Flashback - July 1988 - Eavesdropping in America

 July 1988 - Eavesdropping in America

A podcast before there were podcasts. Ted was way ahead of his time.

Two FREE Security Book Offers for Potential Clients

Free books are a great way to get to know who you are dealing with, before you decide to deal with them!

---

While international travel has come to a screeching halt due to COVID-19, the threat of economic and industrial espionage continues to proliferate. 

In fact, due to the global pandemic, intellectual property (IP) and business intelligence (BI) is more valuable than ever to foreign governments and business competitors, looking to gain an economic advantage in the marketplace. 

Among Enemies: Counter-Espionage for the Business Traveler, by Luke Bencie, is a valuable textbook. It should be read by, "corporate executives, defense contractors, lawyers, academics, military personnel, diplomats and virtually anyone else who travels with important information, how to protect their themselves and their interests."

It has a 4.4 out of 5 star rating on Amazon, and 25 excellent reviews. You may purchase a copy there. Visit Luke's website (smiconsultancy.com/) first. If his services can help your organization, request a complimentary copy.

---

This informative bundle should also be on every security director's desk...

Is My Cell Phone Bugged?: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Mobile Conversations Private (Coincidentally, This book also has a 4.4 out of 5 star rating on Amazon, and 25 excellent reviews.)

The Security Director's Guide to Discussing TSCM with Management

Both are available to Murray Associates potential clients. Complimentary. No obligation. No follow-up sales call unless you request it.

Visit counterespionage.com to learn how to detect and deter electronic surveillance and corporate espionage. Click here to request you complimentary bundle.

Accurate knowledge is the first step in protecting your privacy and valuable information. Contact us through our websites, today.  (offer expires 10/31/2020)

Electronic Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) are in More Budgets These Days

CA - Modesto has allocated as much as $700,000 over the next two years for law firms and private investigators...

Modesto issued what is called a Request for Proposals to seek law firms and investigators for this work. 

The request asked for such services as “surveillance, investigative research, interviews, background investigations, undercover investigations, people locates, Internet & E-mail tracing, computer examinations as well as electronic surveillance countermeasures,” according to the RFP. more

Read more here: https://www.modbee.com/news/local/article245640555.html#storylink=cpy

Make sure they are not in your business.
Conduct periodic TSCM inspections.

Read more here: https://www.modbee.com/news/local/article245640555.html#storylink=cpy

GPS Tracker – World’s Smallest and More

A GPS tracker can be incredibly small. Once the size of bricks some can now fit on your finger.

New features have arrived, too. Some have…

• SOS buttons
• Audio eavesdropping capability
• Integration with Google Maps
• Speed reporting
• Geo-fencing with automatic alerts
• Disable vehicle
• Updates every five seconds
• Wireless recharging
• Worldwide coverage
• Bluetooth – for tracking the last few feet

read more

The World’s Smallest Voice Recorder?

Is this The World’s Smallest Voice Recorder?

(PDF version)

Specifications
TileRec by ATTO Digital 
Ultra-small: ≈1.53”x1.53”x.02” (≈39 x 39 x 5 mm)
Record modes: Voice activated or continuous.
Storage capacity: 145 hours.
Format: 128 kbps CD Quality MP3.
Playback: Download files to any computer.
Battery “on time”: Up to 24 hours.
Battery charge time: 2 hours.
Housing: Sturdy aluminum case.
Operates with one on/off switch.
Cost: $59.80 Amazon

Voice recorders keep getting smaller and smaller. 

However, If smallest means thin to you, yes there is a thinner one, the Edic-mini Tiny16+ A75…
 1 mm thinner, 12 mm less wide, but double the length. And, at $345, six times the price. They also make one card-key sized (2.7 mm thin).

 

If by smallest you mean really, really thin… You might want to consider the NAGRA Dollar Bill recorder that’s being marketed to law enforcement instead. Thirty-one times as expensive as the TileRec.

There are many slightly larger voice recorders that are still considered to be mini in size. Our search on eBay returned 1,809 results and over 2,000 on Amazon.

 

The prices on eBay ranged from $1.45 (with free shipping from China!) to $2,000. for the Edic-mini Tiny+ B76-150HQ. The Edic-mini Tiny+ being closest in size to the TileRec.

