Client Alert - FM Wireless Microphones - Illegal

FM Wireless Microphones capable of operations in the 700 MHz frequency range become illegal to use, in the United States, in just less than two weeks. 

For years, I have been advising clients to stop using FM wireless microphones in their Boardrooms and at off-site meetings. Eavesdropping on their transmissions is just too easy. 

A new generation of digital and encrypted wireless microphones are available to replace them. "Now" is an excellent time to justify the switch.

The FCC says... "To see if your wireless microphone operates on the 700 MHz band, simply click on the name of the manufacturer and see if your model is listed. (chart)

• If your model is listed on the table, it is a 700 MHz wireless microphone and can not be used after June 12, 2010. 
  
  
• If you can find your manufacturer’s name and your equipment is not listed, then you may continue using your wireless microphone because it does not operate in the 700 MHz Band. (Due to the eavesdropping risk, Murray Associates does not recommend this option.)

If your manufacturer is not listed, please contact the FCC for additional assistance to determine if your wireless microphone operates on the 700 MHz Band."

Need a source for digital wireless microphones?  

• Revolabs

• Audio-Technica - SpectraPulse™ Ultra Wideband (UWB) (white paper)

• Lectrosonics (...and an Encryption White Paper)

• Zaxcom 

• Mipro ACT-82 

• Telex SAFE-1000

The Geek Chorus on USB Sticks

Background... The Unsolicited "Gift" USB Stick

The latest proof...

Australia - IBM has been left with egg on its face after it distributed virus-laden USB keys to attendees at Australia's biggest computer security conference.

Delegates of the AusCERT conference, held over the past week at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, were told about the malware problem in a warning email this afternoon by IBM Australia chief technologist Glenn Wightwick.

The incident is ironic because conference attendees include the who's who of the computer security world and IBM was there to show off its security credentials. (more)

Business Survival™ Weblog

Sure, dealing with business spies is important. That's probably why you're here. But what about all the other business risks you face? Where can you go for help and advice?

One place you should visit each day is Rothstein Associates Inc. Business Survival™ Weblog.

Here is a tip I recently picked up while visiting...

Many of us have had to deal with mentally unstable people at different times and at different levels of the corporate world, including those at executive levels tasked with making significant decisions for their organizations.

Like pornography, a lack of mental stability in people, especially in the workplace, is something most of us recognize when we see it. The effects of mental illness often cause serious negative impacts on the departments and the people the sick individuals interact with. But, because mental illness is still a taboo subject in corporate America, these people remain in their high level posts “undiscovered” for years.

See Dealing with Mentally Unstable Managers, by Joel Font, CISA, CBCP.

Philip J. Rothstein's Business Survival™ Weblog is loaded with tips like this one. It even has a special feeds called Global Disaster Alert (that'll cheer you up in the morning) and Business Survival™ News.

Breaking into Your Garage

If you have an automatic garage door opener, you may want to move your valuables somewhere else. This video shows how a burglar can open a closed (and supposedly locked) garage door, quietly, in less than six seconds! 

Security Scrapbook Tip #203: Secure the interior mechanical pull with a bent wire (a section of old coat hanger will do). Objective... pulling on the lever or cord will do no good until the wire is removed.

False Friends

Australia - It is alleged one of the bank's Melbourne-based debt collectors set up a fake account on the social networking site to covertly gather debtors' addresses, phone numbers and emails.

More than 80 people added "Max Bourke" as a contact before the fake profile was removed from the website yesterday.

ANZ spokesman Stephen Ries says several staff members are under investigation for their role in the online spying. (more)

App The Untappable

via Forbes...

Worried about the NSA, the FBI, criminals or cyberspies electronically eavedropping on your private phone calls? There may be an untappable app for that. 

On Tuesday, an independent hacker and security researcher who goes by the handle Moxie Marlinspike and his Pittsburgh-based startup Whisper Systems launched free public betas for two new privacy-focused programs on Google's Android mobile platform: RedPhone, a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) program that encrypts phone calls, and TextSecure, an app for sending and receiving encrypted text messages and scrambling the messages stored in their inbox. (more)

ISS LEO BUG TAP CONFAB

Intelligence Support Systems for Lawful Interception, Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Gathering

ISS World Europe, hosted in Prague (June 2-4), is the world's largest gathering of European law enforcement, intelligence, defense, homeland security analysts and telecom operators responsible for lawful interception, electronic investigations and network intelligence gathering.

