Van Eck Phreaking - Remote Viewing of Display Monitors

When it comes to privacy and security of computers, there are some areas that still remain highly overlooked and unsecured.  I recently came across information on how someone with the right equipment can literally view what's currently displayed on a computer monitor from a remote location.  The equipment basically reconstructs a monitor's radio waves (all electronics give these off) to see what it's currently displaying.  This apparently applies to all monitors - even the latest ones.  It's called Van Eck Phreaking and it's named after the Dutch scientist Wim van Eck who first discovered the phenomenon in 1985.

So what's the problem with this phenomenon?  There's still no personal computing security measures against it.  One difficult solution is to use a Faraday cage around the monitor (or you and the monitor so it doesn't block your view) to contain the radio waves.  Professionals dealing with highly sensitive computing may have radio-wave blocking materials integrated into their buildings to protect themselves from attacks such as Van Eck Phreaking.  Perhaps having several monitors on at the same time could also make it more difficult to hone in on a single monitor's displayed information.  

I find it interesting how there's a great emphasis on encrypting wireless internet radio waves but not the waves of other electronics - especially monitors.  The unencrypted radio waves from monitors of all kinds sounds like a serious security flaw but you have to remember they only emit what is currently visible unlike wirelessly hacking into a shared computer and potentially gaining access to everything stored on it.  Interestingly enough, the Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags in many new electronic magnetic cards are also remotely viewable with the right equipment.  To protect these, you can create a Faraday Cage Wallet (or perhaps a aluminum fitted wallet).  You can read more about this phenomenon in this PDF document titled Electromagnetic Eavesdropping Risks of Flat-Panel Displays.