My Self-Installed Magnet Implant Experience

Introduction

 I got my start in biohacking searching for a way to augment myself.   At the time, as part of my job, I was surrounded by communications equipment and heard about these magnetic implants grinders (a.k.a. biohackers) were using for electronic diagnostic work. 

The following column is a retelling of my two magnet insertion experiences with some helpful tips if you're going to try it out yourself.  I will discuss why I chose to implant, how I prepared for and conducted surgery on myself, the differences between the two types of magnetic inserts I used, and the pro’s and con’s of having an implant.

As a disclaimer, I don't take responsibility for any reckless actions, infections, or if your limbs fall off.

Why Implant?

This is a complex question for me.  The best answer I can come up with is I suppose I wanted to experience it for myself.  There’s a difference between reading how electromagnetic (EM) waves work and actually feeling them vibrate up against your nervous system.

Second, I want my hands to look like this:

In 40 years, maybe.

. . . so a magnet seems like a good first step.  I plan to implant a series of magnets and RFID chips to interact with devices that are still ideas in my sketchbook.

The third reason is a bit more personal, perhaps spiritual. I am absolutely fascinated with electromagnetic physics. I worked in the field for over a decade, studied it daily, and it became a huge part of my life. Being able to interact with these forces directly enables me to become a better teacher, as well as experience the invisible in ways that are deeply profound to me.

Before I just went and stuck a bunch of magnets in myself all willy-nilly though, I had research to do.

Surgery Preparation

Some of the best guidance I’ve seen is in the biohack.me forums. They are a great resource to help you get started and find materials.  The forums suggested implanting in my left ring finger first.  The reason why?  Because I’m right-handed and if my left ring finger falls off, it won’t be as big of a loss as say, my right index finger.

Once I’d selected a finger I looked up everything I could about left ring finger anatomy. I consulted our Battalion Surgeon, several Navy Corpsmen (medics), and began gathering supplies.

Instead of opting for the more common incision method of implanting, I decided to go with (what I imagine to be) the less-invasive and painful puncture method. I didn’t feel comfortable cutting as deep as I needed to go and suturing afterward. A puncture wound would be created with a needle (about 1.5mm wide, depending on the size of your magnet) parallel to the finger bone, about a half an inch deep.

I learned it’s dangerous to inject an anesthetics like Lidocaine or Novocaine (or any of the others in the “-Caine family”) because it can vasoconstrict circulatory pathways in the finger(s) and hand. I also didn’t want to be under the influence of any drugs or alcohol because I didn’t want my hard work to go to waste by making mistakes. I ended up using ice and a constrictive band to numb pain and control bleeding.

My surgery kit consisted of:

Profound anxiety not pictured.

1.  Isopropyl Alcohol

2.  Sterile latex glove (if preferred, for the hand opposite your implant hand)

3.  Bowl of ice (ice not pictured)

4.  Plastic bag

5.  Permanent marker or pen

6.  Rubber band

7.  Surgical or leather-working needle

8.  Suture glue

9.  Spare suture glue application nozzle (or other thin, non-magnetic material)

10. Neodymium N52 1mm x 4mm rare earth magnet(s) (8 pictured)

11. Antibiotic ointment and bandaid

Whether you’re performing the surgery on yourself or someone else, it’s ideal to mark your tools and finger. Place the magnet on your finger of choice and mark where you want the bottom of the magnet to rest.  Then, mark where you will insert the needle and miss your phalange bone:

It's also wise, given the nature and circumstances of your procedure, to mark your tools as well.  With adrenaline going, I'd hate to accidentally overshoot my target.  Marking your needle will give you a visual indicator of depth.  During the procedure, if you see the line disappear, take it easy, and back it out:

"Don't Get Carried Away" markings.

My first implant was a bit more crude and I didn’t pay as much attention to sterilization as I should have.  My second implant I took extra measures to deliberately sterilize my equipment and the implant healed up in a week.  Please use the sterilization guide for tips and to avoid amputations.

With all my ducks in a line I picked a day and time and told myself I’d do it.

Surgery Execution and Recovery

 When the time for rehearsal was over, I sterilized all of my equipment and reapplied my markings.  If you’re following along because you’re about to stick yourself, make sure all sterilization and material gathering is complete before continuing.

I filled the bowl with enough ice to cover one left ring finger and put about half a cup of alcohol in the plastic bag.  After fixing the rubber band around my finger between the second and third joints, I dunked my hand in the bag of alcohol and rested it in the bowl of ice.  Keep the rubber band tight enough to reduce circulation, but also rely on the ice to reduce blood flow and numb the area.  I kept my hand in the cold alcohol against an ice cube for about five minutes.

Every couple of minutes, test your skin with the needle to check numbness and for cold injury.  You know your body best, so if you're using this method to numb the area, make sure your keep tabs on your implant site.

When you feel you've reached the appropriate amount of numbness, line up your needle and carefully insert it down your predetermined route.  Both of my procedures were painless because I'd sufficiently numbed my finger.  Everyone's body and pain tolerance is different, so if you need to stop it's okay.  It's better to stop than pass out and fall on your needle.  If your needle won't reach your marks, you can still insert the magnet as long as it won't protrude out of the skin.

After you remove the needle, quickly press your magnet into the puncture.  Use your thin, non-magnetic material to get the magnet as deep as possible.  Be prepared for a bit of pushing if you skimped on needle diameter.  When the magnet is in place, squeeze the puncture wound shut as tight as you can and apply a dab of suture glue.  Do not apply glue without squeezing the puncture shut, because there is potential to create a column of dried glue in the tip of your finger.  Apply antibiotic ointment, your bandaid, and you're finished.

The numbness should wear off in a few minutes.  The wound should only have a low level of dull pain and shouldn't bleed.  Wash the area carefully often, sterilize, and reapply bandages often.  If you notice any infection (swelling, burning, etc.) please go visit a doctor.  The implant site should completely heal within 2 to 4 weeks.

I didn't feel any effects for the first two weeks.  In fact, I thought I'd been duped into a sick form of online-encouraged self-harm in my impatience.  A day before the third week I woke up to turn on my stereo and I definitely felt it when I flipped the power switch.  It felt like a strong buzzing, a motion similar to phone vibrations, in the tip of my finger.  I get a kick out that sensation to this day.