Track 1: ISS for Telecom Operator Lawful Interception
Track 2: ISS for Criminal Investigation
Track 3: ISS for Data Retention and Regulatory Compliance
Track 4: ISS for Mobile Location, Surveillance and Intercept 
Track 5: DPI for Lawful Interception, Network Security and Traffic Management
Track 6: ISS for Intelligence Gathering and Analysis
Track 7: LEA and Intelligence Analyst Training and Product Demonstrations 

Certificate of LEA/Intell Communication Monitoring and Surveillance Training Completion available upon request. (more)

TSCM Tools of the Trade

Many (but not all) tools of the TSCM trade are featured in the June issue of WIRED Magazine.

Russians and Chinese agents "spying on German firms wholesale"

Germany is full of Russian and Chinese spies working to get information about top business and technology developments, according to the country’s domestic intelligence service. 

Studies show that the German economy loses around €50 billion a year as a consequence, Burkhard Even, head of the counterintelligence section of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, told the audience at a recent security forum in Bonn...

He also described more underhand methods which he said were often employed by agents posing as visiting business delegations or even trainees who might use mini cameras to take pictures in factories, or secretly copy data. (more)

RoboBug

An innovator, Robert Wood who is an assistant professor at Harvard University is developing robotic flies. New kind of fabrication process is used in that tiny robot. The functionality of bending folding and stretching will be made possible by the help of polymer and nano carbon fibers. Using these techniques Wood made the world's tiniest robot capable of flying freely and taking pictures. This nano technology can used to make crawling, swimming and jumping bugs. (more)

The IT Girls

A study of British middle-aged couples found that 14% of wives spy on their husband’s emails, 13% read their mobile phone text messages and 10% check web browser logs. This is roughly twice the level of spousal spying that is found among men. Women are also far better at it than men, the researchers found. It appears that some women develop their IT skills simply to improve their surveillance techniques. (more)

Sex tape scandal spurs wiretapping phobia among deputies

Turkey - With the recent posting online of footage showing former Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal with a deputy from his party in an intimate setting, more and more politicians are taking measures against surveillance devices in their offices.

Many deputies are now using the 10-day break in Parliament to clean up their chambers in order to see if there are any bugs or other monitoring devices inside the room. Some have installed jammers or other preventive devices.

More than 75 deputies have employed “hunter” systems to detect hidden cameras and microphones. Fifty deputies have ordered jammers from the Tayama Security Company alone, according to executives at the company, which earlier briefed deputies in Parliament on installing such systems. They also said many deputies took these devices wherever they went. The company sells this system for $700. Parliament officials say other deputies have turned to other companies. (...for professional TSCM sweep services. These are the smart deputies. Save a spot on YouTube for the ones who bought the gadgets.) (more)

The Last 24

Time has run out for the paranoid spy TV series 24.

FutureWatch...

GSM Bug Prices Continue to Drop!

A few months ago, we found GSM bugs being sold on ebay in the $19-$60 range. Today, direct-from-the-manufacturer samples are advertised for $13.05. (Quantity pricing is even lower.)

Finding these normally dormant eavesdropping bugs is problematic. Digital Surveillance Location Analysis™ (DSLA™) is one very effective detection technique.

Business executives – You can no longer skate on the chance that one of these won't end up in your Boardroom. 

Quarterly eavesdropping detection audits are more important than ever. Be sure your TSCM provider is aware of this new threat, and can effectively deal with it. (Click graphic to enlarge it.)

(Update) One of our sharper colleagues noted the logo on this thing and mused... "Wonder what they think about the use of their logo?"

Hummmm... I seem to recall (this) (and this). But, nah. That would be too much of a stretch :)

An Old Score Settled

Italy - Italian magistrates and media are up in arms over a government attempt to restrict wiretaps and slap fines and jail sentences on newspapers that publish transcripts, saying it will help criminals and muzzle the press.

While the centre-right coalition of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says it wants to protect privacy, the opposition says the government is just scrambling to cover up widespread corruption in its ranks with yet another tailor-made law...

The bill languished in parliament for months. But the government quickly dusted it off after newspapers published leaked transcripts from a high-profile graft probe into public work contracts that has tainted Berlusconi's cabinet. (more) (background)

Quote of the Week - The BugNets are Coming

"Remote surveillance is a significantly invasive threat, arguably even more so than identity theft. As it stands now, most vulnerable devices (mobile devices and computers) do not have the protection necessary to distinctly address microphone or camera hijacks. As a growing number of mobile devices with exploitable operation systems gain more reliable Internet access, this long standing problem is reaching a critical potential." 

from Roving Bugnet: Distributed Surveillance Threat and Mitigation
by Ryan Farley and Xinyuan Wang

Mobile Phone Eavesdropping - The Next Level

Imagine sitting in a café and discussing the details of a business proposal with a potential client. Neither you nor the client has a laptop; you're just two people having a conversation. But unbeknownst to you, someone half a world away is listening to every word you say. Later, as you leave, you receive a text message referring to the proposal and demanding money in exchange for silence.

