FutureWatch: Sophisticated & Smart Surveillance Electronics To Become Smaller and Cheaper

Texas Instruments says it has shrunk the size of the smallest microcontroller unit in its industry with a new MCU the size of a black pepper flake.

The MCU packaging is only 1.38 square millimeters in size... TI says the product is aimed at small products including medical wearables, earbuds, stylus pens and electric toothbrushes. The product includes a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter and has 16KB of flash memory and 1KB of SRAM and runs at 24MHz...

TI says the microcontroller costs 20 cents per unit in quantities of 1,000, which means a company could get an army of robot spiders project started for as little as $200.

Vinay Agarwal, vice president and general manager of MSP Microcontrollers at TI: "With the addition of the world's smallest MCU, our MSPM0 MCU portfolio provides unlimited possibilities to enable smarter, more connected experiences in our day-to-day lives."

William Luk, a consultant and technology expert at Quandary Peak Research, said the MCU shrinkage opens up opportunities in areas where miniature devices weren't previously possible.

"One of the important verticals for micro-devices is in healthcare and surgical: smart pills, embedded sensors, or even surgical devices that can reach places like never before," Luk said. more

Bank of Ghana - Planted Spy Devices at Home

Retired Colonel Festus Aboagye has accused former Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor, Dr Ernest Addison, of installing unauthorized electronic surveillance equipment at his residence, allegedly linked to the central bank.

The claim follows a controversial search conducted by National Security operatives at Dr Addison’s residence, which Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin condemned, alleging that personal belongings, including cash and jewellery belonging to Addison’s wife, were seized.

However, Rtd. Col. Aboagye insists that the operation was based on credible intelligence suggesting Dr Addison had set up surveillance devices that enabled remote monitoring of BoG activities.

Speaking on TV3, he stated, “Monitoring is a very diplomatic word. This is spying, this is surveillance,” adding that sources within National Security had confirmed the presence of such “back door electronic devices” at Addison’s home.

He emphasized that no former BoG Governor had the authority to install systems that allowed remote oversight of the bank’s operations. more

"The Wildest Stories of Corporate Espionage We've Ever Heard"

Video Podcast Episode 689: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) break down the craziest stories of corporate espionage in history. — Show Notes: (0:00) Rippling vs Deel (10:21) The British East India Company (17:11) Oracle vs Microsoft (21:28) Coke vs. Pepsi (24:14) Uber vs. Waymo (26:03) U.S. Intellectual piracy (28:10) Wiz sells for $32B (39:40) A case for Glassdoor (45:54) Marc Lore's new thing (51:52) Money, Status, Power

Using Drones for Peeping, Burglaries on Rise: “It’s Gotten Dramatically Worse”

It's attack of the drones as flying cameras stalk stars and serve as burglary lookouts, all while becoming tougher to detect. But security companies are offering high-tech solutions...

Illicit drone use has not only continued despite states passing strict laws but in recent years has proliferated, says Mike Fraietta, an FAA drone pilot and founder of security company Gargoyle Systems. Drone security systems are on the rise as companies and event producers look to secure their airspace. Professional, military-grade drone-detection systems — the kind used for sporting events, for instance — can cost about $200,000...

Drones are typically detected by their noise or the radio frequency (RF) an operator uses to pilot the craft. Fraietta says the technology is innovating in three ways: using AI to program portions of a preplanned flight path instead of relying on RF, making drone wings quieter, and using a wire like a kite string. “A tethered drone sounds silly at first,” he says. “But they’re fiber optic wires that also allow for 4K streaming, and the drone is not detectable by the police looking for a radio frequency. So they’re able to get away and move drones a lot quicker and quieter than a year ago.” Such teathers can literally be miles long. more

Notes From ‘Watchers’ of Spy Kim Philby Made Public

A new exhibition at the National Archives in London will reveal the extent of MI5 operation to expose the British double agent...

Secret surveillance of Britain’s ­notorious double agent, Kim Philby, made public for the first time in archived documents, reveals how keenly the Security Service wanted to confirm or disprove early suspicions of his high-level treachery.

In daily bulletins submitted to MI5 in November 1951, undercover operatives describe how Philby, codenamed Peach, moved about London...

Philby, who later worked for the Observer as a Middle East correspondent, has been called the “Third Man” because he was suspected by both MI5 and the Americans of being the elusive double agent who had tipped off the two spies before they could be questioned, allowing them to flee to Moscow via France...

