Quote of the Week - $200 Billion Loss

"Industry's annual loss of intellectual property has been estimated at more than $200 billion a year."
~ Paul B. Kurtz - cyber security expert

U.S. intelligence agencies are unable to share information about foreign cyber attacks against companies for fear of jeopardizing intelligence-gathering sources and methods, cyber security expert Paul B. Kurtz told (congressional) lawmakers yesterday.

Kurtz, who served on the National Security Council in the Clinton and Bush administrations, spoke at the first open hearing on cyber security held by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence...

Kurtz expressed concern about the breadth of the attacks. "American industry and government are spending billions of dollars to develop new products and technology that are being stolen at little to no cost by our adversaries," he said. "Nothing is off limits -- pharmaceuticals, biotech, IT, engine design . . . weapons design." (more)

Quote of the Day - A New Yorker Ponders... Surveillance

"Oh, there’s also a poster in a window across the street that reads: If you can see this, you’re spying on me. It makes me think about how many people could be spying on me right now, what with my blinds open and desk light on, while I awkwardly blow my nose and type this entry. Then again, I’m sure I’d be watching my neighbors if I were staring out my window and someone’s light happened to be on. Voyeurism: every New Yorker’s favorite pastime - it’s like live reality TV!" ~ Nina Yiamsamatha (August 24, 2008)

Quote of the Week

"No matter which side of the wiretapping issue you stand on it is clear that the only way to conquer terrorism is to address the hopelessness and hatred at the root of it."
From a statement is issued by Remo, Inc.,
Remo D. Belli, CEO and Founder (more)

Quote of the Day

"We're long past alligator clips on copper wires." - Roger Pilon, writing in The Wall Street Journal about a bipartisan surveillance authorization measure that's already passed the Intelligence Committee. (more)

Quote of the Day

"Industrial espionage, or good old fashioned spying, is as alive and well today as it has ever been." ~Nigel Stanley, Bloor Research (more)

Great Eavesdropping Quotations

The great British statesman Winston Churchill had one standard procedure, whenever he was housed in magnificent Russian palaces during his state visits.The first thing the British Prime Minister used to do was to go through all the rooms of his suite shouting “You b@#*%#ds, I know this room is bugged and will not be fooled by you.” (more)

Quote of the Day

"Even to this day I don't chatter near a telephone that is hung up, because even when the telephone is hung up it is possible to eavesdrop on you." ~ Helena Yaralova, actress. (more)

Geoslavery

Geoslavery is a new form of human bondage based on cellphone or GPS tracking. Four years ago in IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Pete Fisher and I [Jerome E. Dobson] defined geoslavery as "a practice in which one entity, the master, coercively or surreptitiously monitors and exerts control over the physical location of another individual, the slave." ...

This year in the Geographical Review, Pete and I warned that human tracking will become commonplace, mainly because of reduction in price. As recently as 10 years ago, the cost of round-the-clock surveillance was about $350,000 per watched person per year -- an exorbitant price tag justified only for high-value targets in matters of national security or corporate espionage. Now the cost is less than $500 per watched person per year. (more)

The Cautious Coachs of N.F.L. Football

The New York Times - The windows near the elevators on the 21st floor of the Sheraton Meadowlands Hotel are fit for football espionage. The Giants’ practice field sits about a mile in the distance, past the maze of highway lanes and off-ramps, past the massive parking lots.

If a coach stands on that field and looks back at the hotel, all sorts of paranoid possibilities come to mind. Visions of men in disguises renting rooms, setting up telescopes and video cameras, and gleaning valuable information from the opposition. Over the years, Giants coaches were said to have sent security personnel to the hotel to conduct sweeps.* They were never reported to have found anything or anyone...

Murray Associates, a New Jersey company that provides eavesdropping protection, has been hired by several professional sports teams to ensure secure contract negotiations, said the company’s president, Kevin Murray. Three of the teams that hired Murray were N.F.L. teams — all within the past five years.

Murray said he believed espionage in sports was more prolific now, with so much money and fame at stake. And bugging an office “is easier now than at any time in history.” For example, Murray said, someone could stick a prepaid cellphone on the ceiling of an office, turn the ringer off and set the phone to auto-answer. Then that someone could listen from anywhere in the world.

