is the CCP Baofeng spying ??

[WRUE951]

Last night i was tuned into one of the busy GMRS ch's in my community and caught conversion of two guys having a serious conversation about some Baofeng portable radios having mini WiFi chips in their circuits, claiming these could be used for various things such as spying.   I just chuckled it off as two idiots talking $hit,  but then one of them claimed to be a Navy Pilot..  And the two were dead serous about the conversion.  Hmm,,,  Today, i caught myself thinking about that all day long.   WTF  Just throwing this out there guys..  

[OffRoaderX]

Did they explain how the radios hack into and connect to a WiFi with a password?

PS - I am not only a Navy Pilot, but also an Army General, so you should listen to what I say.

[WRUU653]

17 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

I just chuckled it off as two idiots talking $hit

Let’s go with that. That’s a good first instinct. 

[tcp2525]

Those boneheads should be more worried about some of the Chinese apps they put on their smartphones.

[Blaise]

It's not outside the bounds of reason.  A number of consumer-electronics boards from China have been found to have stealthy modules on them that scan bluetooth and wifi around them and attempt to exploit any open access to "phone home" with geolocation info and maps of local devices.

However, I feel like a niche product like a hand-held radio would be one of the *last* places they'd invest that kind of effort.

[73blazer]

Spying is real and does happen. But you need to think about what targets they would get the most data from. A radio designed for recreational use that sits ina box in the basement 99.999% of the time and that transmits openly without encryption is not a device that would be targeted. You can monitor said devices with a simple spy balloon, it's much easier.

I had a 2015 Lenovo business laptop (mobile workstation really) I bought new and did notice  while it's turned off, a spurious MAC that wasn't the normal network cards MAC would connect to my open wifi guest network for a few seconds every few hours. I could remove the battery and those connections wouldn't happen.  Bloomberg then published an explosive story about embedded spy chips in many laptops, desktops and servers whose boards had pre-assembled parts by one company for various computer manufacturers, Lenovo included. Lenovo quickly issued a bios update to stop said "spying" . I I would consider it a direct attack on 'merican companies. But the point is, it does happen.

[WRQC527]

I think it's very possible. 

[KAF6045]

20 minutes ago, 73blazer said:

I had a 2015 Lenovo business laptop (mobile workstation really) I bought new and did notice  while it's turned off, a spurious MAC that wasn't the normal network cards MAC would connect to my open wifi guest network for a few seconds every few hours. I could remove the battery and those connections wouldn't happen.  Bloomberg then published an explosive story about embedded spy chips in many laptops, desktops and servers whose boards had pre-assembled parts by one company for various computer manufacturers, Lenovo included. Lenovo quickly issued a bios update to stop said "spying" . I I would consider it a direct attack on 'merican companies. But the point is, it does happen.

A former employer used to issue IBM Thinkpad (?) laptops. About three months after IBM sold the line to Lenovo the company started to phase out Thinkpads for Dell laptops.

I wouldn't be too surprised if my Nook tablet was phoning home. Barnes&Noble dropped the Samsung Nook for a Lenovo product... Which has the worst battery life around -- even with WiFi & Bluetooth turned off, and the display off, sitting on a shelf, it loses some 50% of charge in a week (while a Samsung Nook in the same condition goes two or three weeks).

[WRKC935]

Time to sit and do some critical thinking.  Consider what the gain vs cost would be with this.  The CCR are a lot of things, but they ain't dummies.  What conversation would be worth putting additional stuff in a hobby radio that would 'war drive' to hack an open wireless network and pass on information.  What would that information be?  Would it be worth the cost of doing it?  And more importantly would it be worth the cost of getting caught doing?

If ANY device, cheap radio or other was to have such technology in it, that would be apparent on a spectrum analyzer.  It would show up in the connected devices of wireless routers and access points when connected.  So unless the radio was directly marketed with WiFi abilities, then it would stand out like a nude blonde woman that it was doing something nefarious.   Now, if it DID contain WiFi connectivity, then it could route traffic to other places that could be used to monitor something.  But unless it was some specific stuff, that wasn't a standard like WiFi and they were sending some other device that also operated outside the established standards like the weather balloon's (well maybe) that would play previously recorded stuff to that device, chances are NO. 

Now, what possible information would be gained.  And this answer does lean to it being true.  Government comm's are all gonna be pretty secure.  And the government is NOT gonna be using that level of radio for anything they are involved in.  But these radios are marketed to preppers and survivalists.  And that is the biggest standing army on the planet.  There is no larger group of armed individuals than the group comprised of hunters, prepper's and survivalists in the USA.  And that number is staggeringly more than the next largest 'army'.  Having information on those groups, including locations, possessed arms and affiliations would be important if there was a plan to invade the US with troops.  And first strike locations could also be considered based on that information. 

But again,there are easier ways of getting it done.  Including frequenting web sites and online groups catering to those folks. 

The biggest danger to an invading force is not the US military.  With their rules of engagement and other regulations, they don't pose near as much of a threat as a bunch of red necks with an arsenal that exceed's that of some countries military arm's.  And red necks don't follow the Geneva Convention or any other rules of engagement.  They will operate with guerilla tactics similar to what we saw in the middle east during the American military occupation if it came to that.  

So are the commies spying on us,  yep, without a doubt.  But it's not gonna be with Baofengs and TYT radios.  And the private citizens, at least some of them are the likely targets.   

[back4more70]

Wolverines!