Philby finally fled to Moscow, handing over a written confession to his old MI6 friend, Nicholas Elliott. He had been accused by Flora Solomon, a former girlfriend, who said he had once tried to recruit her...

Philby spent 25 years in Moscow, instructing trainee spies in the techniques of “tradecraft”. When he died, in 1988, he received full KGB honours. more

An El Cheapo Laser Listener (<$30.)

With the availability of electrical components, building a laser microphone from scratch is possible. Using three components, with an optional fourth, users can listen to distant audio [sort of]. The build is straightforward if a device accepts and records mono audio input.

As SomethingAboutScience explains, a laser microphone works by shining a laser beam at a window or picture frame in a room. The beam’s reflection is captured by a photodiode, which converts the vibrations through the glass into audio. A red light laser isn’t necessary; a covert infrared laser can be used instead.

For a more in depth look at laser eavesdropping, click here.

RIP: Oleg Gordievsky, KGB Spy Who Defected to the UK - 86

Oleg Gordievsky, a Soviet KGB officer who helped change the course of the Cold War by covertly passing secrets to the UK, has died at home in England.

Gordievsky died on March 4 in England, where he had lived since defecting in 1985. Police said on Saturday that they are not treating his death as suspicious. 

Historians consider Gordievsky one of the era’s most important spies. In the 1980s, his intelligence helped avoid a dangerous escalation of nuclear tensions between the USSR and the West. more

Dr. Seuss on Surveillance

Dr. Seuss wrote a story about a Hawtch-Hawtcher Bee-Watcher who had a rather peculiar job. He was tasked with keeping an eye on his town’s only lazy bee. 

The idea was that if a bee is watched, it’ll work harder, right? 

Well, guess what? That didn’t seem to work at all! So, they decided to assign another Hawtch-Hawtcher to watch the first one, and then another to watch the second… and so on. Before you know it, the entire town was watching each other watch a bee!

HR Tech Firm Sues Rival for Corporate Espionage

HR software provider Rippling has sued competitor Deel for allegedly planting a spy in its Dublin office to steal trade secrets, court documents [PDF & VERY interesting] showed on Monday. Rippling claims the employee, identified as D.S., systematically searched internal Slack channels for competitor information, including sales leads and pitch decks.

The company discovered the alleged scheme through a "honeypot" trap -- a specially created Slack channel mentioned in a letter to Deel executives. When served with a court order to surrender his phone, D.S. locked himself in a bathroom before fleeing, according to the lawsuit. "We're all for healthy competition, but we won't tolerate when a competitor breaks the law," said Vanessa Wu, Rippling's general counsel. Both companies operate multibillion-dollar HR platforms, with Rippling valued at $13.5 billion and Deel at over $12 billion. more

“The world has changed.

Corporate Espionage is the new Healthy Competition.

You need Operational Privacy to compete.”

counterespionage.com

UPDATE - HR giant hired plumbers to search toilets for phone after fears alleged corporate spy in Dublin flushed it away. more

Former Council Candidate Bugs Town Hall

FL - A former Southwest Ranches council candidate is accused of planting a recording device in Town Hall and sharing the information with a business owner locked in a lawsuit with the city, according to court documents and town officials.

John Garate, 50, was arrested by Davie police on Dec. 19 after they caught him leaving Town Hall with a recording device he secretly placed in a conference room the day before, according to an arrest report.

His arrest was the culmination of an investigation that started two weeks earlier, when town officials called police to report their belief that someone had recorded a Dec. 4 closed-door meeting in that conference room. The purpose of that meeting was to discuss strategies for ongoing civil cases.

Police reviewed Town Hall surveillance footage and identified Garate as someone who walked into the building on Dec. 5, entered the conference room, and walked out with “something in his hands,” according to the arrest report.... Police planted their own recording device ahead of a second closed-door meeting scheduled for Dec. 18.

...the recording shows Garate entering the conference two hours before the Dec. 18 meeting. After he left Town Hall, but before the meeting, police checked the conference room and “verified that a device was placed on the bookshelf.”

The next morning, after the meeting, Garate returned to Town Hall, entered the conference room, picked up the device and was stopped by police as he was leaving. “During the search incident to arrest, in the defendant’s pocket was a black device with a USB attachment,” the police report states.

