coolest bit of spy gear you ever saw - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: sarepairman2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 07:06:10 am
content: ?

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 07:19:43 am
content: Without a doubt thePASSIVEbug inside the Great Seal given as a gift to the US Embassy in Moscow by the USSR government.It was undetectable by normal countermeasures because it never emitted anything and required no power. But the condenser microphone would change the resonant frequency of the antenna which reportedly would frequency-modulate a microwave beam REFLECTED off the antenna. Brilliant back in the day, and not bad even today.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)

author: HAL-42b
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 07:33:44 am
content: I lurk atcryptomuseumway longer than I should. Highly recommended.Here is one of my favorites. Russian R-353 spy radio set complete with One Time Pad and Burst Encoder, captured by the Dutch intelligence.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 09:23:39 pm
content: Richard Crowley's nomination is a good one. A few months ago (maybe here?) i saw a link to the story as written up by one of the diplomats who was there. It was fascinating to read that story first hand.

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 09:40:34 pm
content: +1 for that soviet passive bug. Still pretty damn cool.

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 09:50:19 pm
content: That passive bug is incredibly cool, I wonder how they even found it.

author: crispy_tofu
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 10:09:33 pm
content: Windows 10, but it's not very cool...

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 10:27:28 pm
content: That passive bug is just awesome. Thanks for sharing.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 10:38:36 pm
content: Quote from: XOIIO on February 16, 2016, 09:50:19 pmThe Wikipedia article says that it was discovered accidentally by British technicians just tuning around listening for things.It also says it was devised by Leo Theremin (the same guy who invented the first electronic musical instrument that bears his name).But it was based on a US published patent(!)

author: PointyOintment
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 10:48:40 pm
content: Quote from: HAL-42b on February 16, 2016, 07:33:44 amWhy is the front panel labeled in English only?

author: HAL-42b
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2016, 11:07:13 pm
content: Quote from: PointyOintment on February 16, 2016, 10:48:40 pmPresumably because people spying for Russia in the West weren't Russians. Probably American spy sets are labeled in Russian, who knows.

author: Artlav
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 12:14:38 am
content: Quote from: PointyOintment on February 16, 2016, 10:48:40 pmMaybe because it's a bad idea to get caught with a radio-looking thing labelled in russian?At least if it's in a local or generic language, then you can talk yourself out of the trouble by just saying that it's some sort of a broken radio you picked up on a garage sale or something.

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 12:23:12 am
content: They probably tried to make it look like a piece of Ham radio rear or something like that so if they got caught with it nobody would care.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 12:38:37 am
content: Quote from: calexanian on February 17, 2016, 12:23:12 amThose paper tape cartridges for the burst messages, and especially the one-time pads would rather give it away!Of course, you would hide the one-time pad behind canned peas in the pantry or something.At least here in the US, my understanding was that they suspended amateur radio activity during war-time.So there was no legitimate excuse to be transmitting RF from your flat.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 12:59:20 am
content: Quote from: Richard Crowley on February 17, 2016, 12:38:37 amThese days all that secret communication equipment is moot. We exchange encrypted messages in fake political debates on eevblog (that's why there are so many of them).eevblog is the new number station.

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 01:29:10 am
content: The capacitor has discharged, over.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 08:07:14 am
content: We have a bunch of old kit sitting in a glass cabinet at work which by today's standards is old and obsolete but still manages to impress me the kind of stuff Governments used (Although I'm still not allowed to take a photo of it to show you).Without giving away any methodology or asserting that I'm in the "spy business" myself, I'd have to say the thing that still surprises me is how "weak", gullible and easily manipulated people are. There are some matters I've had the (dis)pleasure of being involved in which despite all the encryption and technology in the world, have came apart due to human action, carelessness and error.A good example of such carelessness and I guess to a degree, complacency, is the whole cracking of the Enigma code. Some of it came down to luck but some of the codes were broken by observing and studying human behaviour and routine, rather than mere brute-force of the cipher itself. Of course there were weaknesses in the Enigma machine and cipher, but still, pretty amazing stuff.Quote from: Richard Crowley on February 16, 2016, 07:19:43 amI wonder if it was discovered much earlier than public (unclassified/declassified) records indicated. Perhaps to feed false or misleading information to the Soviets? I don't know about you but one dead giveaway to me would be the hinge and seam that separated the two pieces? Then again it could have simply been placed in an un-important room (outside the toilet maybe?)

author: babysitter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 08:11:52 am
content: Resistor is ready to discharge capacitor, i repeat: Resistor is ready to discharge capacitor!

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 08:24:23 am
content: Quote from: XOIIO on February 17, 2016, 01:29:10 amQuote from: babysitter on February 17, 2016, 08:11:52 amAbort !! Abort !! The cap is leaking ! Capxon !!! ... I repeat ... its CAPXON !!!

author: HAL-42b
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 08:36:08 am
content: Quote from: Halcyon on February 17, 2016, 08:07:14 amAlmost certainly the case. "We know, but we don't want them to know that we know."It stood right behind the desk of the Moscow Ambassador for several years. Those kind of official desks are almost entirely ceremonial and the ambassador probably never sits there.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 08:37:27 am
content: The cap is leaking.. damn, I'm bringing in the inductor

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 08:55:39 am
content: Hogaaaan!!!

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 12:07:10 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on February 17, 2016, 08:07:14 amAs you say, people were pretty gullible and/or ignorant of such sophisticated techniques back then. I believe that what we see in the photo now is a re-work of the original so that it can be opened for demonstration.It wouldn't be the first time that something that devious was discovered by accident. The story was that it was hung in the ambassador's residence, "Spaso House" in his private study. There is a rather colorful story in Wikipedia of the house which was the embassy chancery for a while as well as the ambassador's residence. Including some wild parties with "seals galloping through the house" and other extravaganzas like...Quote

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 12:16:12 pm
content: QuoteYeah. End of the day, intelligence is handled by people and if you hack the people, you can get anything. Exhibit 1 in that is the Hillary email scandal. and I am sure if you hack personal emails of all the government officials, you can get lots of things you are not supposed to have.

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 03:25:44 pm
content: The inductor can't be trusted, switch to rectifier.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 04:14:28 pm
content: Going to active. Transistor is saturated. Repeat, transistor is saturated.

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 08:28:01 pm
content: *puts on aluminum foil hat*The smartphone.Basically, three vendors own the market.- Google. Mountain View, California, USA.- Apple. Cupertino, California, USA.- Microsoft. Redmond, Washington, USA.If not for the POI to use one of them, someone near them will.*takes off aluminum foil hat, and unlocks iPhone with fingerprint*

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 09:01:54 pm
content: Quote from: Jeroen3 on February 17, 2016, 08:28:01 pmI heard the next iphone will use blood verification.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2016, 09:56:52 pm
content: Quote from: XOIIO on February 17, 2016, 09:01:54 pmIf it can give be a blood glucose reading at the same time, I'm all for it.