

Prototype Hardware from Lockheed Martin Surveillance Project - jsonne
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Prototype-Hardware-from-Lockheed-Martin-Surveillance-Project-/221272094476?

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jacquesm
If genuine this amounts to purchasing stolen goods, buyer beware. Not that at
$10M I think there'll be any takers.

As always there is likely another side to this story and if you're a US buyer
of this batch of stuff you're probably going to be dealing with that aspect of
the sale.

The way I read this is: founder got screwed, founder uses ebay to put the
pressure on his former employer to see if he can get compensation by
threatening to expose the crown jewels of the company which he developed.

On another level, this story is just like any other minority shareholder
dispute and founders should _definitely_ take a warning from this.

It is relatively easy to screw a minority shareholder, even a founder, if
everybody else colludes. This can happen and it does happen, hell, it happened
to me. If you're technically savvy but not business savvy you might as well
settle for a fat salary in many cases, unless there is ample paperwork to
document your position and sufficient trust between you and your partners.

I wouldn't touch this auction with a 10' pole, but there might be someone out
there that takes the bait and thinks that this is peanuts for the goods from a
counter-intelligence perspective.

To create a competing product based on this data would be a very stupid move
and at that price I think you could do a lot better by doing it again with
today's tech.

Essentially he is saying: my 10% of the company is worth 10 million dollars
(or more) and that alone might be an indication of the kind of thing that lies
at the heart of the conflict.

I hope the poster finds a way to fund his lawsuit in a less controversial way,
if only because he's selling some of the evidence that he'll need in order to
win it and because he's opening himself up to a substantial counter-claim and
actively helps the opposition with an own goal.

If the poster of the ebay auction reads this: retract this auction, get a
lawyer, if possible on a contingency basis but _at least_ for a few hours
(which you should be able to afford out of pocket) to research the legality of
your position. If a lawyer will sign off on this action in writing then go for
it. But I doubt that will happen. Hint: a minor shareholder does not have the
right to pre-emptively strike at the company based on the outcome of a lawsuit
that still has to be fought. It is very well possible that when the dust
settles that you'll own the assets of the company but until then this stuff is
company property and you as a shareholder are acting against the interests of
that company and probably against the terms of your employment contract.
That's a (very) bad spot to be in and it may very well annul any and all
rights that you still have or cause the tide to turn against you from having
the moral high-ground to becoming the defendant.

------
jlgreco
Another "spy rock", this one belonging to Britain and found in Moscow:
[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/24/russia.politics](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/24/russia.politics)
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-
europe-16614209](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16614209)

Apparently one of the upsides of an idea this absurd and obvious is that when
you get caught you can use _" Are you serious? Who would use an obviously fake
rock to spy on people?"_ as a defense.

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eksith
$10,000,000.00 For something you could make with a Raspberry Pi, mic, webcam,
wifi adapter?

    
    
      "RockCam included a 900MHz Spread Spectrum Frequency Hopping 
      Microhard Spectra 910 radio..."
    

This is ostensibly to avoid detection, but with the proliferation of wifi all
over the place, one station named "Linksys" or even one without broadcasting
SSID will go unnoticed for a long time.

    
    
      "The custom mainboard we developed would enter in a deep sleep mode to 
      conserve energy, and would be woken up whenever the PIR sensor was 
      triggered to capture high resolution pictures that were then transmitted 
      via spread spectrum radio link to a central concentrator that was 
      Internet-connected."
    

So, it's using the same technology as those "advanced" hunting cameras you can
buy on Amazon. Shouldn't be too hard to do something similar.

    
    
      "RockCam included deep cycle batteries which provided at least three (3) 
      years of operation without recharging in the field" 
    

A solar panel + battery pack would accomplish the same. Or if there's a lamp
post nearby, you can tap into the power feed by running a small wire
underground.

The biggest expense seems to be specialized hardware that provided encryption,
custom data uplinks and secure RockCam-to-RockCam communication etc...

Edit: Further reading, the price isn't for hardware, but for software and
other "data"? Er... If that isn't inviting a visit from MIB, I don't know what
is.

~~~
joenathan
You are tearing this apart based on current technology, but this was developed
ten years ago, that is quite a few generations of technologies ago.

FTA: _Included in the auction_ A CD filled with backup materials during
several years of the company (the most valuable part of this auction
obviously).

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harrytuttle
I think this is more about making a noise than selling something. I doubt it
will sell but it was worth doing anyway.

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K2h
wow. a steap price for a few modems, pc104 mainboards and a cd. it doesnt look
like the cool looking rock is even included.

despite that, that backgrounf story is quite intersting and does look
plausable, no major missuse of terms or jargon that I could find.

~~~
threeseed
That CD you just glossed over contains backups of the company's files.

If you are in that industry that could be pretty damn valuable.

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NamTaf
As he says in the article, it's not the hardware that the price is there for,
but rather the backups of years of his company's files, including conversation
with Lockheed, etc.

