnetic waves

1876 Bell invents telephone

1882 Bertillonage introduced by Paris police

1882 France establishes national Office of Criminal Investigation

1890 Warren & Brandeis Harvard Law Review article on The Right to Privacy

1900 Belper Committee in UK establishes fingerprinting as basis for criminal identification

1903 support for Bertillonage evaporates after Fort Leavenworth case

1904 New York Police Dept introduces fingerprint register

1906 US military fingerprint register established

1912 mandatory registration of gypsies in France

1914 passports reintroduced by Germany

1914 Commonwealth Crimes Act 1914

1914 field telephone crosstalk exploited on Western Front

1915 national ID card introduced in UK

1919 Hebern invents rotor cipher machine

1924 US Navy establishes cryptanalytic group within Office of Naval Communications

1928 Olmstead v US wiretapping decision by US Supreme Court

1934 US Communications Act

1934 International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) established

1935 IBM markets electric typewriter

1939 national ID card reintroduced in UK

1940s some US raeceivers shielded for local oscillator radiation

1941 FCC authorizes b&W tv

1942 Australian signals intelligence CentralBureau established

1943 Colossus electronic computer built by British

1940 US President Roosevelt and Canadia Prime Minister King issue "Ogdensburg Declaration"

1946 Canadian Communications Security Establishment (CSE) established

1946 British General Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) established

1947 Australian Defence Signals Bureau (DSB) established

1949 Australian Security Intelligence Service (ASIO) established

1949 Australian Defence Signals Branch replaces DSB

1952 US President Truman establishes Brownell Committee on intelligence

1952 KGB bugs great seal in US Moscow embassy

1952 US National Security Agency (NSA) established

1953 US National Security Agency (NSA) established

1953 intentional acoustic TEMPEST performed on Whirlwind I computer at MIT over phone line

1954 Petrov Defection in Australia

1954 MIL-STD-285 standard set for attenuation measurements for electromagnetic shielding

1955 US government establishes TEMPEST Program

1956 UK intelligence breaks ciphers of Egyptian Hagelin machine in London

1957 Sputnik 1

1958 US Air Force begins Simulation for Air & Group Engagements (SAGE) air defense system, using graphical terminals

1958 UK intelligence monitors local oscillator emanations from USSR's London embassy (Operation Rafter)

1959 MIL-STD-220A (Method of insertion-loss measurement) standard

1960s Federal standards FS222/FS222A replace NAG-1A

1960 UK intelligence monitors signals generated by French diplomatic cipher machine in London (Operation Stockade)

1960 Commonwealth Telephonic Communications (Interception) Act 1960

1960 FBI conducts similar operation against French embassy in Washington

1962 NSA's Project Tempest begins

1964 Operation against French embassies in London and Washington install countermeasures to Stockade-style surveillance

1964 International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (INTELSAT) formed

1965 TEMPEST first publicly discussed

1966 International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights

1967 Australian Defence Signals Branch renamed Defence Signals Division

1968 US Arms Control Export Act requires licence for export of TEMPEST products

1968 US Streets & Crimes Act criminalises private exploitation of 'compromising emanations'

1968 US Defense Dept Directive S-5200.19 on Control of Compromising Emanations

1969 TEMPEST Project involves NSA and counterparts in Australia, New Zealand, UK and Canada

1969 listening device legislation passed in Victoria and NSW

1969 New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Act 1969

1970 US National Communications Security Information Memos 5100 and 5101

1970 joint UK-US Communications satellite communication monitoring station at Morwenstow

1971 IBM begins measuring emanations of all its devices for information-bearing radiation

1971 National Communications Security Committee 4 (National Policy on the Control of Compromising Emanations) published

1973 Lance Hoffman's Security & Privacy in Computer Systems addresses problem of terminal TEMPEST

1973 Attorney-General (later High Court justice) Lionel Murphy orders raid on ASIO’s Canberra and Melbourne offices

1974 Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO) established in Australia

1974 US Privacy Act doesn't include TEMPEST as a required security protective measure

1974 Soviet cipher machines determined by KGB to be vulnerable to HIJACK attacks

1974 Royal Commission on Intelligence & Security (RCIS) in Australia

1976 Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman describe public key cryptography

