
The Case of the Top Secret iPod - macintux
https://tidbits.com/2020/08/17/the-case-of-the-top-secret-ipod/
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nataz
It's not a cover for a 3 letter agency, Energy IS a three letter agency.

Most people don't actually know what DOE is. For starters, it's officially one
of the 17 USG intelligence agencies.

It houses the national nuclear security administration which is responsible
for military reactors, nuclear weapons, and nonproliferation.

It operates the DOE Science and NNSA Weapons national lab and site complexes
via M&O contracts (of which Bechtel is one of the longest contract holders).

NNSA is congressionally funded via energy and water, but it's authorization is
via the armed service committee National Defense Authorization Act (same as
the military).

None of this is a nefarious secret, and all of this and quite a bit more can
be found via the agencies website.

Folks completely misunderstanding what government does. Forget about DOE, how
many folks actually understand what HHS does, or HUD, or any of the dozens of
other agencies other than Defense and State.

The USG is full of these enormous and powerful bureaucratic orgs. Not
surprised that most folks (including me!) Are unaware of what our tax dollars
fund, but boy is it a lesson in complex systems.

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gallego2007
Just to add to this, the DOE (and related agencies) leads weapons inspections
as part of several treaties (START, START II, nuclear test band treaty, etc.)
This work often involves traveling to other countries to do inspections and
verify compliance as part of the agreement.

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jeffrallen
I suspect they worked for a different 3 letter agency and just were borrowing
the letters D, O, and E.

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audiometry
yep, and measuring something far more interesting than radiation levels.

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rowanG077
I can't imagine something more interesting than radiation levels. Video?
Boring. Audio? Even more boring. Maybe WiFi or other radio signals? Still
radiation is much more interesting then those mundane things.

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audiometry
I thought it was kind of dull/simplistic in the "geiger counter" sort of
sense. But was imagining maybe weird radioactive isotopes or dangerous
chemicals or precursor type of things. Wouldn't think RF-related things would
need a spy walking around with an ipod. But who knows -- maybe something for
air-gapping systems. Lord knows you and I will never know. ahahah

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kmeisthax
>Hobbyists enjoyed getting Linux to run on iPods, which was hard to do without
the special knowledge and tools Apple possessed. We on the iPod engineering
team were impressed. But Apple corporate didn’t like it. Starting with the
iPod nano, the operating system was signed with a digital signature to block
the Linux hackers (and others).

I'd like to know exactly why they were opposed to this, given that this was
way before the App Store was a thing and there's nothing to protect otherwise.

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ikeboy
They used to sell games in iTunes for iPod OS. See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_game)

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mobilio
Could be something like this: [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-
europe-16614209](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-16614209)

Because allow a people to share information without physical contact each
other.

Example - person 1 went to park, smoke a cig and transfer data to intermediate
device. After 3-4 days person 2 went to park, feed ducks and get data from
intermediate device. Of course this happens wireless and no physical contact.

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londons_explore
Back in 2004, this kind of thing could have just been a favour.

Now, apple collaborating to add spy devices could seriously hurt their privacy
reputation. I wonder if things like this still happen, and what persuasion
executives require to enable it?

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mobilio
This is not a "spy" device. This is device with special purpose.

And any department with multi billion budget can hire a smart peoples to do
reverse-engineering on real device and build without company to know this.

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throw149102
Instead of being in the possession of a spy itself, it could be a trojan horse
for spyware. You give the iPod (or several iPods) to important people around
the world, and when they plug it in to a computer it executes some sort of
Zero-day exploit, potentially even a backdoor embedded into iTunes developed
simultaneously with this project.

Or maybe these iPods were used for multiple purposes at the same time.
Anywhere where you needed a non-suspicious device to do something extra, you
could get one of these custom iPods.

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andrew3019
> My guess is that Paul and Matthew were building something like a stealth
> Geiger counter.

The secret project doesn't seem to be a stealth Geiger counter. The custom
iPod they created had complex data recording and storing features, excessive
for a Geiger counter. The device was probably made to intercept WiFi data,
which makes more sense to secretly record.

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londons_explore
Why not start with a device that already has WiFi, and then you don't need to
do any hardware mods?

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oseityphelysiol
I suppose using a device that's known to not have WiFi would arise less
suspicions

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londons_explore
Although I believe it's common practice in secure installations to CT scan
everything in and out.

No hardware mods are a much better way to not have evidence sitting in those
CT scans.

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Closi
Nobody is analysing the boards in those CT scans, they are checking for
explosives.

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phubbard
Could easily be gamma or x-ray - those, if short enough wavelength, could go
through the iPod case.

Talk about a cool story.

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rini17
I hope these were not the iPods that IBM gave away to OSS maintainers under
"Linux on Power" initiative in ~ 2002 :D

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hendzen
Guessing some kind of device for stealthy Van Eck Phreaking.

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hinetun
PUBG APP

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hinetun
App