Electronic Education - Part I - The Elegance of Electromagnetism

Information Is Currency

Before we jump into the electromagnetic (also know as EM) side of things, I would like to make a few brief comments about the things people, organizations, and governments feel have value since the birth of the Internet.  Since recorded history, humans have named the Ages after the things that were the most valuable at the time: Stone, Bronze, Iron, and now Information Age.

This is not a mistake, though many modern humans are oblivious to the fact of how powerful the label of the era is.  If you have the right information at the right time, you can live comfortably for the rest of your life.  There is a specific reason why military operations centers, businesses, stock markets, why they all funnel information to the center of their decision-making cortex.  Because it is valuable.

If you stop and look around you for a moment, you are immersed in it.  In fact, you really can't escape it.  If you disconnect yourself from the grid and live in the most remote place you can possibly find, you will still want to know what the weather will be like tomorrow; you will still need information.

Hackers (and I can't express to you how much the connotations of that word make me gag) are adept at gathering, filtering, processing, and acting on information.  From the most noob-tastic script kiddie, to the most dangerously elite or benevolent of us, there is an insatiable internal propellant that feeds on the digestion and beneficial products of information.  So much so, that unlike the contracted government employee, if you give a dedicated person a reason they will pick through your life for months late into the night and crunch every bit of traffic and spat of metadata you produce, just to glean information from you.  But the true hacker only wants to know how things work, test the boundaries of systems and devices, and build on the things they learn along the way.  They are progressing in their skillset as long as they are doing something to learn.

The companies people work for are an even more delicious target.  Not because of the monetary assets they control, but because of the precious information they store.  That's why very few companies say "oh bollocks, the hackers transferred $50 million from our primary account" in the news.  It's always information, connected to people, where the most lucrative heists are successful.  The reason why is, to be frank, $50 million dollars is only $50 million dollars.  A victim's identity, their medical records, their credit information, and the information to create fraudulent accounts is immeasurably valuable.

The reason I wanted to bring this up is because I believe there are two ways to become a seasoned hacker: one is through the study of computers; the other is through the study of electromagnetism.  The most well-rounded path is to study both at the same time, because they're based on the same principles.  Most choose the computer path, because who wants to build an antenna garden in their back yard?  Well, me.

The purpose of this article is to show interestingly striking comparisons between both fields, and to show you that you are probably smarter than you think you are.  Most of all, this article was written to help you protect yourself from the nefarious actors that want your information.

If there is a God or a higher power, their design of the universe was based on copy-cat physics concepts.  Once you learn one model of explaining the invisible waves and packets of data that zip down cable lines, the rest of them fall in to perfect place, simply.  So we're going to dive in from the very smallest of concepts, and by the last installment you will have an expert understanding of how to catch invisible information and make it yours.  You will also know how to secure your information, your family's information, the signals that come from your home, and how make these transmissions more costly to hacker in their time and money to hijack than your information is worth.

This will be a several part series under the name Electronic Education.  The beginning articles will consist of some terms and definitions, and we will build on them until by the end of the series you will be able to build your own WiFi cantenna, explain how Stinger technology works, and be able to explain how a Tempest system can foil even the most stringent and classified electronic protection methods devised by the United States government.

So let's begin.

The "Wind" of Information

Electromagnetic waves are all around us, all the time.  It is impossible to completely escape them, no matter where you go on Earth or in the universe.  They are mostly invisible to us; trying to explain what they look like in explicit detail would be much like you holding up a family photo to your WiFi router.  Your router has no idea what those photons bouncing off the photo paper mean, and it certainly can't assign any meaningful value to what your mother dressed in denim in the photo means to you (or what it meant to you when she submitted that photo along with her congratulations to the yearbook club your senior year).  The device only understands a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

To explain, let's talk about some antennas you've naturally developed already that can be used to explain how other electromagnetic devices work.  Your eyes, your ears, and your nervous system in general can all be considered a type of "antenna" that interacts with electromagnetic fields.

Take a minute to look at your surroundings and take note of every color you see.  Photons, or light waves, bounce and scatter at different frequencies off every surface you can see.  Your eye and brain interpret these different photon frequencies as color, shade, depth, and form.

Now quiet your mind and listen to the sounds around you.  You may hear a fan in the background (because it's hot in here), birds chirping, your children yelling, etc.  These vibrations in the air are funneled down your external acoustic meatus (your ear hole), into complex organs in your ear.  These vibrations in the air vibrate tiny cilia within your ear, and your brain developed to interpret them as sound.  Says something, anything.  Say "cellar door" or "I will click on advertisements on this website."  Your vocal cords vibrate the air, and even though the fan might not respond to you, your children might.  Again, another set of biological antennas connected to your body.  While sound is included in the electomagnetic spectrum, I feel that it is loosely defined as electromagnetic energy, since it is only air molecules that vibrate instead of anything specifically electronic or magnetic.

Artist credit: Yuumei

Through leaps in technology within the last century or so, humans have developed electronic "ears", "vocal cords", and "eyes" that are sensitive enough to speak and listen on frequencies that are outside of the range of human perception.  Your Wifi modem speaks and hears on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum (I know for many of you, that might not mean much yet, but we're getting there).  Your Xbox and PS4 controllers also speak and hear on the 2.4 GHz frequency.  AM radio speaks from 153 kHz up to 26.1 MHz, depending on which country you're in.

Those numbers might not mean anything to you yet, but just realize that EM energy is flying around you in multiple directions at the speed of light, all the time.  This is what I call the "Wind of Information" because if you build the correct sail, you can catch a lot of it.  Much of the information doesn't only have to do with wireless technologies, but wired as well.  If you understand how all of it works, nothing electronic will ever be a mystery to you.

James Clerk Maxwell published a set of mathematical equations between 1861 and 1862 that form the basic foundation of electrodynamics.  Whether you knew it or not, his work is the basis on which modern electronics, radio technology, optics, and many other communications technologies.  Some of his equations describe the interactions and similarities between magnetic and electrical fields.  Some of his other equations, simplified as much I dare to teach the more inquisitive of my students, prove these eloquent truths:

• A changing magnetic field will induce an electric field.

• Conversely, a changing electrical field induces a magnetic field.

If we take that concept just a stretch further, we can say that if you apply an electric current to a conductor (any electrically conductive material, such as a wire), it will produce an electromagnetic field around the conductor.  Conversely, if we place a conductor within one of these electromagnetic fields, it will produce electric current on the conductor.  This is the foundation upon which wireless energy transmission and reception technologies are built.

