Pakistan's supreme court judges have ordered a sweep of their homes and courtrooms for spying devices after the government presented "scandalous" evidence in its case against the suspended chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
The supreme court rejected a dossier containing surveillance photos of Mr Chaudhry's home and transcripts of apparently bugged conversations, marked "secret", that was presented to the court yesterday.
The 13-judge bench reprimanded the government for producing "vexatious and scandalous" material, suspended the legal license of one of the government's lawyers , and banned intelligence agents from all future hearings of the superior courts.
The court ordered the Intelligence Bureau, Pakistan's main civilian spy agency, to ensure all bugging or other surveillance devices were removed from the homes and offices of supreme court judges within one week. (more)
Thursday, July 5, 2007
The Champagne Spy
A son's desire to finally unload the secrets he's been carrying for decades triggers Schirman's documentary, "The Champagne Spy."Outline -- Mossad undercover agent keeps his real family in the dark while carrying on a lavish lifestyle. Perspectives on the personal costs paid for a life of espionage and the dark side of Israel's spy wars are bracing and dramatic, assuring strong film festival and distribution interest. (more)
The Athens Cell Phone Eavesdropping Affair
On 9 March 2005, a 38-year-old Greek electrical engineer named Costas Tsalikidis was found hanged in his Athens loft apartment, an apparent suicide. It would prove to be merely the first public news of a scandal that would roil Greece for months.
The next day, the prime minister of Greece was told that his cellphone was being bugged, as were those of the mayor of Athens and at least 100 other high-ranking dignitaries, including an employee of the U.S. embassy.
Even before Tsalikidis's death, investigators had found rogue software installed on the Vodafone Greece phone network by parties unknown. ...the Athens affair stands out because it may have involved state secrets, and it targeted individuals—a combination that, if it had ever occurred before, was not disclosed publicly.
Given the ease with which the conversations could have been recorded, it is generally believed that they were. But no one has found any recordings, and we don't know how many of the calls were recorded, or even listened to, by the perpetrators. ... We still don't know who committed this crime. (much more)
The next day, the prime minister of Greece was told that his cellphone was being bugged, as were those of the mayor of Athens and at least 100 other high-ranking dignitaries, including an employee of the U.S. embassy.
Even before Tsalikidis's death, investigators had found rogue software installed on the Vodafone Greece phone network by parties unknown. ...the Athens affair stands out because it may have involved state secrets, and it targeted individuals—a combination that, if it had ever occurred before, was not disclosed publicly.
Given the ease with which the conversations could have been recorded, it is generally believed that they were. But no one has found any recordings, and we don't know how many of the calls were recorded, or even listened to, by the perpetrators. ... We still don't know who committed this crime. (much more)
Clinton 'Spy' Aide Sued - Wiretapping
Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief strategist (Mark Penn) is accused of illegal eavesdropping in a civil lawsuit that alleges he and his polling firm monitored the personal e-mails of a former associate who started a rival company.
Mitchell Markel claims the firm monitored messages sent from his personal BlackBerry after he had resigned.
Lawyers for the firm and founder Mark Penn, Clinton's strategist, denied the claim. (more)
Mitchell Markel claims the firm monitored messages sent from his personal BlackBerry after he had resigned.
Lawyers for the firm and founder Mark Penn, Clinton's strategist, denied the claim. (more)
SpyCam Story #366
Wales - Security guards working at the National Assembly in Wales have been reprimanded after being caught using high-powered CCTV cameras to spy on local residents and hotel guests, it emerged today. (more)
SpyCam Story #365
Lawsuit Over School Spying in Third Week.
Several years ago a team visiting Livingston Middle School noticed cameras in a dressing room. Those cameras allegedly recorded images that were stored on a computer hard drive and could be accessed over the Internet.
The suit states that the images of the children were viewed by at least seven adults without the consent of the children or their parents.
The defendants also say that every successful remote access to the security system's software traces back to the computer in LMS Assistant Principal Robert Jolley's office. ("Hold the jokes, mister.")
