Yamaha Announces VSP-2 Speech Privacy System

Yamaha Unified Communications is broadening its support for productive and confidential conferences and meetings with the new VSP-2 Speech Privacy System. The new system is designed to be quickly retrofitted in almost any office. It also features Yamaha’s high-performance audio technology that prevents speech privacy problems. This is achieved by effectively reducing human voice intelligibility with customizable sound options.

In addition, the system components include the VSP-CU2 control unit with user-selectable sound types and volume levels, supporting two, four, or eight VSP-SP2 speakers. more

Stay Safe - Stay Feeling Good

This fun statement can be taken several ways...

• Anti Covid-19
• I'm not feeling very social right now!
• A warning to spies that you are protected against electronic surveillance. 

Available here.

Want to know more about protecting your privacy?
Visit us at https://counterespionage.com

Privacy Advocates Alert: Make Orwell Fiction Again

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How to Detect Hacked Charging Cables

Click to enlarge.

• They Appear Normal
• They Blend In
• They Suck Up Your Data

They are Alien Cables from Hacker Space.

Imagine a charging cable which looks exactly, and I mean exactly, like any stock charging cable. Oh, just one difference. This charging cable has built-in Wi-Fi and can run penetration programs on whatever it is plugged into.

Hacked charging cables exist, in four versions and two colors, white and black, and they sell for $119.99.

Ostensibly, they are, “built for covert field-use by Red Teams.” However, anyone can buy one. We did. 

Determining if the following claims are true is important to protecting our clients.

“It looks like the real thing. It feels like the real thing, down to the millimeter.” Has “features that enhance remote execution, stealth, and forensics evasion.”
Our tests revealed... more

Spycam Detection Course | Now With Korean Closed Captions

The highly rated Spycam Detection video training course now has Korean closed captions, as well as English. Spanish is coming soon.

The demand for a Korean translation was fueled by their epidemic spy camera problem. They even have a special word for it, Molka. The problem is so bad the government created special inspection squads and a safety handbook for the public.

In other countries the problem is also epidemic.

This one-hour, self-paced course was originally created for businesses and other organizations to train their security and facilities employees. Having these people conduct periodic inspections reduces risk and legal exposure. A Certificate-of-Completion is awarded at the end.

The training is also beneficial for police, private investigators and executive protection professionals.

Personal protection is the most effective prevention. Knowing what to look for is important. The course is open to everyone. Any individual with a little knowledge can conduct their own inspections of:

• hotel rooms,
• public restroom,
• store changing rooms,
• locker rooms,
• vacation rentals,
• and their own domiciles.

Please forward this post to anyone it can help.
As more people become knowledgeable, fewer people will become victims.

New iPad Pro Prevents Eavesdropping or Spying

Apple beefs up iPad Pro security by disabling the microphone when the case is closed, a feature which was previously reserved for the Mac.

Apple introduced a feature with the 2018 MacBook lineup, allowing the microphone to be disabled whenever the display lid was closed. This measure was put in place to prevent eavesdropping, preventing malicious apps to tap into the microphone to gather extra data about you.

Fast forward to 2020 and the feature has come to the new iPad Pro lineup. The way it works is pretty simple - just close the lid of the case on the iPad Pro, which has to be MFi compliant, and the microphone is physically disconnected to prevent any sort of eavesdropping or malicious code from running if iPadOS is compromised in some way. more

How Small Can a Video Camera Be?

Currently, one of the smallest we know is 1.66mm in size. It has a built-in high-intensity LED light. If you don't need the light it shrinks to .97mm in diameter.

Specs: Color, 120 degree lens, 200 x 200 @ 30fps resolution

Face Masks v. Facial Recognition - China has it Covered

Hanwang, the facial-recognition company that has placed 2 million of its cameras at entrance gates across the world, started preparing for the coronavirus in early January.

Huang Lei, the company’s chief technical officer, said that even before the new virus was widely known about, he had begun to get requests...to update its software to recognize nurses wearing masks...

The company now says its masked facial recognition program has reached 95 percent accuracy in lab tests, and even claims that it is more accurate in real life, where its cameras take multiple photos of a person if the first attempt to identify them fails. more

Ultrasonic Bracelet Claims to Jam Eavesdropping Microphones

Spying isn’t the same as it was in the old days. Today, an inconspicuous smart speaker could be recording every word you say in your own home. That threat of invaded privacy will only continue to grow as more microphone-enabled devices are released in the years to come.

That’s why a team of researchers from the University of Chicago has invented a device
to combat it. They created a bracelet that uses ultrasonic signals to jam nearby microphones. Though it isn’t something that most people would need to use on a daily basis it could represent a picture of what jewelry will need to be in the future—both stylish and functional.

The experimental version is quite clunky, looking more like a piece of audio equipment than jewelry. However, that design has a purpose. The bracelet’s array of 24 speakers emit imperceptible ultrasonic signals. To nearby microphones, these signals come across as loud static that effectively drowns out any speech in the vicinity. more

This eavesdropping countermeasure has been around forever. We experimented with it back in the 80's. It's effectiveness can be very iffy, its downsides serious. Read more about it here.