It wasn't until 1888 when Heinrich Rudolph Hertz, a German physicist came along, that Maxwell's equations were conclusively proven.  Hertz was conducting experiments with spark gap generators in his laboratory.  He noticed that when he energized one of the generators, it would create a spark in another, non-powered generator across the room.  He was able to recreate the effect to study it, which happened to be the first time wireless energy transfer was able to be shown consistently.  Hertz didn't understand the incredible importance of his discovery.  When asked by his students he demonstrated the effect to, what the discovery might mean, he is quoted saying:

"I fuggin' don't know.  Nothing."

Image courtesy of Robert Krewaldt.

Later, after the technology is commercialized, it is upon Hertz's concepts that the first radio telegraphs are built.  The first trans-Atlantic radio broadcast took place on December 12, 1901, pioneered by Guglielmo Marconi.  The technology evolved during both World Wars, along with mechanical and electronic encryption methods.  Modern radio signals are used for intermittent cellular telephone conversations, and through WiFi routers to study pornography.

Before we can gain an advanced understanding of electronic signals, we have to have a common language to express a basic framework on which these technologies are built.  Let's dig just a bit deeper by going over some common terms.

Fundamental Electromagnetic Terms

Electromagnetic (EM) Waves - Electromagnetic waves  which are broadcast through space.  These waves travel near the surface of the earth and also radiate skyward at various angles to the surface of the earth.  Remember, we're talking about all EM waves in this definition.  Your cellphone and WiFi router are included, but only make up a small portion of the spectrum we're going to talk about.  This picture was made by the Army and taken from one of their manuals, which is why it is garbage in explaining the infinite complexity of our subject:

Wavelength - (This is the where EM hackering begins) Wavelength is the distance a radio wave travels in the time required to complete one cycle.  Wait, what?  What could that possibly have to do with hacking?

Well, human-manufactured electronic antennas have interesting properties.  Have you ever pulled a WiFi router out of the box, and then been forced to staple gun 140 feet of antenna wire to the outside of your house like lights for Christmas?  When you bought your most recent cellphone, did it come with a box of wire you had to string out to text your bae?  No, you never have.

You haven't, not only because manufacturers wanted WiFi and cellphones to be convenient, but also because of the frequencies they operate on.  Wavelength is determined by the frequencies on which our devices communicate.

The next term will help explain wavelength a bit more, because these two terms are bound together by physics and electrodynamic theory:

Frequency: The rate at which a process repeats itself or the number of complete cycles per unit of time.

When we're talking about electromagnetic frequencies, the unit of time will always be one second.  They make it sound so complicated by measuring things "per unit of time."  But with electronic radio transmissions, the measurement will always be one second.

A 2 Hz wave, or 2 cycles per second.

So, if I have a 1 Hertz (Hz) wave, that means the wave completely cycles in one second.  Now, this is easy to understand if you have had any experience with a computer, at all.  Let  me throw this chart out really quick, just so we have some context:

Based on this chart that means your WiFi router, your Xbox, and your PS4 controller generates 2.4 billion cycles per second.

Welcome to the 21st Century, where people can build that kind of stuff on such a scale that it sits in your living room, unappreciated.  That's how sensitive modern antennas are.  Equipment that my cable company gives me for free can sense 2.4 billion electronic vibrations a second coming from your living room, and transmit your pornography collection, all because of advancements in modern electronics.  Here is another picture to help demonstrate what a 10 Hz wave would look like.  Notice how much smaller the wavelength is when the frequency gets bumped up times five:

If you compare the 2 Hz and the 10 Hz image, you'll notice the wavelength for the 2 Hz is much longer, and the 10 Hz is much shorter.  You might have guessed it already:

• The lower the frequency, the longer the wavelength (and thus, the antenna used to talk with those devices).

• The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength (and thus, a smaller antenna is used to communicate on those frequencies).

Using sound as an example, tweeters are smaller than subwoofers for a reason.  Tweeters generate sounds in a higher frequency (Mariah Carey hitting those high notes) as opposed to subwoofers generating sounds in a lower frequency (a Dubstep artist hitting a nasty drop).  

Using antennas as examples, there is a reason why this sits in your phone and operates up to the GHz range:

Cellular Telephone Antenna: operates from 850 - 2100 MHz

And this operates in the kHz to MHz range, and takes up the space of a corn field:

Commercial AM Radio Tower: 0.535 - 1.605 MHz

Electromagnetic Spectrum - Imagine trying out for a rock band or symphony orchestra and when you show up to the audition, the manager doesn't know any names of any instruments and doesn't use adjectives to describe the pitch of the instruments.  As the manager introduces you to the band members, you meet a guy that plays the "plucky twanger" and a lady that says she has "over ten years of experience playing the flippy-doop dapple."  

"Welcome to our 'band'"

The importance of that thought experiment is, if you want to speak intelligently about electromagnetism you need to know what each frequency band (or instrument in that example) is capable of.  If you don't have the same common knowledge as all the other super-nerds out there, those FCC stickers on all your electronic devices don't have any useful meaning.  No one can build useful hardware to talk to WiFi, cellphones, or garage door opening equipment if you don't know what frequencies it uses to talk to external devices.

The Electromagnetic Spectrum is the range of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation as measured from 0 Hertz to infinity Hertz.  The electromagnetic spectrum is broken down into bands.  These bands include Gamma Rays, X-Rays, visible light, audible sound, and microwaves, in addition to describing radio frequencies.

The EM Spectrum organizes frequencies into frequency bands, or ranges of frequencies between two limiting frequencies, so they can be referred to in a logical fashion.  Just like musical instruments, each frequency band is useful for different functions and has its own unique properties determined by where it falls on the EM Spectrum.  The following is a graphic of the EM frequency band allocations in the United States in 2003:

Click here for higher resolution.

