Competitive Intelligence is a Euphemism for Business Espionage

How far would you go to figure out what the competition is up to? 

Test out their products and services to see how they work? Hire away their staff to learn their tricks? Monitor their job listings to glean insight about upcoming initiatives?

Such tactics are par for the course in the technology industry, in which companies go to great lengths to size up their competition.

 
The latest example is Uber, which according to a New York Times report employs what it calls a “competitive intelligence” team to study its rivals. That team bought anonymized data — including information on Lyft receipts gleaned from customer in-boxes — from analytics firm Slice Intelligence. more

Competitive Intelligence is a euphemism for Business Espionage. Smart businesses employ Business Counterespionage, which is a euphemism for companies like mine. ~Kevin

The 'Stalkerware' Surveillance Market, Where Ordinary People Tap Each Other's Phones

John* tapped out a simple text message to his wife in January 2016. "I love you," it read.

But this wasn't the only message she saw. Unbeknownst to John, his wife had bugged his smart phone. She was spying on John, eavesdropping on all of his texts and multimedia messages, and tracking his every move through the device's GPS...

John is just one of tens of thousands of individuals around the world who are unwitting targets of powerful, relatively cheap spyware that anyone can buy. Ordinary people—lawyers, teachers, construction workers, parents, jealous lovers—have bought malware to monitor mobile phones or computers, according to a large cache of hacked files from Retina-X and FlexiSpy, another spyware company.

The breaches highlight how consumer surveillance technology, which shares some of the same capabilities and sometimes even the same code as spy software used by governments, has established itself with the everyday consumer. more

Talking Doll Hack Exposes 2.2 Million Voice Recordings...

...thus busting the old proverb that children should be seen but not heard.

A security vulnerability allowed anyone to view personal information, photos and recordings of children's voices from CloudPets (A Message You Can Hug™) toys. And at one point, some people tried to hold all of that information for ransom.

According to a report compiled by security researcher Troy Hunt, over 820,000 user accounts were exposed. That includes 2.2 million voice recordings.

"I suspect one of the things that will shock people is that they probably didn't think through the fact that when you connect the teddy bear, your kids voices are sitting on an Amazon server," Hunt said. more  Plus: A brief history of creepy talking toys!

Czech Mate, or Here's Looking at You Id

Forty-foot statue of David Black Trifot is part of a new multi-genre space outside the city Photo Czech Centre, which is now open to the public. more

Spying Feeds the Monkeys ...in real life

Do Not Feed The Monkeys: Voyeuristic Spying Game Launches In 2017

from the press release...
“We all have a natural tendency to wonder about other people’s lives. Sometimes the best stories are kept secret … all in the name of privacy. It begs the question: Why miss out on life’s best experiences because they’re not your own? We’re trying our hand at an answer with Do Not Feed the Monkeys. Hope you enjoy the ride!” more

Bugging devices 'widespread' According to Prime Minister

NZ - Prime Minister John Key says he too has been bugged, but won't go into specifics about how often that has happened, where it occurred and who might have been responsible.

His comments come as police in Sydney investigate the discovery of a listening device in a hotel meeting room used by the All Blacks.

Example of a digital transmitter.

Mr Key said it had happened to him, but would not give any details, except to say he would only know about a fraction of the times he had been bugged.

"I'm just saying it's not a new concept that people would put in bugging devices ... I'm just saying it's widespread and I think people would be wise to consider those factors." more

When you think about it, we only know about covert bugging, wiretapping and optical surveillance from the failed attempts. 

By definition, all successful eavesdropping is never discovered. (Usually because no one is looking for it.)

This is why smart businesses, like the All Blacks rugby organization, conduct proactive technical surveillance countermeasures inspections (aka TSCM).

If you would like to add TSCM inspections to your security strategy, contact me. I'll recommend a trusted specialist in your area. ~Kevin

Compilation of State and Federal Privacy Laws (US & Canada)

The 2016 Supplement to Privacy Journal's "Compilation of State and Federal Privacy Laws" (2013) has been published, adding 30 more laws enacted by states and provinces in the past 12 months.

The Compilation of State and Federal Privacy Laws (ISBN 978-0-930072-56-8) cites and describes more than 700 state, provincial, and federal laws affecting the confidentiality of personal information and electronic surveillance. The laws are listed by state, grouped in categories like medical, credit, financial, security breaches, tracking technologies, employment, government, school records, Social Security numbers, marketing, telephone privacy and many more. Canadian laws too.

PRIVACY JOURNAL
PO Box 28577
Providence RI 02908
Phone: 401/274-7861
Fax: 401/274-4747
www.privacyjournal.net

Survey: Do Swiss Spy?

