Mystery Google Device Appears in Small-Town Iowa

Originally posted by jimmyx
all they got was t-shirts??....maybe samsung, or sony, or ibm, or cisco, or microsoft...would have paid big money for it...boy, one opportunity for some easy cash and they blew it. you don't think these companies would be ruthless enough to do that?? guess again.

edit on 10-9-2012 by jimmyx because: spell

That would be illegal, and would get them some sweet jail time. Take a look at what happened to the Apple iphone that was found not too long ago.

Originally posted by tracehd1
What confuses me is what they're calling a mystery....how did the package get to the wrong address? They say: delivered to wrong address by carrier. Ok... Whomever sent the package did they put a Person or Companies name on the package? Did they also put an address or re- turn address on the package? If not...did the carrier just guess whom the package belonged too?

If (whomever) did in fact put a name and address on the package why would another company whose name and address aren't on the package open it? Isn't normal protocol to mark the package ... Wrong address?

So, if the name and address did not belong to the person or persons receiving the package and they did open it...and not only did they open it but they took pictures of it and tried to figure out how it worked, wouldn't that be a federal offense? Tampering w/ mail?

I read the article 2x's and did not find anywhere how the package was sent... Did I miss the elementary? The 2 + 2? The smoking gun? It's almost as if someone wanted this scandal....something about the whole thing is perplexing....

The OP writes this..." "At first, Google didn’t respond to their phone calls, the men said, and when it did, it wouldn’t explain the switch. "

Why would google sit w/ these two guys and explain anything to them? As if they thought google owed them? Everything about this story stinks...

No mail tampering. In the USA if someone drops a package off at your door step or in the mail by accident, you can legally open and keep the package - no matter who it's addressed to.

The article says the the package was delivered by carrier to the Iowa address. It must have had a return address sticker on it then, but the package was legally opened ( since it was dropped off at the wrong address, the receiver can legally open it). Then they forwarded the open contents of the package to the Wisconsin home office to see what they could make it these devices.

They didn't have to return the package at all legally. They now owned it. Google got off good just sending them crappy t-shirts. I would have held out for more money and if they did't like the deal, too bad on them. I'd have kept one of the devices ( it was a case full) and sold the others to someone who could give a better price - all perfectly legal. Companies can protect themselves from this happening to an extent with return receipt requested and insurance but thats about it.

It doesn't become mail tampering unless your're opening someone elses mail box or stealing from someone elses door step. If it was delivered to you, you're good to go.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Can you cite that? I have always wondered what the answer to that would be and have heard conflicting answers.

reply to post by tanda7

But I still want to know what Project Watchtower is!!!

Done some digging on my own and maybe i coming up with something.

Its a PDF document about cyber defense project named --> Project Watchtower

And Google seem to be involved.

Link to PDF


The Nature of the Threat

Ghost Net:

This is the name given to the cyber spying operation discovered in March 2009. Its has infiltrated high-value political, economic and media location in 103 countries, and in total 1,295 computer systems were compromised


Operation Aurora:

This is a cyber attack, which began in mid-December 2009 and continued into February 2010. The attack was first publicly disclosed by Google on January 12 2010, when Google stated that over 20 other companies had been attacked. McAfee reported that the attackers had exploited zero-day vulnerabilities (unfixed and previously unknown to the public) in Internet Explorer


The Watchtower project:

The Watchtower project will run until 2019 and will deliver an enhanced Computer Network Defence (CND) capability based upon Best of Breed CND tools into the GOSCC

Note : GOSCC = Global Operations Security Control Centre


So the CND vision is for a capability that will support:

The ability to detect known and unknown attacks in real-time.

aquisition and storage of large volumes of data into secure and resilient distributed information repository.

Data mining and artificial intelligence for CNE/CNA tradecraft detection.

Informed agile risk based decision making in support of assured service delivery

Create of dynamic situational awareness

Decision support systems that support Impact analysis on the business process.

The ability to engage in policy based information sharing and co-operative working across organizational and geographic boundaries.

.

Is this a joint operation Google - GOSCC ? I mean Google meet all the requirement for such tasks.

Is the Pluto switch's part of the gears used in Project Watchtower ?

Project started in 2010 after the discovery of the 2009 cyber spying operation.

The harware seem to be used and its 2-3 years old technology. Time frame match.

Do these switchs have some sensitive info / code related to Project Watchtower ?

Is it possible that this particular switch's were used in some data mining / repository center ? still containing info ?

Though's ?

.

Originally posted by OccamsRazor04
reply to post by JohnPhoenix

 

Can you cite that? I have always wondered what the answer to that would be and have heard conflicting answers.

"There is a common misconception that it is illegal to open mail addressed to someone else that has been delivered to you. There is no federal statute that prevents you from opening mail not addressed to you once it has been delivered by the Postal Service. If you take something that was in the mail you might violate a state law against stealing. If you use information contained in the mail for a wrongful purpose like identity theft, you are breaking state and federal law, but opening the mail is not illegal in itself."

info from this site;
www.ehow.com...

reply to post by B3lz3buth

Thank you for that info.

Is this a joint operation Google - GOSCC ? I mean Google meet all the requirement for such tasks.

It's easy to imagine, with all the policies and practices that exist in the name of "security". Google is perfectly positioned for just this sort of thing.

Is the Pluto switch's part of the gears used in Project Watchtower ?

The guys who found it seem to think so. But how would they have known?
Would that info be present in the code. He seems pretty sure in his post. I looked at the screen capture he posted after he cracked it and I see no reference to Project Watchtower.

Is it possible that this particular switch's were used in some data mining / repository center ? still containing info?

Do switches of this type even store that kind of info? Honestly I'm not very tech savvy, so I have no idea.

When I first saw "Project Watchtower" I immediately thought of spying. What if this switch's function was other than stated? If Google is spinning their own hardware, who would ever know? It's just suspicious to me that Google would distance themselves from an innocent switch, until it was cracked. Then still refuse to discuss it on any level. Then take steps to erase the technical info that was mined.
Curious.