Privoro Launches Audio Masking Chamber & RF Shield for Mobile Devices

(Press release) 
Privoro, today revealed its latest product, Vault, a first-of-its-kind defense against remote data capture. The Vault case is a two-in-one portable Faraday enclosure and audio masking chamber for smartphones, providing unsurpassed protection against not only wireless attacks and location tracking but also eavesdropping and spying.

Vault eliminates smartphone signals more effectively than portable, fabric-based Faraday products, delivering a minimum of 100 dB of radio frequency (RF) attenuation – 10 billion times signal reduction. When a smartphone is placed in the Vault case, the smartphone can no longer be reached via cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, near-field communication (NFC) and radio-frequency identification (RFID).

In addition to RF shielding, Vault's user-controlled audio masking prevents the extraction of intelligible speech up to voice levels of 90 dBA through independent noise signals. Users will have the assurance that conversations in the vicinity of Vault cannot be deliberately captured by bad actors through the enclosed smartphone's cameras and microphones.

Privoro developed Vault to meet the requirements of nation-state customers seeking to tackle the long-standing unique and critical security risks that mobile devices pose. 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.

High Profile Executives — A Company’s Most Vulnerable Target

High-profile people—executives, the board of directors, and other leaders—are privy to sensitive information that cybercriminals lust after which makes them primary targets... 

FBI statistics show that defrauding CEOs is a “$12 billion scam.” When private information about these high-net-worth individuals gets exposed, it carries a high degree of risk for that individual and their business alike. It might even include threats against the executive’s own physical security or that of their family...

When information is readily available about a wealthy person, bad actors have more leverage to compromise them. Consider that Facebook’s board of directors recently granted Mark Zuckerberg a $10 million yearly allowance to security. That money goes to personnel, equipment, and services needed to keep him and his family safe by maintaining vigilance across both physical and digital realms. more

Security Tip: Why it Always Pays to Hire The Best.

Following the revelation that the The National Enquirer had obtained intimate texts and images between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanches, Bezos ordered an investigation into who was behind the data breach.

In a post on The Daily Beast, Bezos’ security consultant Gavin De Becker says that his team of investigators have “concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone...” more

Cybercriminals Home in on Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals

Research shows that better corporate security has resulted in some hackers shifting their sights to the estates and businesses of wealthy families.

Threat intelligence experts and research groups have seen a shift of cybercriminals increasingly targeting ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals and their family businesses...

More than half the attacks were viewed as malicious. And, nearly one-third came from an inside threat, such as an employee intentionally leaking confidential information. more

Congratulations to the corporations who have instituted better information security practices. Their elevated security includes periodic checks for electronic surveillance, or Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM). 

These checks are absolutely necessary at family compounds and home offices. There, guests, staff, and tradespeople have great opportunities to plant audio, video and data electronic surveillance devices.

Being Your Own Bodyguard, by Richard Roth (Kindle)

Click to enlarge.

Foreword by The Honorable Carlos C. Campbell

Rich Roth condenses over four decades of experience as a member of the United States Secret Service, and as a private security consultant and bodyguard.

His business portfolio includes cyber security, executive protection, aircraft and airport vulnerability, threat assessment and mitigation, training, perimeter detection and CCTV systems design and crisis management.

From the plazas of Paris, to dodging the guns in the Gaza strip, to the cafes in Caracas, Roth slips out of the shadows of surveillance to inform readers about how they can protect themselves through situational awareness, adaptation, and employ techniques and tactics for survival and mitigation.

Being Your Own Bodyguard deals with physical layouts and boundaries, psychological characteristics, and physiognomic [facial expressions] clues in assessing threats. Rich draws heavily on his experience with the USSS that includes over one hundred protection assignments. more

Infographic - Countries Where Private Security Outnumber Police

Whether they're patrolling shopping malls, conducting screening at airports or protecting VIPs, private security guards have become an increasingly common sight across the world. 

In many countries, they are armed with handguns and even dress in uniforms similar to the police.

The sector has experienced huge growth in recent years and today there are an estimated 20 million private security workers worldwide while the industry is worth approximately $180 billion. That is expected to grow even further to $240 billion by 2020, greater than the GDP of 100 countries including Portugal, Romania and Hungary.

According to research conducted by The Guardian, half of the planet's population lives in countries where there are more private security workers than police officers. more

Click to enlarge.

It is likely these are very conservative statistics, as they don't include security specialists, like: professional security consultants, Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) specialists, private investigators, computer security specialists, and people working in the alarm and video surveillance sectors. ~Kevin

Invention: Simple Device Allows Fast Lockdowns in Schools

As school carpenter Cory Webster replaced dozens of deteriorating rubber door stoppers that were installed to help keep Palos Verdes Peninsula classrooms safe in the event of a lockdown, he thought there must be a better way...

The 123 Lock-down Latch works much like a hotel door bumper: a teacher simply slides the metal lever to prevent a locked door from closing. When a lockdown happens, anyone inside the classroom can slide the lever back and the door closes and locks...

Because most classroom doors can only be locked from the outside with a key, the teacher can leave the door locked but with the latch engaged during passing period to allow students in and out easily. In the event of an active shooter, it’s not always safe for a teacher to step outside to lock the door. With the latch, there’s no need to fumble for keys or leave the classroom to secure the door. more

Corporate Espionage Alert - Whale Phishing in 2018

Phishing scams are becoming ever more sophisticated...

“We need to focus on people patching and the human firewall,” said Anthony Dagostino, global head of cyber risk at Willis Towers Watson. “This requires more effective training and awareness campaigns to make sure people aren’t clicking on things...