Frequencies can be considered a natural resource.  Based on technology, at any given time there are a limited number of frequencies that can be allocated.  The buying, selling, and leasing of frequencies in the United States is administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  The following chart is a more simplified example of some of the general frequency bands and their ITU (International Telecommunication Union) designations (i.e. VHF, UHF, etc.):

Depending on which country you're in or which textbook you reference, this chart is more-or-less the general gist of where the standard frequency bands fall.  For example, some companies and textbooks insist UHF begins at 225 MHz, which is fine, except they aren't the ITU.  Each frequency band (and even their sub-bands) have diverse properties and characteristics; some work better when utilized with a particular technology, while others are better suited to carry signals for other types of products and equipment.  A quick overview of some of their naturally occurring uses and technologies that utilize each band:

• Very Low Frequency (VLF) - Frequency Band: 3 - 30 kHz - Wavelengths: 100 to 10 kilometers - Used for radio navigation and government radio timing signals.  A characteristic of this band is its ability to penetrate approximately 40 meters through saltwater, which is why it is also used for some types of submarine communications.  Because VLF has such a long wavelength it isn't often obstructed by mountains or other terrain, making it ideal for long range ground-based timing signals.  This frequency band can also be refracted by the ionosphere (more on the ionosphere in a moment). (R) (D)

• Low Frequency (LF) - Frequency Band: 30 - 300 kHz - Wavelengths: 10 to 1 kilometer - Utilized for aircraft beacons, navigation, weather systems, consumer radio clocks, and AM radio broadcasts in some parts of the world.  Frequencies in this band can penetrate saltwater approximately 200 meters, making it ideal for military submarine communications.  This band can also be refracted by the ionosphere, as well as diffracted over and around obstacles like mountains. (R) (D)

• Medium Frequency (MF) - Frequency Band: 300 kHz - 3 MHz - Wavelengths: 1000 to 100 meters - MF is utilized for AM radio broadcasting, navigational radio beacons, and ship-to-shore communications.  This band also experiences refraction and diffraction. (R) (D)

• High Frequency (HF) - Frequency Band: 3 - 30 MHz - Wavelengths: 100 to 10 meters - HF is used for aviation communication, government time stations, weather stations, amateur (HAM) radio, and citizens band (CB) radio.  If you take a look at HF's wavelengths and pair its relatively manageable antenna lengths with the band's ability to (most of the time) reliably be refracted by the ionosphere and diffracted around obstacles, you can draw conclusions about why HF is used what it's used for.  HF antenna design and understanding the properties of the ionosphere is an art form in many amateur, civilian, and military radio circles.  The majority of my understanding of electronics and signals came from studying HF radio and it's associated technologies and disciplines.  A little later in the column, we will discuss how the ionosphere interacts with and refracts HF waves of various wavelengths. (R) (D)

• Very High Frequency (VHF) - Frequency Band: 30 - 300 MHz - Wavelengths: 10 to 1 meter - VHF is mainly a terrestrial (Earth-bound), generally (but often farther than) line of sight (LOS) frequency band.  It is utilized for FM radio, television broadcasts (analog and digital), two way land mobile radio systems, air traffic control, and long range data communications up to several miles with the use of radio modems, HAM radio, and maritime communication.  The lower end of the VHF band may intermittently refract off the ionosphere, but only under favorable conditions, and not reliably enough to be used for long range communications the same way HF is.  It is, however, less prone to EM noise interference than High Frequency communications. (~R)

• Ultra High Frequency (UHF) - Frequency Band: 300 MHz - 3 GHz - Wavelengths: 1 to 0.1 meters - The UHF band is used for TV broadcasting, cordless phones, wireless video game controllers, military satellite communications, and two-way radios.  Most importantly for this series of articles, cellular phones, WiFi Internet connections, Bluetooth connections, and Global Positioning System (GPS) all utilize the UHF band to receive and transmit information.  UHF waves are mainly line of sight (LOS) waves, are easily blocked easily by obstructions, but can have an narrow signal path when polarized correctly.

• Super High Frequency (SHF) - Frequency Band: 3 - 300 GHz - Wavelengths: 0.1 meter to 1 centimeter - SHF wavelengths fall within the microwave band, so SHF waves are sometimes called microwaves.  Like their UHF cousins, because of the short wavelength of SHF waves they can be polarized into narrow beam-like signal paths.  SHF waves are used in cellular telephone networks, point-to-point data linkages, wireless Local Area Networks (LANs), and for satellite communications.  Some Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) use the SHF band.  Microwave ovens and many military parabolic dish data terminals fall within this frequency band.  But contrary to the beliefs of some, equipment that is solely design for communications cannot amplify its signal to cause any harm to humans whatsoever if they are exposed for a short period of time (unless, ironically, if they happen to be wearing tinfoil hats).

• Extremely High Frequency (EHF) - Frequency Band: 300 GHz - 3 THz - Wavelengths: 1 centimeter to 1 millimeter - EHF waves have some interesting properties.  They are commonly absorbed by the moisture in Earth's air, and scattered by air molecules themselves, and only have a range of one kilometer at best.  Because they are scattered and absorbed by moisture, they are perfect for weather radar stations.  They are also starting to become more commonly used in Personal Area Networks (PANs) because of their short range and therefore, frequency re-usability.

(R) denotes that the band is utilized in conjunction with ionospheric refraction.

(D) denotes that the band is commonly diffracted around obstacles.

There are several frequency bands above and below the bands I've listed.  ELF, SLF, and ULF are below Very Low Frequencies (VLF) and above Extremely High Frequencies (EHF) is the beginning of the infrared light spectrum.  I only listed the bands above as a starting point for someone who is interested to learn more.

Modulation - The process of changing a constant signal in order to carry information.  Modulation doesn't only have to do with electromagnetism; there are many other applications.  Demodulation is the process of "stripping intelligence" off of a modulated signal to produce useful information.  All modems are named after the processes of these two terms; modem is an abbreviation of modulator/demodulator.

The two most recognized forms of electromagnetic modulation are Amplitude Modulation (AM) and Frequency Modulation (FM).  

Carrier Wave - The radio wave produced by a transmitter when there is no modulating signal.  A carrier wave has a constant amplitude and frequency.  When you tune your car radio to 92.1 MHz, you are telling your radio to listen for the 92.1 MHz carrier wave.  Same thing with KSL 1160 (1.160 MHz) carrier.  The magic happens when the transmitting station encodes, or modulates, the carrier signal with music, or talk radio, or commercials.

Let me take a moment before we talk about some types of modulation to make a point.  As I mentioned earlier that wavelength and the UHF band are going to be important in the follow-on columns, modulation is equally important.  Hopefully, when you practice breaking passwords off your WiFi signal along with me, you'll be able to look up your WiFi router's technical specifications on Google.  If you are, let's say, working as a network penetration tester for a company under completely legal circumstances and you come across a signal you'd like to learn more about, you won't always have the luxury of being able to profile their hardware.  As we continue deeper into this electromagnetic mess, take note of these basic types of modulation, because there are more complicated industry standard ones out there.  I would hate for you to configure something really innovative, but feel like the military radio operator that didn't hear anything on the range all day because they set their equipment to listen on the wrong modulation.