Recent research from two universities suggests that such a remote-eavesdropping scenario may soon be possible.

According to George Mason University researchers Ryan Farley and Xinyuan Wang, cell phones make excellent surveillance devices for remote snoops. In a paper, Farley and Wang discuss a "modernized mic hijacker" [PDF] that an attacker could control over what they call a "roving bugnet." The eavesdropper would use a piece of malware called a "bugbot" to listen in on in-person interactions via a nearby smartphone or laptop. Such attacks would be more likely to target specific people (a wayward spouse, say) than to play a role in widespread attacks on the general public. (more)

Commercial Quantum Cryptography System Hacked

It is supposed to be absolutely secure – a means to transmit secret information between two parties with no possibility of someone eavesdropping. 

Yet quantum cryptography, according to some engineers, is not without its faults. In a preprint submitted late last week to arXiv, Hoi-Kwong Lo and colleagues at the University of Toronto, Canada, claim to have hacked into a commercial quantum cryptography system by exploiting a certain practical “loophole”.  

So does this mean high-profile users of quantum cryptography – banks and governments, for example – are in danger of being eavesdropped after all? (more)

Don't even think of saying "pampas ass."

The mayor of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, has been indicted on charges of illegal wiretapping of citizens including political and business leaders.

Mauricio Macri has allegedly authorized the secret recordings of many individuals, including politicians and business moguls, in the 1990s...

Despite his indictment, Macri says he will not resign. (more)

Cordless Phone Question

via The Journal Times...

When we're using cordless phones, can others pick up our conversations?

"Yes, depending on the kind of phone you use," according to a fact sheet from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer-oriented group based in California. "In most cases, your cordless phone conversations are probably overheard only briefly and accidentally. But there are people who make it a hobby to listen to cordless phone calls using radio scanners."

Analog phones, which include most older ones, are more susceptible to eavesdropping. Nothing's a guarantee, the mildly paranoid-sounding fact sheet points out, but newer digital models often have better built-in security features.

Those include channel hopping, which constantly changes the frequency during a call, and more complicated stuff known as digital spread spectrum technology (DSST) and digital enhanced cordless technology (DECT). (more)

For more information on both cordless and cellular phone privacy click here.

Theft & Espionage Awareness Slide Show

(more)

I created life... and I own it!

Scientists for the first time have created a synthetic cell, completely controlled by man-made genetic instructions, which can survive and reproduce itself, researchers at the private J. Craig Venter Institute announced Thursday. Created at a cost of $30 million, the experimental one-cell organism opens the way to the manipulation of life on a previously unattainable scale.

Synthetic Genomics, a company founded by Dr. Venter, funded the experiments and owns the intellectual property rights to the cell-creation techniques. (more)

Hope they have a good counterespionage strategy. They will need it.

Testimonial - The Photocopier Security Problem

"Regarding photocopier security, I recovered 8,308 files from a high-capacity Xerox copier in the summer of 2008. The copier was several years old, shared by perhaps two dozen employees, and had a 4 gigabyte IDE hard disk. I recovered both scanned and photocopied TIFF images from user activity as well as TXT, HTML, DOC, PDF, and GIF files. I also recovered about 900 email addresses and file names." ~ from a newsgroup posting this week by a professional electronic evidence recovery specialist.

Photocopier security is only one element of an overall counterespionage strategy. If your organization does not have one. (Or, if you are not sure of the effectiveness of your current one.) Please engage the services of an independent counterespionage security consultant. Don't know where to find one? Click here for a jump start.

How Do They Do It - Cracking Your Wi-Fi

In China, they sell full Wi-Fi hacking kits. 
Any teckie can cobble together their own...

"The main piece of the kits, an adapter with a six-inch antenna that plugs into a USB port, comes with a CD-ROM to install its driver and a separate live CD-ROM that boots up an operating system called BackTrack. In BackTrack, the user can run applications that try to obtain keys for two protocols used to secure Wi-Fi networks, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). After a successful attack by the applications, called Spoonwep and Spoonwpa, a user can restart Windows and use the revealed key to access its Wi-Fi network." (more) (videos)

SmartWater - "I've been slimed!"

