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Typewriter Sales Surge in Russia and Germany

posted by janrinok on Wednesday July 23 2014, @07:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the going-back-to-the-dark-ages dept.

cafebabe writes:

Further to the Kremlin purchasing 20 Cyrillic/Latin typewriters and sparking a media frenzy, RT reports that:

An increasing number of businesses are opting out of staying virtually connected and are reverting back to old technologies to avoid being spied on. The move has led to a surge in typewriter sales in Germany.

German typewriter makers such as Bandermann and Olympia have cited climbing sales amid NSA spying revelations. "We sell about 10,000 [typewriters] every year," Bandermann manager Rolf Bonnen told The Local. "We've seen an increase because Brother left the market [in 2012]," he added. The company's sales jumped by one-third over last year since 2012.

Triumph Adler, which is part of Bandermann, began advertising its typewriters as "Bug proof. NSA proof" in 2013 in order to attract more consumers.

Typewriters aren't quite bug proof because analysis can be done on the sound of each strike, or even by simply removing the ribbon which can hold an imprint of the most recently typed document. A larger concern is to be careful about photocopying. Modern, proprietary photocopiers have hard disks which are huge for the task of photocopying. And in a separate issue, some photocopiers have issues when copying fonts and monospaced fonts in particular.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday July 23 2014, @08:14PM

    by Tork (3914) on Wednesday July 23 2014, @08:14PM (#72959)
    Why not just unplug the network? This just reeks of "let's see if we can get the Americans to buy this one!"
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  • (Score: 2) by Alfred on Wednesday July 23 2014, @08:28PM

    by Alfred (4006) on Wednesday July 23 2014, @08:28PM (#72964) Journal

    A planted bug can easily have its own radio and maybe your wireless never truly shuts off.

    I buy it that the Russians would buy typewriters. It reeks of "let's use shovels instead of a Bulldozer because it make more jobs" quality of logic. (Then anyone listening should suggest the use of spoons.)

    I wouldn't put it past the Russians to communicate by morse-coded-sex.

    • (Score: 1) by arslan on Wednesday July 23 2014, @10:21PM

      by arslan (3462) on Wednesday July 23 2014, @10:21PM (#73008)

      umm wrap the laptop in lead? That'll one up the Russian's analog typewriter :)

    • (Score: 1) by Adamsjas on Wednesday July 23 2014, @11:32PM

      by Adamsjas (4507) on Wednesday July 23 2014, @11:32PM (#73037)

      If you unplug your network, it means unplugging the cat 5 cables.
      I doubt anyone in a secure facility is using wifi.