Amplitude Modulation - The amplitude (or voltage level, field intensity, or power level) of a carrier wave is varied above and below its normal value, in accordance with the information being encoded onto the carrier wave.  The frequency of the carrier wave remains the same.  Because there many naturally occurring and man-made sources of EM noise that mimic the way AM is transmitted, AM is especially susceptible to atmospheric noise.  This is why AM radio typically sounds "fuzzy" on your car stereo.

Frequency Modulation - The frequency (the number of cycles per second) of a carrier wave is rapidly deviated to encode information.  Because there are very few sources of Frequency Modulation in nature, FM channels tend to be very "clean" sounding.  You can tell the acoustic (because of the signal type) differences between FM and AM if you switch back and forth between them on your car stereo.

There are probably very few FM .gif images available because it's not as fun to look at as AM.  Image courtesy of tutorvista.com.

The follow image shows a modulating signal (this could be voice, data, or really anything) on top (blue), followed by a carrier wave (red).  Next is an AM signal (green) encoded to carry information from the modulating signal.  Last is a FM signal (pinkish purple) encoded to carry information from the modulating signal.

Image courtesy of lossenderosstudio.com.

Fading occurs when a signal travels over long distances.  If you have ever taken a long road trip with the radio on, you have experienced this phenomenon on both AM and FM stations.  Because radio signals are attenuated (or weakened) over distance, you will hear a radio station fade as you travel and pick up another one when its signal becomes stronger than the more distant station.

You also experience fading when you catch a signal after it strikes or travels through obstacles.  Those of you fortunate enough to have large houses experience this in rooms that are distant from your WiFi router.

Polarization is another extremely important (and interesting) characteristic of electromagnetism.  Every time any radio wave is produced, it creates two types of charged fields: an electric field, and a magnetic field.  These two fields travel through the air (or space) at 90 degree angles to one another.  Their shapes and forms perfectly match one another and look exactly like radio waves (because they are).  These two fields propel (or propagate) one another through space, creating their forward motion.

This phenomenon is exactly the reason some "grinders" and bio-hackers choose to implant neodymium magnets into their fingertips.  Once the incision heals, the sensitive nerve endings in their fingertips are able to sense the magnetic portion of radio waves from a short distance.  This is useful for technician or electronic infrastructure jobs, where the bio-hacker can actually feel if a wire is live or if a magnetic hard drive is functioning (and no, it doesn't interfere with the data stored on the magnetic disk platters).  It also makes a neat bar trick and is useful for frightening helicopter parents.

Video courtesy of my left ring finger.

The angles of the electromagnetic parts of radio waves can be manipulated easily, sometimes even on accident.  All you have to do is move the antenna to change the propagation starting point of the EM waves and you have successfully modified their polarization.  Back when television was more commonly broadcast over radio signals, each TV set came with an antenna.  I have heard of fathers instructing their kids to "go mess with those damn rabbit ears on the TV so I can watch the game."  What he was actually telling you to do was "go modify the receptive polarization of that damn vee antenna so it matches the polarization of the transmitting television station's propagating electric field."  Yes, many of you were antenna engineers by the time you were five and you didn't know it.

Like your Dad said in the previous paragraph, a radio antenna's polarization is referred to by the direction of the electrically charged field in relation to the surface of the Earth.  Antennas that stick straight up in the air are considered vertically polarized.  Vertically polarized antennas tend to have an omni-directional propagation pattern, which means that signal is transmitted and received equally in all directions from the antenna.

Top photograph courtesy of zerofive-antennas.com

Antennas that run parallel to the ground are known as horizontally polarized antennas.  These generally have a bi-directional propagation pattern, meaning they transmit and receive radio signals equally in only two directions.

Dipole Antenna, credit: Loodog

Antennas that are arranged at 45 degree angles to the Earth's surface, or have both vertical and horizontal elements (or wires) have mixed polarization.  Mixed polarization is useful is you want to receive both horizontal and vertical signals at the same time, but it doesn't receive either type of polarization exceptionally well.

It is certainly possible for a vertical antenna to receive a signal from a horizontally polarized antenna, but then you run into what's called polarization mismatch.  To demonstrate the point, imagine that a train traveling down some straight tracks is a radio wave traveling through space.  You need to build a space to receive as much of the train (or radio wave) as possible, like a train tunnel.  There is a reason train tunnels are built tall and slender (vertically), and not short and wide (horizontally).  If you built a train tunnel short and wide, I'm sure some parts of the train would make it through to the other side, but it wouldn't be pretty.

The same thing happens with polarization mismatch; you want to orient your antenna to catch as much signal as possible by matching your antenna's polarization with the transmitter's antenna.

The last type of polarization we're going to discuss is circular or elliptical polarization.  All satellites I know of, as well as the satellite dishes that receive them are circularly polarized.  If you take a look at the red and blue electromagnetic diagram again, then imagine as the wave travels through space as it changes phase every four cycles.  The diagram above shows just a regular horizontally or vertically polarized wave, but one that shifts 90 degrees every time it completes one cycle, completes one "phase" every four cycles.  If that's too much to fathom (it is for me, because I have trouble thinking in 4 dimensions), the diagram below simplifies the concept a bit:

Credit: Dave3457

When the DirectTV guy "installs" your dish, all he does is affix it to a sturdy surface and adjusts the polarization to catch the signal coming from the satellite in space.  If you pay the "technician" any amount of money, know that you could have probably installed it by yourself on accident.  Also, cable television is a terrible waste of your time and money.

In the Next Section

We are going to discuss just a bit more about important influences on electromagnetic energy, use examples of HF waves interacting with the ionosphere to demonstrate some of the more interesting properties of radio waves, talk about ideal locations for antennas, and basic types of antennas.  Then we will get into encryption, the different languages machines use to talk to one another (including binary), how that information is transmitted and received, and how you can learn to listen in on some of it.

Electronic Education - Part II - RF Continuation, and the Languages of Machines

In my last article, we discussed some fundamental terms we will use to define electromagnetic concepts in the coming columns.  As I have studied over the years, I've felt how exciting it is when the concepts sink a little bit.  When you formulate questions about the world around you (why do cellphone towers look like that?  What do each of those little wires do in a LAN cable?) and learn about them, more advanced concepts will come together more easily in your head.