Here is a theft deterrent idea... 

What if you could spray your valuables with an invisible DNA-like identifier, unique to you. What if this brilliant agua could also be used to link a suspect to the scene of the crime. What if this water could only be seen using ultra-violet light. You would probably say, "That's smart water." (knock, knock) Excuse me. (whisper, whisper)

Right, well then... apparently this has already been done.

"SmartWater delivers proven crime reduction strategies customised to the needs of your business. Widely used within intelligence-led policing operations, and proven to deter criminals on a sustained basis, SmartWater is now available to the commercial sector." (video)

Security Clearance - What you 'need to know'

FREE
Security Clearance Handbook
All you need to know to get cleared or stay cleared!

The shortage of IT professionals holding security clearances grows rapidly. To really accelerate your career you need to maintain or obtain a security clearance. To help you, the University of Fairfax has assembled a comprehensive handbook with 100's of facts and FAQs. The topics covered by this handbook include:
- How to obtain your security clearance.
- How to reactivate your inactive clearance.
- Who may or may not be eligible for a clearance.
- What can prevent you from getting a clearance.
- How long it can take to get a clearance.
- PLUS MUCH MORE! 

(booklet)

Can a Tin Foil Hat Protect Your Crazy Brain?

Mrfixitrick demonstrates the Faraday effect of a tinfoil hat by blocking the EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) from a typical wireless modem. (video)

No word yet on whether the Bowler or Pork Pie style works best. Personally, I would opt for a Sandy Becker Hambone Pith Helmet.

A New Windows Virus (that nothing can stop?!?!)

via zdnet.com...

Are you a Windows user? Do you make sure that your antivirus program is updated regularly? Do you feel safe? You shouldn’t! Read on to find out why …

Security researchers at Matousec.com have come up with an ingenious attack that can bypass every Windows security product tested and allow malicious code to make its way to your system.

Yes, you read that right - every Windows security product tested. And the list is both huge and sobering... (more)

What Does a Spy Look Like?

"In the world of espionage, an umbrella is a pistol, a pen a microphone and that quiet kid at Starbucks a KGB informant. Nothing is what it seems. Inviting the public to look through the eyes of a spy and question the seemingly normal world around them, Red Tettemer created a provocative piece of interactive media. As pedestrians pass the unit, it detects their motion and transforms the clean-cut gentleman into three elaborate disguises: a longhaired drifter, an Indian woman and a well-aged senior citizen." Visit the International Spy Musuem (more)

What it takes to be a TSCM tech for a U.S. government contractor...

"The candidate will assist in all aspects of of TSCM management that involves technical security (including TEMPEST) entailing new construction, modification, accreditation, re-accreditation, withdrawal and advice and assistance (SAV). The candidate will help schedule and perform TSCM evaluations and security staff visits of facilities locate CONUS/OCONUS, provide comprehensive, risk-based technical security advice, guidance, and general security support to program offices and contractor facility security offices. The candidate will prepare written correspondence to include facility file reports, cable messages, approvals, status/technical briefs and inspections reports, SAV reports, maintain databases; which includes entering new data and correspondence and quality controlling file records. Conduct analysis of complex technical, surveillance, counter surveillance, surveillance detection or other technical vulnerabilities. Provide technical support to projects in areas such as training, logistics, acquisition and technical counterintelligence investigations. Assists in developing and monitoring project tasks and schedules. Maintain a thorough knowledge of all technical security governing directives.

The candidate must be a graduate of the Interagency Training Center for TSCM and an EXPERT in two of the following areas: a) Counterintelligence , b) Automated Information Systems, c) Lock and Key Control Systems, d) Access Control Systems, g) TEMPEST, h) DoD SCIF construction standards.

Experience using a variety of ADP systems that include Microsoft Office applications (e.g. Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint). Requires a Bachelors degree and 10-12 years experience." (more)

I believe subjecting people to PowerPoint goes against the Geneva Convention. P.S. The job requires 75% travel.

It Didn't Start With Nixon

UK - MI5 used hidden electronic surveillance equipment to secretly monitor 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet and at least five Prime Ministers...

The extraordinary disclosure comes despite a succession of parliamentary statements that no such bugging ever took place.

...top-secret files held by the Security Service show it installed electronic listening devices in three highly sensitive areas of No10 – the Cabinet Room, the Waiting Room and the Prime Minister’s study.

