https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/17/soviet_spy_gadgets_museum_auction/ The Register(r) -- Biting the hand that feeds IT search [ ] # # Sign in Off-Prem CloudInternet of ThingsChannelBusiness (X) On-Prem ServersStorageNetworksPersonal Tech (X) Software All SoftwareDevOpsArtificial IntelligenceVirtualization (X) SecurityOff-Beat DebatesScienceGeek's GuideBOFHVerity StobPolicyBootnotesSite News (X) Vendor Voice AdobeGoogle CloudNutanixRapid7Red hatSophosVeeam (X) # # # [front] Security Soviet 'Enigma' cipher machine sells for $22k at collapsed museum's exhibits auction James Bond? Inspector Gadget? Yup, all here Gareth Corfield Wed 17 Feb 2021 // 12:44 UTC Share reddit Twitter Facebook linkedin WhatsApp email [https://www.theregis] Copy --------------------------------------------------------------------- A Soviet equivalent of Nazi Germany's Enigma cipher machine has sold for more than double its auction asking price - while a secret camera disguised as a pack of cigarettes went for nearly $20,000. A Fialka M-125-3M 10-rotor cipher code machine complete with accessories sold for $22,400 at a US auction held over the weekend, trumping the device's $8,000-$12,000 estimated sale price. [front] The Fialka, and many other surveillance objects used in the Soviet era, came from the KGB Espionage Museum's collection. Based in New York, the museum collected and catalogued historical items relating to the Soviet spy force, the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti), and other items - until the coronavirus pandemic killed it off in October 2020, barely a year after it first opened. Introduced in 1956, as related by the Crypto Museum, the Fialka was an electromechanical cipher machine which followed the same basic principles as Nazi Germany's infamous Enigma device. Rotors scrambled plaintext messages from Soviet (and Eastern European) commanders into ciphertext ready for transmission. [front] Fialka, Russian rotary cypher machine A Fialka at Museum of Military History in Vienna. Pic: Fichtenspargel , licensed under CC by SA 4.0 The US Smithsonian Museum poured scorn on its short-lived Soviet-themed rival. An article in its in-house magazine lamented how the museum seemingly omitted the hate-filled brutality of 20th century Russia in favour of Instagrammable, interactive exhibits with less context and labelling than an academic historian might have enjoyed. Remarkably, included in the auction was a replica of The Thing - a wooden mock-up of the Great Seal of the United States, gifted to the US for its Moscow embassy in 1945 and placed behind the ambassador's desk. The Thing was a resonance-based microphone and transmitter hidden inside the seal, discovered by the Americans and conveyed to MI5 for them to figure out how it worked. "The Thing bore the hallmarks of a piece of equipment which the Russians had rushed into service, presumably to ensure it was installed before the Secretary of State's visit," wrote former MI5 and MI6 man Peter Wright in his old-but-highly-readable autobiography Spycatcher. Wright was the MI5 specialist who deduced that The Thing's microphone transmitted speech to a nearby listening post on 800MHz. Meanwhile, back at the US auction, a KGB spy camera disguised to look like a packet of John Player cigarettes fetched $19,200 - many times greater than its pre-auction estimate of $600-$800. [front] Readers will probably relate all these hi-tech gizmos back to the analogue age of the mid-20th century, before the advent of consumer-scale microprocessors and the move of the world to digital ways of living and doing business. Certainly there's something of Inspector Gadget and James Bond that comes to mind while looking at The Guardian newspaper's photo essay of selected auction highlights. (r) Get our Tech Resources Corrections Send us news 48 Comments reddit Twitter Facebook linkedin WhatsApp email Get our Security newsletter [front] Most Read 1. Votive candles in a church in Belgium Atheists warn followers of unholy data leak, hint dark deeds may have tried to make it go away 2. Someone walking by a Citibank branch Citibank accidentally wired $500m back to lenders in user-interface super-gaffe - and judge says it can't be undone 3. mining Nvidia to cripple Ethereum mining on GeForce RTX 3060 cards to deter crypto bods from nabbing all the gear 4. Tiny man Healthy 32-year-old offered COVID-19 vaccine because doctors had him down as 6.2cm tall with BMI of 28,000 5. Fire Extinguisher The wastepaper basket is on the other side of the office - that must be why they put all these slots in the computer [front] --------------------------------------------------------------------- [front] Keep Reading Tech Resources [whitep] Apps are Essential, so your WAF must be effective You can't run a business today without applications--and because apps are critical to strategic business imperatives and commerce, they have become the prime target for attackers. [whitep] BaaS Is Maturing - Here Are the Top 5 Use Cases Backup as a service is a cost-effective, easy-to-manage alternative or supplement to on-premises backup solutions. [whitep] The Guide To Modern APM The Guide to Modern APM and learn about how modernizing your APM solution can help you on your cloud-native journey [whitep] Webcast Slide Deck | Zero trust strategies to zap ransomware peril Join industry veteran and security pro Mike Wronski of Nutanix as he explains to Tim Phillips about zero trust strategies combined with HCI can improve your security posture, defend against threats, help prevent your business from being the next victim of ransomware. [front] ABOUT US[f] * Who we are * Under the hood * Contact us * Advertise with us MORE CONTENT[f] * Latest News * Popular Stories * Forums * Whitepapers * Webinars SITUATION PUBLISHING[f] * The Next Platform * DevClass * Blocks and Files * Continuous Lifecycle London * M-cubed Situation Publishing The Register - Independent news and views for the tech community. Part of Situation Publishing SIGN UP TO OUR DAILY NEWSLETTER Subscribe Twitter Facebook LinkedIn feeds no-js Biting the hand that feeds IT (c) 1998-2021 Do not sell my personal information Cookies Privacy Ts&Cs