this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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The FBI missed a passive bug that hung in the office of the US ambassador to Russia for 7 years.
Don't count them out yet
Fascinating stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
This is old ASF, if you don't think we can't detect these then πππ
Do you know what 'passive' means? It's a basically a mirror for a specific frequency. There's no way to "detect" it other than tearing apart whatever it's hidden in.
The fact that it was made with 1960's Soviet analog tech should tell you that China could plausibly make something better and smaller now.
It would certainly be detectable. You could do an X-ray, sweep the RF spectrum and see the energy disappear at the right frequency, things like that.
They had that tech in the 60s too.
Also when the bug was in operation it was definitely not passive. It was being fed by what must have been a really strong signal to power it, and transmitted the results back.
tech is tech. if itβs able to not be detected then itβs able to be not detected now.
This is assuming one country is lagging behind their advancements. Most countries are finally catching up to our tech made in the 90s my dude.
Why do you think it works like that? They know what it is and how it works, so they know what to look for.
iβm saying they grow at the same rate.
Who "they"? Security services are not the hive, It's not like everyone knows everything pr never misses anything. Or do you think it's like a game where you unlock the "passive listening device countermeasures" technology and suddenly 100% bugs across the country are found and new bugs can't be planted?
Kinda, yes. Now that everyone knows how it works, and they will, because intelligence agencies share this stuff with their allies, it would become a lot harder to pull the same trick again.