Before we dive into the fascinating, complex, sometimes frustrating world cryptography, we are going to discuss a few more electromagnetic and computer language concepts.

Important Influences on EM Energy

Just like sound and light waves, electromagnetic waves have similar properties such a reflection (like an echo or a reflection in a mirror), dimming (or fading via signal loss), resonance (similar to tuning a stringed instrument), and refraction (similar to reflection, but not quite).

In the previous chapter we talked a little bit about antenna propagation patterns (bi-directional, omni-directional) and how the way the antenna is designed causes these patterns to change.  Through the use of reflectors and directors, antenna can be made to transmit (and receive) signal in a single direction (sometimes called a "beam" propagation pattern, or uni-directional).

Reflection - When we're talking about EM, this is when the signal "bounces" or glances off a surface, or the turning back of a radio wave from an object or the surface of the Earth.  Substances that reflect electromagnetic waves more efficiently are usually conductive (metal surfaces, pipes, wires, etc.).  This is useful for reflecting a more powerful signal in a single direction or around obstacles, but it's terrible when trying to get a weak WiFi signal in the basement corner in a house.

Image courtesy of kke.co.jp

There are a couple of important considerations regarding reflection and WiFi protection and exploitation, and the antennas that may be used to attempt to intercept your signal.  If at all possible, install your router in the room furthest from the street.  A common practice for kids learning how to break into WiFi is called wardriving.  Wardriving is the act of searching for WiFi wireless networks by a person in a moving vehicle, using a portable computer, smartphone, or personal digital assistant (PDA).⁽¹⁾

If it's difficult to get a WiFi signal in the corner of your basement, try swapping rooms if you have a cable hookup in the back.  Not only will you transmit a WiFi signal that is as weak as possible before it enters the street outside your house, you may improve the signal connection in that pesky basement corner.  The more obstacles you put between your signal and a possible point of exploitation the better.

Antenna Gain - If you're especially interested in mathematics, you can look up the definition for this one and go to town with your mathy self.  In layman's terms, if antenna transmits and receives in only one direction, it is said to "have significant antenna gain" in the specific direction it is transmitting (this can also be loosely associated with an antenna's "takeoff angle").  Gain is measured in decibels (dB).  This definition will become important in further discussions about why that basement corner is so bad for WiFi reception and what we use to quantify those measurements.

Resistance - This is the property of a material or substance, to oppose the passage of electric current through it, thus causing electrical energy to be converted into heat.  Resistance lost as heat is (mostly) what causes electronics to warm up when they circulating electricity.  Resistance is also the reason why copper is better than steel at conducting electricity; copper has less electrical resistance than steel.  When constructing antennas, you want to select materials that have the lowest possible resistance.  To learn more about electrical resistance and conductance, follow the link provided at the bottom of the column.⁽²⁾

Resonance - When speaking about electromagnetism, resonance is the electrical state or frequency in which forces that impede signal propagation are at a minimum.

When I tune a guitar by twisting its tuning pegs, I am changing the physical and mechanical length of its strings so it resonates at the correct frequency, bring it in tune with its corresponding note.  When I adjust the mouthpiece on a woodwind instrument, I am changing the physical length of the instrument, changing the pitch at which the instrument resonates.

Image by Scott Thistlethwait - courtesy of images.fineartamerica.com

The concept is similar when adjusting the length of an antenna; higher frequencies usually utilize smaller antennas, while larger antennas are used to propagate lower frequencies.  This is why modern cellphone antennas don't stick a foot up in the air; those types of antennas aren't necessary to transmit and receive on such high frequencies.

Thus, when I design and construct WiFi antennas, or HF antennas, I cut them to a specific length and test them to determine whether they are resonant on their intended frequencies.  If they are not resonant, I adjust their length by shortening them, adding material to them, or more carefully cutting them to specification.

Links at the bottom of this article will take you to an especially useful webpage that will help you determine the length of any antenna you want to construct.⁽³⁾  We will discuss specific lengths of cantenna and double bi-quad WiFi antennas in a future column.

Refraction - Refraction is the bending of a wave when it enters a different medium (such as glass, the ionosphere, water, etc.).  This is why light looks the way it does at the bottom of a swimming pool, or when a beam of light is famously refracted through a prism:

Image courtesy of www.allmusic.com

Radio waves act similarly when they pass through different mediums.  The next section is on High Frequency (HF) propagation, specifically what happens when it is refracted in the ionosphere.    While this phenomenon is not required to learn about WiFi protection or exploitation techniques, I will tell you that when studying things in the macro-scale, it becomes easier to understand fundamental concepts in the micro-scale.  A little side-note reading never hurt anyone, and I'll litter the section with pretty pictures.

Riding the Skywaves

Hopefully, everyone reading this is aware that Earth has an atmosphere.  Thank goodness the atmosphere happens to be there, or life would not be possible on Earth.  The atmosphere is divided into sections based on how far away from the Earth's surface the sections are.  The section that we are going to focus on in this section is named the ionosphere.

Image courtesy of nasa.gov

The ionosphere is a portion of the Earth's atmosphere at which ionization of gases will effect the transmission of radio waves.  Ionization is the separating of molecules into positive and negative charges, or ions, by adding or subtracting electrons from atoms.  Be thankful the ionosphere persistently lingers above our heads, because if it suddenly disappeared we would all be cooked by the sun's radiation.

In the words of Elon Musk, "the sun, we have this handy fusion reactor in the sky called the sun.  You don't have to do anything, it just works.  It shows up every day and produces ridiculous amounts of power."⁽⁴⁾

A ridiculous amount of this power travels outward into space in what is called solar wind, and some of it strikes the ionosphere.  Because the ionosphere is electrically charged, this solar wind glides across its surface like oil on water.  This happens much more on the side of the planet where it is currently daylight, and less during the evening hours, thus changing the properties of the ionosphere.

This is where the HF radio mantra "sun up frequency up, sun down frequency down" comes from.  If the wrong frequencies are used at the wrong time of day, those HF radio signals will either be absorbed into the ionosphere or ejected into the vacuum of space.  If the transmitting frequency is within a certain tolerance, it will be refracted (or bent) back toward the surface of the Earth and can be received great distances away.