(more)
Several years ago a team visiting Livingston Middle School noticed cameras in a dressing room. Those cameras allegedly recorded images that were stored on a computer hard drive and could be accessed over the Internet.
The suit states that the images of the children were viewed by at least seven adults without the consent of the children or their parents.
The defendants also say that every successful remote access to the security system's software traces back to the computer in LMS Assistant Principal Robert Jolley's office. ("Hold the jokes, mister.")
(more)
...who got them from Toyota.
McLaren have suspended a "senior member" of its technical staff after it was revealed to the team that someone had unlawfully obtained information belonging to rival Ferrari.McLaren have not named the person in question but autosport.com reports it is chief designer Mike Coughlan. A search by British police at Coughlan's house on Tuesday turned up documents which allegedly belong to Ferrari. (more)
(the Ferrari/Toyota espionage story)
SpyCam Story #364
Radio Chick Video Trick
New York - Former WFNY afternoon host Leslie Gold, the "Radio Chick," has set up a spycam in her home to record the doings of her boyfriend, Carmine Appice. (more)
New York - Former WFNY afternoon host Leslie Gold, the "Radio Chick," has set up a spycam in her home to record the doings of her boyfriend, Carmine Appice. (more)
Friday, June 29, 2007
Ron Rosenbaum - the man who jump-started my career with his Esquire article "Secrets of the Little Blue Box" - has an interesting observation...
"My fellow espionage obsessive Gil Roth sent me a link to the National Security Archive’s release on the CIA “Family Jewels” document dump which contained what has got to be the Greatest Euphemism ever coined...
What I found interesting and unremarked in the coverage of the memos was a remarkable passage in memo (#2 in the National Security Archive link) is that it’s very specific about many instances of illicit surveillance and telephone tapping, naming a handful of specific individuals as targets. And then there is one final paragraph that suddenly drops all pretense to transparency. Becomes astonishingly vague and opaque. Hence the potentially explosive euphemism.
According to this paragraph “the CIA occasionally tests experimental equipment on American telephone circuits. The CIA apparently has established guidelines for these tests which provide, among other things that no records may be kept, not tape and so forth.”
Tests experimental eavesdropping devices on American telephone equipment? And just how widespread are these tests” and how long to they go on. Do they test whether they can listen into to every conversation a given subject has. Wording like that would give them latitude. Wording like that seems designed to cover up more than it reveals.
There is a scandal here, I suspect, one that may turn out to have foreshadowed the NSA warrantless wireptapping scandal." (more)
"My fellow espionage obsessive Gil Roth sent me a link to the National Security Archive’s release on the CIA “Family Jewels” document dump which contained what has got to be the Greatest Euphemism ever coined...
What I found interesting and unremarked in the coverage of the memos was a remarkable passage in memo (#2 in the National Security Archive link) is that it’s very specific about many instances of illicit surveillance and telephone tapping, naming a handful of specific individuals as targets. And then there is one final paragraph that suddenly drops all pretense to transparency. Becomes astonishingly vague and opaque. Hence the potentially explosive euphemism.
According to this paragraph “the CIA occasionally tests experimental equipment on American telephone circuits. The CIA apparently has established guidelines for these tests which provide, among other things that no records may be kept, not tape and so forth.”
Tests experimental eavesdropping devices on American telephone equipment? And just how widespread are these tests” and how long to they go on. Do they test whether they can listen into to every conversation a given subject has. Wording like that would give them latitude. Wording like that seems designed to cover up more than it reveals.
There is a scandal here, I suspect, one that may turn out to have foreshadowed the NSA warrantless wireptapping scandal." (more)
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Worldwide Comparison Of Wiretap Laws Published
The pocket-sized guide covers twenty-four countries, each with a specific overview and history of the particular national laws. Designed to serve as a valuable reference point for anybody connected with the surveillance industry, the guide includes legislation from countries as diverse as the U.S., U.K., Romania and the Philippines.
