London's Science Museum is offering the James Bonds of the future the chance to try their hand at espionage and learn some of the trade's most useful skills.In its special family exhibition entitled the Science of Spying, trainee spies are recruited at the Spymaker Base before being trained in important skills... In addition, the exhibition will explore the future of espionage, focusing on the science and technology side of the business... The exhibition will be at the museum until the beginning of September.
ABC Nightline Special Report
In this clip, former AT&T technician Mark Klein discusses his investigation of a secret room built in conjunction with the National Security Agency through which all customer information was routed.
The Los Angeles TImes killed the story. The New York TImes gave it life. Both the EFF and the ACLU have cases in the courts at the moment. As the clip shows, the government (and AT&T) are trying to get the case dismissed on "national security" grounds. (video)
(update - 11/7/07)
A former technician at AT&T, who alleges that the telecom forwards virtually all of its internet traffic into a "secret room" to facilitate government spying, says the whole operation reminds him of something out of Orwell's 1984.
Appearing on MSNBC's Countdown program, whistleblower Mark Klein told Keith Olbermann that a copy of all internet traffic passing over AT&T lines was copied into a locked room at the company's San Francisco office -- to which only employees with National Security Agency clearance had access -- via a cable splitting device.
"My job was to connect circuits into the splitter device which was hard-wired to the secret room," said Klein. "And effectively, the splitter copied the entire data stream of those internet cables into the secret room -- and we're talking about phone conversations, email web browsing, everything that goes across the internet." (video)
NHL players are expected to discuss firing Players Association executive director Ted Saskin and another top union official in the wake of a Toronto newspaper report claiming union executives have tapped into players' e-mail accounts. (more)
...Street Journal.
(A strong case for not having an in-house TSCM team.)
A Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employee fired this week for allegedly intercepting and recording calls from a news reporter and others said he felt pressured to uncover who at the retail giant was leaking embarrassing information to outsiders.Bruce Gabbard, a 44-year-old employee of the company's information-security operation, said he wanted to tell his side of events for the first time. Mr. Gabbard and his supervisor were dismissed this week after the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas told the retailer he was looking into possible violations of federal law in the alleged wiretapping.After a flurry of articles about Wal-Mart's employment and benefit practices appeared in the New York Times newspaper and elsewhere, Mr. Gabbard said, he took it upon himself to find out if any of the newspaper's information was coming from internal sources."Our job was to plug any information hole," Mr. Gabbard said. "That was the primary reason for our team to be there."Mr. Gabbard had worked for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart for 19 years and was a member of its Threat Research and Analysis team, a group of about 20 employees in its information-systems division. He and others would sweep rooms for electronic-listening devices and do "forensic" data gathering for use in court cases. ... Kenneth H. Senser, a senior vice president who heads Wal-Mart Global Security, instructed Mr. Gabbard and another member of his team to find the source of the leak, Mr. Gabbard said. He swept Ms. Chambers' office for bugs to no avail, he said, and then they examined the computers of the people who had received and written different iterations of the Chambers memo. (more)
UPDATE - 3/29/07
Wal-Mart PR is in fine fettle... (more)
It sees.It walks.
It talks.
It trips over a deck of cards
and crawls on its belly like a reptile!
It's NetTansor by Bandai Robot Labs.
Control it from your computer screen.
It sends what it sees to your cell phone.
See it in "action" here.
Buy it here.
See its evil twin here.
FutureWatch...
Technology continues to grow within personal robots.
Some now even have human-like skin and physical attributes.
Prices continue to fall.
Humans will develop very personal relationships with their cybuddies.
Next... human-like laws to protect the new species, here.
The USDA has a security warning on their web site about... bugs in hotel rooms!
No, not the little critters who eat crops, the little critters that eavesdrop.
...from the USDA web site...
"It is sometimes said that 'All hotel rooms abroad are bugged for audio and visual surveillance.' Of course it is not true that all of them are bugged, but a great many are -- especially in major hotels frequented by foreign business and government travelers.
To maintain an adequate level of security awareness while conducting business abroad, you must operate on the assumption that your hotel room conversations are being monitored. If you are an active target who is known to pick up local women, you could also be filmed by a concealed camera.
The goal of surreptitious monitoring may be to learn your business or negotiating strategy, identify your local contacts, assess your vulnerabilities, or obtain evidence that can be used to accuse you of improper activities or to pressure you to cooperate..." (more)
Overview of the Threat
"A bug is a device placed in an office, home, hotel room, or other area to monitor conversations (or other communications) and transmit them out of that area to a listening post. Other listening devices work from a distance to monitor communications within a room without actually having a microphone or transmitter in the room.
Thanks to an explosion of miniaturized technology, the tools for bugging and other forms of eavesdropping have never been cheaper, smaller, more powerful, or easier to come by." (more)
Eavesdropping Methods
"Eavesdropping equipment varies greatly in level of sophistication. Many off-the-shelf spy shop devices are generally low-cost consumer electronic devices that have been modified for covert surveillance. They are easy to use against unsuspecting targets but can be detected by elementary electronic countermeasures.
Devices produced for law enforcement and industrial espionage are more expensive, more sophisticated, and more difficult to find during a technical security countermeasures (TSCM) inspection.