A Voice Recorder Manufacturer Speaks

Jang Sung-Churl, chief executive of electronics firm Auto Jungbo Co. Ltd., told Reuters that covert recording devices “have been selling like hotcakes” …sales of voice recorders so far this year (2019) have doubled to 80 devices per day, Jang said as he forecast sales to also double this calendar year to 1.4 billion won ($1,172,289).

Think about it. That's almost 30,000 devices sold per year... before the expected doubling of sales. And, he is only one manufacturer. An educated guess is that there are thousands of manufacturers around the world.

Accessibility + Affordability = Big Concerns.

 

Who Cares About Voice Recorder Size?

Lots of folks, for many and varied reasons…

• Sneaky people who want to eavesdrop.
• Sneaky people who want to entrap others.
• Anyone worried about covert surveillance.
• Local law enforcement detectives and Private Investigators. They might not have the budget necessary for a covert NAGRA Dollar Bill Recorder, but have the smarts to slap a TileRec between two one-dollar bills.
• Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) Technicians whose job it is to find illegal, electronic surveillance devices.

It all boils down to these two things:
People hiding voice recorders, and… thwarting the people doing it.

 

Discovering Voice Recorders 

Since the offense has the advantage let’s concentrate on the defense.

The average covert voice recorder will either be carried by a person to record face to face conversations or it will be hidden within conversations-of-interest areas.

 

In-Person Recording Detection Tips

• Since frisking is probably out of the question, assume you are being recorded.
 Even if you could frisk, results would be iffy; these voice recorders are tiny.
• At the outset of a conversation ask the other person if they are recording you. Watch their reaction. Do they overly protest, or fake anger? 

If they say no but record anyway, the recording’s value can be challenged. They lied, so maybe they also faked, edited or doctored the recording.
• Also… Be professional. If you would not say it in a courtroom, don’t say it.

Big Red Flag – When someone tries to recreate a previous conversation with you.

 

Covert Recording Detection Tips

• Pay attention to your surroundings. Who has access and when? Voice recorders need to be retrieved: to review recordings and to recharge batteries.
• Avoid using the same area for all your sensitive conversations. Use various and unpredictable locations if possible.
• Conducting your own search for surveillance devices is futile. An experienced eavesdropper will plant one easy-to-find device. They know the search will stop at that point. The harder-to-find device and it’s back-up will still be on the job. Without proper training and instrumentation your success is unlikely.
• 

For office and home office situations an independent Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) sweep team should be employed. Have them conduct periodic due diligence debugging inspections. In addition to searching for room audio and video surveillance devices have them check your vehicles. Vehicle inspections also include a search for GPS tracking devices.

 

TileRec Voice Recorder Detection Test

 

Testing Our Defenses

Murray Associates conducted tests to determine the effectiveness of their detection techniques on mini voice recorders. 

TileRec was difficult–but not impossible–to detect compared to other recorders tested.

During a professional TSCM inspection the technician’s physical search is aided by an instrument called a Non-Linear Junction Detector (NLJD). This instrument can detect electronic surveillance devices, including mini voice recorders, active or dormant.

A distance of 3 to 4 inches was chosen to test the NLJD detection technique. This simulates the recorder being secreted within another object. Green shows the power output. Red shows the level of detection.

With the NLJD set at 50% power output the TileRec was barely detectable. When the power was increased to 90-100%, success. Even at this higher power operator skill in using the NLJD was critical.

Conclusions

• The TileRec is (probably)
  The World’s Smallest (affordable)
  Voice Recorder (as of now).
• Size doesn’t matter. Any mini recorder can be easily secreted and threaten privacy.
• The market for mini recorders is huge. There are a lot of them out there. Some of the very good ones are very inexpensive.
• Detection is difficult, but not impossible.
• The best self-protection tactic is watching what you say and situational awareness. Critical situations require the assistance of a professional TSCM / counterespionage firm.

* * *

Kevin D. Murray CPP, CISM, CFE is a business counterespionage consultant and TSCM specialist with over four decades of experience.

Murray Associates is an independent counterespionage consulting firm, providing eavesdropping detection (TSCM) and counterespionage services to business, government and the at-risk individual.
 

Headquartered in the New York metropolitan area, a Murray Associates team can assist you quickly, anywhere in the United States, and internationally.

If you have any questions, or would like to schedule TSCM / information security audits, please let us know.

