Wim van Eck

Wim van Eck is a Dutch computer researcher who was the first to publish about the vulnerability of displays to electromagnetic eavesdropping in 1985, a technique later named after his pioneering research as Van Eck phreaking.^[1][2]

Life and education

Van Eck was born in Zeist, Netherlands.^[1] He graduated from the Twente University of Technology in 1981 with a thesis on "Automatic On-Line Exercise Electrocardiography in Patients Unable to Perform Leg Exercise." After graduating, he became a member of the Bio-engineering Group within the Electronics Department at the university.^[1]

In January 1982, he joined the Propagation and Electromagnetic Compatibility Department at the laboratories of the former state company Netherlands PTT, a telecommunication, telegraphy, and mail provider. There, he was in charge of several EMC research projects, ranging from NEMP protection to the emission and susceptibility aspects of telecommunications equipment.^[1]

In 1985, Van Eck published the first open reports about the dangers of eavesdropping on displays in the Computers & Security journal,^[1] which became openly discussed as Van Eck's "phenomenon" in the popular press and was followed up by contributions from different researchers and multiple supplementary reports by the journal.^[3]

Popular culture

• Numb3rs: Episode 11, Season 1 "Sacrifice" as inventor of Van Eck phreacking