If there’s a technology that always fascinates me, is the Russian thingy from the 1940’s. Russians are renowned for Ballistic projectiles, and Information gathering. Below quick synopsis.
The Thing , also known as the Great Seal bug , was one of the first covert listening devices (or “bugs”) to use passive techniques to transmit an audio signal. It was concealed inside a gift given by the Soviet Union to W. Averell Harriman, the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, on August 4, 1945. Because it was passive, needing electromagnetic energy from an outside source to become energized and active, it is considered a predecessor of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology.
So what now? What’s the modern day Listening device? I’m glad you asked.
Laser microphones. That’s it. And they’re easy to make, from cheap supplies. Unamulika Laser Kwa nyumba ya jirani a few meters away from you and you get to hear what they’re saying, below DIY activity.
Looks easy. But the devil is in the details. Telecoms is an interesting topic, to get the full benefit of the hack, lazima ujue a thing or two about the gadgets you’re playing around with.
For instance, a Red laser beam will translate a totally different acoustic signal than a green one would. We use basic laser pointers in boardrooms during presentation, those should work, if you decide to test the above hack, just go for a green one to get a clear feedback signal.
Again, Russians developed this technology, so they live up to their name.
Raiya za Cyber Cafe kina @Nyamgondho are now using the RFID to bypass Supermarket anti theft systems, interesting brains we got in the country.