New Use for Old Spy Plane - Discovering Secret of Lightning

A spy plane retrofitted with research equipment has discovered some very intriguing things while observing thunderstorms in the tropics. 

According to a new paper published by the researchers behind the retrofitted spy plane, it appears that storms in the tropics are actually littered with medium-duration gamma rays, which could completely change what we know about how lightning forms.

The new papers, which were published in the journal Nature this month, describe in great detail the data that the researchers gathered while observing the atmosphere during tropical thunderstorms. According to that data, the lightning within those storms could very well be caused by long-duration gamma-ray emissions that sweep across parts of the atmosphere throughout the storm’s duration. more

FutureWatch: AI to the Max - Will Intelligent Eavesdropping Bugs Be Possible?

SCIENTISTS ARE GROWING BRAINS IN LABS. COULD THEY BECOME CONSCIOUS? "IT HAS NO EYES, EARS, NOSE OR MOUTH — NOTHING'S COMING IN." (yet)

As scientists continue to make advances using human tissue to grow brains in laboratories, one neuroscientist is naming the existential elephant in the room: could lab-grown brains ever become truly conscious?

In an interview with Live Science, University of California at Santa Barbara neuroscientist Kenneth Kosik explained that as the science stands now, the facsimile brains made in labs aren't likely to achieve consciousness anytime soon. (Nothing to see here, don't worry, move on.)

These brain organoids, as the lab-grown brains are called, are created by taking someone's cells, converting them into stem cells, and differentiating those into neurons. more

New Wireless Eavesdropping Vulnerability - Beam Deflection

A research team led by Rice University’s, Edward Knightly, has uncovered an eavesdropping security vulnerability in high-frequency and high-speed wireless backhaul links, widely employed in critical applications such as 5G wireless cell phone signals and low-latency financial trading on Wall Street.

Contrary to the common belief that these links are inherently secure due to their elevated positioning and highly directive millimeter-wave and sub-terahertz “pencil-beams,” the team exposed a novel method of interception using a metasurface-equipped drone dubbed MetaFly. Their findings were published by the world’s premier security conference, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, in May 2024.

“The implications of our research are far-reaching, potentially affecting a broad spectrum of companies, government agencies and individuals relying on these links,” said Knightly, the Sheafor-Lindsay Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of computer science. more

Kid's Jewelry - Ankle Bracelet for the Wrist

Google announced the Fitbit Ace LTE, a surveillance-forward ("Know where your wild things are") smartwatch featuring all the features youngsters love, such as having their location and habits constantly under observation by adult customers of the world's largest advertising company. 

It's about 45mm across and a little over 13mm thick, comes with 4G LTE and GPS/GNSS, allows calling and messaging up to 20 contacts, and has NFC so yer littluns can buy stuff too. 16 or more hours of battery life is promised on a charge and there's an array of sensors. more

FutureWatch: New AI Headphones Have Spy Potential

Appear to be listening to music, while zeroing in on a particular person's conversation...

What if you only want to hear what a single person is saying in a room full of other people? The experts over at the University of Washington have developed an AI-driven kit for headphones that lets you look at a person for three to five seconds as a directional signal*, and the headphones will only allow their voice to pass through. The team calls it "Target Speech Hearing" and it works even if the listener is moving around and no longer sitting directly in front of the speaker.

"In this project, we develop AI to modify the auditory perception of anyone wearing headphones, given their preferences. With our devices you can now hear a single speaker clearly even if you are in a noisy environment with lots of other people talking," says Professor Shyam Gollakota from the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. more

* This could easily be adjusted so looking at the person is not necessary. Looking forward could signal AI to focus in on the person behind you, or any angle. ~Kevin

Who Paints Their Espionage Devices Bright Yellow?

China's Ministry of State Security is once again circulating claims it has discovered foreign espionage devices in its domestic waters.

In a note on its Wechat channel, the state security ministry said foreign intelligence agencies have been “using different methods to strengthen their monitoring of China's maritime areas, carrying out a series of intelligence gathering and technical espionage activities.” 

It has paid Chinese fishermen handsome rewards for their discovery of what they claimed were multiple spying devices caught in fishing nets inside of China’s exclusive economic zone. more

Microsoft Launches AI Chatbot for Spies

Microsoft has introduced a GPT-4-based generative AI model designed specifically for US intelligence agencies that operates disconnected from the Internet, according to a Bloomberg report. 