The survey, conducted by a research company on behalf of comparis.ch, asked more than 1,000 people across Switzerland their views on spying and being spied on. 

Some 22 percent admitted to keeping an eye on their neighbours using binoculars, cameras and cameraphones, or through the spyhole of their front door.

The most popular reason for spying was to check out a neighbour’s plants (28 percent), followed by how they renovate their home (24 percent), and the way in which they behave with their children (18 percent) and partner (13 percent).

Those that do the most spying are in the 15-29 age bracket, while those aged between 60-74 are the least bothered by what their neighbours are up to.

The survey also asked respondents if they felt observed, with 48 percent of young people saying they do, against a national average of 40 percent. more

Snooping on Mobile Phones: Prevalence and Trends

Abstract: Personal mobile devices keep private information which people other than the owner may try to access.

Thus far, it has been unclear how common it is for people to snoop on one another’s devices. Through an anonymity-preserving survey experiment, we quantify the pervasiveness of snooping attacks, defined as "looking through someone else’s phone without their permission."

We estimated the 1-year prevalence to be 31% in an online participant pool. Weighted to the U.S. population, the data indicates that 1 in 5 adults snooped on at least one other person’s phone, just in the year before the survey was conducted.

We found snooping attacks to be especially prevalent among young people, and among those who are themselves smartphone users. In a follow-up study, we found that, among smartphone users, depth of adoption, like age, also predicts the probability of engaging in snooping attacks.

In particular, the more people use their devices for personal purposes, the more likely they are to snoop on others, possibly because they become aware of the sensitive information that is kept, and how to access it. These findings suggest that, all else remaining equal, the prevalence of snooping attacks may grow, as more people adopt smartphones, and motivate further effort into improving defenses. more

Video Voyeur Spycam Incidents Still Running at High Levels

AR - Police in Greenwood, AR arrested a man on Sunday after he was accused of recording women in a restaurant bathroom, says a 5 News Online report. Authorities were notified after a 10-year-old girl found a hidden cell phone that had been recording video in the women’s bathroom at El Palenque. more

AR -  A Lowell man pleaded not guilty Monday to charges accusing him of secretly recording in a men's bathroom. more

DE - Police in Milltown, Delaware, are investigating a hidden camera found in the women’s bathroom of Moe’s Southwest Grill that contained video clips of over 100 women and even an little girl. The bathroom camera was discovered after a restaurant employee overheard a man discussing the camera. The camera was found fastened to a garbage can in the women’s restroom. Along with the camera a power source and a memory card was discovered. more

FL - Authorities found cameras disguised as wall-mounted coat hooks in at least three public bathrooms in and around the Florida Keys, according to a new report. Over the last week the hidden devices were discovered in the women’s room of a Circle K outlet, the girls’ room in a park at Anne’s Beach, and the women’s room at Harry Harris Park, police said this week. more

FL - Authorities arrested David Newell, 55, after a female friend of the jail informant told officials she had rented a room from Newell but moved out after she said she found cameras within the walls of the room. Authorities obtained a search warrant Thursday morning for Newell's Southport home, where they found camera wires in the walls and a camera in Newell's closet. Investigators say they also found a large, underground room in his backyard. more

OH - He'll be back in court next Tuesday. Bond for 65-year-old Jerry Rowe is being kept at $20,000. Rowe was arrested last week after cameras were found installed in the bathrooms of five women at the Steeplechase apartments where Rowe was a maintenance worker. According to the sheriff's office, one of the cameras captured Rowe installing it. more

Facebook Has Ears and is Nosey Too

Facebook admits that it “uses your microphone to identify the things you’re listening to or watching, based on the music and TV matches we’re able to identify.”

However, some experts believe that Facebook is not being fully transparent. Once the microphone feature is enabled, Facebook can listen in to your private conversation, even when one is not actively engaging with the app.


The feature listens for particular buzz words, which enable the site to weave the content that appears on news feeds to suit users’ personal interests.

In an NBC report, the feature is tested by Kelli Burns, a professor of Mass Communication at the University of South Florida.

In the experiment, she says aloud with her microphone feature on, “I’m really interested in going on an African safari. I think it’d be wonderful to ride in one of those jeeps.”

When she checked her Facebook newsfeed just 60 seconds later, the first item to appear was a safari story. She then also noticed an advertisement for Jeep vehicles. more

Med Students Caught Cheating with Spycams & Smart Watches

A top Thai medical college has caught students using spy cameras linked to smartwatches to cheat during exams in what some social media users have compared to a plot straight out of a Mission: Impossible movie.