Google Searches for TSCM and Wiretap up in Past Week

The Crazy Story of How Soviet Russia Bugged an American Embassy’s Typewriters

...All of the electronics at the embassy—some 10 tons of equipment—was securely shipped back to the United States. Every piece was disassembled and X-rayed.

After tens of thousands of fruitless X-rays, a technician noticed a small coil of wire inside the on/off switch of an IBM Selectric typewriter. Gandy believed that this coil was acting as a step-down transformer to supply lower-voltage power to something within the typewriter. Eventually he uncovered a series of modifications that had been concealed so expertly that they had previously defied detection.

A solid aluminum bar, part of the structural support of the typewriter, had been replaced with one that looked identical but was hollow. Inside the cavity was a circuit board and six magnetometers. The magnetometers sensed movements of tiny magnets that had been embedded in the transposers that moved the typing “golf ball” into position for striking a given letter. more

"Electronic Device" Found in Mayor's Office

MI - Flint Police are investigating after an electronic surveillance device was found inside Flint City Hall.

The device was found in the mayor's office, Interim Police Chief Phil Hart said.

Hart said he cannot speak as to what the capabilities of the electronic surveillance device are at this time.

No other information has been released because it is still under investigation. more

Former Flint Police Chief Timothy Johnson believed the device could've been in City Hall when Former Mayor Karen Weaver was in office. 

He said she was concerned when she moved into City Hall that it had been bugged with recording devices. So Johnson said they checked her office, even removing ceiling tiles.* But, he explained, Weaver's was the only office they checked. more

* A professional technical surveillance countermeasures inspection is quite a bit more thorough.

More People Searching for Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM)

Analysis: More organizations are hardening their defenses against electronic surveillance and information theft.  With TSCM information security surveys becoming mainstream attacks will shift toward the defenseless...

Defenseless equals lunch in the Infowar Jungle.

CNN - In 1999 a listening device was planted inside the State Department...

After a suspicious rise in Russian diplomats visiting the State Department in 1999, the FBI worked with the Diplomatic Security Service to follow mysterious radio frequencies. For more, watch "Declassified" Sunday at 11 p.m. ET/PT. more

Thanks to our Blue Blase Irregular at Big T for spotting this one for us.

Spy Camera Detectors – Do they work? How do they work?

Covert cameras have been around since the 1800’s. Interestingly, as soon as photography developed, people wanted to surreptitiously take photos. From voyeurs to private eyes, a spycam was the gadget to have.

In 1900, movie maker, George Albert Smith, glamorized optical voyeurism in his movie, As Seen Through a Telescope. We will take a historical shortcut here and leave the discovery of these early film spy cameras to auctioneers and collectors.

Our spy camera detection history begins with the advent of CCD and CMOS behind the lens. These are the electronic sensors within modern digital spy cameras which capture images.

With a little knowledge—aided by some inexpensive gadgets—you can detect spycams! Continued here.

Eavesdropping and TSCM Trends Track Each Other

Conclusion: As organizations and individuals realize that electronic eavesdropping is escalating, they search for Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) services, aka bug sweeps.

A Tanning Salon Spycam & Molka Madness

IN - A Sullivan man is facing charges of voyeurism after an investigation at a local tanning salon found a hidden camera in one of the tanning rooms. ...a woman reported that a video was taken of her by a cell phone located in a vent in the tanning room. more

----

In South Korea, the use of hidden cameras to spy on women in public places - known as molka - is a massive problem. This high-tech voyeurism is made possible by the availability of tiny spycams.

The government is now taking the crime more seriously. It has introduced heavier punishments for perpetrators, shut down websites used to share molka footage, and stepped up checks of public places. more

Government funded Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) inspections...

Last year, tens of thousands of women took to the streets of Seoul in protest. 

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

The Steinger, Iscoe & Greene Law Firm Bugging

A fascinating case, still unfolding!
What happened...

While attorney Gary Iscoe — the Iscoe of the decades-old Steinger, Iscoe & Greene personal injury law firm — is gone and two other associates have been fired, the strange goings-on remain shrouded in mystery. “It’s very John Grisham,” said attorney Michael Pike, who is representing the firm in a lawsuit aimed at finding out who the spies were, what they were seeking and why.

Listening devices behind a ceiling tile

When the firm’s finance director found drywall debris on the floor of her office when she came to work on Sept. 10, she asked a maintenance man to pop up a ceiling tile, according to West Palm Beach police who were summoned to investigate two days later. There, hidden in the recesses of the ceiling, the finance director and others discovered wires that were linked to an audio receiver, police said.