This is a source of nerd joy for people like me, and people that post elaborate radio antenna construction videos on YouTube.  Skilled HAM and military radio operators use the ionosphere to their advantage when transmitting long distances.  Some are so skilled, that they see the discipline as an art form in bridling the sometimes chaotic electromagnetic environment that is HF.

Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the Sun that appear visibly as dark spots.  They correspond to concentrations of magnetic field flux.  A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is a massive burst of gas and magnetic field arising from the Sun and being released into space as solar wind.

Image courtesy of nasa.gov

These CME events can have interesting and unintended effects on the ionosphere, which can sometimes be experienced on the surface of the Earth.  Often, large CME events coincide with brilliant displays of Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis, as the solar wind collides with the ionosphere.  The glowing patterns displayed are caused by electronics streaking down the gaseous surface of the ionosphere.

Image courtesy of 14jbella - Wikipedia.org

Ionospheric disturbances cause by CME's can either cause HF transmissions to "duct" or propagate through the ionosphere and carry transmissions much further than usual, or they can interfere with satellite communications and the functions of electronics on the planet's surface.

Image courtesy of grazinspace.oeaw.ac.at

An interesting side note about Maxwell's Equations we talked about in the previous column is the Carrington Event of 1859.  A CME hit the Earth's magnetosphere and created one of the largest geomagnetic storms on record.  The CME took 17.6 hours to make the 93 million mile trip to Earth.  The Aurora Borealis was able to be seen around the world and lit up the night sky, so much so that people that it was morning and began preparing for their day.

Because of phenomena explained by Maxwell's Equations, there was such a severe amount of electrical charge in the atmosphere that it created electrical current on the wires connecting telegraphs that it manifested itself as fires, sparks, and the ability to transmit telegraphs even when power supplies were disconnected.

A similar event occurred in 2012, but Earth was not aligned with the trajectory of the CME and it missed our planet.  It's a good thing it did, because our heavy reliance on electronic components destroyed by the event would have us all banging stones together trying to remember how to make fire.

You can learn more about the Carrington Event by clicking the link at the bottom of the column.⁽⁵⁾

While that story isn't completely relevant to communication security, hopefully it spawns some further thought about the nature of modern society.  Skills and knowledge would quickly become more important than "things" in that kind of situation.  To whom would people address their questions if Google was no more?

The Languages of Machines

Since (what I imagine) the beginning of consciousness, humans have used tools to express and control their needs, wants, and desires.  When written languages were created, humans needed a way to create records to pass on after their creators were gone.  From chisels to paint, the technology we've created has evolved into the modern computer and the Internet.  As machines progressed from the simplest of ideas, to mechanical, to electrical, to digital information, humans have always needed a "language" to communicate with their creations.

In modern times we don't pull levers or turn dials as much as we used to when communicating with out machines.  Our technology has gotten to the point where computers will operate mechanical machines for us, while we interact with a software user interface (UI).    But what are some of the most basic building blocks we use to communicate with our devices?

You might have heard the joke stating "there are 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary and those who don't."  You might have heard the statement "it's all zeros and ones to me."  If you don't understand yet, let me explain.

When rudimentary modem technologies were first developed, it was easiest to display either an "on" or an "off" position to convey information.  The first smoke signals, some military flag or torch displays, transmit information via visual cues.  Morse Code is another visual (and also electronic) method of transmitting information, using similar principles of "off" and "on" or silence interrupted by "dits" and "dahs".

Rhey T. Snodgrass & Victor F. Camp, 1922 - Wikipedia.org

The most basic of electronic modem technologies incorporated this simple on or off idea; it is simple to derive information from simple "current on" and "current off" states on a transmission medium.  From this simple idea, binary code was born.

Most of us learned the decimal system in school; it is the "ten" based numbering system that shows 10 sets of 10 equals 100.  Binary is a "two based" numbering system.  When speaking about computers, we say the "on" position is equal to 1 and the "off" position is equal to a "zero".

The first time I heard that, my brain exploded.  So how do I express the number 25?  How do I show the letter "A" on a computer screen if it's "all just zeros and ones."

Simple: 25 = 11001 and A = 1000001.  That still didn't make any sense to me.

It wasn't until it was explained to me in a visual form:

Displayed above is a blank byte (or eight bits of information).  Each one of those boxes can contain either a "0" or a "1" (or an "off" or "on") in each position.  If any of the bit spaces have a one in them, add the corresponding numbers below them up for its decimal equivalent.

When I initially teach anyone how to read binary, I usually truncate the first four positions off to create a "nibble", or four bits so it's easier to grasp.  So, below I've done that and displayed the number 1 in binary code:

Notice how the 1 position is turned "on" because of the number "1" in that slot.  Without all the boxes and identifying numbers it would simply look like 0001.  Now let's take a look at two and three:

Notice how adding up the numbers highlighted by green, below the "switched on" boxes produces its corresponding decimal equivalent.  Now take a look at the number 4:

It isn't usually necessary to memorize a large number of binary numbers, as long as you know how the system works and know where to find references in case you forget.  Now that you understand the concept of basic binary code, you've been opened up to a whole new genre of annoying tee shirts.

What if we want to encode really large numbers?  If we look at the whole byte again and add up each of the bits, we get the number 255.

If I want to make the number 256, the computer will string bytes together like this:

To display other characters besides numbers, your computer uses a system called American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), which is part of (and backward compatible with) the UTF-8 character encoding standard.  For simplicity's sake, we'll focus on ASCII for now.  The following diagram is an ASCII chart from a 1972 printer manual that I color coded a little bit:

Original image courtesy of Namazu-tron - Wikipedia.org

ASCII was originally developed from English telegraphic codes, contains 128 specified characters in seven-bit binary integers.⁽⁶⁾  The light blue characters on the left are known as "control characters" (there are 33 of them) that are non-printing characters, which perform functions such as line spacing, acknowledgements, and can be used to emit warnings.  I have included the DEL character in the light blue control characters (I didn't count it as one of the 33 control characters though).

Green characters are printable punctuation, symbols, and operators.  Yellow characters are the decimal numbers.  Red characters are capitalized and lower-case letters of the English alphabet.

If you find the capitalized letter "A" on the chart and match up its corresponding binary bit codes (b1, b2, etc.) you'll see we come up with 1000001.

So every time you write an email, or a text, or interact with machines that display text and characters, you are probably using ASCII codes.  In fact, when you entered this website, everything displayed on this page zipped across network lines and the air as "zeros and ones" and was reconstructed as text by your web browser.

