Skip to content

HERF Guns, EMP Bombs and Weapons of Mass Disruption

Winn Schwartau

Winn Schwartau explores herf guns, emp bombs and weapons of mass disruption at DEF CON 7, examining electronic-warfare and practical defenses.

Summary

Architecture and Background

Winn Schwartau - HERF Guns, EMP Bombs and Weapons of Mass Disruption (UnClassified) At DefCon III, Winn Schwartau talked about High Energy Radio Frequency Guns, Electromagnetic Pulse Bombs and assorted nefarious weapons. Trouble is, the government doesn't admit to a thing.

Vulnerability Analysis

However, through constant research, he has found more than the government would like. The August issue of Popular Science, due out on or about July 15 will feature Schwartau's article on these emerging devices -- but you will get an early peek at DefCon 7 on Saturday afternoon.

Exploitation and Demonstrations

Russian HERF and EMP devices for sale world wide. Some are even on the Internet!

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

Terrorist level weapons made in a garage for less than $500 and put out an E field in excess of 1MV/meter. A video of real HERF at work. Be ready with your questions and Schwartau, as usual, will have answers. DEF CON 7.0 was held July 9-11th, 1999, in Las Vegas Nevada USA

Related talks

Main Stage·21 min

  • DEF CON
  • Hardware
  • Date: Aug 2018
  • Location: Las Vegas

Eric Sesterhenn

Eric Sesterhenn presents in soviet russia smartcard hacks you: The classic spy movie hacking sequence: The spy inserts a magic smartcard provided by the agency technicians into the enemy's computer, ...the screen un...

smartcardhardware-securityreverse-engineering+1

Main Stage·59 min

  • DEF CON
  • Hardware
  • Date: May 2018
  • Location: Beijing

Zoz

Zoz tests forensic-resistant rapid physical destruction of magnetic and flash media using thermal, kinetic, high-voltage, and explosive methods.

data-destructionhardware-securityphysical-security+1

Main Stage·23 min

  • DEF CON
  • Hardware
  • Date: Aug 2015
  • Location: Las Vegas

Paul Amicelli · Baptiste David

Paul Amicelli and Baptiste David analyze the complete hardware-to-OS keyboard input path, presenting defensive mitigations against hardware keyloggers and malware hooks.

keystroke-loggingkeyboard-controllerhardware-security+2