School Employee Arrested - Allegedly Using Hidden Recorder

A school employee has been arrested in Georgia on charges he made pornographic videos of children using a hidden recording device.

• six counts of computer pornography, 

• 11 counts of unlawful eavesdropping or surveillance, 

• two counts of possession/sale/distribution of eavesdropping devices, 

• 11 counts of surreptitious recording of intimate parts, 

• and five counts of prohibition on nude or sexual explicit electronic transmissions.
(Michael) Brown is listed on the DeKalb County Schools website as a computer technician. more

Bugging Devices Found at Italian Yacht Builder Ferretti

The Italian Ferretti Group was the setting for a spy-vs-spy scenario that reportedly included private detectives shadowing an executive of the Italian builder’s primary Chinese investor and recording devices hidden in several offices, according to Bloomberg. 

The discovery of this board-level surveillance has prompted two criminal cases, now in the hands of Italian prosecutors. In April 2024, Xu Xinyu, an executive director at Ferretti SpA, noticed two men in an SUV outside Ferretti’s headquarters in Milan... 

Xu also observed the pair following him while visiting hotels in the city, Bloomberg reported. He hired a counter-surveillance company, which reportedly found a listening device and signal amplifier hidden in his office. Other devices were found in the offices of Ferretti’s Chinese-Italian translator and board secretary.

...the Ferretti Group filed its own complaint... “Ferretti SpA considers itself an aggrieved party, having been wronged by the unlawful and improper installation of surveillance devices within its offices,” the statement said. more

Personnel Officer, "So, What Qualifies You for this National Security Position?"

After a recent grocery store clerk was appointed as an anti-terror chief, it can be revealed that a second young national security official was hired straight from the cash register—with disastrous results.

A U.S. intelligence worker charged with trying to leak state secrets to a foreign spy agency was hired as a 22-year-old with little professional experience outside the cash register at a local grocery store...

His professional experience prior to joining a U.S. national security agency was remarkably similar to that of Thomas Fugate, who has just been appointed to lead terror prevention at the Department of Homeland Security.

A cybersecurity graduate of Florida Polytechnic University, Nathan Vilas Laatsch is the second national security official in two days whom The Daily Beast has revealed to have virtually no professional experience other than working at a grocery store before being hired by a U.S national security agency at the age of 22.

Laatsch, now 28, a computer scientist with “top secret” clearance at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Virginia, was hired under the last Trump administration. He was arrested last week, accused of attempting to pass sensitive information to Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND). more

UFB (shakes head and walks away)

Corporate Spy v Spy v Spy v Spy, or Spy Cubed

The fight between HR tech startups has heated up another notch this week as Rippling on Thursday filed an 84-page amended complaint in its lawsuit against Deel.

The complaint accuses Deel of targeting, infiltrating, and compromising four other competitors, in addition to Rippling.

The revised complaint doesn’t name all of the four other alleged victims, except cryptocurrency-based tax and payroll compliance company, Toku. Toku is suing its competitor LiquiFi, also alleging corporate espionage and that Deel was involved...

The complaint also says that there are one or more additional victims who are “major competitors of Deel” in the employer of record market. A source familiar with the investigation believes that more witnesses will soon come forward at these other companies to offer details. more

NSO Group Pegasus Spying Software Fined $168 Million in Damages

Unconvinced by NSO Group Technologies’ argument that it couldn’t – and shouldn’t – pay punitive damages for using WhatsApp to plant its Pegasus software on unsuspecting surveillance targets around the world, a federal jury in California walloped the Israeli company with a verdict awarding $168 million in damages today...

“The jury’s verdict today to punish NSO is a critical deterrent to the spyware industry against their illegal acts aimed at American companies and our users worldwide,” Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, said in a statement. 

“This is an industrywide threat, and it’ll take all of us to defend against it.” more

Not Far from Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems in Grover's Mill, NJ

“Sushi John"-  SPYcy Roll'ed by ICE

An alleged sushi-slinging spy is in ICE custody. 

Ming Xi Zhang, known as “Sushi John,” the 61-year-old owner of Ya Ya Noodles in Montgomery Township, NJ, was arrested March 24 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Newark.

Zhang was convicted in April 2024 of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government and sentenced to three years’ probation. In May 2021, he pleaded guilty to having served as an agent of China in 2016 without notifying the U.S. Attorney General.

ICE says he legally entered the U.S. in 2000 but later “violated the terms of his lawful admission.” more

"Sushi John" + "Ya Ya" = "John Ya Ya" 

One of the 46 Yoyodyne Employees (Red Lectroids)?

We checked. No relation.

The Affidavit of a Rippling Employee Caught Spying for Deel Reads Like a Movie

On Wednesday, Rippling publicly released the affidavit of the Rippling employee who testified that he was working as a spy for the HR tech company’s arch rival Deel.