60 pages of legislation from 24 different countries. (more)
60 pages of legislation from 24 different countries. (more)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Industrial Espionage - "Bugs & Taps Common"
Although South Africa is the focus of this particular article, the situation is the same in your country. Business espionage has reached critical mass. Corporate problem-o-meters are smoking...
South African companies are increasingly spying on each other as commercial competition hots up, an investigation by the International Bar Association (IBA) has found. ...indications are that SA companies are being hit by industrial espionage on a large scale.
Industry experts say it costs between R5,000 ($700.00) and R10,000 ($1,400.00) to hire a spy to install a telephone bugging device, and thereafter there is a daily fee for collecting and delivering the recordings to the client.The most common methods used by spies are the bugging of rooms and the tapping of telephones.
Eavesdropping on businesses has become easier as bugs have become more available, cheaper, more powerful and smaller. A concealed MP3 player, for example, can record days of conversation. A phone bug can be planted in a room and dialed into from anywhere — the call often escapes detection because it resembles an ordinary cellphone call.
These are “the current bugs of choice” and are readily available from electronic hobby shops and on the Internet — and are cheap enough to be disposable.
Other James Bond-style gadgets that are easily concealed include video cameras as small as a sugar cube, and fake smoke detectors with hidden wireless cameras. Some of the latest video recorders are the size of a cigarette 20-pack.
Tim Jackson (an information security expert) gave two examples of the type of thing that is happening. In one case, he found a cellphone modified to work as a bugging device that was hidden in the ceiling of a boardroom at a medium-sized insurance company in Johannesburg. The spy was able to dial into the cellphone from anywhere in the world and eavesdrop on board meetings.
In the other case, Jackson found automatic telephone recorders hidden in an unused storeroom in the parking basement of a large pharmaceutical company in Johannesburg.
Jackson said spies were switching to more sophisticated devices — such as digital recorders that can record non-stop for up to two weeks. (more)
Ready to add eavesdropping detection to your corporate security program?
Click here.
South African companies are increasingly spying on each other as commercial competition hots up, an investigation by the International Bar Association (IBA) has found. ...indications are that SA companies are being hit by industrial espionage on a large scale.
Industry experts say it costs between R5,000 ($700.00) and R10,000 ($1,400.00) to hire a spy to install a telephone bugging device, and thereafter there is a daily fee for collecting and delivering the recordings to the client.The most common methods used by spies are the bugging of rooms and the tapping of telephones.
Eavesdropping on businesses has become easier as bugs have become more available, cheaper, more powerful and smaller. A concealed MP3 player, for example, can record days of conversation. A phone bug can be planted in a room and dialed into from anywhere — the call often escapes detection because it resembles an ordinary cellphone call.
These are “the current bugs of choice” and are readily available from electronic hobby shops and on the Internet — and are cheap enough to be disposable.
Other James Bond-style gadgets that are easily concealed include video cameras as small as a sugar cube, and fake smoke detectors with hidden wireless cameras. Some of the latest video recorders are the size of a cigarette 20-pack.
Tim Jackson (an information security expert) gave two examples of the type of thing that is happening. In one case, he found a cellphone modified to work as a bugging device that was hidden in the ceiling of a boardroom at a medium-sized insurance company in Johannesburg. The spy was able to dial into the cellphone from anywhere in the world and eavesdrop on board meetings.
In the other case, Jackson found automatic telephone recorders hidden in an unused storeroom in the parking basement of a large pharmaceutical company in Johannesburg.
Jackson said spies were switching to more sophisticated devices — such as digital recorders that can record non-stop for up to two weeks. (more)
Ready to add eavesdropping detection to your corporate security program?
Click here.
Monday, June 25, 2007
How Would They Know? ...(*RIM*shot*)
Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry mobile e-mail device, Saturday dismissed France's warning against using the product due to potential spying concerns. ... RIM has denied speculation governments may be listening in on BlackBerry traffic. (written by Ed Sutherland - AHN News Writer)
(more)(more)(RIM's Security Statement)
RIM's response to the growing word-on-the-street about the imagined (or real) eavesdropping vulnerabilities of the BlackBerry was apparently not very strong, or convincing. We see words like "dismissed" and "denied" being used to describe RIM's security state-of-mind.
