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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.
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Wednesday July 23 2014, @10:17PM
And his point is that an unplugged computer achieves the same. (It should, of course, be a computer with PS/2 and parallel ports only and with a removable harddriv, which is put in a safe overnight.)
(Score: 1) by GWRedDragon on Wednesday July 23 2014, @10:23PM
Of course, but you need some technical saavy to know if it has wireless, etc. A lot of people don't have that level of sophistication.
[Insert witty message here]
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Thursday July 24 2014, @12:19AM
I think I've got an idea there:
1. Buy PCs with only PS/2, serial and parallel ports (thus, guaranteed without Wi-Fi) off Ebay
2. Sell them as safe from internet-based attacks
3. Profit!
Wait... Where are the question marks?
But seriously, it's possible to go to a store and buy a computer without wireless by asking the salesman. And if you've really got something to hide, you surely know someone (or get introduced to someone) who can tell you (or have the incentive to inform yourself about) how to hide it.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Thursday July 24 2014, @12:25AM
Unless the person goes with an older system. If I was of that mindset, as an American I'd probably try to pick up an old Amiga or early-mid 90s Macintosh computer -- they both have good graphical OSes, office software, but no wireless and most likely no modem or ethernet ports either.