1977 RSA developed by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Len Adleman

1977 proposed Federal Computer Systems Protection Act identifies TEMPEST as unlawful computer access

1978 Iranian students "execute" a Prime T3300 TEMPEST computer in US embassy courtyard

1978 Hilton Bombing in Sydney

1978 Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) replaces Australian Defence Signals Division

1978 Listening Devices Act 1978 in Western Australia

1979 FCC adopts minimum technical and administrative requirements to limit interference potential of computers and other digital electronic equipment

1979 Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act

1979 Commonwealth Telecommunications (Interception) Act

1980 OECD Guidelines on Data Privacy Protection & Transborder Data Flows

1981 US Congressional report says only foreign governments have 'limitless resources' needed for TEMPEST spying

1982 US Executive Order 12356 (National Security Information) classifies compromising emanations information

1983 Swedish National Police Board informs Swedish business community about TEMPEST

1983 Al Gore refers to TEMPEST in Congressional hearing

1984 NSA publishes TEMPEST security requirements for its contractors

1984 Listening Devices Act 1984 in New South Wales

1984 FCC requires non-interference certification for microcomputers

1984 Swedish government commission publishes Leaking Computers guide for business community

1985 Dutch scientist Wim Van Eck publishes an unclassified paper on TEMPEST eavesdropping of up to 1 km after demonstrating it at Securicom '85, followed by BBC program

1985 Canadian Criminal Amendment Act criminalizes TEMPEST reception

1985 Richelson & Ball's The Ties That Bind: Intelligence Cooperation Between the UKUSA Countries

1986 US Electronic Communications & Privacy Act considers unwired communications but unclear on TEMPEST

1986 est US sales of TEMPEST security systems and services reach US$874 million with over 50 manufacturers

1987 NSA requests company to cancel TEMPEST demonstration at Interface '87 conference

1987 BBC reporter demonstrates TEMPEST at trade show with Van Eck cart capturing data exhibitors' computers

1987 US Computer Security Act (successor of numerous Federal Computer Systems Protection Act bills) fails to address TEMPEST

1988 analysts forecast US sales of TEMPEST security systems will reach US$2.9 billion by 1992

1988 Echelon interception system featured in UK New Statesman magazine

1988 Commonwealth Privacy Act

1988 Tax File Number introduced in Australia

1988 Commonwealth Cash Transaction Report Act

1989 first International Symposium on Electromagnetic Security for Information Protection (SEPI) takes place in Italy

1989 GCHQ releases TEMPEST:The Risk report

1990 British Computer Misuse Act explicitly excludes TEMPEST eavesdropping as threat and states that it is legal

1990 Erhard Moller publishes update of Van Eck's work

1991 Geraldo Rivera's tabloid tv program highlights electromagnetic eavesdropping with Winn Schwartau

1991 Listening Devices Act 1991 in Tasmania

1992 alleged TEMPEST attack on US Chemical Bank credit card processing facility

1993 Winn Schwartau's Information Warfare features TEMPEST

1993 global market for CRTs reach 168 million units valued at US$13.6bn

1993 Privacy Act 1993 in New Zealand

1994 US Joint Security Committee's Redefining Security report to Defense Dept and CIA recommends against broadbrush domestic TEMPEST countermeasures

1994 US debate about Clipper chip

1995 Internet Underground features article about TEMPEST

1996 National Information Infrastructure Protection Act doesn't directly address TEMPEST

1998 US Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) national forensic DNA database established

1998 Californian Personal Privacy Protection Act

1998 Surveillance Devices Act in Western Australia

1998 European Parliament publishes report on Technology of Political Control

1999 European Parliament publishes Interception Capabilities 2000 report describing Echelon

1999 Workplace Video Surveillance Act in NSW

1999 Australia's Defence Signals Directorate confirms participation in UKUSA intelligence sharing system

1999 Whitfield Diffie's Privacy on the Line

2001 Kyllo v. US ruling by US Supreme Court against unwarranted infrared surveillance of private residences

2001 Australian Senate committee Cookie Monsters? Privacy in the Information Society report

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