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Furby is a national security risk
Chase writes "Nation Public Radio reported this morning that the National Security Agency has deemed Furby's as a risk. The reason is each furby contains a microphone that records sound bytes from its environment and will play them back at any time. The NSA is concerned that a furby might over hear a classified conversation while in the building and then repeat it at a later time once it was removed from the building. As a response to the risk, the NSA has banned furbys from NSA buildings. "
Update: 01/13 09:55 by B :
Here's a CNN Story
and a BBC Story
for good measure.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9901/13/nsa.furby.ban.01/
Wait, it is Jan 13th, not April 1. Isn't it?
There's another highly sophisticated device that samples ambient noise and conversation, and then repeats it in the original or slightly modified form: PEOPLE. Better keep them out too.
Why do I sit here finding myself laughing loud enough for a Furby to repond to me????
Yeah, funny story and everything.... but - why would you be bringing a furby to work in the first place? What do you think work is, a preschool?
This could be a great Marketing Tactic.
THIS PRODUCT HAS BEEN BANNED BY THE US GOVERNMENT, THEREFORE YOUR KID NEEDS ONE.
I hear there is a group up in Montana that is stockpiling Furbies.
Meanwhile, Clinton comes under scrutiny from the "Furby Rights Association" after setting fire to a Furby with a cigar.
mneag@ka.net
Having had the NSA as a customer for many years off and on, this is hardly shocking. The official policy is basically that you can't bring anything in or out of the building, period. Note book computers are especially verbotten. The issue is more realistically stated that they can't make exceptions, regardless of how silly the policy may look at the time. Exceptions begin a downward sloap of security, and in their business that's absolutely unacceptable.
While many people might want ot bad-mouth the NSA, and they've certainly earned a lot of wacko points having dealt with them, they are tasked with a specific job by the President, and they do that pretty well. Would you want a 16-year old girl designing the crypto for protecting the codes to nuclear weapons in her house? I didn't think so. Remember, the NSA employs on the order of 1/3 of all mathematicians in the country.
I still set off all the lights in the building because I'm not cleared to the level of the building, and they still throw lead blankets over some of hte machines, and I still get escorte to the bathroom. That's just the way things are, and no amount of public pressure will EVER change that.
Anything with a microphone or recording capabilities is banned from the NSA... you act as if they're being banned throughout the US. This is stupid.
FACT: Furby's do not record sound for playback later. They have no memory in which to do so.
FACT: They trick people into thinking they learn by a neat little method of time-delayed responses. The more you mess with them, the faster they learn. Example, take a furby and mess with it for 8 hours or so, and it will speak to you fairly quickly.
FACT: The government is a bunch of morons, and used to making snap judgements.
FACT: Who really gives a shit? It's funny, but not very important in the scheme of things.
...have you ever tried to get into a classified site?
I gotta ask . . . is the typical NSA employee LIKELY to bring a Furby to work? So much so that they have to make a rule about it?
From now on, whenever I think of our spooks at work, I'm gonna visualize them sitting at desks cluttered with bobbing drinking birds, punching nun puppets, and Muppet Babies happy meal toys.
--Stefan
I guess that's how Linda Tripp was getting her new information.
I'll try to keep this simple. When dealing with high level security issues, the ppl in charge impose restrictions that allow for a margin of error. One screw up, and they are toast. This type of mentallity (which is needed) leads itself to making rather harsh, somewhat illogical decisions.
/. readers cannot comprehend. With time and proper study, a new item can then be approved for use.
The other critical issue is one of certification. Unknown or poorly studied (from a security standpoint) products, especially electronic products, are considered harmful until proven otherwise. This is obviously a prudent course of action when dealing with a level of security that most
In another discussion, there has been talk of skeptism of a new encryption algorithm. Essentially, the consensus is that a new algorithm cannot be trusted until fully tested. I would guess that a furby falls into this category as far as the NSA is concerned.
...especially considering that Furbies (?) DON'T record
sound in any way. They simply respond to noises that
are loud.
Leave it to the idiot US government to make a policy
statement without all the information.
fscking morons.
This reminds me of when I worked at a major defense contractor 20 years ago. We were told that we could not bring radios into the plant because we might modify the local oscillators so that we could transmit classified information to those dirty commie agents in our parking lot (this is no joke! They were serious about this). As if we didn't have more important things to do, like work. What did we make? Transmitters!
We couldn't take floppies, tapes, walkmans, radios, cameras, or video equipment to where I worked this summer due to security. If you have classified information, that makes sense, though.
Loose lips sink ships, you know.
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
Posted by nix geek:
:)
so this means that Erwin is banned from the NSA buidings?
I was gonna send my kid in with a Furby as an undercover agent. I was sure they'd let him and his little toy into many secure areas since they are so cute together.
Foiled again!
I'll get you next time NSA!
If you can read this message, your threshold is too low.
Yes, Furbies (ick!) have no storage to record sounds or data. But they have microphones. How much work would it really take to patch a transmitter to the microphone in that things head? A few minutes with a soldering iron. And it's not like there isn't room to hide small transmitter in the things body.
The point is that the NSA can't afford to take chances, period. You want a small, furry thing on your desk to releave the monotony of cubicle life? Bring in a dogbert plushy.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Someone had one of those damned plastic demons in my office over the Holidays. They are more annoying than Microsoft Bob.
I bet some supervisor got pissed at a Furby and wrote it up as a security risk.