[axorlov]

China spies on companies, Tesla spies on owners and people around (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/04/tesla-workers-shared-images-from-car-cameras-including-scenes-of-intimacy/), Ring spies on you and your neighbors and rats you to cops. Cops spy on you with their license reading cams. Alexa sits here and listens to everything, and never going to stop. One got to be careful these days.

[jeffsimmons1960]

Nothing surprises me anymore. I guess it's possible.

[GXExplorer]

I've wondered myself if some two-way radio companies from overseas have placed a possible sabotage chip in said radios (including military radios) that would "brick" the radio either after receiving a series of predetermined tones or data. That way, if an offending country with that knowledge wanted to declare war with us, they could shutdown all of the compromised radios to cripple communications. 

Maybe I'm just paranoid, lol.

[Sshannon]

Dumbest thread ever. 

[WRUU653]

[WRWR489]

I don't know about radio spying, but more than once I have had a Travelers rest PD be behind me at a traffic light and heard the run a tag check for no reason. I am clean, but still it is a little obscene to do that for no reason.

 

[WRQC527]

5 hours ago, Sshannon said:

Dumbest thread ever. 

Amen.

[WSS]

Just in case there might be a shred of truth about my baofengs, I built  faraday box to keep them muffled.......

 

[GXExplorer]

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/11/25/us-bans-chinese-telecom-devices-citing-national-security

[Sshannon]

Never mind the fact that Huawei actually makes chips designed to connect wirelessly to the internet and manufacturers were buying them by the literal boatload and embedding them in computers where their owners were telling them their SSIDs and passwords and where they were ideally situated to spy on whatever activity took place on the computer. 

Never mind the fact that your cellphone is also connected full time to a network and has a gps built in and carries your most intimate pictures and messages.

If you fear your Baofeng UV5R then logic dictates you simply must avoid every Chinese made electronic device, because they are all being manufactured under the same control of the Chinese Communist government that would co-opt Baofeng.

Fortunately, my Garmin was made in Taiwan.

[WRKC935]

17 hours ago, Sshannon said:

Dumbest thread ever. 

Which is the reason I said we need to do some critical thinking here. 

Yes, I delved into the tin foil hat stuff, but for a purpose.  That being the ridiculousness of the prepper community and their support of these crap radios.  I understand being financially limited when it comes to buying stuff (being broke).  But we are talking about a group that spends thousands on supplies, and tens of thousands on arms and facility to make sure that they can survive when the SHTF.  And I had a discussion with a guy about this that was pushing the Baofengs while standing there with a $3K AR-15 slung on his back, a $1000 pistol, $500 in armor plates and plate carrier, $100 pair of pants, $250 pair of boots and discussing using a $35 radio for personal communications.  I'm sorry but WTF is wrong with this picture.  And these folks don't have one pistol and one rifle.  So there isn't a reason to not have military grade radios  like the XTS /XTL Motorola's with full AES (government level) encryption) and the required keyloader, all of which are available on ebay, for their personal comm's. 

And I don't know, or even really think, that the commies are watching these guys through their cheap radios.  But as mentioned, they are a force to be reckoned with.  Even the US government backed away from them when they came face to face over that Cliven Bundy stand off.  Because outside their cheap comm's, these guys do tend to take the whole militia thing pretty seriously.  But then again, I suppose if I was in those groups, I wouldn't get on YouTube and discuss proper communications techniques at that level and instead push cheap radios to others from my sales website while having a cache of proper radios in my communications equipment.

But yes, we are being watched.  By tech companies, the government, other governments and who knows who else.  And there is little that can be done to stop it. 

[Lscott]

On 4/6/2023 at 10:09 PM, WRUE951 said:

Last night i was tuned into one of the busy GMRS ch's in my community and caught conversion of two guys having a serious conversation about some Baofeng portable radios having mini WiFi chips in their circuits, claiming these could be used for various things such as spying.   I just chuckled it off as two idiots talking $hit,  but then one of them claimed to be a Navy Pilot..  And the two were dead serous about the conversion.  Hmm,,,  Today, i caught myself thinking about that all day long.   WTF  Just throwing this out there guys..  

Only if you see one floating overhead on a balloon. If your worried about it wait until it’s over a lake then shoot it down.

[axorlov]

Worried about being watched by US and China governments? For the small amount of $120/year one can buy a peace of mind by subscribing to a system that uses quantum computing to protect your phone communications. It's activated on your phone number, and it's invisible! https://www.newcaliforniastate.com/product-page/deaf-1

Revolutionary system. I'm thinking about working with NCS51 to lease a part of their quantum computing time to bring badly needed protection to Baofengs of regular Americans. Price will be bit higher, though. The 11K0F3E emissions require special equipment and tons of research before being ready for full deployment.

[WRVE426]

On 4/7/2023 at 4:12 PM, Sshannon said:

Dumbest thread ever. 

agreed!

[Lscott]

27 minutes ago, WRVE426 said:

agreed!

Well in a way I don’t agree in the general sense. A lot of people own various Chinese manufactured digital radios. I have a D878 and  a D578. Who can guarantee there isn’t some secret back door code to disable the radios or bypass the built in encryption feature?

There is a major Chinese telecommunications company whose’s equipment is not approved for use over similar considerations.

For that matter we can’t even be sure our own government hasn’t done the same. There are stories out there where computer equipment was intercepted before leaving the country where some of the chips were swapped out for specially tweaked ones that allowed our intelligence services to monitor them.