This reportedly marks the first time Microsoft has deployed a major language model in a secure setting, designed to allow spy agencies to analyze top-secret information without connectivity risks—and to allow secure conversations with a chatbot similar to ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.

But... it may also mislead officials if not used properly due to inherent design limitations of AI language models. more

The Captured Spy Was an Animal

Dolphins are known to be smart animals, and one of them may have become an unwitting part of a heated regional conflict. 

Several media outlets are reporting that Hamas has detained a dolphin for allegedly spying on behalf of Israel. 

While the Islamic group has yet to officially confirm the capture, there are accounts of the incident that involve the animal having cameras and even a dart gun on it. more

Your Doctor’s Office Might Be Bugged

It used to be safe to assume your doctor’s visit was a completely private affair between you and your physician. This is changing with ambient artificial intelligence, a new technology that listens to your conversation and processes information. Think Amazon’s Alexa, but in your doctor’s office. 

An early use case is ambient AI scribing: it listens, then writes a clinical note summarizing your visit. Clinical notes are used to communicate diagnostic and treatment plans within electronic health records, and as a basis to generate your bill...

Okay, your conversation just got recorded. But where does it go? Is it stored somewhere? How is it used beyond writing my note? The AI technology companies need to address these questions and comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act laws. Additionally, new regulations may be needed as the technology evolves. more

'Big brother' Satellite Set to Launch in 2025

'Big brother' satellite capable of zooming in on ANYONE, anywhere from space is set to launch in 2025 - and privacy experts say 'we should definitely be worried'

Privacy experts are sounding the alarm on a new satellite capable of spying on your every move that is set to launch in 2025.

The satellite, created by startup company Albedo, is so high quality it can zoom in on people or license plates from space, raising concerns among expert that it will create a 'big brother is always watching' scenario.

Albedo claims the satellite won't have facial recognition software but doesn't mention that it will refrain from imaging people or protecting people's privacy. more

How Companies are Using AI to Spy on Slack

Several employers are now using an AI-powered app to analyze and monitor messages across Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and other platforms.

What spy is this?

It’s called Aware, an Ohio-based startup that launched in 2017, per CNBC, and its clients include Nestle, Walmart, Delta Air Lines, and Starbucks.

It uses AI, trained on previous employee interactions, to analyze messages and determine:

• How various groups of employees feel about the company or decisions it makes.
• If bullying or discrimination is happening.
• If employees are sharing confidential info.
• If employees are sending inappropriate texts, photos, or videos.
• How often teams communicate with one another.

In theory, this makes it easier for employers to stay on top of employee sentiment and potential risks in an increasingly online world. more

Aliens Could Be Spying On Us

Here’s What Their Space Probes Might Look Like

Maybe it’s abduction stories from the 1960s, in which alien doctors poke and prod human subjects with surgical tools. Or perhaps you picture something a little more like Oumuamua: a rocky, cigar-shaped “interstellar interloper” that slingshotted around the center of our solar system roughly 15 million miles from Earth back in 2017.

It’s this second type of potential “probe” that has attracted the attention of scientists, including Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb. In addition to suggesting that Oumuamua might have been an alien spaceship, Loeb, who holds a Ph.D. in plasma physics, has also searched the bottom of the ocean for evidence of alien visitors. These ideas, however, are not widely accepted in the greater scientific community. more

Weird Spy News: Stool Pigeon Jailed in Vet Hospital

A pigeon caught in Mumbai with a message in an illegible language on its wings has been kept in a hospital for eight months while police investigated.

Bought on 18th May 2023 by RCF Police personnel, due to the message written in red and green on his wings , suspected to be Chinese language, the pigeon has in custody of BSPCA animal hospital ever since... Suspecting the language to be Chinese, police handed it over to the hospital to run a medical test on the bird while they sent the two rings on its leg for a forensic examination to rule out the possibility of it spying in the Indian territory. more

UPDATE: After eight months in state custody, an athlete has been freed from jail following allegations of espionage... An open-water racing pigeon from Taiwan was set free in Mumbai last Tuesday after being held for eight months on suspicion of spying for China. more

Spy History: When Furbys Caused National Security Fears

In the late 90s, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) banned Furbys on its premises over fears they could record and repeat top-secret information.

When it first hit toy stores in 1998, Furby was an immediate sensation. The animatronic furball would eventually be recognized by Time Magazine as one of “History’s Best Toys.” And just as it spiked in popularity among children looking for a new robotic friend, security officials were reportedly concerned over the robot’s potential to record top-secret information.

