Ethical Hacker Community Forums

now this would be interesting to investigate....

WASHINGTON - Can the coins jingling in your pocket trace your movements? The Defense Department is warning its American contractor employees about a new espionage threat seemingly straight from Hollywood: It discovered Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070110/ap_on_hi_te/spy_coins

Wow thats interesting, I wonder how they caught it, or if they even did. It might have just been pure luck, if someone dropped the coin and a transmitter came flying out

why do that when i can just silently turn on the GPS locator on your phone

the feds were very tight lipped about it..they didn't disclose how it was discovered.  I agree, there is probably easier ways to track someone, so it will be interesting to see why this method was chosen.

It was RFID tags in the coins so they would only to good very close up. The FBI might of cought the coins from the door scans. I used RFID scans to enter the doors at my office and if any other RFID signal is close by the door sensor freaks out and sends and alarm to the Security department.  I think the RFID could of been used to see what exit the people used to leave a building or somthig.

Brian
AKA Slimjim100

Depending on the site you are not going to be very successful with cell phones.  The higher priority the site the more likely they have policies against cell phones.  And we are talking about an employer who will follow their disciplinary actions.  Plus, most employees at these sites want to be safe and adhere to policy because it is important to them.

Of course, there is always the trust but verify.  So, I am sure that some sites have wireless monitoring at entry point to identify cell phones that are turned on.  As these are 2.4 Ghz, I doubt that they detected the RFID.  It could have been any one of the methods mentioned here or possibly a counterintelligence sweep using detection equipment.

As much as we like to poke fun at the system, there are plenty of people in it who are very smart, and even more who do not f*** around.

Go forth and do good things,
Cutaway

Bruce Schneier just picked this up.  Check here for his opinion: [url]http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/01/radio_transmitt.html[/ulr].  I also noticed some interesting comments.

Actually, he picked this up on the 11th.  I'm just behind on my reading.
Cutaway