Audio Exploitation
Solicitation Number: Reference-Number-BAA-07-05-IFKA
Posted Date: Jul 11, 2007
Classification Code: A -- Research & Development
"The scope of this effort covers a broad range of audio and speech processing technologies not limited to: speaker identification, language/ dialect identification, obtaining the gist of a conversation by recognition of words and phrases, uncooperative speaker audio language translation, whispered speech detection, audio transmission segmentation in continuous speech, background noise identification, channel effect mitigation, usable speech determination, interference (noise and competing talkers) reduction, voice stress analysis, speaker verification, coding to preserve the characteristics of the talker and channel, watermarking, and correlation." (more)
(Direct quotes from the manufacturer follow.)
"Fun New Spy Device From China"
"Chinavasion brings you this fully functional Novelty Tire clock with a hidden surprise. Cleverly hidden inside is a small wireless CMOS camera which can be switch on or off at a touch of the supplied remote Just imagine the fun that can be hadChinavasion presents yet another incredible gadget; a 2.4GHz hidden spy camera in a nifty looking racing tyre and 2.4GHz Receiver /MP4 player in one. This is definitely a product that can be used for just about any purpose you can think of, without anyone ever being the wiser. Better yet, with the included remote, you can switch the spy camera on and off without anyone even seeing you turn it on. A great gadget that is perfect for anyone." (more)
"Wakamaru" recognizes approximately 10,000 words necessary for daily life, recognizes its owner and his family and speaks to them on appropriate topics. Needless to say, "wakamaru" will respond to you also based on information he gets from your daily life." (more)
Chicago, IL - Channel 2 is despicable and slimy for shooting and/or obtaining, and then airing the covert video of the Stebic pool party. It's getting to the point where the National Enquirer may have more journalistic ethics than some of our local media -- and that's not saying much. ~Martin J. Jacobs(more)The story that precipitated this remark is fascinating. (more)
UK - A man from Woodford Halse has appeared in court accused of setting up covert video cameras in his toilet so he could film children who visited his home.
Alan Kench, of South Street, was arrested in December 2006 and appeared before Daventry Magistrates on Tuesday. (more)
India - Sushma Swaraj, leading the opposition presidential election campaign for vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, says her telephone is being tapped.She said that whenever anyone called up her phone number, 9868181920, 'the reply comes 'this number does not exist'. I am not being able to call up from my phone. When I called up my residential landline it was being connected to the Police Control Room.'BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ahluwalia, backed her up, saying, 'I have been handling mobile phones since their inception and can make out when they are being tapped or when there is some normal fault in the line and I can tell you this is clearly a case of tapping.' (more)
AR - A former sheriff's deputy who bugged his upstairs neighbor's apartment pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor harassment charge and will serve one day in jail.
The listening device was discovered April 1 when the neighbor felt something under the carpet and found a microphone. Authorities found four holes in the ceiling of the deputy's apartment below. David Paul, 35, was fired by Baxter County that night. (more)
In March, 15-year-old Joshua Brumfield got a shiny new BlackBerry Pearl, and his parents got a new way to watch out for their son. The Brumfields signed up to be early users of Radar, software designed to let parents monitor incoming calls on their child's mobile phone. Anytime Joshua gets a call from someone not on a call list approved by his parents, they will receive a real-time text alert on their cell phone or online.
Radar could mark a shift toward greater monitoring by parents through cell phones, much the way it happened on the Web years ago. As more kids live their lives on mobile devices--text messaging, sending photos, scheduling school assignments, surfing the Web and calling their social circle--some parents are using tracking software to protect them from predators or bullies, or to simply stay connected. (more)(more parents monitoring children articles)
Allegations that a senior McLaren engineer received stolen documents from Ferrari are just the latest in a long and ignoble tradition of Formula One skullduggery...- At the end of 1977 former drivers turned team managers Jackie Oliver and Alan Rees, together with designer Tony Southgate, had grown dissatisfied with the management style of Shadow team-owner Don Nichols, and defected - Southgate's Arrows FA1 bore a striking basic resemblance to Shadow's DN9, which he had also penned prior to leaving Nichols.- (1978) When the gifted Lotus designer Colin Chapman and his staff harnessed undercar ground-effect aerodynamics to enhance the grip that the car could generate, thus creating a very significant performance increase, other designers scratched their heads... At the Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp that year Lotus personnel got a surprise when they returned to the track one night to retrieve something they had forgotten, and discovered Tyrrell's designer, the late Maurice Philippe, lying beneath the 79 taking in all of its secrets.- Chapman himself was not averse to such underhand practice and at the Austrian Grand Prix in 1979 dispatched his team manager Peter Collins to acquire critical measurements from the successful Williams FW07. Collins duly got the information that Chapman had demanded but was caught red-handed in doing so, causing a minor scandal that soon died down.
- The late Dr. Harvey Postlethwaite, who was Ferrari's technical director, admitted that he had been the mastermind behind a clandestine break-in at the Williams garage during the German Grand Prix in 1980. A group of Ferrari personnel spent the entire night in the garage, wielding their tape measures and taking photographs of the car that would win Australian Alan Jones that year's championship.
- Frank Williams was livid when he heard about Collins and his tape measure that time in Austria, until one of his own team pointed out that every team, including Williams, was doing something similar.
- McLaren mechanics once discovered a senior BAR-Honda aerodynamicist in the back of one of their trucks, trying to measure up their car. They locked him in.
...and in other sports...
Rugby Union
- In the week leading up to the 2003 World Cup final in Sydney, the England coach Clive Woodward ordered their hotel rooms and training grounds to be swept for spying devices. It was feared the Australians were eavesdropping on secret team talks.
