...now they will help you do it with just your cell phone!
"Mobile Faker is designed to help consumers [lie] navigate the competitive social scene with ease.
Ever been at a bar and needed to look busy because some loser is giving you the eye? Schedule a Faux Call and your handset will rescue you.
Someone asked for your number, and you're afraid to tell the person you've been flirting with for two hours that you're married? Give her a Faux Number."
Additional assistance... Pick-up Lines, Rejections and a Fake Breathalyzer.
Mobile Faker is available as a JME application on Sprint Nextel under the Applications > Entertainment menu on the handset. (more)
Security is a low priority among most small and midsized businesses (SMBs), as well as vendors, when it comes to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP - Internet telephony), experts say. That will quickly change once hackers take aim, however.
As with anything, the risk [of a security breach] is theoretical risk right now," Ridolfo said. He said today it's much easier to write a virus or steal data off a file-sharing system than it is to build an exploit for VoIP.
"Does that mean someone isn't working on it right now? No," Ridolfo said. "A high-profile attack, such as a single, crucially important phone call, that will be intercepted, whether it is commercial or government. Then you'll see a bunch of those in short succession. Then there will be a big push to introduce security."
Voice is just as vulnerable to exploits as data communication, Ostrowski said, "because at the end of the day it's running over an IP network and it's 'packetized' data."
One analyst was surprised by how many SMBs said they felt VoIP was secure.(more)
Bugging proposal 'enjoys support of government partners'... When presenting his proposal on secret telephone call and e-mail monitoring, defence minister Mikael Odenberg stressed that he enjoyed the support of his government partners. (more)
Head of Sweden intelligence dies at 61... Klas Bergenstrand, the head of Sweden's intelligence agency, died from an apparent heart attack. He was 61. (more)
Malta - Education minister Louis Galea has said in parliament that employment laws do not prohibit employers from installing CCTV cameras in every nook and cranny of an office to monitor employees. (more)
E. Howard Hunt, who helped organize the Watergate break-in, leading to the greatest scandal in American political history and the downfall of Richard Nixon's presidency, died Tuesday. He was 88.
Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. Twenty-five men were sent to prison for their involvement in the botched plan, and a new era of skepticism toward government began.
"I will always be called a Watergate burglar, even though I was never in the damn place," Hunt told The Miami Herald in 1997. "But it happened. Now I have to make the best of it." (more)
Police have found a bugging device in the office of a German MP, who is involved in investigations of the doings of the local federal intelligence.
Wolfgang Neskovic is an independent MP, who was a member of the Supreme Court before he was elected for parliament.
The commission that deals with the intelligence, and that Neskovic is a part of, will investigate the bugging case. An emergency meeting of the commission will be held next week. (more)
UPDATE... "The German Parliament said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that after the devices were examined by the Federal Office for Security and Information Technology, "with the microphones alone, surveying, recording or forwarding the spoken word is not possible."
The devices were covered by a layer of dust that had settled atop of the lamp, pointing to the fact that the microphones had not been used for a long time."
Old spycraft tricks... - Blow a layer of dust over an eavesdropping installation. Alters the perceived time-frame of the attack, if discovered. - Use Hollywood special-effects cobwebs. Spray them over the opening to an installation to deter inspection. The key question... "Why were microphones there in the first place?" ~ Kevin Inquiry committee head Sigfried Kauder, a senior lawmaker of Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union, said in a statement Tuesday that all members of the board have been advised to check their offices for similar devices. (more)
Now, there is some sage advice :)
UPDATE 1/26/07(the story changes) ...officials in Berlin said the alleged bug found in the office of Wolfgang Neskovic, a leftist former judge who has demanded Steinmeier's resignation, was not a functioning one and its placement was too inept to have been the work of intelligence professionals.