This is important, because now that you can explain binary code, we can grasp an understanding of how information is passed via wired and wireless communications protocols.  You now have the framework in your head to discern how other such machine languages might work.  

Image courtesy of skyscrapercity.com

Before we continue, let's talk about a simple example of wireless transmission via an Xbox controller.  Every time I hit the green "A" button, the controller transmits a modulated (made of zeros and ones) signal on the 2.4 GHz frequency, which is interpreted by the software running on your console as "jump" (for example) depending on which game you're playing.

The process is nearly similar for television remote controls, car key fobs, and garage door openers.  You press a button and a corresponding code is transmitted, and (hopefully) the corresponding action programmed into the machine takes place.  If you want to know what frequencies your devices are talking on, find the FCC label on the device, or just Google it.  You will be surprised to see the diversity of frequencies and types of modulation your devices communicate with.

A huge amount of information about a device can be learned by searching for the FCC ID and part numbers.

Image courtesy of overheaddooronline.com

Back to our discussion about other machine languages, we should have a firm understanding of how text and simple commands are transmitted.  What about images and color?  Maybe you've been asking yourself how all of this information is stored?

Color is encoded using hexadecimal codes.  Just like binary is a base 2 machine language, hexadecimal is know as a base 16 language.  That means it uses a combination of numbers (0 - 9) and letters (A, B, C, D, E, F) to tell your computer how to display color information on your screen.  The following is a chart of hexadecimal color codes:

Click here for a larger version of this image. Courtesy of pagetutor.com

Now you should be able to understand this joke:

Image courtesy of 9gag.com

Most pictures you view on a computer are constructed as a grid of pixels which are physical points, described by an address and color information.⁽⁷⁾  When you email a picture, all of that pixel address and corresponding hexadecimal color information is broken down into binary code, transmitted as zeros and ones, and reconstructed on other devices based on the encoding standards we've discussed.  Movies are simply a series of high definition pictures, reconstructed on your screen extremely quickly.

All of these types of digital information can be stored.  One of the most common methods is on a magnetic hard disk drive (HDD).  Inside a hard drive, magnetic platters are encoded by actuator arms, which can detect (and write) changes in magnetic fields.  These microscopic magnetic fields represent either a 0 or a 1.

Image courtesy of engadget.com

Disc technologies are similar, but instead of magnetic fields, optical lasers are used to encode and read the data on the surface of a disc.  Tiny "pits" and "lands" are used to store data, but the encoding process is different than simple binary.⁽⁸⁾

Locard's Exchange Principle

There has been a lot of talk about "missing data" on the news lately.  It is true, data on hard disk drives and removable media can be overwritten with random information.  It can be overwritten several times to make it more difficult to pull old data off a drive, but it is still technically possible.  With enough time, money, and a good enough reason, data can be recoverable under even the most extreme of circumstances.

Even if a criminal takes an email server and dumps the whole rig in a vat of molten steel and incinerates it, the data may still not be completely gone because of Locard's Exchange Principle.  With digital communications in mind, consider the following paragraph from Paul Kirk's Crime Investigation:

"Wherever he steps, wherever he touches, whatever he leaves, even without consciousness, will serve as a silent witness against him.  His fingerprints or his footprints, but his hair, the fibers from his clothes, the glass he breaks, the tool mark he leaves, the paint he scratches, the blood or semen he deposits or collects.  All of these and more bear mute witness against him.  This is evidence that does not forget.  It is not confused by the excitement of the moment.  It is not absent because human witnesses are.  It is factual evidence.  Physical evidence cannot be wrong, it cannot perjure itself, it cannot be wholly absent.  Only human failure to find it, study and understand it, can diminish its value."^(9)(10)

Image courtesy of gamefront.com

Every time you text, send a picture, make a phone call, and send an email, the system you use to do those things interacts with other systems you may be completely unaware of.  Each time information is transmitted, it bounces between several systems where it is sometimes recorded, creates a log entry, or changes some digital detail somewhere on one of those systems.

Even if the original device is incinerated and completely melted down, a careful analysis of the systems the device has interacted with can reveal information about the originally transmitted information.  This is why "wipe it with a cloth" and "I don't understand how it works digitally at all" doesn't fly, when people are taking a digital forensic investigation seriously.  Locard's Exchange Principle says the information, or evidence of the information and how it was lost, is somewhere.  Think about that when you step to the ballot in 2016.

Read my blog, then you'll understand how it work digitally, Mrs. Clinton

Image courtesy of frontpagemag.com

How is Information Kept Private?

In the next column we will build on what we have learned about electromagnetism and the different languages of machines and talk about methods of encryption.  Encryption is used to "scramble" the contents of a transmission so it is unintelligible if it is intercepted.  All data is encoded in some way and it is very easy to ascertain information that is encoded according to an industry standard.  It is much more difficult to read the contents of a transmission if it is encrypted.

We will discuss how encryption works, look at some examples of important or famous encryption algorithms, and learn about common methods used to break encryption algorithms.

References

(1) Wardriving - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving

(2) Electrical Resistance and Conductance - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistance_and_conductance

(3) List of Useful Antenna Length Guides and more information on wavelength:

- Wavelength Frequency Calculator - This is my favorite wavelength to frequency conversion calculator I've found online.  It's great because it allows you to calculate in hertz (Hz) all the way up to gigahertz (GHz), and allows quick conversion between the imperial and metric systems.  There is also a short, elegant description of the Wavelength Frequency Formula on the page - http://www.wavelengthcalculator.com/

- For more information on Wavelength, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelength

(4) Elon Musk Debuts the Tesla Powerwall - Youtube - https://youtu.be/yKORsrlN-2k

(5) The Solar Storm of 1859 - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

(6) ASCII - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII

(7) Pixel - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel

(8) Compact Disc - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc

(9) Crime Investigation - Paul Kirk

(10) Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator Certification Exam Guide - Charles L. Brooks (page 17)

Notes: if my insistence on using Wikipedia is offensive to you, or somehow undermines the integrity of my writing, you can purchase a complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica here for $1738.02 USD.  Information is free.

Also, if an image is not credited correctly anywhere on this site, it's because I cannot find the original source to mention.  If you have created or own any of the images on this site, please email me at admin@silentvector.org and I will attribute the image to you immediately.