All such stories stemmed from reporting by The Washington Post. On Jan. 13, 1999, The Post published an article titled “A Toy Story of Hairy Espionage” more

Eavesdropping Super Hearing Pucks

Have you ever wanted eavesdropping super hearing powers? Admit it. We all have. Corporate espionage types find it especially useful as well.

There are dozens of ways to bug a room to hear confidential conversations. However, most of these ways requires access to the room to plant the bug. Modern science to the rescue (if you are the bugger). Since about half of corporate espionage is an insider issue this is a big problem for corporate security directors too.

Everyone from the office staff just outside of the boss’s office, to the Machiavellian executive in the adjacent office who wants that promotion, desperately wants to hear behind those closed doors. Now they can. Anybody can. Easily. Covertly. Cheaply... more

Gemini (AI) Launched - Spying Will Never be the Same

It has been in the wild one day.
Imagine where it will be in a year.

 "Analyze this satellite photo. What do you see? How is it important? What are the vulnerabilities? How can I get information from that building? Analyze their networks. What are the vulnerabilities? Design an attack plan." ...all in less than a minute.

:( Update... Google’s new Gemini AI model is getting a mixed reception after its big debut yesterday, but users may have less confidence in the company’s tech or integrity after finding out that the most impressive demo of Gemini was pretty much faked. more

Updater's Update... In a social media post made after this article was published, Google DeepMind’s VP of Research Oriol Vinyals showed a bit more of how “Gemini was used to create” the video. “The video illustrates what the multimodal user experiences built with Gemini could look like. We made it to inspire developers.” ... Perhaps I will eat crow when, next week, the AI Studio with Gemini Pro is made available to experiment with.

I'll stick with, "Imagine where it will be in a year."

Baby Monitor or Bug? You decide...

In a recent post on the popular subreddit "Am I the A**hole?" (AITA), one distraught user, u/dumblonde7, sought the community's judgment on a delicate family situation.

The post, titled "AITA for 'snooping' on my baby camera?" details a troubling incident involving the user's mother-in-law and a revelation that unfolded through the lens of a baby monitor.

The author recounts receiving a notification on the baby camera in their child's crib and deciding to check in.

The unexpected discovery was a conversation between the mother-in-law and her husband, during which the mother-in-law was allegedly spreading falsehoods about a previous conversation she had with the author.

The user confronted her mother-in-law about the incident, leading to a heated disagreement with the mother-in-law expressing discontent over the perceived invasion of privacy.

The Redditor wrote: "When I opened [the baby camera], my mother-in-law was talking about me to my husband (he was standing up for me of course). She was lying, to my husband, about a conversation she and I had. I confronted her about what she said, and she is mad I was 'snooping.' AITA?" more

Smart Toys Spying on Children

Smart toys are becoming more common, and an increase in concerns about them spying on children has coincided with that, according to a new report from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund.

In its Trouble in Toyland" report released Thursday, the organization explained that smart toys "can incorporate various technologies, like cameras, microphones and sensors, as well as artificial intelligence capabilities and connectivity through the internet or Bluetooth." It specifically flagged some risks that it said parents and their children could see arise. more
How We Got This Way - The effect of kids being influenced by their spy toys.

Fine... Feathered Drones Now

Boffins create drone that flies exactly like a bird to blend in on spying missions. 

This drone flies exactly like a bird so it blends in on spying missions. The wing-flapping robot mimics the natural flight of its feathered counterparts. The Icelandic company behind it, said it could be for military or private use. Silent Flyer UAV went on display during the DroneX expo at East London’s ExCel centre. It is designed by Icelandic company Flygildi.

Earlier this year we revealed creepily realistic drones made from dead birds were being developed by scientists. more

Top Harvard Scientist: Alien mothership might be spying on us from orbit...

Prof Avi Loeb claims we shouldn't dismiss the possibility that we have already been visited by extraterrestrial life.

It’s a conspiracy theory so prevalent it has entered the mainstream. Everyone, it seems, has heard of the idea that the US government is sitting on proof that extraterrestrials exist and have been visiting Earth for decades.

It’s easy to dismiss such stories, but seriously, could there be even a small amount of truth in it? Could extraterrestrial probes really be functioning near Earth? We don’t know. But Harvard astronomer Prof Avi Loeb’s Galileo Project aims to investigate... more