Walter Mitty's PI avatar - another SpyBot

Boasting a motion detector, video camera, microphone and loudspeaker, Spyke is the ultimate Wi-Fi-enabled robot. We love him and so will you!

Main Features
- Spy robot - Spyke moves, watches, speaks and listens
- VOIP phone - Use your Spyke as a wireless VOIP phone (compatible with Skype 3.0 PC technology)
- Digital Music Player - listen to your own music over Wi-Fi with Spyke
- Video Surveillance - When a movement is detected, Spyke activates an alarm on your computer or sends you a picture by email
- Wi-Fi card included
- Motion sensors activate automatically when something happens
- Returns to recharging station automatically when battery is low
- Control on local Wi-Fi connection or remotely on internet (more)

SnitchBot News - Smokers, your butt is burned.

Robot manufacturer Tmsuk, Kyushu University and the Kanazawa Institute of Technology from Japan have all put their expertise together to develop a robot that can sniff out smoke. (more)

Spy Briefs (aka dirty underwear)

Sales of fake detective badges soar...
Kuala Lumpur - Rights groups reacted angrily on Thursday to a Muslim Malaysian state's plans to hire spies to catch couples engaged in extramarital sex, fearing it would lead to abuses of power. ... Under the plan, spies trained by Terengganu's religious officials will be located in hotels and parks. They will be rewarded for tipping off authorities about couples caught in compromising situations. (more)

--------------------------------

Meanwhile, over in Thailand...
Thailand's Shin Satellite has denied spying allegations by the Kingdom's military government. Despite that, Thai coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin vows to take back control of the satellites. (more)

--------------------------------

What's wrong with this picture?
Indonesia - On Monday, parliament's law commission will examine Mr Ruki (Chairman, KPK anti-corruption agency) over the counter-claims concerning the purchase of a $5 million phone tapping system by the corruption watchdog. ... The KPK was the only senior agency that had not been probed for corruption and the $5 million it paid for the wiretapping equipment was too high, cabinet minister Yusril Mahendra said. (more)

Spy Art

Art imitates life...
Build your own private spy agency. Travel around the world, trade with state secrets, weapon systems, spy codes, WMD, hire secretaries, agents, lawyers, helicopters and soldiers, establish agency stations and search for politicians. Game contains more than 30 missions including CIA Unlimited, Gen. Noriega, USAF, Colonel Gaddafi ,BND, Prime Minister, RAF, Cold War, Bin Laden, Sadam, KGB, Law Firm... (more)

--------------------------------

Art Watches Back...
City officials in Chicago placed surveillance cameras on top of giant twin towers designed by the Spanish artist Jaume Plensa using funds from the US Department of Homeland Security.

Paul Gray, co-owner and director of Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago which represents Plensa in the US, said the city “did not get permission from the artist” to use his towers in this way.

“When we learned about the concerns of Chicago’s art lovers, we took them down immediately,” says Kevin Smith, a spokesman for the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications. (more) "...and, we really don't care for the long security lines at O'Hare either."

--------------------------------

Watch Art, Watch Spies...
"The Good Shepherd,” a chilly film about a spy trapped in the cold of his own heart, seeks to put a tragic human face on the Central Intelligence Agency, namely that of Matt Damon. The story more or less begins and ends at the Bay of Pigs. (more)

The Oscar-nominated director of "The Lives of Others" says his next movie won't be about secret surveillance -- he wants to do "lots of other stuff." (more)

Deja Vu, the recent Denzel Washington film about an ATF agent, is not a particularly interesting film in its own right but gains significance when we locate it in the evolution of the surveillance film. This venerable tradition includes Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), Antonioni’s Blowup (1966), Coppola’s The Conversation (1974), Tony Scott’s Enemy of the State (1998), Spielberg’s Minority Report (2002), Michael Haneke’s Caché (2005), and Scorsese’s latest offering, The Departed (2006). (more - an excellent read)

--------------------------------

“The more technology you use,
the easier it for them to keep tabs on you.”
~Edward 'Brill' Lyle

"Learn How To Spy On Top Ten Sites"

The hype...
"Have you heard about the new site ... that helps you beat your competition by spying on it?" (more)

The reality...
secretpagespy.com

The verdict...
We checked it out. If you are willing to trade your email address and your valuable time for a looong commercial message for marketing aids, in the hopes of gaining illicit 'spy' information on your competitors, using a few repackaged Internet search tools... Well, you get the idea.

Why smart organizations check for bugs... quarterly.

A controversy over covert video and audio surveillance equipment discovered in public buildings in a rural Ontario municipality has one elected official invoking the Watergate scandal.

The hidden cameras of Highlands East, in the Haliburton area, came to light last year at a fire hall. The station's commander had previously been dismissed when he and other volunteer firefighters were caught on tape drinking beer after the municipality had adopted a no-alcohol policy.

Highlands East Reeve Dave Burton and deputy reeve Jim Mackie, newly elected last November, are both volunteer firefighters, and criticized the use of surveillance in that matter and assumed it had ceased.

Mr. Mackie said he was astonished when a device was discovered in December concealed in a light fixture in the Gooderham firehall.

"The camera was powered up and broadcasting both audio and video, it was set up so anybody within about 300 feet who had that type of receiver could watch in there and listen with impunity."

After that discovery, Mr. Mackie said he went looking for other devices and found a hidden camera in the local arena, and another on the wall of the municipal building in Wilberforce.

Mr. Mackie said he was surprised by how "insidious" the device found in the fire hall was — no bigger than a loonie (a Canadian $1.00 coin measuring 26.5 mm). (more)

Stop & Shop... & Cop

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)

Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger...

(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.

County eavesdropping lawsuits settled...

...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.

DuPont Data Theft Shows Insider Risks

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.

Field Report on Swedish Bugging Protests

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)

Spy Hard II

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)

Illegally bugged Czechs entitled to compensation

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)

KPMG infiltrated - no business is immune.

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

Eavesdropping up in yet another country

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)