Key points:

• Thai students caught using spyglasses to send images of exam questions to accomplices
• Accomplices sent answers back to students' smartwatches
• Students paid 800,000 baht ($31,000) for equipment, answers

Arthit Ourairat, the rector of Rangsit University, posted pictures of the hi-tech cheating equipment on his Facebook page, announcing that the entrance exam in question had been cancelled after the plot was discovered.

Three students used glasses with wireless cameras embedded in their frames to transmit images to a group of as yet unnamed people, who then sent the answers to the smartwatches.

Mr Arthit said the trio had paid 800,000 baht ($31,000) each to the tutor group for the equipment and the answers.

"The team did it in real-time," Mr Arthit wrote. more

Edward Snowden Will Sue Norway

Edward Snowden will sue Norway in an attempt to secure free travel to the country, a Norwegian law firm representing him told Reuters Thursday.

The ex-contractor at the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been invited to Norway to receive an award for his work defending free speech, but his attorneys said he is worried that traveling there would allow the Norwegian government to extradite him to the U.S., where he is wanted on charges of espionage.

The Norwegian branch of the global organization of writers PEN International, which hopes to give Snowden the free speech award, said in a statement that “we will do our utmost to ensure that Snowden may receive the prize in person.” more

Dating Deck Stacked with Secret Eavesdrop Feature

Boompi works like most other dating apps...

Here’s the catch: If you’re a girl, you can invite your female friends to secretly join your private conversations, without your potential suitors ever knowing. 

If you’re a girl on Boompi and you start a chat with someone, you can invite your girl friend to eavesdrop on that conversation at any time. 

Your friend will be able to see every message sent since the beginning of the chat, and leave their own comments in the conversation, which only you will be able to see. And if you aren’t interested in finding a date and only want to read your friends’ chats, you can do that too—Boompi allows female users to use “Ghost Mode,” which makes sure guys never see their profile. more

Workplace Surveillance is Sparking a Cyber Rebellion

GPS jammers in vans, FitBits strapped to dogs — employees are fighting back.

...Worksnaps is a piece of software that takes regular screenshots of a worker’s computer screen (with their full knowledge), counts their mouse and keyboard clicks each minute, and even offers the option of capturing webcam images. The customer testimonials are worth reading. One small business owner enthuses that she was able to “find and weed out” workers who were chatting on Facebook even though she was in the US and they were in the Philippines...

There are the drivers who plug cheap GPS jammers from China into the cigarette lighter slots in their vans to confuse their companies’ tracking systems. Or the workers who strap their employer-provided Fitbits on to their dogs to boost their “activity levels” for the day. Remember the business owner who used Worksnaps to monitor her workers in the Philippines? She found they were using programs to fool the software into thinking they were working. Worksnaps had to design a tool to identify the cheaters. more

The New Cowboy Spy

From the Ol' Timer...
"Howdy, partner. There is a new surveillance risk in town, and he be a-aimin' at you.


Worried about board meeting eavesdroppers; business espionage desperados, and bad egg buggists? Darn tootin' you are, and you've hired the local TSCM-slinger to keep you above snakes. Does a fine job of it, too. 


Oh, about Mr. New Surveillance Risk. He ain't no fancy foreign spy, crow-bait competitor, or even a chiseler employee. No sir, bub, he's the cow chip of the spy world; a tenderfoot with a mighty powerful weapon. A sneaky dude who'll leave you in court, emptyin' your wallet faster than greased lightning. Yes sir'ee, he's the Workplace Video Voyeur, and he ain't a-playing according to Hoyle."


Thanks for the warning, old timer. You're right as rain. I know. I've run into a couple of these hombres during my time on the trail. Let me tell you a story... 


My Fortune 50 client called me a few months ago. Seems, an employee found a spy camera hidden in one of their restrooms. The news media caught wind of it and jumped all over the story. It was an embarrassing mess. It may also be an expensive mess if the people caught by the camera decide to sue. 


We had been inspecting their boardroom, executive offices and off-site meeting locations for over two decades. This due diligence resulted in the capture of one spy, on-site (a competitor's employee), one wireless bug, and several general information security loopholes which they quickly patched up. 


Nobody expected a bathroom video voyeur, however. Yet this incident held promise of greater damage than any corporate espionage attack. In addition to being costly in dollars and damaging reputation-wise, a video voyeur attack directly affects employee morale. Its hard to put a price on that.


