How is Bantam Technology bi-directional?
Computers or electronics plugged into a home or business wall plug are sharing the power provided by that local circuit. They are also sharing the power pollution generated by all electronic devices sharing the common power wiring. The power supplies in computers are a source of harmonics, while refrigerator compressors, spa pumps and garage door openers generate spikes and transients. Every electronic cable or cord acts like an antenna, capturing any nearby broadcast or wireless signal and carrying that unwanted interference to your device. Over 75% of power pollution originates inside the home or business wiring.
Bantam’s patented technology filters all three wires, Line, Neutral, and Ground, in both directions of current flow. This unique bi-directional filtering keeps power pollution from entering your device, but also filters pollution generated from a device from getting into the common power circuit.
Power Line Exfiltration (PLE) Prevention
Power Line Exfiltration (PLE) is the capturing and interpreting of electrical magnetic impulses from IT equipment. These impulses find their way onto power lines. A PLE is a new but growing hacker threat, usually enhanced with a software exploit that forces the data onto the power lines.
An IEEE paper published in December of 2019 confirmed PLE exists and is a threat to IT security. The transistor switching pulses and the power supply switching pulses generated by IT equipment create signals that emanate from power traces to the ground trace and wire via inductive coupling or inducement – the principle behind radio transmission.
PLE is focused on current, not voltage. Exploiting voltage data requires touching or connecting to wires. But to exfiltrate data traveling with the current, the “bad actor’s”collection device does not need to touch the wire; it only needs to be close enough to detect the electrical magnetic field radiating from the wire.
Extracting signals and data on power lines is not difficult. In a general way this is what electrical utility smart meters do. But let’s consider the special case of the ground path. Since the ground is a safety path, it needs to be an uninterrupted return to the power grid. However, once a desirable PLE signal is on ground via inductive coupling, it is detectable almost anywhere inside and outside the enclosing facility. Near-field antennae, current sensors with a data logger, cell phones and radios can be used to gather signals and data traveling along the current wave form on the grounding path..
Once PLE signals are collected, interpreting the signals into data requires fast and expensive electrical analysis devices like oscilloscopes or spectrum analyzers. Currently anyone can rent this equipment for it is widely available.
IT devices have power supplies that by themselves leave a unique electrical imprint that allow a bad actor to identify the type and the manufacturer of the power supply itself. Furthermore, the movement, absence or addition of IT devices (a.k.a. asset tracking) can also be monitored.
Consider this possible scenario: An ATM plugged into the local power circuit in a mall or an airport. A bad actor with a suitably-equipped device nearby can record PLE signals and convert them to usable data coming from that ATM via the common wall wiring. This creates an opportunity to extract and record sensitive data, such as PIN keystrokes for later use.
Because the patented Bantam Technology is a bi-directional filter of Line, Neutral, and Ground, the PLE threat is eliminated. Any electrical device connected via the power cord to a Bantam Technology product will have the exploitable signals and data suppressed, leaving nothing for a bad actor to detect.