MA - With help from US Secret Service agents, Stop & Shop Supermarket Cos. executives scrambled yesterday to determine how many consumers may have had their credit and debit card data stolen by high-tech thieves who apparently broke into checkout-line card readers and planted the equivalent of bugs to steal information. (more)
...at Stop & Shop, thieves manipulate a point-of-sale device and plant a bugging device to capture card numbers and personal identification codes. ... Stop & Shop said it was first notified last week by a bank that credit-card numbers were stolen from its stores. (more)
(Yet another interesting eavesdropping gadget. From the seller's ad...)
"Bionic ear allows you to hear a conversation from across a crowded room.
With the Spy Ear II, you have access to the latest technology in audio spying. Its mini size, lightweight and skin tone color allow you to hear from great distances without anyone knowing that you are wearing it. The ultra-sensitive microphone allows for crisp, clear audio all in a discreet, tiny earpiece.
There is a volume adjustment that allows you to easily change the volume and hone in on certain conversations.
Simply put, this tiny, cutting-edge device will turn any average Joe into a secret agent." (more)
If you see someone with this, sneak up behind them and snap your fingers.
...for $837,500.00
MI - Eight plaintiffs filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court in 2005 and 2006, alleging Michael Bridson (Undersherriff) had electronically eavesdropped on personal telephone conversations and, in some cases, repeated what he heard to others. (more)
Moral... Eavesdropping is expensive. Prevention is cheap.
DE - Gary Min worked as a scientist at DuPont for 10 years, focusing on research involving a type of high-performance film. He also covertly used DuPont’s computer systems to steal trade secrets valued at more than $400 million shortly before joining a rival company. Min’s case, the details of which were unsealed last week by the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware, is the latest — and perhaps most extreme — example of the dangers posed to corporate data by rogue insiders. ...Although Min downloaded or accessed about 15 times more documents than the next-heaviest user of the EDL did during the period in question, his activities appear to have gone unnoticed until after he submitted his resignation. (more)
How to prevent a $400,000,000.00 problem...
Have a counterespionage program in place.
• Check IT records,
• inspect for bug and wiretaps,
• and conduct counterespionage security surveys
...regularly.
We can help.
Sweden - Saturday, demonstrations were held in four major cities in Sweden to protest against the bill to allow a governmental authority, the FRA, to bug data traffic of any Swedish citizen at will. Surpassing the United States in privacy abolishment, this bill allows the government to spy on any data traffic, including phone calls, SMS, e-mail, web traffic etc.
...a person named Thom Kiraly went up and read an interesting poem about bugging. It ended with “Listen to the citizens - but do it in the right way!” (more)
The press is having fun with this one, but keep in mind that talented people, working under extreme pressures, working "24", with limited information will make more than the normal amount of mistakes. Being able to admit one's mistakes is admirable, too. ~Kevin
UK - An official report into the actions of Britain's spies has left them looking more like the bumbling French detective Inspector Clouseau than swish, sophisticated James Bond.It reveals they make an "unacceptably high" level of blunders.More than 4,000 errors were recorded in a 15-month period, including tapping the wrong telephones and intercepting post from a suspect's address even though he had moved house.It is the first report of its kind from Sir Swinton Thomas, the outgoing Interception of Communications Commissioner. ...The most common mistake was simply entering the wrong telephone number on a tapping warrant. (more) (more)
The important part of this report went under-reported...
The long-established principle that the phones of MPs and peers cannot be tapped by the security services places them above the law and could prevent investigations into serious crime or terrorism, the prime minister's eavesdropping watchdog warned yesterday.
Sir Swinton Thomas urged Tony Blair to overrule objections by MPs, including some cabinet ministers, to the phone tap ban. (more)
Prague - Czechs whose telephones were illegally wiretapped by the police would be entitled to compensation from the state under an amendment to the Penal Code drafted by the Justice Ministry... (more)
An inside look at how the accounting giant was infiltrated by private intelligence firm Diligence.
In the spring of 2005, Guy Enright, an accountant at KPMG Financial Advisory Services Ltd. in Bermuda, got a call from a man identifying himself in a crisp British accent as Nick Hamilton. Hamilton said he needed to see Enright about matters of utmost importance.
