
Operation Gunman – how the Soviets bugged IBM typewriters - jstearns
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/bugs/selectric/
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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10773214](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10773214)

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stygiansonic
Some interesting tidbits - the NSA team leader in charge of investigating the
equipment offered a "bug bounty" to find the eavesdropping devices [0]:

" _As an incentive - probably demonstrating his own impatience - the leader of
the team, Walter Deely, offered a US$ 5,000 bonus for the first person to find
an eavesdropping device. Then, on the evening of Monday 23 July 1984,
technician Michael (Mike) Arneson noticed an anomaly in the power switch of an
IBM Selectric typewriter and decided to x-ray the whole machine from top to
bottom_ "

0\. Not exactly in the sense of today's "bug bounties".

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Overtonwindow
Fun fact: you can see the original component that was packed at the national
cryptologic museum.

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micaksica
For being right in the shadow of Fort Meade, the National Cryptologic Museum
is a really awesome place. It's also one of the only places in the US where
you can _actually play with_ working Enigma machines.

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madengr
Yep, great place. Two Engimas with which you can encode and decode messages.

This place is also awesome; just north of BWI:

[http://www.nationalelectronicsmuseum.org](http://www.nationalelectronicsmuseum.org)

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Overtonwindow
The NEM is amazing!!! Wonderful people there. While the NCM is free, the NEM
is only $5 and absolutely worth it. I moved away from the area but still
donate often to both museums. True hidden gems.

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madengr
NEM is free if you are an IEEE member, but I always buy some stuff from their
gift shop for the kids. Some of the items are in the travelling exhibit to
IEEE IMS conference.

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Tepix
Are there any known cases where paper shredders were/are bugged?

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Overtonwindow
That's a really good question! Probably the NCM folks would know. I imagine it
would not be hard. An optical reader somehow that scans the doc as it passes
and then transmits it out. Could absolutely see a hacked shredder. Come to
think of it yes...this rings a bell but Im having trouble putting my hands on
the details.

