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Something similar happened to the US Embassy in Moscow. The Soviets smuggled a tiny, unpowered antenna inside and were able to eavesdrop on conversations by ba

• godelmachine 9y ago
  Are you referring to The Great Seal Bug? CF. → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
• ceejayoz 9y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
  • mercer 9y ago
    If you find that interesting, here's a fascinating article about the role the Dutch played in the whole thing: https://thecorrespondent.com/3789/operation-easy-chair-or-how-a-little-company-in-holland-helped-the-cia-bug-the-russians https://thecorrespondent.com/3789/operation-easy-chair-or-ho...
    • nyolfen 9y ago
      for a modern take on this, check out this NSA tool that uses RF to illuminate a VGA monitor cable bug: https://leaksource.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/nsa-ant-ragemaster.jpg https://leaksource.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/nsa-ant-ragem...
      • mercer 9y ago
        That's really cool! Thanks for the link.
  • frikk 9y ago
    What would the transmit range on something like that be?
• blueintegral 9y ago
  There's no evidence that nonionizing radiation like microwaves can cause cancer. I think that was probably more likely due to the fact that everyone back then smoked about 4 packs a day.
  • jostmey 9y ago
    At safe levels, sure. But at ultra-extreme levels it might. But you're right, smoking probably killed them
    • mritun 9y ago
      Non-ionizing radiation does kill at ultra-high level, but not through cancer, just plain old burning. That's exactly what your microwave over does.
  • gh02t 9y ago
    Plus that bug was a backscatter radio. It didn't actually emit radio waves on its own, it just resonated in response to a carrier wave. The Soviets had to illuminate it with a 330 MHz radio signal from outside, but that's not ionizing.
    • flavio81 9y ago
      If you look at the design of said device (invented by Lev Sergeivich Termen aka Leo Theremin), you'll suspect that it will require a pretty powerful microwave beam to work.
      • gh02t 9y ago
        [Probably] not enough to cause any harm. RF isn't dangerous until it is powerful enough to cause local heating and obviously this wasn't that powerful. I can't really find much info on how much power Theremin's bug took, but modern backscatter radios usually operate at very low power, at the level of ambient RF from normal radio etc but can transmit 10 km or more. Based on other designs I've seen I suspect it wouldn't actually take much, though that is just an educated guess.
• enoch_r 9y ago
  I had to look this up because it was so crazy and interesting - but sadly (er, well, you know what I mean), the link between microwave radiation and cancer is questionable both biologically and historically. The historical evidence (mortality/morbidity of employees at the Moscow Embassy vs. other Eastern European embassies, or comparisons based on how long employees spent in Moscow, or comparisons based on estimated exposure to the microwave radiation) suggests no adverse affects from radiation.[1] And in general the idea that microwave radiation (emitted by cell phones/towers, wifi, etc.) causes cancer is not supported by the evidence. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3509929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3509929/
• hengheng 9y ago
  I would assume it's been standard practice since then to do regular scans for electromagnetic interference?
• hwillis 9y ago
  Radiation causes a drop in white blood cell counts, not a rise. Nausea only occurs at extremely high doses. Microwaves cause none of those symptoms.