this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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Well, it's more novel than that...
A coil of fiber is not meant to be a listening device, so they almost certainly exist in places where it wasn't previously deemed a risk.
That said, exploiting this in the wild seems like a pretty difficult job, I can't imagine how to do it without already having access to a target computer.
It's the kind of spy movie shit where they need to listen to a confidential conversation in a room they can't bug, but someone wildly hacks about on a keyboard, randomly pulls up schematics of the building showing all the fiber lines, immediately spots that there's one near that room, conveniently has a gadget at hand or can quickly assemble it that they just need to attach somewhere and make every nerd cringe.
And I... am that nerd!
The chances are the places that would be most at risk (and have a risk profile that would warrant that kind of paranoia) are already taking measures to circumvent this.