Ok it is funny, but considering what the NSA does and why, I would have made the exact same choice. There is no real need for a "Furby" to be in the NSA buildings, and some chance however small that it could cause damage. So why risk it. Remember this is a *TOP SECRET* facility.
--Zachary Kessin
Erlang Developer and podcaster
Heaven knows what classified secrets they may have already heard and absorbed. I guess the NSA will have to line up all the "exposed" furbies against a wall and have them shot, or incinerated, or microwaved, etc.
"I'm sorry Billy, but the Furby has to be put to sleep now for reasons of national security..."
Hmm. I wonder if that Furby in the White House can be subpoeneaed to testify before the Senate in the Clinton impeachment trial?!
http://www.phobe.com/furby/guts.html
It's been stated a few times already, but if you knew how secure a lot of these types of buildings are, you would understand.
It's not like they're going to be searching you for Furbies when you try to go to work. They don't let you bring ANYTHING in that could conceivably house or be modified (intentionally or unintentionally) to bring data or information out.
You walk in with your clothes (and MAYBE a briefcase if you have papers, but if this were allowed I wouldn't be surprised if they searched/X-rayed it before letting you in). Everything else is in the building (likely in a safe). I've even been told (treat this as 4th-hand) that even the PC's have removable hard drives, and everyone's hard drive is stored in its own little safe when you leave for the day.
They aren't making special policy for Furbies, they're just saying, "Yes, Furbies fall under the same 'banned items' rules to which everything else you're prohibited from bringing in applies."
Apparently the NSA chiefs have been watching the X-Files too much :)
I never liked the NSA or CIA anyway; they seem to have an annoying tendency to put their own interests above those of the people they're supposed to be serving. Case in point: at one time the CIA had a particular spy satellite which, it was found, had another use: it could be used to help detect breast cancer much earlier than the technology of the time. Before the CIA would release it, however, they actually had to be convinced that women's health was "a matter of national security."
See what I mean? And the NSA is more or less the same way. Perhaps if they started looking out for the people more than themselves I'd feel differently, but I have yet to see particularly much evidence that they've done that.
First off, who in their right mind would allow toys, especially of the stuffed variety, in top secret meetings? Seems quite ridiculous to me. It's not Furby that's the problem. It's the people that allow minor disturbances (ie: Furby) rather than getting down to complete, organized, undistracted business.
The government in action... Again...
-mickey
They just respond to loud noise. And they don't LEARN speech, they just add new words over a period of time to simulate learning. I'm told it is a quite convincing illusion, but I've never seen one myself.
Dog is my co-pilot.
Too funny! =)
This is a good thing anyway, I mean, no one employed by the US Government really -needs- to have a Furby at their workplace. They waste enough of our cash as it is, without that kind of nonsense keeping them distracted.
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
Quite true. Some of the furby advertising can be misleading, but I have one, and it *does not* record anything. It can merely detect a sound, not differentiate it from any other sound, in any way.
-Hal
-Hal
I can believe this. If anything has the ability to record data, and it's in a classified area, it has to be treated as classified to the level of the information it's exposed to. If that means putting classified password into your digital watch, which it does, then Furby's in the safe. I don't call this a Bad Thing....
Just because your furby at home only records/responds to loud noise doesn't mean that some enterprising foe w/ a schematic and a soldering iron couldn't make it do otherwise.
:> ) let's at least have them concerned.)
Just strip osme of the actuators out and replace/alter the meter on the sound and you've a cute inoccuos little bugging device.
As far as the repsonse to this security alert, cmon' wouldn't you prefer your agents to be as paranoid as possible? (if ya gotta have them, (not going into that
I think it was the combination of the "cuteness" factor and the opportunity to make the NSA look a little silly that prompted this story, 'can we say fluff piece?'
~Grell
...when it gets down to fundamentals, do what you have to do and shed no tears. Dr. Matson in Tunnel in the Sky
Just because your furby at home only records/responds to loud noise doesn't mean that some enterprising foe w/ a schematic and a soldering iron couldn't make it do otherwise.
:> ) let's at least have them concerned.)
Just strip some of the actuators out and replace/alter the meter on the sound and you've a cute inoccuos little bugging device.
As far as the repsonse to this security alert, cmon' wouldn't you prefer your agents to be as paranoid as possible? (if ya gotta have them, (not going into that
I think it was the combination of the "cuteness" factor and the opportunity to make the NSA look a little silly that prompted this story, 'can we say fluff piece?'
~Grell
...when it gets down to fundamentals, do what you have to do and shed no tears. Dr. Matson in Tunnel in the Sky
...what you can and can't take into NSA's buildings... The Furby thing seems totally understandable to me! Most stuff -- if you take it in, well... you can't take it out...!
...and it will speak to you fairly quickly.
I've found that this phenomenon occurs with just about anything I mess with for 8 hours.
Or do they use Windows 95 CDs?
I wonder if they are running Windoze at the NSA...
A spy satellite that can detect breast cancer?? That must be one hell of a zoom lense!
Leave it to the NSA to talk to small furry toys, and expect them to talk back. Whatever will they do when they figure out how a Walkman works..
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
I didn't leak the skinny on the P1, it was the Furby You know, I don't know who is more paranoid, the government or the people.
"You're not putting the bad word on that machine are you?" ~The Man ~The Man
Ummm... He posted that 2 hours after the 16-year-old-girl crypto story...
sharkyfour.com
We have larger problems to deal with if there are furbies running around in "sensitive" facilities.
"Sir, put down the furbie and slowly back away."
Why, wasn't it Monica's *furby* that got our pres. in so much hot water???