The company asked me for help. They needed to prevent future incidents. Made sense. After one incident, they could face "foreseeability," a legal term. In short, it is the theory that if something happens once you become aware it could happen again. If you do nothing to correct the situation, and it does happen again, you are considered negligent. Sexual harassment in the workplace also plays into future incidents. This makes for an expensive mix in court. 


In addition to protecting themselves, the company really wanted to assure their employees that they were taking the situation very seriously.

We discussed several possible solutions. 

Sending our Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) team to inspect all their restrooms and locker rooms (worldwide) was impractical, of course. What we eventually decided upon was a three-fold strategy, which turned out to be very cost-effective.

1. A review of their Recording in the Workplace Policy for completeness and effectiveness. This policy covers all aspects of recording anything to do with the company (audio, video and data). Most companies don't even have policy.

2. Development of an on-line spycam detection training program for their local facilities managers and security staff. This would professionally prepare them to conduct simple periodic inspections of the 'expectation of privacy' areas on company property. An inspection log and photos would be kept on file. The log documents inspection dates and results. The photos document changes in the area over time. Both may be used to show due diligence in court.
 
3. A short on-line spycam awareness video was produced for all employees to view. This was placed on the company intranet. It explained the growing social problem of video voyeurism, the steps the company is taking to prevent the problem in the workplace, and self-protection tips employees can use to protect themselves and their families, wherever they are.


This company-wide solution cost them about as much as a one-day sweep of their executive offices, and it will be used at all their locations, for years to come. 


Other companies have not been so lucky. Another New York City firm paid two employees one million dollars apiece in connection with their video voyeur incident.

Yup, ol' timer. The times are changing. Companies need to start watching their butts, when it comes to butt watchers.


~Kevin

Business Espionage: Buy Your Batting Average with Blackmail

Former big leaguer Lenny Dykstra admitted to spending "half a million bucks" on private investigators to dig up dirt on umpires during his playing career.

Dykstra says he then used the information not necessarily to bribe umpires, but to intimidate them into giving him favorable calls. "Fear does a lot to a man," he says. Here's the video:


 "Their blood is just as red as ours. Some of them like women, some of them like men, some of them gamble," said Dykstra. He then imagined a scenario in which he asked the umpire if he "covered the spread last night" after a called strike, then the strike zone shrunk to his advantage.

"It wasn't a coincidence that I led the league in walks the next few years," he added. Dykstra led the league with 129 walks in 1993 while with the Phillies. His previous career high was 89 walks, though he missed plenty of time with injuries. Dykstra's walk rate did spike from 1993-94:

Jealous Wives and Girlfriends Can Now Snoop on their Partner using a Spy Belt

Jealous wives and girlfriends can snoop on their fellas with a spy gadget disguised as a belt.

A tracking device hidden in the leather monitors the wearer’s location every 60 seconds. And it can be controlled remotely through Android and iPhone apps without the wearer noticing.

Unwary men could receive one as a present without knowing what they have let themselves in for.

The Belt Tracker, sold by Spymaster, in Marylebone, London, has a 12-hour battery life and can be used in 220 countries without incurring data roaming charges. It even has a flight safe mode to comply with airline regulations.

The GPS device was originally designed to monitor people working in dangerous environments, such as undercover police. And it can be used to track children and give peace of mind to parents. more

Gang Using Spy Cam, Bluetooth for Exam Paper Leaks Busted

India - Police have busted a New Delhi-based gang involved in assembling spy cameras and bluetooth devices in undergarments and shirts to facilitate question paper leaks in important competitive exams across the country.

...the accused used to assemble spy cams and bluetooth devices in shirts, briefs and vests, mobile hardware kits, and other equipment to get the question papers leaked out from the exam centres...

...the kit included an android smartphone which was connected with a spy cam in cuff of a shirt. The question paper was clicked by some candidate or a staff member through spy camp and smuggled outside the examination centre through drop box application.

The paper was then distributed through e-mails or WhatsApp to a team of six to eight teachers, who solved the paper. The candidates, who paid for the solved paper, were given a bluetooth ear device which did not require mobile handset and acted just as receiver. The accused had assembled a set with 40 mobile phones through which the answers were dictated to the candidates... more

Illinois Law Allows Nursing Home Residents to Install Surveillance Equipment

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation Aug. 21 supporters say will help prevent abuse and neglect of nursing home residents. The Authorized Electronic Monitoring in Long-Term Care Facilities Act allows nursing home residents to install audio and video surveillance equipment in their rooms.

Residents and their roommates must consent to having video or audio recording devices installed. The act allows legal guardians and family members to give consent for residents, if a physician determines a resident is incapable of doing so. Consent can be withdrawn at any time by residents or their roommates. more