It means that for nearly 15 years, all Cabinet meetings, the offices of senior officials and all visitors to the Prime Minister – including foreign leaders – were being bugged... 

[Harold] Wilson hired private security firms to sweep his office for listening devices and was said to have pointed out electric light fittings to Downing Street visitors, indicating that they might be bugged. (more)

SpyCam Story #578 - The Case of the Silent H

UK - A university lecturer planted a camera in a bathroom air freshener so he could spy on students as they showered.

Paul Hwang, who has taught and studied at Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard, hid the digital camera in the house he was renting out to six women.

Yesterday the 33-year-old's illustrious teaching career was in ruins after he pleaded guilty to voyeurism. (more)

Police Chief Sentenced for Bugging

MN - The former police chief of Gaylord was sentenced Monday on one charge of misconduct of a public official, for an alleged "bugging" scheme. 
 
Dale Lee Roiger, 60, was sentenced to a stay of imposition for one year and was placed on probation. As part of his probation, Roiger must complete 15 days of electronic home monitoring, 15 days of community service and pay a fine of $835, among other conditions.

Roiger was accused of having one of his officers secretly plant a digital recorder to see if City Council members were meeting illegally at the Chamber of Commerce office. (more)

SpyCam Story #577 - Turkish Delights

Mission Impossible? 

You decide.

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party has resigned after the release of grainy video footage purporting to show him having an affair with one of his MPs.

The nine minutes and 23 seconds of silent footage, seemingly shot with a hidden camera, allegedly shows Deniz Baykal, 71, veteran leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nesrin Baytok, 50, his former private secretary and now a CHP deputy, speaking in the presence of another man in one clip, and getting dressed alone in a bedroom in another.

Mr Baykal claimed he was a victim of a government-orchestrated plot...

"This is not a sex tape, this is a conspiracy," he said. "If this has a price, and that price is the resignation from CHP leadership, I am ready to pay it. My resignation does not mean running away, or giving in. On the contrary, it means that I'm fighting it." (huh?) (more) (more)

Trend: Executive and high profile clients are requesting us to inspect hotel rooms and private aircraft more often these days. Calls from politicians might be next.

Encryption Can't Stop The Wiretapping Boom

As encryption technologies have outpaced the mathematical methods of breaking crypto schemes, law enforcement has feared for years that scrambled messages between evildoers (or law-breaking activists) would thwart their snooping. But it seems that either lawbreakers aren't using encryption, or those privacy tools simply don't work...the number of cases in which law enforcement encountered encryption as a barrier: one.

According to the courts, only one wiretapping case in the entire country encountered encryption last year, and in that single case, whatever privacy tools were used don't seemed to have posed much of a hurdle to eavedroppers. "In 2009, encryption was encountered during one state wiretap, but did not prevent officials from obtaining the plain text of the communications," reads the report. (more) (annual wiretap report)


The information security consultant's delimena: How to convince business executives to use encryption when even the criminals can't be bothered with it?

...and you thought volcanic ash was wild.

From the FutureWatch department...

In the 1990s, a researcher named Kris Pister dreamed up a wild future in which people would sprinkle the Earth with countless tiny sensors, no larger than grains of rice.

These "smart dust" particles, as he called them, would monitor everything, acting like electronic nerve endings for the planet. Fitted with computing power, sensing equipment, wireless radios and long battery life, the smart dust would make observations and relay mountains of real-time data about people, cities and the natural environment.

Now, a version of Pister's smart dust fantasy is starting to become reality... (not rice-sized yet, however)

The latest news comes from the computer and printing company Hewlett-Packard, which recently announced it's working on a project it calls the "Central Nervous System for the Earth." In coming years, the company plans to deploy a trillion sensors all over the planet. (more)

From our "never give a sucker an even break" files.

A businessman who supplied the Botswana Police Service (BPS) with spying equipment to eavesdrop on the cell phone and electronic mail conversations of all citizens without a search warrant, intends suing the government after the Police failed to pay him.

...it appeared that the transaction went sour when the equipment did not perform as the Police expected. The system was to detect all cell phone conversations without being detected by the service providers. It emerged that the system could only detect calls from only one of the three mobile operators and was unable to detect calls from the other two, thus failing the test. (more)

Moral: "You can't cheat an honest man."

Michelin Spy Re-tired

Marwan Arbache, a former Michelin executive, has been found guilty of trying to sell industrial secrets to the company’s main competitor Bridgestone. 

