Snooping countermeasures for system indicators

1. A method comprising:

receiving a signal from a data processing component onto a drive circuit, the drive circuit controlling power to a system indicator, the signal including sufficient information to recover data, the system indicator providing a visible indication of a status of one or more components of the data processing component;

generating a random noise signal, the random noise signal generated at one or more flicker rates over one or more portions of a frequency spectrum that the system indicator can emit optical signals, to prevent emanation of optical signals containing information sufficient to recover the data from the system indicator;

modifying the signal with the random noise signal to produce a modified signal; and

controlling the power to the system indicator based on the modified signal to prevent emanation of optical signals from the system indicator containing information sufficient to recover the data such that the data is not recoverable.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the random noise signal is generated at random flicker rates over the entire frequency spectrum that the system indicator can emit optical signals.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the random noise signal is generated at random flicker rates within a portion of the frequency spectrum that the system indicator can emit optical signals.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the random noise signal is generated by a random noise generator.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the random noise generator is a pseudo-random noise generator.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optical signals are modulated optical signals.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signal includes sufficient information to recover a covert channel communication, and

further wherein modifying the signal with the random noise signal prevents emanation of optical signals from the system indicator containing sufficient information to recover the covert channel communication such that the covert channel communication is not recoverable.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the random noise signal is generated by a random noise generator, and further wherein, the drive circuit and the random noise generator are part of a protective drive controller.

9. A method comprising:

receiving a signal from a data processing component onto a drive circuit of a protective drive controller, the signal including sufficient information to recover data, the protective drive controller for controlling power to a system indicator, the system indicator providing a visible indication of a status of one or more components of the data processing component, the protective drive controller further including a random noise generator;

generating a random noise signal by the random noise generator, the random noise signal generated at one or more flicker rates over one or more portions of a frequency spectrum that the system indicator can emit optical signals, to prevent emanation of optical signals containing information sufficient to recover the data from the system indicator;

modifying the signal received from the data processing component on the drive circuit with the random noise signal to produce a modified signal; and

controlling the power to the system indicator based on the modified signal to prevent emanation of optical signals from the system indicator containing information sufficient to recover the data such that the data is not recoverable.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the random noise signal is generated at random flicker rates over the entire frequency spectrum that the system indicator can emit the optical signals.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the optical signals are modulated optical signals.

12. A protective drive controller for controlling power to a system indicator that can emit optical signals, the system indicator providing a visible indication of a status of one or more components of a data processing component, the protective drive controller comprising:

a drive circuit for receiving a signal from the data processing component and for controlling the power to the system indicator, the signal including sufficient information to recover data; and

a random noise generator coupled to the drive circuit, the random noise generator for generating a random noise signal for modifying the signal to produce a modified signal, the random noise signal generated at one or more flicker rates over one or more portions of a frequency spectrum that the system indicator can emit optical signals, to prevent emanation of optical signals containing information sufficient to recover the data from the system indicator,

wherein the protective drive controller modifies the signal with the random noise signal to produce the modified signal and controls the power to the system indicator based on the modified signal to prevent emanation of optical signals from the system indicator containing information sufficient to recover the data such that the data is not recoverable.

13. The protective drive controller of claim 12 , wherein the random noise generator is a pseudo-random noise generator.

14. The protective drive controller of claim 12 , wherein the random noise signal is generated at random flicker rates over the entire frequency spectrum that the system indicator can emit the optical signals.

15. A system comprising:

a data processing component for producing a signal, the signal including sufficient information to recover data;

a system indicator for emitting optical signals, the system indicator providing a visible indication of a status of one or more components of the data processing component; and

a protective drive controller coupled to the data processing component and the system indicator, the protective drive controller for receiving the signal from the data processing component and for modifying the signal with a random noise signal to produce a modified signal, the random noise signal generated at one or more flicker rates over one or more portions of a frequency spectrum that the system indicator can emit optical signals, to prevent emanation of optical signals containing information sufficient to recover the data from the system indicator, the protective drive controller for controlling power to the system indicator based on the modified signal to prevent emanation of optical signals from the system indicator containing information sufficient to recover the data such that the data is not recoverable.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the random noise signal is generated at random flicker rates over the entire frequency spectrum that the system indicator can emit the optical signals.

17. A system comprising:

a data processing component for generating a signal, the signal containing sufficient information to recover data;

a system indicator for emitting optical signals, the system indicator providing a visible indication of a status of one or more components of the data processing component;

a drive circuit coupled to the system indicator and to a random noise generator, the drive circuit for controlling power to the system indicator; and

a random noise generator coupled to the drive circuit and to the data processing component, the random noise generator for generating random noise signals, the random noise signals generated at one or more flicker rates over one or more portions of a frequency spectrum that the system indicator can emit optical signals, to prevent emanation of optical signals containing information sufficient to recover the data from a the system indicator,

wherein the signal is modified with the random noise signals to produce a modified signal, the drive circuit controlling power to the system indicator based on the modified signal to prevent emanation of optical signals from the system indicator containing information sufficient to recover the data such that the data is not recoverable.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the random noise signal is generated at random flicker rates over the entire frequency spectrum that the system indicator can emit the optical signals.