The US feared presented to Putin the ball: what kind of chip has been found
What American presidents do with foreign gifts
today at 13:51, views: 4353
When the Russian President gave during the meeting with his American counterpart Donald Trump soccer ball as a souvenir from the world championship-2018 in the United States immediately, there were suggestions made whether in jest, whether seriously, what a souvenir this can be Packed with “bugs”.
photo: kremlin.ru
“I fear the Greeks even bearing gifts” – the ancient winged words in modern American recension are as follows: “Afraid of the Russians, bringing balls”. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (the same one that called the other day to impose new sanctions against Russia, without waiting for a new meeting of the leaders of the US and Russia) even tweeted: “I would have checked this soccer ball on the subject of listening devices and would never have allowed him to be in the White house.” It turned out, news Agency Bloomberg writes that the voices were not so wrong.
The mark on the ball to indicate that the apparatus is provided with a chip with an antenna transmitting on nearby phones. The thing was that the chip was not “embedded” in the ball insidious intelligence, and appeared thanks to the efforts of the manufacturer, Adidas AG. And no one thought to hide the chip technology wireless connection short range. Moreover, the ball depicts the logo, reminiscent of the icon of the WiFi signal.
This chip allows football fans to access product information, football news, data on competitions and challenges, at the same time promised that the content is constantly updated.. Enough to bring the ball mobile device (or even several). Microchip refers to the very technology that is used in some contactless payments.
According to Bloomberg, it is unlikely that such a balls or chips contained in them can pose a security risk. According to the product description on the website of the manufacturer, the chip itself cannot be modified, cannot be destroyed or perepisat its coded parameters.
“The process of security checks, which predusmotren for all gifts posted to this football ball, – says press Secretary of the White House Sarah Sanders. – We are not going to give more detailed comments on the procedures of security”.
In 2015, Forbes reported that a certain engineer used chip wireless short-range actions to send to a nearby phone based on Android, the request to open links, which involves the installation of malicious file which would take this phone under control. However, such a multistage attack using the soccer ball looks unlikely, said Linus Neumann, representative of the Hamburg-based hacker collective Chaos Computer Club.
The official web site of the manufacturer of the ball of the world Cup-2018 with electronic “appendage” was sold for $165 (after the end of the Cup, the price dropped to $83). This, incidentally, fits into the restrictions that are imposed on American presidents accepted gifts from abroad (cost of gift should not exceed $390). As you know, received from the Russian President’s ball, trump gave it to his wife Melania, saying that he was going to give the gift of their 12-year-old son Barron. And this circumstance also has forced the American media space asks: “But is it legal?”. It is believed that a gift from a foreign state received by the President of the United States, does not belong to him personally, and is taken would like on behalf of the United States.
So while the President is in power, a gift is kept in the national archives, and after the departure of the head of state from the White house, a collection of gifts transferred to the presidential library. And if the President really wants to become the sole owner of a gift, he will have to buy it at market price (and theoretically the 45th President of the United States may redeem donated the ball to Barron). Anyway, trump’s words about what a gift the ball will get to his son, has caused many questions. Immediately remembered how in 2011, Angela Merkel gave the daughters of Barack Obama, who were 9 and 12 years, balls for mini-soccer (from the same manufacturer that Putin Trump) and a t-shirt, jacket, towel, bag and a pair of swimming goggles. All this music was valued at $557. And automatically a gift from the Chancellor of Germany was recognized as the property of the United States. And got not Sasha and Malia, and the National archives. And in 2016, Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri gave the Obama family two shirts national team football with autographs of Lionel Messi. The gift is valued at $1700 – and he immediately went into archival storage.
