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The vendor obscures the chips because they sell these devices to agencies for thousands of dollars on government purchase orders. It wouldn't do for the custome
by gnu8 12y ago
The vendor obscures the chips because they sell these devices to agencies for thousands of dollars on government purchase orders. It wouldn't do for the customer to discover they could build these things for less than $100 in parts that anyone can order from anywhere.
- Sanddancer 12y agoWouldn't surprise me if this was a one-off job. All those joints were hand-soldered, which is something you don't do unless you're the tiniest of tiny vendors, and someone who really didn't want to get people looking at it would have used something other than tape to wrap it up.
- gnu8 12y agoGovernment surveillance equipment is low volume and high margin, so hand assembly makes sense. The tape also makes sense as a way of disguising the device. A shiny plastic box wouldn't look like it belongs on the car, but most cars have wiring harnesses covered with black tape.
- Sanddancer 12y agoThe more I look at what else is out there in vehicle tracking, the weirder this thing becomes. Other tracking devices that people have discovered [1] have been much more professionally assembled, with epoxy blobs coating interesting chips and everything. Additionally, fleet telemetric devices that are battery powered and use cell signals and gps also look a lot more professional than this, with plastic casings, neat soldering jobs, etc. This feels like an odd amateur tracking device of some sort, which IMO makes it even more interesting than a government tracker. [1] http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2011/11/GPS-Tracker-with-Clam-Shell-and-Battery_Jon-Snyder.jpg http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2011/11/GPS-Tr...
- gnu8 12y agoThat is extremely interesting. If it wasn't a legal authority that placed the device, then maybe the police can get involved and subpoena the sim card provider, ISP of whatever host the device connects to, etc.