Why throw them away?
Good counterintelligence would be to get as many as possible and reverse engineer them.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we fired everybody who could do that.
Ironic . . as I use a burner phone when traveling to the USA.
Uh duh? Pretty normal procedure when visiting foreign governments.
However the problem isn’t the support staff, it’s the moron leaders that are the problem. I bet 100 bucks that Trump kept at least a gift that contains a spy equipment.
Him? Keep gifts that almost certainly contain spy equipment? He’d never do that. Certainly not giant, 747 sized ones.
Flying back on a government plane? Lame.
No shit? Them and every other country with resources does the same. They even send vendors and HUMINT collectors to all sorts of conferences all year round trying to pass off devices and keep tabs on trends. Collecting in their home country is just expected. The weak links are the idiots that don’t take it seriously, sneak a personal device on a trip that they lose sight of at any point or even just become too close in proximity to a collector and then carry it back home with an exploited device and credentials.
I assume China (or any other government) can get top secret intel by simply bribing Trump and asking him.
what a upsetting thing to be nodding my head to. god i wish i had a president with dignity
Sounds like the US use gifts, pins and burner phones to spy on foreign governments
They should know after having received one of these marvels back in the Cold War.
That’s well known. We even did that with the original iPod back in the day.
My brother-in-law traveled a lot for work, from the early nineties, to the 20-teens.
He visited, China, Russia, the U.S., India, all over Southeast Asia, Australia. Maybe South America, but not sure. Anyway, the point is he visited a lot of places, and the big ones fairly routinely. China is the only country, where his company had a whole list of requirements. He had to leave his personal phone, any personal electronics, and his work laptop at home. (They provided him a phone and laptop that would immediately be turned over once he returned and he could NOT log onto the company VPN with the laptop/phone they gave him and had to have his work email forwarded. )
They gave him money to buy a new suit before he went over there and to replace his luggage and clothes when he came back, because it was all discarded.
He said it was not so much government spying but industrial espionage. And he just worked in human resources.
I was in the Navy and visited Hong Kong a couple of times and they never said boo to me outside of the usual, “Loose lips sink ships.” spiel we got at every port.
They let him take his phone to Russia, but they did made him take a different work laptop, but that laptop could access the company VPN. He said there is was more about the government spying. I did not visit any Russian port while in the Navy.
My past few employers have all had similar policies, it’s common in tech. I cannot take any company equipment over the Chinese border and we are strongly discouraged against bringing any personal equipment. The company has special burner laptops and phones for the few cases where we actually need a business trip to China.
Wow that sounds pretty Draconian. I would not travel without a personal phone, after all the trip is not 100% work time. I’d bring a personal burner, not my real phone, but I’d bring something. I don’t want my work to listen in on all personal comms while I’m there. I mean if they want me to leave a personal device in the hotel ok but not bringing it at all?
And throwing my luggage and clothes away? Over my dead body.
Of course with any work issued stuff they can do whatever they want. But not my personal things.
I would really refuse a trip under such conditions, or refuse the conditions themselves.
I mean, there is a history of a lot of nations doing this.
had to surrender various items collected during the trip, including staff burner phones, credential badges, and lapel pins issued by China.
They think the Chinese are doing that.
Because that’s what they do…
It sounds like they’re justified in thinking that then.
That’s what everyone does.
Example gift from Russia, completely passive listening device: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
What a fascinating read, cheers !
But keeping a jet aircraft from another nation is totally ok… got it :)
I can assure you FBI scanned it for secret cameras.
The FBI missed a passive bug that hung in the office of the US ambassador to Russia for 7 years.
Don’t count them out yet
Fascinating stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
This is old ASF, if you don’t think we can’t detect these then 😂😂😂
Do you know what ‘passive’ means? It’s a basically a mirror for a specific frequency. There’s no way to “detect” it other than tearing apart whatever it’s hidden in.
The fact that it was made with 1960’s Soviet analog tech should tell you that China could plausibly make something better and smaller now.
It would certainly be detectable. You could do an X-ray, sweep the RF spectrum and see the energy disappear at the right frequency, things like that.
They had that tech in the 60s too.
Also when the bug was in operation it was definitely not passive. It was being fed by what must have been a really strong signal to power it, and transmitted the results back.
tech is tech. if it’s able to not be detected then it’s able to be not detected now.
This is assuming one country is lagging behind their advancements. Most countries are finally catching up to our tech made in the 90s my dude.
Why do you think it works like that? They know what it is and how it works, so they know what to look for.
i’m saying they grow at the same rate.
Who “they”? Security services are not the hive, It’s not like everyone knows everything pr never misses anything. Or do you think it’s like a game where you unlock the “passive listening device countermeasures” technology and suddenly 100% bugs across the country are found and new bugs can’t be planted?
Or do you think it’s like a game where you unlock the “passive listening device countermeasures” technology
Kinda, yes. Now that everyone knows how it works, and they will, because intelligence agencies share this stuff with their allies, it would become a lot harder to pull the same trick again.
I feel like it is entirely plausible to miss something when scanning, I believe it is extremely plausible to miss something when scanning an entire jet aircraft, regardless of the skills of the personnel involved.
A jet has multiple integrated digital systems meaning it would be super easy to hide things within the wiring or on circuit boards, which is exactly what security professionals said when they accepted the plane - it could never be made truly safe without being gutted - but they didn’t listen.
I mean “The Thing” wasn’t detected for seven years. It’s always possible to miss a listening device.
I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a radio interference post, or John Carpenter
The dog peeling like a banana was what convinced me…
I feel like I had to have heard of this device before, but that article was a fascinating read - thank you!
I think people still think of China as a second tier sometimes, but from what I have seen their technology is likely at least equal to ours, and I would imagine the West and China both surpass each other in different technological categories.
Lol China is far superior to our tech. They get to manufacture everything we design. Then get to ponder on improvements. Not to mention their “students” in all our universities.
Links broken or page is broken
I think your client isn’t handling the markdown correctly. Link without markdown:
Interesting. No idea what markdown means. Thanks.
By “the FBI scanned”, they probably mean “We told Kash Patel that there was a six pack of Miller hidden somewhere in the plane and let him have at it.”
Right? I was like “Faith in the FBI? Someone didn’t watch the Mens Hockey gold medal match…”
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
…and secret whiskey stashes…
👀
One of the most sensible things I’ve seen from the administration.
Kinda surprised Trump was OK with it tbh…
Oh you know he didnt have to throw his special gifts away…,
Right? I was gonna say, there is no way he isn’t keeping is 44k gold plated listening device.
Did China gift him kids?
China called him out by having a bunch of little kids cheering, the kids were the only group he stopped to be creepy at.
FR?
I love/hate that we even have to ask.
If they don’t want it on the plane, you can always just post it home.
Probably had to tie him down cause he thought that they loved him so much.
I didn’t think they had anyone with half a brain still working there
Pretty sure this is SOP. At least, it was before these idiots took over.
Not sure why this is news, unless this didn’t occur to these morons before now and they think it’s a Very Good, Big Brain Idea™ that was obvious to literally everyone else.
Not sure why this is news
Because China is big BAD bogeyman to US populace and this is a easy narrative to set to his base in their favor.
Just look at the top comment on this post.
People are gullible
TBF, we’re all big bad to each other, because our societies are imploding and we’re all scared.
It was the same with the last UK visit
Yah… Duh… Thats how espionage works…
China would tell their diplomats to do the same returning from the US.
Throw Away = give them all to Trump
Cavity checks all around boys