...police said they found wires running to cameras, microphones and recording equipment mainly in the firm’s finance, marketing and human resources departments. Some of the wires had been cut and a video recording device was missing.

...it appears whoever installed the devices hurriedly removed the digital recorder once they realized police had been called.

From other authorized cameras at the firm, police said they recovered a video that showed two people, carrying tools and a ladder, entering the office at about 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 9. Employees couldn’t identify one of the intruders, police said. The other person caught on camera was identified by employees as Michael Coronel, a 26-year-old former Marine who had worked as an investigator at the firm for about six months... more | analysis

Protecting Confidential Information - The Japanese Model

Japan - The government is making every effort to keep information on the new Imperial era name secret until its announcement Monday and officials are even checking plants inside the Prime Minister’s Office for possible bugging devices...

The government will ask members of the expert panel, parliamentary leaders and Cabinet ministers not to bring any recording devices, including smartphones, into the rooms where the new era name will be presented and not to leave there before the announcement.

The government plans to check the belongings of panel members before they enter the Prime Minister’s Office and have government personnel escort them to restrooms so they will not make any contact with outsiders. more

Multiple Audio/Video Eavesdropping Devices Found in Boardroom, Office and Records Room

South Africa - Science and technology minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane has filed a complaint with the State Security Agency (SSA) after cameras were found in her office, the Sunday Times reports.

Police found multiple cameras which could record both video and sound, and could be accessed remotely.

The cameras were were reportedly placed within the minister’s boardroom, records room, and office.

According to the report, the cameras were discovered when senior managers confronted junior staff about discussions they had with the minister in her office. more

Note: The devices were only discovered when the eavesdroppers let on that they knew more than they should. Dumb on their part. 

Dumber, however, is they were not found sooner with a routine Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) sweep, a standard practice at many organizations these days.

Austria: Bugging Devices Found... and then, a break-in!

The office of Austrian far-right leader and vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache was broken into this week, shortly after bugging devices were discovered there, and a criminal inquiry has been launched, prosecutors said on Thursday.

The break-in occurred on Wednesday night while Strache, whose Freedom Party entered the governing coalition after elections in October, was out for dinner, his spokesman said, confirming an earlier report by broadcaster Oe24.

The spokesman said the electronic surveillance devices had been discovered last week behind a mirrored wall by intelligence service specialists. “This was a routine check after moving into a new office,” he said. more

TSCM 101 - When you find one bug, don't stop looking. A post-discovery break-in may indicate the removal of additional, and more sophisticated bugs. Later discovery of these devices might implicate who planted them in the first place.  ~Kevin

TSCM, or This Smells Characteristicly Moronic

Pakistan’s security agencies have not found anything suspicious in Chetna Jadhav’s shoes that were confiscated by the Pakistani agencies...

Sources said that Pakistan’s agencies minutely examined her shoes, searching for spying devices.

However, nothing could be found and Pakistan is now likely to attribute this “incident” to an over-enthusiastic security official...

Sources said that the Pakistan Foreign Office was having a hard time dealing with the “concocted” tale of Jadhav’s wife carrying a spying device in her shoe, as it was not being able to answer the questions of local journalists who were asking about the nature of the “spying device” allegedly recovered and why details of the same were not being shared with them. more

Give them a break. Perhaps they misinterpreted the acronym written inside the shoe. TSCM and TGIF look somewhat similar, but TGIF stands for Toes Go In First.

The Case of the Spying Judge, or Your Honor's Poor Judgement

Two state judges have sued the New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission, demanding secret surveillance recordings they say were made by another judge who was spying on them.

Plaintiffs Trudy Reed-Chase and Barry Sharer are magistrate court judges in Aztec, New Mexico, the seat of San Juan County. Aztec, a town of about 6,000 is in a remote area of northeastern New Mexico. The nearest large town is Farmington.

Reed-Chase, Sharer and nine other court employees sued Magistrate Court Judge Connie Lee Johnston, her husband and sister-in-law and the state in February 2016, claiming that Johnston had planted listening devices around the Aztec Municipal Courthouse, including in the offices of Reed-Chase and Sharer. They claimed that electronic surveillance equipment also was placed in the court manager’s office and other workspaces, in inmate holding facilities and in at least one bathroom. more