The microphone of a type freely on sale was attached to a ceiling lamp and was visible, security officials said. (more)
Today is the 39th anniversary of North Korea's seizure of the spy ship USS Pueblo and it 83-man crew, triggering an international confrontation between the United States and North Korea in the tumultuous year of 1968.The Pueblo was a World War II-era freighter that had been outfitted as an electronic eavesdropping ship for the National Security Agency. Commissioned in May 1967 and named for the city of Pueblo, the ship was under the command of Lt. Cmdr. Lloyd "Pete" Bucher when it set out to patrol the North Korean coast in January 1968.Cutting in and out of North Korean waters while eavesdropping, the Pueblo's crew had expected to be harassed by North Korean warships but on Jan. 23, the spy ship was surrounded by patrol boats and raked with machine-gun and cannon fire. Crewman Duane Hodges was fatally wounded in the attack. (more)
An Evening with Melissa Boyle Mahle Tuesday, 6 February; 7–10 pm
From the Reagan years through 2002, CIA intelligence officer, Melissa Boyle Mahle, ran operations against Al Qaeda terrorists, conducted missions to interrupt illicit networks plotting to sell weapons of mass destruction, and completed assignments throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa as the agency’s top-ranked female Arabist. Mahle, author of Denial and Deception: An Insider’s View of the CIA, has discussed her fourteen-year tenure as a covert operative for the CIA with CNN, PBS, Jon Stewart, and now you!
Be one of only 20 guests at Zola for a three-course meal where you’ll hear the inside story on her counterterrorism operations, her views on today’s continuing intelligence challenges, and enjoy the dialogue between Mahle and former CIA chief of disguise, International Spy Museum board member, Jonna Mendez. (more)
Singapore has denied listening in on private phone conversations between Council for National Security members following remarks by CNS chief Sonthi Boonyaratkalin. ...
"As an international telecommunication hub, Singapore maintains a strict and professional operating environment to safeguard the integrity of all communications which terminate in or transit through Singapore,'' the foreign ministry said. (more)
The smart folks over at Computerworld have put together a very good 18-page Executive Bulletin - "Our Hottest Security Tips - Sage advice for protecting corporate assets in a dangerous world". It's free... once you fill out their marketing form (hey, that's only fair).
Italy - Milan magistrates have arrested four Telecom Italia SpA employees for alleged illegal espionage activities...
The suspects were identified as Fabio Ghioni, the head of information security at Telecom Italia, his assistant Rocco Lucia, and Guglielmo Sasinini, a former journalist who had been hired by the company to conduct country risk analyses for the Middle East region...
A fourth warrant was served in prison on Giuliano Tavaroli, the former head of security at Telecom Italia, who had already been incarcerated on illegal espionage charges as a result of a separate investigation.
The four men are accused of using Telecom Italia’s resources to spy on Vittorio Colao, the former executive chief executive officer of the Rizzoli Corriere della Sera (RCS) SpA publishing group and on Massimo Mucchetti, the deputy director of the Corriere della Sera newspaper, as part of an elaborate intelligence operation that has all the hallmarks of a spy thriller...
...his former boss Tavaroli, allegedly rose to the top of Telecom Italia’s security department after engineering the discovery of an electronic bug planted in the Telecom Italia chief executive officer’s car in 2001. The then head of security at Telecom Italia was fired for the lapse and Tavaroli was able to take his place. (more)
...The anatomy of a covert wireless security assessment or, how serious spies go after corporate wireless LANs.
"The most important item, as any seasoned penetration-tester will confirm, is a get-out-of-jail-free letter, preferably signed by a C-level officer for the organization being probed. Each team member ought to have a copy in his or her pocket, and another copy taped to the inside wall of the truck in a visible spot where one can point a terrorist-addled security guard or local peace officer who’s unsnapped his holster." (more)
Trident Systems is suing a former executive for $9.2 million, alleging he recruited away staff and customers for a new company before he quit and that he took trade secrets with him when he left. (more)
Many companies this size have a yearly program to detect espionage warning signs. Detection keeps problems from reaching this stage. Cost... less than 1/100th of the cost of this lawsuit, much less. (see for yourself)
