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The Thing

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Re: The Thing

#51

Post by bastawhiz »

wyc wrote: post #29

I always wonder why open source mass surveillance isn't in fuller swing. Imagine a Kickstarter for $2 credit card-sized disposable listening devices which can mesh network for autocorrelated quality-enhancing signal reconstruction and 3d localization. They could be hidden behind objects and hard to detect. With a cellularly connected golf ball-sized gateway, they could egress data or receive updates. At this price po…

Because wifi is ubiquitous and everyone has an old cell phone laying around. If you need something the size of a credit card, who the hell are you? Who are you spying on that notices a pocket sized device hidden in a room? You can probably afford to build your own hardware.

Almost everyone that needs to bug a room is either 1. Catching their partner in an act of infidelity or 2. A professional with money to spend, and isn't spying on a nation state.

Re: The Thing

#53

Post by grosswait »

wil421 wrote: post #50
maxlybbert wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked on a software project that was targeted at the federal government and required all programmers to be US citizens. It didn’t require us to have special security training or anything, though; and there was a different project that required programmers to leave their cell phones in lockers during the day. I’m convinced that the government doesn’t believe citizens are any more loyal or hard to bribe than other p…

They leave cellphones in lockers because they have cameras. There are corporations that have similar places. I’m sure Apple doesn’t allow cellphones in certain rooms with prototypes.

Audio recording and transmission can also be a threat.

See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitive_Compartmented_Info...

Re: The Thing

#54

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

unnouinceput wrote: post #20
madengr wrote: post #5

Maybe someday the Soviet side of things will be declassified, and we can read the technical account from that end. Would be interesting. There seem to be some technical unknowns in the article. I don’t think you can get FM back from the passive cavity, just AM, unless you can pump the cavity with feedback. Same goes for re-radiating at a harmonic. Maybe if the Q of the cavity were super high. Again, would be interest…

There is nothing unknown in the article. You can do this at home as well. Is very well explained how it works. For start I would suggest you get technical of how Yagi antennas work, it's the same principle coupled with cavity resonator + membrane movement used in a microphone. In the end you get your high frequency beamed back modulated by the sound. And is not AM modulation, is FM modulation. But what article indeed…

I'm finding it hard to imagine no one noticed an intermittent 1kW at 330MHz from somewhere close.

Re: The Thing

#55

Post by piyush_soni »

deanclatworthy wrote: post #6
appleflaxen wrote: post #4

related prior discussion/submissions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15498685 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15272072 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19854787 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11771587

Three of the four links here, have no discussion. One has hardly any. Posting interesting topics which have not received much prior discussion is encouraged here.

I didn't know it too. How do we define interesting though, given three of the four times it garnered no interest (do we keep on posting until it does)? I'm not sure if GP deserves downvotes for pointing them out at the least.

Re: The Thing

#57

Post by 292355744930110 »

mcv wrote: post #45
gloflo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't be worse than all the software manufactured in the US.

I think it's entirely sensible in this day and age to avoid electronic products from China, Russia or the US. Back to Nokia, I guess.

Those are manufactured by Foxconn and running software by Google.

Re: The Thing

#58

Post by nothrabannosir »

some_random wrote: post #46
maxlybbert wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked on a software project that was targeted at the federal government and required all programmers to be US citizens. It didn’t require us to have special security training or anything, though; and there was a different project that required programmers to leave their cell phones in lockers during the day. I’m convinced that the government doesn’t believe citizens are any more loyal or hard to bribe than other p…

>I’m convinced that the government doesn’t believe citizens are any more loyal or hard to bribe than other people Seriously? While they have to plan for an inside threat, do you really think that they don't view their own citizens as being more reliable than foreign nationals?

You’re not looking at a random subset but at a self selected group. It’s entirely likely they consider “10 US born volunteers” as much a threat as “10 global volunteers”.

Re: The Thing

#60

Post by butteroverflow »

292355744930110 wrote: post #57
mcv wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's entirely sensible in this day and age to avoid electronic products from China, Russia or the US. Back to Nokia, I guess.

Those are manufactured by Foxconn and running software by Google.

>running software by Google

My 1280 surely doesn't.

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