Snapple "Real Fact" #726 – Polar Bears v. Infrared Cameras v. TSCM

I had a Snapple tea the other day and found this "Real Fact" #726 under the cap.

We use infrared cameras in our work, and know how they work. This "Real Fact" struck all of us here as odd. An IR camera would not detect a polar bear because its fur was transparent?!?!

Oxymoron? No, just sensationalism. The mixing of two unrelated facts to manufacture an unexpected outcome designed to surprise... aka Fake News.

The real "Real Fact" reason... 

• Yes, a polar bear's fur is mostly transparent, and hollow too! 
• Yes, IR cameras would have a difficult time detecting a polar bear.

Polar bears live in a cold climate. Retaining body heat is important. Fur and a thick layer of fat provide insulation. Insulation prevents heat from escaping their bodies, and heat is what IR cameras detect.

Insulation is the "Real Fact"
It's not that the fur is mostly transparent, or that polar bears alone have super-powers. IR invisibility is also true for the Arctic fox and other mammals living in cold environments.

The Technical Surveillance Countermeasures field (TSCM) is also riddled with "Real Facts", like inflated bug-find claims, and pervasive laser beam eavesdropping fearmongering.

It always pays to scratch the surface.
Examine the science.
Apply some common sense.
Visit us for the Real Facts about TSCM. ~Kevin

FLIR Black Hornet - US Army Mini-Drones Deployed - Flying Binoculars

• US Army soldiers are, for the first time, getting personal reconnaissance drones small enough to fit on a soldier's utility belt.
• A soldier could send one of these little drones out to get a view of the battlefield all while staying put in a covered, concealed position.
• This awesome technology is a potential game changer, one that is expected to save lives by significantly reducing the risk soldiers take in battle. more  Early promo video.  Want one for your desk. Check eBay.

Military mini-drones have been a holy grail since the 1970's. Since 2009 they have developed rapidly. In 2019 they are a practical reality and are being deployed. 

FutureWatch: Expect many additional capabilities over a short period of time. Poisonous mosquitoes, self-planting eavesdropping bugs, anyone?

Mini-Drone History
Early 2014 Army version.
The British Army version from 2013. 
2009 DARPA version.
1970's CIA version.
For all of our drone posts, click here.  
Enjoy. ~Kevin

FutureWatch: Cheaper Infrared Cameras

A new breakthrough by scientists with the University of Chicago, however, may one day lead to much more cost-effective infrared cameras—which in turn could enable infrared cameras for common consumer electronics like phones, as well as sensors to help autonomous cars see their surroundings more accurately.

They tweaked the quantum dots so that they had a formula to detect short-wave infrared and one for mid-wave infrared. Then they laid both together on top of a silicon wafer.

The resulting camera performs extremely well and is much easier to produce. "It's a very simple process," Tang said. "You take a beaker, inject a solution, inject a second solution, wait five to 10 minutes, and you have a new solution that can be easily fabricated into a functional device." more

FutureWatch: Invisible-Light-Powered Eavesdropping Devices

Wi-Charge uses safe infrared light to deliver power from a distance. Our products provide enough power to charge a phone across a room, to power smart devices and enable new experiences. With Wi-Charge, mobile and IoT devices appear to charge autonomously. New applications open for homes, offices, factories and public spaces.

Battery-powered devices are portable, but battery capacity limits functionality and the need to replace batteries degrades the user experience. Moving wired devices, routing or hiding the power cords is a pain. Wi-Charge delivers 100x the power budget of battery solutions. With Wi-Charge, you can have the convenience of wire-free portability with a power budget approaching to a wired solution. more

Lots of good uses, and possibly some evil ones. 
Thanks to another Canadian Blue Blaze Irregular for spotting this one!

Could Your Smartphone Battery Spy on You? (unlikely, but...)

Most batteries in today’s smartphone are intelligent enough to detect how people use their phones and employ power-saving technologies that result in longer battery life. That advantage sounds excellent all around, but...

The researchers who authored a paper [PDF] on the subject of smartphone batteries capable of spying on people pointed out that this hack would be quick to implement and difficult to detect. They say smartphone owners may even participate in helping the hacks happen by installing malicious batteries themselves.

It could happen in a scenario where a hacker sets up an online store and entices users with promises of extra-long battery life and low prices, sends a purchaser the battery and waits for it to become installed in the phone to begin the tracking segment of the hack.

Plus, the battery could be capable of continuous monitoring, giving hackers the opportunity to see almost all the things the targets do with their phones, whether that’s browsing the internet, typing on the phone’s keyboard or receiving calls. more

A bug made to look like a cell phone battery...

IoT - Hackers Get A Bright Idea

The so-called Internet of Things, its proponents argue, offers many benefits...

Now here’s the bad news: Putting a bunch of wirelessly connected devices in one area could prove irresistible to hackers. And it could allow them to spread malicious code through the air, like a flu virus on an airplane.

Researchers report in a paper to be made public on Thursday that they have uncovered a flaw in a wireless technology that is often included in smart home devices like lights, switches, locks, thermostats...

The researchers focused on the Philips Hue smart light bulb and found that the wireless flaw could allow hackers to take control of the light bulbs...

