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Furby is a national security risk 42

Posted by CmdrTaco from the hide-your-toys dept.
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.
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Furby is a national security risk More

Furby is a national security risk

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  • That's pretty amusing... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...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.

  • Government Paranoia (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    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.
  • Posted by nix geek:

    so this means that Erwin is banned from the NSA buidings? :)

  • Dammit! (Score:1)

    by DaBuzz ( 878 )
    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!
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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?!
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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.

    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 :> ) let's at least have them concerned.)

    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
  • 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.

    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 :> ) let's at least have them concerned.)

    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
  • ...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?
  • 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..
  • 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.
  • Ummm... He posted that 2 hours after the 16-year-old-girl crypto story...
  • 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."
  • Furby as a national security risk?
    • Absolutely!!

    Why, wasn't it Monica's *furby* that got our pres. in so much hot water???

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