In other news: security researchers have decompiled a popular Chinese social media app to find it has been hijacking the accelerometer and GPS in the smartphones of US citizens.
The payload was being activated whenever the phone was meeting a specific set of conditions: moving above 50mph, in a straight line, and on a road with a smooth surface.
When all three conditions were met a POST was made to an HTTP endpoint somewhere inside China. While the first two conditions are common, the detection of a well maintained highway with a suspicious lack of potholes is rare enough to identify secret military air fields with complete accuracy.
I’m so sorry, I feel bad that you searched for it. It’s just something silly about potholes which I wrote in the style of a Cory Doctorow scifi short story.
The payload was being activated whenever the phone was meeting a specific set of conditions: moving above 50mph, in a straight line, and on a road with a smooth surface.
When all three conditions were met a POST was made to an HTTP endpoint somewhere inside China. While the first two conditions are common, the detection of a well maintained highway with a suspicious lack of potholes is rare enough to identify secret military air fields with complete accuracy.
— me, after Doctorow