Devices designed and built for intelligence services are still more expensive and very difficult to find." (more)
Detecting and Preventing Eavesdropping
"Never try to find a bug or wiretap yourself. ... A Technical Security Countermeasures (TSCM) survey, also known as a 'sweep,' is a service provided by highly qualified personnel to detect the presence of technical surveillance devices and hazards and to identify technical security weaknesses that could facilitate a technical penetration of the surveyed facility." (more)
In other words, have qualified, experienced people conduct your search.
Call us.
Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio reported Wednesday that Finnish authorities had expressed concern about Sweden's plans to boost the interception of telecommunications crossing the border."Finnish law requires that all telecommunications traffic is kept confidential. It is the transport ministry's task to monitor that everyone live up to this obligation," Harri Pursiainen, the permanent secretary at the Finnish transport and communications ministry, told the Finnish News Agency (STT).The Swedish government is drafting a bill that would give Försvarets radioanstalt (FRA), the national authority for signals intelligence, a wider envelope than before to intercept and monitor cross-border telecommunications. (more)
Spy Academy Experience Day Gift Pack
You'll learn the essential skills required to conduct a secret agent operation during an action packed 3 hours at the Spy Headquarters.
You'll be shown how to use specialist spy equipment, covert cameras and UHF radios, bugs and listening devices, and lock picking gadgets.
You'll be taught how to use a pistol, the Secret Agents weapon of choice, and then test your skills with quick draw techniques.
Finally you'll also receive some expert instruction on un-armed combat techniques, useful when you're cornered by enemy agents, and learn contact drills using our state of the art laser combat system. Only £99.95
Getting your Walter Mitty butt there, extra. (more)
Italy!!!!!Britain may have more CCTV cameras per head than anywhere else in the world but when it comes to electronic surveillance the country is way behind Italy, the Netherlands and even Sweden. ... Italy leads the world with 76 intercepts per 100,000 head of population, shortly ahead of the Netherlands (62), and with third-placed Sweden some way back (33). Germany comes in fourth with 23.5 intercepts per 100,000 head of population with England and Wales trailing on six intercepts per head of population. (more)
You probably know that New York City is often called by its nickname, The Big Apple.But, did you know that eavesdropping played a part in this?The city's nickname The Big Apple came from sportswriter John Fitzgerald eavesdropping on stable hands in New Orleans who referred to NYC's racetracks as "The Big Apple". (more)
UK - Winston Churchill banned an electronics expert from Downing Street after an MI5 warning that Soviet spies might use him to bug the prime ministerial hearing aid.Churchill, then nearing his eighties, had an elaborate desktop loudspeaker system installed at No 10 during his second premiership in the early 1950s.Files released at the National Archives in Kew show that Roger Hollis, then deputy director-general of MI5, warned Downing Street about the risk of continuing to employ Alexander Poliakoff, a Russian émigré, to service the unit.The warning over Poliakoff occurred in 1953, the year after the Americans had found a bug in the beak of the eagle in the great seal of the United States at their Moscow embassy. They later found another 40; 14 more were found at the British embassy. (more)
Ever wonder who actually spies on employee's e-mail?
Maybe, it could be Y-O-U!
Take a peek at this job opening, for opening..."The Manager of the Electronic Communications team will provide top-level guidance and advice to an excellent team of surveillance analysts who are charged with the day-to-day compliance and oversight of all forms of electronic communications (e-mail, IM, and other forms). With the ever-evolving nature of the Firm's business and the regulatory landscape, the Manager's primary role is to realize necessary improvements in existing surveillance methods with respect to electronic communications and compliance with the Firm's policies on electronic communications.The Manager must be comfortable working with Technology staff on creating, defining and testing new electronic communications systems. A major project will involve supporting the rollout of a new Firm wide electronic communications supervision system in 2008 while providing maintenance of the legacy e-mail supervision systems.The Manager will be responsible for initiating and overseeing a wide-range of strategic planning projects related to electronic communications to assist the Firm in complying with regulatory and legal requirements. The Manager will also have extensive interaction with senior members of other Legal and Compliance departments and Businesses. Accordingly, this is a high exposure position within the Compliance Department that should prove to be both challenging and rewarding.Skills...The ideal candidate must have a strong management background with:- Undergraduate degree required, graduate degree a plus- Minimum 6 to 8 years of Legal/Compliance/Control experience within the securities industry- Familiarity with electronic communication issues a must- Ability to understand and work well within the complex organizational structure - Excellent written and oral communication skills- Impeccable personal and professional integrity- Highly responsive and client relationship focused.- Ability to inspire confidence and be a great ambassador for Compliance
(more)
A Hollywood studio plans a film on Valerie Plame, a glamorous CIA spy outed after her husband accused President George W Bush's administration of exaggerating intelligence to invade Iraq, Variety said.
Warner Brothers has acquired the rights to the life story of Plame and her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, the couple at the heart of a scandal which led to the trial (and conviction - see below) of Vice President Dick Cheney's aide Lewis Libby.Warner Brothers "also will use Plame's memoir Fair Game if the CIA permits her to publish it," Variety said. (more)
The Spy Who Billed Me
by R J Hillhouse, Ph.D.
(more)
...from the manufacturer's web site...
as intelligence agents.
gathering intelligence. Sun-Mechatronics supports the Shinobi who live in our age."