And the account, coupled with Rippling’s lawsuit filed against Deel a couple of weeks ago, reads like a corporate espionage movie script, complete with a sting operation and a smashed phone.

It’s the latest escapade between the two. TechCrunch has documented the most Hollywood-esque parts of the testimony below, but be aware that this is only one side of the story — the side Rippling wants everyone to know, as its PR machine has blasted it out, and CEO Parker Conrad tweet-stormed about it.

To recap: Rippling, a workforce management platform, very publicly announced on March 17 that it was suing Deel over this alleged spying, leveling charges ranging from violation of the RICO racketeering act (often used to prosecute members of the Mafia) to misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition. more

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?

Student Arrested for Placing Spy Cameras in Bathrooms

Police say a Temple University student was arrested and charged after hidden cameras were found inside the bathrooms of his off-campus residence.

Authorities say 21-year-old Michael Nguyen planted three cameras disguised as pens inside the bathrooms of a residence he shared with his now former Delta Chi Psi fraternity brothers on 17th Street and Montgomery Avenue...

They say he was expelled from the fraternity “without hesitation.” more 

Russian Spy Hoarded Surveillance Gadgets - Boasted: Like James Bond Q

A Russian spy was living in a "typical seaside hotel" on the English coast crammed full of electronic surveillance equipment, a court has heard.

Orlin Roussev boasted to his controller that he was becoming like the James Bond character "Q" as he prepared his spying "toys" for kidnap and surveillance operations across Europe...

The Old Bailey was told a "vast" amount of technical equipment for "intrusive surveillance" was found at Roussev's address in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, which he described in messages as his "Indiana Jones warehouse"... a "significant amount of IT and surveillance equipment". It was stacked up in two storage rooms and an office used by Roussev, the court was told. more

New Hidden Camera Lawsuit Filed Against Royal Caribbean

A group of 12 cruise ship guests, all US citizens, have filed a new lawsuit against Royal Caribbean over a hidden camera case that saw a crew member jailed for 30 years. Aronfeld Trial Lawyers filed the suit in Miami on behalf of the 12 plaintiffs.

Filipino Arvin Joseph Mirasol, a former stateroom attendant on Symphony of the Seas, was convicted of placing hidden cameras in bathrooms and recording footage earlier this year. He pled guilty to video voyeurism and child abuse material charges.

“The fact that many victims we represent still do not know if and how their images have been used or circulated is incredibly disturbing. Some of the plaintiffs are children – and once an image is on the internet it is there forever,” said attorney Spencer Aronfeld who is handling the new complaint. more

‘Prison yard’ Surveillance | Lawsuit Alleges Apple Spies on Employee's iPhones

An Apple worker has filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging it spies on its employee’s personal iCloud accounts and iPhones.

As reported by Semafor, the lawsuit filed Sunday claims Apple says it can “engage in physical, video and electronic surveillance” of employees, including accessing data on personal iPhones it “actively encourages” staff to work.

Apple refutes the claims of the lawsuit, which alleges several other employment law violations including free speech suppression and illegal clawback policies. more

Global Surveillance Free-for-All in Mobile Ad Data

Excellent (long) article on services that track and sell your movements. Via Kreb's on Security

Not long ago, the ability to digitally track someone’s daily movements just by knowing their home address, employer, or place of worship was considered a dangerous power that should remain only within the purview of nation states. But a new lawsuit in a likely constitutional battle over a New Jersey privacy law shows that anyone can now access this capability, thanks to a proliferation of commercial services that hoover up the digital exhaust emitted by widely-used mobile apps and websites.

Delaware-based Atlas Data Privacy Corp. helps its users remove their personal information from the clutches of consumer data brokers, and from people-search services online. Backed by millions of dollars in litigation financing, Atlas so far this year has sued 151 consumer data brokers on behalf of a class that includes more than 20,000 New Jersey law enforcement officers who are signed up for Atlas services...

Babel Street’s LocateX platform also allows customers to track individual mobile users by their Mobile Advertising ID or MAID, a unique, alphanumeric identifier built into all Google Android and Apple mobile devices.

One unique feature of Babel Street is the ability to toggle a “night” mode, which makes it relatively easy to determine within a few meters where a target typically lays their head each night (because their phone is usually not far away). more

Former School Counselor Hid Cameras in Boys’ Bathroom

A former counselor at a private school in Riverside County pleaded guilty today to possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and placing a hidden camera inside bathrooms to film boys using the toilet and showers.

Matthew Daniel Johnson, 34, of Bryan, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He was remanded into federal custody after he pleaded guilty...

During the search of his residence, Johnson admitted to law enforcement that he had hidden a pen-shaped recording device in a toilet paper holder inside of a school bathroom, across the hall from his office as a school counselor at La Sierra Academy in Riverside. more

NB: Spycam Detection Training is available.