Too bad. RIM has taken great pains to assure the privacy of it's service. Read the Security Statement.
This is becoming a fiasco for RIM. The RIM techies need to drag the RIM PR folks around to the back of the plant and whack them in the head with some Triple DES, quickly.
RIM, fight back. Let the public know the technical facts ...and have answers ready for these news stories. Is France bashing because they are ready to launch their own system? Is the Wall Street bashing more about stopping crooked traders than it is about outside eavesdroppers?
All this being said, remember, "Only failed attempts at espionage are discovered." So, no matter what communications system you use... use it discretely. ~ Kevin
(more)(more)(RIM's Security Statement)
RIM's response to the growing word-on-the-street about the imagined (or real) eavesdropping vulnerabilities of the BlackBerry was apparently not very strong, or convincing. We see words like "dismissed" and "denied" being used to describe RIM's security state-of-mind.
Too bad. RIM has taken great pains to assure the privacy of it's service. Read the Security Statement.
This is becoming a fiasco for RIM. The RIM techies need to drag the RIM PR folks around to the back of the plant and whack them in the head with some Triple DES, quickly.
RIM, fight back. Let the public know the technical facts ...and have answers ready for these news stories. Is France bashing because they are ready to launch their own system? Is the Wall Street bashing more about stopping crooked traders than it is about outside eavesdroppers?
All this being said, remember, "Only failed attempts at espionage are discovered." So, no matter what communications system you use... use it discretely. ~ Kevin
Spy Box Goes Postal
"A digital camera inside a parcel looks out through a small hole and captures images of its journey through the postal system.
The Spy Box was sent from my studio to the gallery taking an image every 10 seconds recording a total of 6994 images these were then edited together to create an animated slideshow." ~ Tim Knowles
Wall Street BlackBerrys Feel the Squeeze
Wall Street’s two self-policing groups, N.Y.S.E. Regulation and NASD, released proposed guidelines (NASD notice to members No. 07-30) for the regulation of written electronic communications, including information sent through BlackBerrys, text messages and instant messaging. The recommendations, which were only optional, came amid concerns about the spread of confidential information through unsecure devices.
The gist of the guidelines was that, if Wall Street firms cannot supervise or review messages from portable devices, or if the sender cannot be identified, the firms should consider blocking them. (more)(more)(in French)
The gist of the guidelines was that, if Wall Street firms cannot supervise or review messages from portable devices, or if the sender cannot be identified, the firms should consider blocking them. (more)(more)(in French)
Utility Hires PI to Spy - Eavesdrops on Lawyer
Canada - No one with the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board will be disciplined "at this time" for hiring private investigators to spy on opponents of a proposed north-south power line, a spokesman for Energy Minister Mel Knight said Thursday.
The AEUB hired four undercover investigators who pretended to be landowners to monitor the crowd. One investigator, Don MacDonald of Fort Saskatchewan, was subsequently invited to join in conference calls that linked landowners and environmentalists discussing their concerns about power-line development. In at least one of those calls, the landowners and a lawyer discussed legal strategy for an upcoming challenge before the Alberta Court of Appeal.
One of the lawyers for the landowners said Thursday that eavesdropping on solicitor-client telephone conversations will be raised with the courts in an effort to bring the AEUB hearings to a halt.
The AEUB hired four undercover investigators who pretended to be landowners to monitor the crowd. One investigator, Don MacDonald of Fort Saskatchewan, was subsequently invited to join in conference calls that linked landowners and environmentalists discussing their concerns about power-line development. In at least one of those calls, the landowners and a lawyer discussed legal strategy for an upcoming challenge before the Alberta Court of Appeal.
One of the lawyers for the landowners said Thursday that eavesdropping on solicitor-client telephone conversations will be raised with the courts in an effort to bring the AEUB hearings to a halt.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)