John Garate, 50, was arrested by Davie police on Dec. 19 after they caught him leaving Town Hall with a recording device he secretly placed in a conference room the day before, according to an arrest report. more

You might also be interested in: The World’s Smallest Voice Recorder?

AI is Watching You Drive, And it Knows More Than You Think

SUMMARY

• AI traffic cameras are becoming widespread, detecting violations like texting or not wearing seat belts.
• Location determines enforcement methods, with some countries automating citations while others involve human officers.
• AI cameras can improve road safety by catching distracted drivers, but data security, accuracy, and bias concerns remain.

Think you can sneak a quick text or drive without buckling up? AI traffic cameras may have other plans. These high-tech cameras are popping up everywhere, and they're no longer only looking for speeders. They can detect way more than you think.

As you drive past, the camera snaps a high-resolution photo of your car. These images capture the license plate, front seats, and “driver behavior.” Then, AI software analyzes the image to detect violations, like if you’re holding a phone or riding without a seat belt.

• Acusensus heads-up system snapshot of a passenger not wearing a seatbelt.

The system doesn’t issue tickets right away. Instead, it assigns a “confidence level.” This is basically a guess at how sure the AI is that you broke the rules. If the confidence is high enough, the flagged image goes to a human officer, who makes the final call.

If they decide you are breaking the law, you get a ticket. If not, the image is deleted. more

Book: In the Shadow of Giants: A true story of corporate espionage... by Liam Monclair

A true story of corporate espionage in the shadow of China’s rise.

At the heart of modern power struggles, In the Shadow of Giants follows the extraordinary journey of Liam Monclair, a security and strategy expert. This gripping narrative, blending memoir and thriller, opens the door to a unique and little-known universe—corporate espionage, geopolitical manipulations, and cultural tensions—spanning from the skyscrapers of Shanghai to the streets of Jakarta and the vast deserts of the Middle East.

From the escalation of a fierce conflict between Altéone Group—a French multinational—and Wang Industries, a Chinese giant led by the enigmatic Mr. Wang, to high-stakes missions in Iraq and the protection of a football star in dangerous zones, the author unveils the inner workings of a demanding world. 

Based on a true story, In the Shadow of Giants is both a tribute to those who work behind the scenes and an exploration of a life lived on the edge. Masterfully blending suspense and thought-provoking insights, it takes readers deep into the hidden reality of an extraordinary existence. more

The Atlas of Surveillance

The Atlas of Surveillance, which documents police surveillance technology across the US. See how your city is spending its money. 

FutureWatch: Acoustic Eavesdropping with Multi-Antenna mmWave Radar

Acoustic eavesdropping against private or confidential spaces is a significant threat in the realm of privacy protection. 

While the presence of soundproof material would weaken such an attack, current eavesdropping technology may be able to bypass these protections. 

This paper introduces mmEcho, a new acoustic eavesdropping method that utilizes millimeter-wave signals to sense vibration induced by sound precisely. Through signal processing techniques such as the intra-chirp scheme and phase calibration algorithm, mmEcho achieves micrometer-level vibration extraction without requiring target-related data. 

To improve the range of eavesdropping attacks while reducing noise, we optimize radar signals by leveraging the widespread availability of multiple antennas on commercial off-the-shelf radars. We comprehensively evaluate the performance of mmEcho in different real-world settings. 

Experimental results demonstrate that, with the aid of multi-antenna technology, mmEcho can more effectively reconstruct the audio from the target at various distances, directions, sound insulators, reverberating objects, sound levels, and languages. Compared to existing methods, our approach provides better effectiveness without prior knowledge, such as the speech data from the target. more

RIP: Mark Klein, AT&T Tech, NSA Check - 79

Mark Klein, a bona fide hero who risked civil liability and criminal prosecution to help expose a massive spying program that violated the rights of millions of Americans.

Mark didn’t set out to change the world. For 22 years, he was a telecommunications technician for AT&T, most of that in San Francisco. But he always had a strong sense of right and wrong and a commitment to privacy.

Mark not only saw how it works, he had the documents to prove it.

When the New York Times reported in late 2005 that the NSA was engaging in spying inside the U.S., Mark realized that he had witnessed how it was happening. He also realized that the President was not telling Americans the truth about the program. And, though newly retired, he knew that he had to do something. He showed up at EFF’s front door in early 2006 with a simple question: “Do you folks care about privacy?” more