What particularly seems to have grieved Michelin, which already has a well-deserved reputation for stringent security surrounding its industrial secrets, is the fact that their former employee was trying to sell secrets relating to what the AFP news agency called “new tyre manufacturing techniques for heavy transport designed to improve durability.” (more)

How Do They Do It - Codebreaking

Seattle startup Pico Computing squeezes a cryptographic supercomputer into a breadbox...

...Not every customer has the know-how or the motivation to coax FPGAs into those cryptographical feats. But the three-letter agencies that buy Pico's code-breaking systems have both, and Pico offers them versions aimed at breaking everything from the Wireless Protected Access protocol used in Wi-Fi signals to the Filevault encryption found on Mac computers. (more)

Spyware Comes to the iPad

Retina-X Studios, LLC, announced today the immediate availability of Mobile Spy for the Apple iPad. ...users can silently view all email messages, web site visits and other information... even if histories are deleted. Mobile Spy runs in total stealth mode and no mentions of the program are shown inside the iPad. After the software is set up on the device, it silently records the contents of all emails sent or received. The software also records web addresses visited in Safari and any contact added to the iPad's contacts list. (more)

Spybusters Tip #732 - Copy Center Warning

Many office photocopiers - especially the larger and networked models - store the data they copy on an internal hard-drive memory. While this is helpful, it also poses a very serious espionage vulnerability. Old copy jobs remain on the disk and may be easily reprinted by other people who have access to the machine. Even when the job is deleted the data remains on the drive waiting to be over-written. When the lease is up or the machine is sold anyone could get your information.

Recommendations...
1. Photocopy confidential information without using the memory feature. If this is not possible...

2. Use the delete feature immediately after photocopying sensitive documents. If the risk is extreme...

3. Photocopy using a simpler machine; one without an internal memory.

"If you don't wipe, they will swipe." ~Kevin

Some photocopiers have easily removable hard drives which may be placed in a safe at the end of the day. Others have disk wipe options available. Keep these options in mind when purchasing a high-end photocopier.

Manufacturer’s security solutions:
• Canon - imageRUNNER Security Kit   
• Sharp - Data Security Kit
• Xerox - Image Overwrite Option
• Konica Minolta - Security Strengthen Mode
• Lanier - DataOverwrite Security System (DOSS)
• Savin - DataOverwrite Security System (DOSS)
• Ricoh - DataOverwriteSecurity System (DOSS)
• HP - Security Documents (1) (2)

Still don't believe?

Watch this...

Combine it with e-ink and never recycle newspapers again!

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have successfully coated paper with a solar cell, part of a suite of research projects aimed at energy breakthroughs. (more) (e-ink)

The Security Scrapbook Mobile Phone App

Kevin's Security Scrapbook has a mobile phone app. 

FREE download at getjar.com.

Compatible with: Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola, LG and dozens more. Search: "Spybusters"

Special thanks to the crew at SachManya, app-smiths.

Security Director Alert: Cell Phone Warning

The Bad News...

Two researchers say they have found a way to exploit weaknesses in the mobile telecom system to legally spy on people by figuring out the private cell phone number of anyone they want, tracking their whereabouts, and listening to their voice mail. — Independent security researcher Nick DePetrillo and Don Bailey, a security consultant with iSec Partners.

The Really Bad News...

"These attack scenarios are applicable to corporations and individual users alike," DePetrillo said. "Corporations specifically should start to take a look at their security policies for executives as this can impact a business very hard, with insider trading, tracking of executives, etc." (more)

The Really Really Bad News...

It doesn't look like the phone companies will (or can) fix this situation.

Spycam Story #576 - Weird Want Ad

Spycam Videographer Needed
Description I am looking for an experienced videographer to videotape using a spy cam video camera for Thursday, May 6. If interested, please provide link to some spy cam footage as well as what equipment you'll be using and your rates. (more)

How Your Competitors May Be Tracking You

ChangeDetection.com

KeywordSpy.com

Compete.com

Of course, you can use these tools, too. ~Kevin

Wise PR Ali

NYC - Disgraced publicity princess Ali Wise tip-tapped into a Manhattan courtroom in beige patent leather stilettos this morning, 'fessing up to a wacky voicemail snooping rampage in a deal that will keep her out of jail.

The beautiful former publicity director for Dolce & Gabbana took a felony plea to eavesdropping and computer trespassing. The feisty fashionista admitted she repeatedly hacked into the cell phone voicemails of two women she wanted to spy on last year -- including interior designer Nina Freudenberger.

Freudenberger and Wise have an ex-boyfriend in common -- Josh Deutsch, the CEO and founder of Downtown Records. (more)