That may not sound like a big deal. But imagine thousands or even hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices in close proximity. Malware created by hackers could be spread like a pathogen among the devices by compromising just one of them. more

UPDATE
This Virus Automatically Kills Smart Light Bulbs
A group of researchers says they found a way to have a self-replicating worm spread through internet-connected lightbulbs, turning them them off, bricking them, or make them all turn on and off multiple times to disrupt the electric grid. “A single infected lamp with a modified firmware which is plugged-in anywhere in the city can start an explosive chain reaction in which each lamp will infect and replace the firmware in all its neighbors within a range of up to a few hundred meters,” the researchers wrote in the paper. more

Seek Thermal CompactPRO — Possible TSCM Tool Coming Soon

Seek Thermal has announced the first thermal imager for smartphones with 76,800 temperature pixels.

The new CompactPRO is said to deliver the high-quality thermal image resolution and the enhanced software features professionals demand, including:

• 320 x 240 thermal sensor
• Wide 32-degree field of view
• Minimum focusable distance of 15cm
• Emissivity control
• Thermal level and span
• 9 color palettes

I plan on testing this and will report in a future post. ~Kevin

The Cell Phone with the Infrared Eye

This rough-and-tumble phone's major selling point is a Flir thermal imaging camera,

which can visualize heat as a colorful map, taking measurements from up to 30 meters (100 feet) away. You can use it for a huge number of tasks, from detecting heat loss around windows and doors to identifying overheating circuitry, or just seeing in the dark.

The main target audience is, as with previous Cat-branded phones, people who work in construction and plumbers or electricians. The S60 will be available later this year for $599, which converts to around £425 or AU$835.

In case of emergency
Flir imagines that others, including emergency first responders and outdoor enthusiasts, may also find uses for the phone. If police come across an abandoned car, for example, they can use the thermal imaging camera to determine whether the engine or seats are still warm, or whether there's a body anywhere in the vicinity. more

Yet More Invisibility Eyeglasses

This year, AVG will reveal a set of concept invisibility glasses at Pepcom in Barcelona before Mobile World Congress. 

What are invisibility glasses?

Developed by AVG Innovation Labs, the glasses help protect your visual identity in the digital age.

Through a mixture of technology and specialist materials, privacy wearables such as invisibility glasses can make it difficult for cameras or other facial recognition technologies to get a clear view of your identity.

...there are generally two different methods of combating unwanted facial recognition:

Infrared Light
The idea is to place infrared LEDs inserted around the eyes and the nose areas. Since the infrared lights are completely invisible to human eyes, they are only detectable by cameras which are sensitive to the wavelengths of these LEDs. They claim to break face detection when the lights are on.

In this example we show how infrared can be used to avoid Facebook’s facial recognition technology.

Retro-reflective Materials
These specialist materials help maintain your privacy at the moment that the image is actually taken.

PS - This is a proof-of-concept project. Not for sale. However, you can make your own.

Other glasses.

Note: Many cell phone cameras have infrared cutoff filters built into their lenses... and you can bet law enforcement facial recognition systems do too.

Could this be the end of the flashlight?

New, low-cost chips for sensing thermal energy could lead to a raft of new night-vision products, engineers say, ushering in everything from smarter cars to handheld devices for spelunking (and possibly bug hunting).

A new technology used by Raytheon, “wafer-level packaging,” dramatically reduces the cost of making these thermal sensors. The advances could – for the first time – put a thermal weapons sight in the hands of every soldier in a platoon. But the commercial and law-enforcement uses are endless, too, developers say.

“Once it reaches a certain price point, you’ll see it kind of popping up in a lot of different areas,” said Adam Kennedy, a lead engineer at Raytheon Vision Systems. “That’s just very, very exciting.” (more)

Laser Beam Eavesdropping - In the News Again

Since the 1970's, stories about laser listeners have periodically popped up in the news. The common thread is their magical ability to eavesdrop from far away using only an invisible beam of light. Fear mongering is the next element, closely followed by, "very expensive, only the government can buy one."

The reporters are either clueless or haven't done any decent research. Their information sources have vested interests: like governments spreading disinformation; or "de-bugging experts" and spyshop owners hoping the publicity will boost their business. Funny, a working device is never demonstrated, and nobody even claims first-hand knowledge.

Today, the BBC fell victim. Here is the story they published...

Not true.

The UK government has warned the Guardian newspaper that foreign agents could use laser technology to eavesdrop on them, in the wake of recent surveillance leaks. What are laser listening devices and are they effective? (more)

The theory is sound. CD / DVD players use it on a small scale. YouTube is full of videos demonstrating the technique... under very controlled conditions, with less than sterling results. But, is it really a practical surveillance tool? Click here for our research.

TSCM Bug Sweep Cost Question & Infrared Instrumentation Example

Security Director: "When I ask for TSCM bug sweep quotes I get some prices which seem incredibly low. Shouldn't everyone be in the same ballpark?"

Answer: There are many reasons for this. Most revolve around skimping by the vendor — on everything from insurance to training to instrumentation.

Let's look at one representative example, thermal imaging...

Most TSCM providers these days offer thermal imaging as a detection technique. The skimpers use ineffective, cheap cameras – just so they can claim this capability. It is a dishonest marketing ploy which lets skimpers "say" they are in the game.

Cost:
• Outdated and low-end utility thermal cameras are available on ebay for less than $2,000.
• High-sensitivity / resolution thermal cameras cost between $25,000-$50,000.

DIY Test:
A TSCM-capable infrared thermal camera will clearly show heat from a fingerprint after an object has been lightly and briefly, touched.

Generally speaking, low-cost equals low probability of detection. Effective TSCM service costs are driven by capital / educational investment... and sincere commitment.

Moral: A cheap sweep is worse than no sweep. Bugs aren't eliminated, just your sense of caution, and budget.

[sotto voce] If you like cartoons, hire a clown.