Over the course of two meetings, Hamilton led Enright to believe he was a British intelligence officer, according to a person familiar with the encounters. He told Enright he wanted information about a KPMG project that Hamilton said had national security implications for Britain. Soon, Enright, who was born in Britain, was depositing confidential audit documents in plastic containers at drop-off points designated by Hamilton.
But Nick Hamilton was not an agent of Her Majesty's secret service, and the documents never found their way to the British government.
Nick Hamilton was in fact Nick Day, now 38, a onetime British agent and co-founder of Diligence Inc., a Washington private intelligence firm... (more)
As you can see, corporate espionage is now big business. Infiltration and eavesdropping are two espionage tricks which go hand in hand. Keep our number handy. ~Kevin
Bangladesh - The interim government has intensified mobile phone tapping and email monitoring of a large number of individuals, ranging from politicians to journalists.On the watch list are political leaders and businesspeople with dubious track record, past and present top bureaucrats with political affiliations, listed criminals, and also a few journalists and civil society members, sources in the telecom companies and intelligence agencies said. (more)
Iowa - Three dispatchers at the Clinton County Law Center have filed a federal lawsuit claiming their personal phone calls were taped while they were at work. (more)
Belgium - Former Euro-deputy Koldo Gorostiaga assured that "all signs and precedents point at Spanish secret services." They showed the alleged wiretapping system during a press conference.Belgium's Minister of Justice Laurette Onkelinx announced, during an appearance in the Federal Parliament, that a judicial investigation had been opened to find out if the offices of the Basque outlawed Batasuna party in Brussels had been wiretapped and if it had been the work of foreign secrete services, which would suppose "a violation of the sovereignty principle." (more)
CA - Initially dubbed one of Hollywood's biggest scandals, the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping affair is landing with a thud.A Feb. 15 Los Angeles Times story declared that prosecutors had filed "the latest and perhaps final federal indictment" in the case. But no one new was charged; the indictment merely adds more details of Pellicano's alleged wiretapping, including how he conspired with attorney Terry Christensen to tap the ex-wife of Kirk Kerkorian. (more)
Japan - Police in 2006 used a record-breaking number of authorized wiretaps to arrest 27 people nationwide in nine drug cases, Justice Minister Jinen Nagase told a Cabinet meeting Friday.Compared with only five wiretaps conducted in 2005, the sharp rise "indicates authorized wiretapping seems to be taking hold as a means of criminal investigations," a Justice Ministry official said. (more)
Does the office loudmouth sit near you?
Does your job involve confidential information?
Are co-workers eavesdropping on your private calls?
Install a small device which subtly raises the noise level around your office or cubicle. Cheap units emit a 'white or pink noise' (sounds like pleasant FM radio static), government security professionals prefer 'babble noise' - a cacaphony of unpredictable voices, music and background noise. Why? Because, predictable white and pink noise can be filtered out by serious eavesdroppers, babble is more secure.
Our favorite, Noisebath.
Other sound mitigation solutions...
Sonare
ANG-2200
Sonex
Noisemaster
SuperSoft
Dynasound
Atlas Sound
Free White Papers...
REI
Atlas
LogiSon
Sound control is one element of a complete eavesdropping prevention program. If you don't have one, get one, here.
The U.S. survey, conducted by e-mail archive company Fortiva and Jeffrey Plotkin, a partner with the law firm Pitney Hardin LLP, found 63 per cent of those which have formal electronic communications retention and review policies (aka spying on employee emails) said it has improved visibility into the risk the organization is exposed to as a result of employee communications.
Twenty-six per cent of those organizations terminated an employee as a result of information gathered from e-mail surveillance, and 12 per cent uncovered customer complaints that were not previously escalated or disclosed. (more)
MA - With help from US Secret Service agents, Stop & Shop Supermarket Cos. executives scrambled yesterday to determine how many consumers may have had their credit and debit card data stolen by high-tech thieves who apparently broke into checkout-line card readers and planted the equivalent of bugs to steal information. (more)
