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<!-------------|
| Blog Article |
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<h1 class="blog-title">High-Tech Article</h1>
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<p class="blog-headline">Microsoft to test ‘Total Recall’-style personnel scanners at two data centers, Redmond
office and mystery East Coast location</p>
<div class="blog-texts">
<p>By <a href=”https://www.geekwire.com/author/mark-harris/”>Mark Harris</a> on January 22, 2020 at 10:30 am</p>
<a class="title-img"><img src="../images/Blog-imgs/B1-tech/Header_Total_Recall_1.jpg"
alt="Total Recall"></a>
<p class="caption">Images from a specifications document for the R&S QPS201 Quick Personnel Security Scanner,
as filed
with the FCC by Rohde & Schwarz in conjunction with an application for installation at Microsoft.</p>
<p>Microsoft is poised to test a new millimeter-wave body scanner at four locations, according to two filings
made with
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the past weeks.</p>
<p>The device being tested will be an innovative walk-through scanner that uses millimeter-wave radiation and
machine
learning algorithms to detect weapons, currency and possibly even objects as small as a cellphone SIM card.
</p>
<p>Like modern airport scanners, the Rohde & Schwarz QPS201 can detect ceramic and plastic objects as well as
metal, but
it does so with just two fixed panels that can scan a person in a fraction of a second. It’s reminiscent of
the
scanners depicted in the 1990 film “Total Recall,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. </p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" class="video-blog" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z02zi1S8vZQ"
frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"
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<p> “The scanner searches for anomalies indicating unusual objects rather than for certain items, enabling it
to
discover unknown and new threats,” wrote Rohde & Schwarz in its FCC filings. </p>
<p>According to the company, Microsoft plans to conduct a competitive prototype evaluation of a security
solution.
“Microsoft intends to evaluate the effectiveness of the scanner device within a vestibule together with
other security
equipment to create a self-service physical security gate,” wrote Rohde & Schwarz. </p>
<p>The scanner company specified four separate locations for the tests, which start in March. One is a
Microsoft office
in Redmond called RTC-3. The coordinates of two other locations correspond to the parking lot of a bank in
Quincy,
Washington, and a single family home in Boydton, Va.</p>
<p>The fourth location appears even less likely – the middle of a highway cloverleaf exchange in suburban
Maryland,
entirely inaccessible to pedestrians.</p>
<p>Microsoft would neither confirm nor deny the tests, while Rohde & Schwarz did not reply to multiple
requests for
comment.</p>
<q>The scanner searches for anomalies indicating unusual objects rather than for certain items, enabling it to
discover
unknown and new threats.</q>
<p>However, in April last year, Microsoft announced Azure Government Secret, cloud services built exclusively
for US
military and intelligence agencies for classified secret-level data. Part of Azure Government Secret are two
secret
data centers located “over 500 miles apart, providing geographic resilience in disaster recovery scenarios.”
</p>
<p>According to Department of Defense guidelines, such data centers are required to have extensive physical
security
systems, including video cameras, motion-activated sensors, and biometric automated security gates.</p>
<p>Microsoft has been expanding its overall offerings for high-security military and government cloud
installations. In
October last year, Microsoft was awarded the coveted JEDI contract to build the Pentagon’s next-generation
cloud
platform, although Amazon is protesting the contract award. The filing makes no explicit connection to the
JEDI deal.
</p>
<p>The scanner test location at the parking lot in Quincy is about a mile from Microsoft’s Columbia Data
Center, a
gargantuan 270-acre site that underwent a major expansion in 2018. The house in Virginia is a similarly
short stroll
to Microsoft’s Boydton Data Center, which expanded for the sixth time last year, with the single largest
corporate
purchase of solar energy in the United States. The two centers are well over 500 miles (actually 2600 miles)
apart.
</p>
<p>If these are the two Azure Government Secret data centers, then what of the mysterious fourth scanner test
location
in Columbia, Md.? Rohde & Schwarz’s US headquarters is about six miles distant, but there appear to be no
Microsoft-owned facilities nearby. The only likely spot for a test appears to be a highly secured building
nearby,
once used for semiconductor and photonic research but leased to an unidentified US government tenant since
2002. </p>
<p>Every FCC form warns applicants that the agency can punish them for willfully making false statements, such
as
incorrect test locations, by revoking permits or imposing fines. However, says Steve Crowley, a consulting
wireless
engineer, “There is not a ‘hard-look’ approach to processing these experimental, short-term applications and
staff may
let it slide.” </p>
<p><a href=”https://www.geekwire.com/author/mark-harris/” class="author">Mark Harris</a> is a freelance
science and
technology reporter based in Seattle. He writes regularly for The Economist and The Sunday Times in London,
and tweets
from @meharris.</p>
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