Landlord's Son Plants Spycam - Gets Door Lock Code from Building Camera

According to court documents, the man was accused of attempting to, or successfully entering, a woman’s apartment on 64 occasions... The victim, a woman in her 20s, lived in a one-room apartment owned by the perpetrator's father.

The man tried to break into the apartment by entering random number combinations into the apartment’s electronic lock 26 times. After these failed attempts, he discovered the passcode by watching CCTV footage from the building. He then entered the victim’s home 38 times and installed a spycam to film the victim for sexual purposes...

An appeals court upheld a two-year and six-month prison term, suspended for four years, for a 48-year-old man convicted of illegally breaking into a woman’s apartment numerous times and installing a spy camera for sexual purposes. more

Meanwhile, at my local restaurant...

GOP primary loser, and loser’s wife charged with secretly recording political rival...

NJ - Two women, including an unsuccessful candidate for Township Committee and the wife of another unsuccessful candidate, were charged Monday in what could be Readington's version of Watergate.

Jacqueline Hindle, 49, who lost in June's hotly contested Republican primary for two Township Committee seats, and Christina Albrecht, 45, the wife of the other unsuccessful candidate, Ben Smith, have been charged by the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office with an alleged scheme to record a private conversation between Mayor Adam Mueller and Deputy Mayor Vincent Panico at The Rail restaurant in Whitehouse Station.

According to a report from Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson, Readington Township Police received notification July 8 that an audio recording device was found on the metal fence surrounding the patio at The Rail at Readington.

The two were charged with violating sections of the New Jersey Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act. more

The Fake Spy Who Dazzled D.C.

Gaurav Srivastava dreamed of being a player in the murky world of clandestine operations.

His goal was to build a private military and intelligence operation, funded by natural resources, he told business partners. It would be akin to the notorious Wagner Group, only with the blessing of the U.S. instead of Russia. Leaving associates with the impression he had high-level contacts in the intelligence community, he said he wanted to do business in difficult places and muscle bad guys out of strategic markets... In reality, Srivastava wanted to use some of the money to pay for a villa in swanky Pacific Palisades... more

How to Fight a Corporate Espionage Accusation

via SPODEK LAW
What Constitutes Corporate Espionage Fraud?
Corporate espionage fraud involves illegally obtaining confidential business information from a competitor to gain an unfair advantage. This can include:

• Stealing trade secrets or proprietary technology
• Hacking into computer systems to access sensitive data
• Using deception to obtain confidential documents
• Bribing or blackmailing employees to reveal inside information
• Industrial sabotage to damage a competitor’s operations

Common Defenses Against Corporate Espionage Charges
1. Lack of Intent
2. Information Was Not Actually a Trade Secret
4. Public Availability
5. Whistleblower Protections
6. Statute of Limitations

Key Legal Precedents in Corporate Espionage Cases

• United States v. Hsu (1999): Established that attempted corporate espionage is prosecutable, even if no actual trade secrets were obtained.
• United States v. Chung (2011): Clarified that the government must prove the defendant knew the information was a trade secret, not just confidential.
• United States v. Aleynikov (2012): Found that software source code did not qualify as a trade secret under the Economic Espionage Act (later overturned).
• United States v. Nosal (2016): Ruled that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act applies to theft of trade secrets by former employees.

Strategies for Defending Against Corporate Espionage Charges

• 
  Challenging the evidence: 
• Scrutinize how the evidence against you was obtained and push to suppress any improperly gathered information.
• Negotiating with prosecutors
• Presenting alternative explanations:
• Demonstrating lack of economic benefit
• Highlighting inadequate security measures
• Leveraging expert witnesses
• Pursuing civil resolutions

Greater detail appears in the original article, here.

$2 billion Corporate Espionage Verdict Overturned by Appeals Court

Software company Pegasystems convinced a Virginia appeals court on Tuesday to throw out a $2 billion jury verdict for rival Appian in a court battle over Pegasystems’ alleged theft of Appian’s trade secrets.

The award from 2022 had been the largest damages verdict in Virginia court history, the Court of Appeals of Virginia said in the decision...

McLean, Virginia-based Appian had said in a 2020 lawsuit that Pegasystems hired a contractor to steal confidential information from Appian’s software platform in order to improve its own products and better train its sales force...

Appian said that Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Pegasystems referred internally to the contractor as a spy and to its scheme as “Project Crush,” with Pegasystems employees using fake credentials to access Appian’s software. Pegasystems characterized “Project Crush” as competitive research in a 2022 statement...

Pegasystems’ CEO said in a statement following the verdict that Appian’s CEO “could not identify one trade secret that Pega had allegedly misappropriated” during the trial. more

Moral: Make sure your "trade secrets" meet the requirements of, and can be clearly identified as, Trade Secrets. more