Wireless Tech to Steal Luxury Cars in Seconds

As they both walked through a dimly lit parking garage, one of the pair of men peered at a black, laptop-sized device inside his messenger bag. Using buttons on its outer case, he flicked through various options on the device's bright LED screen before landing on his choice....

"EvanConnect," one of the men in the video who goes by a pseudonym online, embodies a bridge between digital and physical crime. These devices he sells for thousands of dollars let other people break into and steal high end vehicles. He claims to have had clients in the U.S., UK, Australia, and a number of South American and European countries.

"Honestly I can tell you that I have not stolen a car with technology," Evan told Motherboard. "It's very easy to do but the way I see it: why would I get my hands dirty when I can make money just selling the tools to other people." more

Five Mile GPS Tracker Doesn't Require Cellular Service

GoFindMe is a real-time GPS tracker that works without cell service. By built-in GPS & long-range radio technology, it allows you to stay in touch with people even if your phone fails by rich handy features such as:
 -Real time location tracking
 -Send & receive texts, built-in voice and GPS coordinates
 -One-button emergency SOS
 -Automatic trace record
 -Sync up group activity
 -Set customized safe zone
 -Pin meeting place or home base
 -Mesh network to extend connectivity range
more


But what if you can't find it when you need it?

Surveillance in Tombstone Territory

It's the Wild West when it comes to modern surveillance tech. 

One recent example we've come across is the Tombstone Cam... Click to enlarge. more  The last time we heard of a bugged funeral.

Surveillance is Hot at CES 2020

At CES show, devices that see, hear, track people are promoted. Privacy concerns? Not so much.

From the face scanner that will check in some attendees to the cameras-everywhere array of digital products, the CES gadget show is all-in on surveillance technology...

All these talking speakers, doorbell cameras and fitness trackers come with the promise of making life easier or more fun, but they're also potentially powerful spying tools.

And the skeptics who raise privacy and security concerns can be easily drowned out in the flashy spectacle of gee-whiz technology. more

World's Smallest Video Camera (unfreakinbelieveable!)

This company in Taiwan has been reducing the size of video cameras year after year. I would like to say this is the smallest possible, but they continue to surprise.


If you have privacy concerns caused by the flood of covert video surveillance cameras, stop by here and learn how to fight back.

The Invisible Man - 122 Years in the Making

“Quantum Stealth” (Light Bending material) non-powered adaptive camouflage which portrays what is behind the user in-front of the user bending the light around the target. The cost is inexpensive, very lightweight and there are no power requirements.

It even blocks thermal imaging! more

Free Ransomware Decryption Tool

Emsisoft Decryptor for STOP Djvu

The STOP Djvu ransomware encrypts victim's files with Salsa20, and appends one of dozens of extensions to filenames; for example, ".djvu", ".rumba", ".radman", ".gero", etc.

Please note: There are limitations on what files can be decrypted. more

Of course, put all the safeguards in place first so you won't need this tool. ~Kevin

GPS Tracker Bugs Kids... about 600,000 of them.

Serious security flaws in GPS trackers manufactured by a Chinese company have been found to expose location data of nearly 600,000 children and elderly, according to researchers from cybersecurity firm Avast.

T8 Mini GPS Tracker Locator

The researchers spotted the vulnerabilities in the T8 Mini GPS tracker and nearly 30 other models by the same manufacturer, Shenzhen i365 Tech.

...these devices expose all data sent to the Cloud, including exact real-time GPS coordinates, showed the findings revealed last week.

Further, design flaws can enable unwanted third-parties to spoof the location or access the microphone for eavesdropping.

The researchers estimate that there are about 600,000 of these unprotected trackers in use globally that are using the very generic default password of "123456". more

FutureWatch - Non-Public 5G Networks - Network Security via Isolation

The concept of non-public networks is nothing new -- yet the rise of the internet of things (IoT) and connected assets is driving more and more companies to investigate the opportunities that non-public 5G networks could offer them...  

Non-public 5G networks offer protection against industrial espionage. Data in non-public 5G networks is segregated and processed separately from public 5G networks. This ensures complete privacy protection of process -- and production-related data. more

The Credit Card that Pays for Itself

Confidential Conference Planning

• You can say no cell phones allowed in the meeting.
  
• You can prohibit brief cases and backpacks.
  
• You can scan participants for surveillance devices.

But, you probably won't think about having them leave their wallets outside the door, or checking the books on the shelf.


We would. This is just one of the many things we think about at Murray Associates.

How to Drive Artificial Intelligence Surveillance Cameras Nuts

In order to deceive surveillance cameras, a fashion designer and hacker has developed a new clothing line that allows people camouflage themselves as a car in the recordings.

The garments are also covered with license plate images that trigger automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, to inject junk data into systems used to monitor and track civilians. more