“Some people sound on the paranoid side, but they’re really just normal people, following their instincts,” Murray said. “And usually, they’re correct. Coaches would be silly not to be checking.”

So coaches will continue to look for spies behind trees, in bushes, behind the wheel of the team bus. If you are not paranoid, they say, you are not paying attention.

The view from the Sheraton Meadowlands Hotel demonstrates how spying is possible, if not far-fetched. And for N.F.L. coaches, that is enough. (more)
* These sweeps were not conducted by Murray Associates.

...whereupon the guy with the headphones blew his coffee and shorted out the patchbay.

Canada - The Law Society of Upper Canada is taking the RCMP to court in a bid to get its hands on wiretaps...

Mr. Peter Shoniker, a Toronto investment banker and one-time Crown prosecutor, was caught on police wiretaps in late 2003 boasting that there wasn't a "f---ing judge'' who would authorize a wiretap on his conversations.

"I'm untouchable, untouchable, untouchable by police," he said during one phone call. "Not a cop in this country would dare burn me, question my integrity." (more... much more)
"Laugha while you can, monkeyboy!" ~ Dr. Emilio Lizardo

When does intelligence become spying?

Lessons from the NFL...

"Yes, business spying really does happen. This may be old news, but it’s a timely reminder for those companies wanting to stay out of the courtroom." ...

"When it comes to spying, major corporations sometimes succumb to the same temptation as the Patriots did, with the same embarrassing results. Big names like Oracle, Procter + Gamble, Hitachi, and Hewlett Packard are among the more notable firms that have been accused of spying in recent years. Each incident received embarrassing front-page treatment. The press has a heyday with these corporate moral pratfalls. But are they breaches of the law or just severe ethical lapses? Mike Sandman, Fuld & Company Senior Vice President, was interviewed by CNBC on September 12, about how companies can avoid crossing over the line and still watch their competition." ~ Leonard Fuld, pioneer in the field of competitive intelligence. (more)

Moral: Don't spy... and, don't be someone else's victim.

FutureWatch - The Death of the Cubicle

Cubicles have become jokes.
Their popularity is waning.
One major reason...
Eavesdropping and privacy issues.
"It (a cubicle) gives you this incredibly false sense of privacy," said Carl Bass, chief executive of software maker Autodesk Inc., who is pushing for more open layouts at his own company. (more)

Headline of the Week

"If You're Not Spying, You're Not Trying"
by George Solomon, Sports Columnist, The Washington Post
(from an article in which he discusses football spying)

Insight - Privacy Mores Differ Internationally

(Direct quotes from the manufacturer follow.)

"Fun New Spy Device From China"

"Chinavasion brings you this fully functional Novelty Tire clock with a hidden surprise. Cleverly hidden inside is a small wireless CMOS camera which can be switch on or off at a touch of the supplied remote Just imagine the fun that can be had

Chinavasion presents yet another incredible gadget; a 2.4GHz hidden spy camera in a nifty looking racing tyre and 2.4GHz Receiver /MP4 player in one. This is definitely a product that can be used for just about any purpose you can think of, without anyone ever being the wiser. Better yet, with the included remote, you can switch the spy camera on and off without anyone even seeing you turn it on. A great gadget that is perfect for anyone." (more)

“If the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”

from: Why Nixon and Watergate Still Matter: An Interview with James Reston, Jr.

"With the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Watergate break-in coming up this Sunday, one of the hottest tickets on Broadway is Richard M. Nixon. Played by Frank Langella (who just won a Tony Award for his performance), Nixon cunningly spars with Michael Sheen’s David Frost in a live re-creation of the famed television interviews that the British TV personality held with the ex-President in 1977.

The interviews were a landmark in the history of both American politics and television, and they attracted some 50 million viewers. The play, Frost/Nixon (which next year will be a motion picture from Ron Howard), was developed from James Reston, Jr.’s The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews (Harmony, 208 pages, $22), just out this month.

From his home near Washington, D.C., James Reston answered questions about his involvement with the interviews and how they came about..." (more) (Why is this man really laughing?)

Quote of the Day

"I know there is technology with which you can eavesdrop and hear a cockroach fart. But from what I saw our agents had watched too many American movies." ~Adam Lusekelo, Daily News columnist in Dar es Salaam humorously describing the Tanzanian Secret Service. (more)
Adam, our agents look the pretty much the same. (more)