“We will see more whale phishing in 2018, where cyber criminals will target individuals based on things like their LinkedIn or Facebook profiles,” Dagostino told Insurance Business. “General counsel, chief financial officers and even board members are being very specifically targeted just for hackers to get certain information they have.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be for a data breach – it’s really corporate espionage driven. They either want to get information on an up-coming acquisition, or future business plans that they can use for insider trading.” more

Counter-Espionage For Business Travelers Course

The Counter-Espionage for Business Travelers Course is a two-day seminar designed to educate those individuals in your organization who may become targets of espionage, whether knowingly or unknowingly, from an economic competitor or a hostile intelligence service.

Unfortunately, most business travelers are untrained, and thus unprepared, to handle even the most common espionage tactics, such as:

• Elicitation
• Bribery
• Blackmail
• Extortion
• Electronic Surveillance
• Electronic Exploitation
• Physical Surveillance
• Hotel/Office Covert Intrusions

A small sample of the topics covered include:

• Economic vs. Industrial Espionage
• Foreign Intelligence Collection Methods
• How to Recognize Elicitation and Recruiting Techniques
• Operational Security (OPSEC) Awareness
• Communication Security (COMSEC) Awareness
• Data Attack and Intrusion Methodologies
• How to become an "Invisible Traveler"
• Surveillance Detection Techniques

If you can't go for the course, at least go for some good books on the subject:

Among Enemies: Counter Espionage for the Business Traveler by Luke Bencie.

Staying Safe Abroad: Traveling, Working & Living in a Post-9/11 World by Edward L. Lee

The Catch Santa in the Act App, by Snowden?!?!

Earlier this year, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden met with Jacqueline Moudeina, the first female lawyer in Chad and a legendary human rights advocate... 

Snowden told Moudeina that he was working on an app that could turn a mobile device into a kind of motion sensor in order to notify you when your devices are being tampered with.

The app could also tell you when someone had entered a room without you knowing, if someone had moved your things, or if someone had stormed into your friend’s house in the middle of the night.

Snowden recounted that pivotal conversation in an interview with the Verge. “She got very serious and told me, ‘I need this. I need this now. There’s so many people around us who need this.’”

Haven, announced today, is an app that does just that. Installed on a cheap burner Android device, Haven sends notifications to your personal, main phone in the event that your laptop has been tampered with.

If you leave your laptop at home or at an office or in a hotel room, you can place your Haven phone on top of the laptop, and when Haven detects motion, light, or movement — essentially, anything that might be someone messing with your stuff — it logs what happened. It takes photos, records sound, even takes down changes in light or acceleration, and then sends notifications to your main phone.

None of this logging is stored in the cloud, and the notifications you receive on your main phone are end-to-end encrypted over Signal. more

TSCM - A Prudent Business Practice - Misunderstood by the Press

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency used public money to have his office swept for hidden listening devices and bought sophisticated biometric locks for additional security.

The spending items, totaling nearly $9,000, are among a string of increased counter-surveillance precautions taken by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt...

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox defended the spending. "Administrator Pruitt has received an unprecedented amount of threats against him...

Wilcox said that under the Obama administration, then-EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson also had her office swept for listening devices. more

Conducting Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) is an integral part of any competent information security program. 

It is a common, albeit subtle, business practice in the private sector, and an absolute requirement in governments worldwide. 

The cost of a strategic information loss via undiscovered electronic surveillance makes proactive TSCM inspections look like pocket change cheap insurance. However, unlike insurance, TSCM inspections can prevent the loss.  

Visit counterespionage.com to learn more. ~Kevin

Optical Spying Through Office Windows

With talented hackers able to break into just about any device that's connected to the internet, from a computer to a car, the best way to keep sensitive data safe is to cut the cord completely.

Keeping an "air gap" between a hard drive and other devices forces any would-be thief to physically go to the machine ... or so you might think. Cyber security researchers have shown that hackers could hijack the innocent flashing LED on the outside of a computer, and use it to beam a steady stream of data to a waiting drone.

...digital criminals can be extremely crafty, using acoustic signals to jump the air gap between devices from a distance or untangling typed text by listening via Skype to the clickety-clack of a keyboard.

Now, a team at the Ben-Gurion University Cyber Security Research Center has demonstrated a new way that creative crooks could crack that isolated data. A piece of malware infecting an air-gapped computer could harness the hard drive's LED, making it flash in a very controlled and very fast manner. Flickering thousands of times a second, the virus could blink out a binary code of the desired data, at a rate that a human sitting at that computer wouldn't even notice. Special cameras or light sensors – say from a drone hovering at the window, with a line of sight to the LED – could then receive and record that information. more

Spybusters Tip #792: External visual surveillance through windows is easy using high-powered optics, or even cameras on drones. Keep computer screens, and their blinky lights, away from external line-of-sight. 

Spybusters Tip #793: Enforce a "Clear Desk Policy" when sensitive information is not actively being used. ~Kevin

Special TSCM Offer for Executive Protection Professionals and their Clients

Executive Protection Professionals are talented and skilled. They handle:

• Physical security
• Intelligence analysis
• Family office security
• Transportation security
• Communications security  
• Advance travel preparation
• Estate employee background checks
• Vetting external vendors and contractors 

 and more.

They are not to be confused with bouncers or scary-looking bodyguard types.

Protection of inside information, and communications privacy, is obviously an important part of the overall EP security strategy.

Founded in 1978, Murray Associates provides these elements of security by being the adjunct technical security consultant.

If you are an Executive Protection Professional, investigate this special get-acquainted offer. Your principal will thank you.