Whether it's actually worth that is another matter entirely.

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beambot
For $10M, I'll build you a custom fake rock with a camera and wifi using
"modern" technologies. I'll even throw in a touch screen and cellular
connections. (Aka, a cellphone sitting inside a fake rock)

</sarcasm>

~~~
tux
You can make this rock 100 times smaller by using Raspeby Pi :-)

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tantalor
Ironic how the seller intends to use the proceeds of the auction to
investigate whether the sale is legal.

~~~
jacquesm
That jumped out at me as well. He states that he believes he is within his
rights and that may even be the case but as it is presented it does not
actually look like it and this could come back to bite him, hard.

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byoung2
The hardware pictured is not included in the auction, since it burned in a
fire. What is left is some circuit boards, a power supply, and cd-rom.

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jordanthoms
At least it comes with free shipping...

------
einhverfr
Note that the only accepted payment method is Paypal. If that isn't asking for
trouble.....

~~~
Ecio78
Do you think Paypal will notice the 10 million dollars transaction? I'm not
sure..
[http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6056924](http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6056924)
:P

------
aspensmonster
For when ebay invariably takes this auction down:
[http://archive.is/l9tZ9](http://archive.is/l9tZ9)

Hold up hold up hold up.

>I was told by the other execs that the product had not been picked up by
Lockheed, and therefore that the company had been wound down and dissolved.

and then

>Included on this CD... a list of all the nuclear power plants and numbers of
installed RockCams at each nuclear power plant location...

So... which is it? If the company was spun down and dissolved, then I imagine
there wasn't any further activity that could end up in mail spools or shared
drives or whatnot that he had access to. There wouldn't be a list of nuclear
sites where this technology was deployed, because Lockheed never picked it up.
Of course, he implies that the Russian "spy rock" incident was this technology
--a plausible assumption, at least-- and that this implies the technology is
still in the field. But he wouldn't be privy to where in the field the tech
was deployed after the company was spun down. Were these devices deployed into
the field (the Nuclear Reactor locations) during R&D or alpha/beta testing
when the company was still active? If so, how does he know the devices would
still be there?

The financial and other business data could be very useful in journalistic
endeavours. ProjectPM would eat it up. Just imagine all of the social networks
you could graph out (it _is_ just metadata; I'm sure they won't mind).
However, I don't think the auctioneer is aiming this at journalists. I don't
know of any journalists that have a spare 10 million laying around or
otherwise have access to 10 million. If not journalists, then perhaps
competitors in the field. Given the way he's worded this missive, the tone
gives off an air that he'd be willing to sell to _anyone_. But surely this
fella can't think that ebay is going to just let this auction continue? He
seems to imply that he wants others to message him. No contact info is given.
His ebay user isn't going to be around for long.

He gave his name though, and from that I found that this person was apparently
on cryptome a month ago --listing his email as Gregory.Perry@GoVirtual.tv; no
public keys on pgp.mit.edu-- where he was "planning" all this out (poorly, if
I might add):

[http://cryptome.org/2013/07/rockcam-
spy.htm](http://cryptome.org/2013/07/rockcam-spy.htm)

>I don't think there should be any national security concerns with the release
of any of this information.... However, I have no knowledge of any such
derivative projects manufactured by Lockheed, Boeing, or otherwise, so I don't
think there should be any national security concerns with auctioning off this
hardware and related engineering blueprints to the highest bidder on Ebay.

And who he's aiming the auction at:

>I am also in possession of a year or so worth of electronic mail
correspondence and communications by and between AWA, Lockheed, M2M, and
various components such as DTRA that may be of use to other burgeoning
startups interested in building covert imager hardware, so all of those
documents, the prototype hardware that I have here, and some pretty pictures
will be listed on Ebay today or tomorrow for NATO-friendly nation states to
peruse and bid on.

Honestly, this all feels very hamfisted at best. I don't think this person
really thought this through.

~~~
pkinsky
>no public keys on pgp.mit.edu-- where he was "planning" all this out

>a heavily encrypted link layer and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) that I
developed

I'm inclined to believe that he's able to set up a decent secure communication
infrastructure, _if he 's telling the truth in the second quote_.

------
tux
Some one will walk with metal detector find this rock and kick it. Game over!
But hey at least its cheap!

------
Questioneer
I cannot help but notice a few commercial hardware projects involved who have
made it clear they do not like their hardware/software being used in things
like military applications.

While I haven't heard Xbee's stance on such things, would they perhaps care to
clarify their stance beyond "most persons are able to use our products, the
use is up to the end consumer."

I would wholly appreciate it since hobbyist part manufactures depend on the
community around them, and we really do like some of the makers out there as
well as their efforts for disseminating open ended hardware for others to
tinker with.

edit: Thank you diydrones community and others! Promoting responsible use
while not seeking to limit the possible innovations of others.