- Prior to a Test against England at Twickenham in 2005, New Zealand officials caught two men in camouflage gear in bushes filming the All Black training. They claimed to be from a news agency before running away. Both England and the agency denied any knowledge of them.
Football
- In April 2003 England accused Turkey of filming training prior to a Euro 2004 qualifier in Sunderland. Sven Goran Eriksson had planned to use a diamond formation but his changes were witnessed by a Turkish official posing as a charity worker.
- In November 2005 a newspaper alleged that the Manchester United dressing room had been bugged before a 1-0 home victory over Chelsea. The paper said they were offered the tapes by a "middle man".
- After a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace in February this year, the Leeds manager, Dennis Wise, claimed one of his players had leaked team information to the opposition before kick-off. The player's identity was never revealed.
Cricket
- During England's 2006-07 Ashes tour detailed bowling plans for individual batsman were leaked to an Australian radio station. The plans had been pinned up in England's dressing room.
Netball
- In July 2006 the Australia netball coach Norma Plummer accused New Zealand spies of passing on team secrets prior to the two rivals' meeting. She accused former employees who were now working for the Kiwis.
Sailing
- A diver was found near the Nippon JPN-26 boat as it left San Diego harbour to sail in the first race of the 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup semi-final. The diver turned out to be a friend of Le Défi Français skipper Marc Pajot, and he was said to have been sent to the other boat for a bet.
(more)
"Eavesdropping is one example of an overhyped threat," said Lawrence Orans, a researcher with Gartner, in a previous interview. "Sure, it’s technically possible to execute a man-in-the-middle attack and capture packets. The reason that we hear so much about eavesdropping is that it really does illicit this visceral reaction. The main thing is to focus on the greater threats, for example attacking an IP PBX server itself." (more)
Every element of VoIP security is synergistically important.
My advice; think holistic. ~Kevin
UK - A Hampshire councillor who set up a spy camera to secretly film a woman and two teenage girls using his bathroom has been jailed for four months.
Neil Redrup, a Ministry of Defence database manager at the time, put the camera in an airing cupboard with the lens spying through a hole at his home.Redrup, 45, regularly invited teenagers to parties at his home, a court heard.He pleaded guilty to four charges of voyeurism and one for gross indecency between January and December 2005. (more)
Mace Security International, Inc., a manufacturer of electronic surveillance, security and personal defense products, and an owner and operator of car and truck wash facilities, today announced results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2007.Financial ResultsThe net loss for the first quarter of 2007 was $658,000, or $(0.04) per share, compared to a loss of $966,000 or $(0.06) per share for the first quarter of 2006.Total revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2007 were $11.6 million compared to $13.3 million for the same period in 2006. The decrease in revenues was primarily due to a decrease in revenues from the Security Segment of approximately $1.1 million, or 16.7%, in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the first quarter of 2006. The change in revenues within the Security Segment was principally due to a decrease in sales of our consumer direct electronic surveillance and machine vision camera and video conferencing equipment in Texas and our professional electronic surveillance operation in Florida. The decrease in sales in our professional electronic surveillance operation was partially a result of sales of discontinued and refurbished products at lower prices, the inability of some of Mace’s vendors to supply high volume products in a timely manner, and the impact on operations and management of the Florida embezzlement investigation. This decrease in sales was partially offset by growth in revenues in our personal defense and law enforcement aerosol operations. Car wash and detailing revenues decreased... (more)
CIA Secret Documents Released
The newly released documents known within the Central Intelligence Agency as the "Family Jewels" give a history of the agency's misdeeds covering several decades. (more)
Me too! Me too!Russia’s FSB security service, successor to the KGB, has opened its archives on the mass persecution of political 'enemies' during the rule of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, but only relatives of victims will be allowed to see any information. (more)
Iran - According to IRNA, the official Islamic Republic news agency, the national Police chief has implicitly verified the news about the confiscation of a number of squirrels, equipped with eavesdropping devices, on the Iranian borders.
He has declined to give any more details, but, reportedly, when asked about the confiscation of 14 spy squirrels, he stated, “I have heard about it, but I do not have precise information”. IRNA adds, “These squirrels were equipped by foreign intelligence services, but were captured two weeks ago by the Police”.
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"I tried searching the IRNA site (in English) and wasn’t able to find any articles on “spy squirrels.”
Kamangir: IRNA, and other news sources, do not translate all their news in English. I assure you that I have given a proper translation of the Persian source. Unfortunately, Google does not provide English-Persian translation, yet. (more) (video)
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& His Friends
Iran has arrested 20 people - including some foreigners - near the border with Iraq and accused them of belonging to a spy network, the state-run news agency reported Monday.
The IRNA news agency did not provide the nationalities of the foreigners. Iran last month claimed to have uncovered spy rings organized by the United States and its Western allies.
IRNA, quoting the head of the intelligence department in the Kerman Shah province, said the 20 were trained by intelligence services "of the enemy" for economic, military, political, cultural and social purposes. (more)
Former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney says he has left Italy fearing for his safety after being accused of passing confidential information to McLaren's chief designer."There have been high-speed car chases. We've been followed by more than one car, with Italian plates, and when we cornered one of them last Thursday evening the men in it refused to speak," the Observer newspaper quoted him as saying on Monday."I don't believe they were journalists," the 47-year-old Briton added."There was tracking gear on my car. Someone was going to get hurt. I had no option to get out of Italy."Stepney was dismissed by Ferrari at the start of the week after Formula One's Italian glamour team took legal action against him for the "theft of technical information". (more)
Audio Exploitation
