Putin's soccer ball

President Vladimir Putin gifted a soccer ball to US President Donald Trump during the two leaders' joint press conference in Helsinki last Monday, a day after the Russia-hosted World Cup concluded.

The red-and-white ball underwent a routine security screening, which is apparently standard for all gifts to the president.

As it turns out, the ball does indeed have a transmitter chip in it.

The red-and-white soccer ball Russian President Vladimir Putin tossed to US President Donald Trump last week in Helsinki after the Russia-hosted World Cup had a transmitter chip in it.

But unfortunately for all the would-be spooks and speculators online, the White House is not alarmed over the discovery.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told a security conference he was sure the ball had "been looked at very carefully."

There's good reason for caution. Russia has a colorful history of gathering US secrets going back more than 150 years, in ways that have surprised and impressed US security experts .

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had said, "If it were me, I'd check the soccer ball for listening devices and never allow it in the White House."

But sticking a transmitter in a soccer ball and handing it to Trump is perhaps a bit too obvious.

And besides, the Adidas AG ball already has one, here, under the Wi-Fi symbol:

According to the Adidas website, the near-field-communication chip embedded under the logo "is passive" and can only send out information.

The device it interacts with — a mobile phone, for example — "can both send and receive information."

Users who swipe down, activate NFC, and touch the ball with their phone receive "functionalities like exclusive information about the product, Adidas football content, special competitions, and challenges."

And it doesn't store information on how the ball is used — though the tag can be updated to add new features.

Bloomberg asked Adidas whether the chip "could be a vector of a Russian hack," and Adidas refused to comment.

On its website, however, Adidas says it is "not possible to delete or rewrite the encoded parameters" of the NFC tag.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told Bloomberg the ball had been fully screened , as had all gifts received by the president.

A spokesman for a hacker collective said an attack could be initiated via the soccer ball only if Trump intentionally installed malware on the device.
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