Bondsman sentenced in illegal wiretapping

MO - A part-time bail bondsman from Sparta was sentenced today in federal court for wiretapping a Springfield woman’s telephone, according to John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Richard A. Hugh, 54, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison without parole.

Hugh placed the phone tap on the victim’s telephone line in December 2005 in an attempt to get information that would help him locate Basil Minor, who was a fugitive in a Lawrence County circuit court case. Hugh recorded conversations from that telephone from Dec. 13 to 24, 2005, using equipment he purchased at Radio Shack. (more)

Surveillance Society: High-Tech Cameras Watch You

In the era of computer-controlled surveillance, your every move could be captured by cameras, whether you're shopping in the grocery store or driving on the freeway. Proponents say it will keep us safe, but at what cost? (more)

Decoding Spy-Speak

Ex-agents bring covert lingo to the world of corporate espionage. (more)

Spies find higher-paying assignments in business

...from a Condé Nast Portfolio article...
They're leaving "the Company" to snoop on your company. How C.I.A. agents are pushing corporate espionage to ominous new extremes. ...corporate espionage is becoming almost as sophisticated as government spying... The best estimate is that several hundred former intelligence agents now work in corporate espionage... ...extreme methods of electronic monitoring... The influx of spies into the corporate sector isn't limited to Americans. ...confidential reports by outside private investigators tell a story of corporate espionage run amok. (more)

Spying Claims Rock British National Party

The British National Party has been engulfed by a bitter internal row with around 50 senior figures resigning the party whip amid claims the leadership has been spying on private emails and telephone calls.

The Labour MP Jon Cruddas has written to the head of the Metropolitan police, Sir Ian Blair, calling for an inquiry into what he claims are "criminal activities involving senior members" of the party.

"They appear to be monitoring phone calls and emails of their members and removing computers from private households. This is not the behaviour of a normal political party and I would like to see the police investigate this." (more)

Card crooks tap into data wires

India - Credit card crooks in Kolkata may be getting more tech savvy, using wire-tapping gadgets to cash in on unsuspecting card users.

It's a new cause of worry for city police and CID. Wire-tapping is a complicated scheme and much more difficult to track down. It's a technical maze that involves telephone wires, receiving-terminals and a cable line parallel with telephone cables to copy the card details when it is swiped for a transaction. (more)

The continuing saga of Anthony Pellicano...

CA - Lawyers for defendants in the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping case argued in federal court here on Monday that evidence seized from the Hollywood private detective’s offices had been improperly obtained and should be tossed out.

Facing a trial date of Feb. 27, lawyers for Mr. Pellicano and his five co-defendants attacked the search warrants used to raid the detective’s offices in November 2002 and to unearth a trove of digital audio recordings in the ensuing months. They also argued that the case should be dismissed because of what they assert was rampant misconduct by government investigators.

But United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer appeared to be having none of it. (more)

Pimp Your Ride - Make it Spy

Make your own remote controlled helicopter spycam.


One-stop shopping list...
• Helicopter
• Wireless Video Camera / Receiver

FREE Telecommuting Security Manuals

Telecommuting covers a lot of territory these days... home desktop and roaming laptop computers, cell phones with computer-like features, and a variety of personal digital assistants (PDAs), used to read and send email, access Web sites, review and edit documents, etc.

"How do I stitch up the security loopholes?"
"Where can I get some help?"

The government buried some good advice under these arcane titles.
• Security for Telecommuting and Broadband Communications (NIST Special Publication 800-46)
and its supplement...
• User’s Guide to Securing External Devices for Telework and Remote Access (NIST Special Publication 800-114)

For more good advice hiding under arcane titles visit The National Institute of Standards and Technology, Special Publications web page. ~Kevin

Instant Education - VoIP: The Top 5 Vulnerabilities

Nothing is hacker-safe these days unfortunately, not even your VoIP service. But knowing that going in, and protecting yourself appropriately, can make a world of difference. The folks at the Sipera VIPER Lab have released what they feel are the Top 5 VoIP Vulnerabilities in 2007.

They are:
• Remote eavesdropping of VoIP phone calls...
• VoIP Hopping, one of the enablers of remote eavesdropping...
• Vishing, enables hackers to spoof caller ID... (q.v.)
• Toll fraud...
• The Skype worm...
(more)

Taiwan Watergate

Taiwan's main opposition on Sunday accused the government of bugging its offices to find out its campaign strategy ahead of next month's legislative elections. (more)

U.S. military psychic spy manual

...from Neurophilosophy...
Remote viewing is a form of "psychoenergetic perception" (i.e. clairvoyance) developed as part of a long-term $20 million research program initiated by U.S. intelligence agencies in the early 1970s. Now known by the codename Stargate, the program was initiated largely in response to the belief that the Soviets were spending large amounts of money on psychic research.

Research into remote viewing began in 1972 at the Stanford Research Institute, "an independent non-profit research institute that conducts contract research and development for government agencies" (actually, a think tank that has nothing to do with Stanford university).

Led by Harold Puthoff, who had worked for the National Security Agency and was at the time a Scientologist, the research involved training people who were believed to be gifted psychics to use their alleged abilities for psychic warfare. Among these individuals were the New York artist Ingo Swann, who claimed to have remotely viewed the planet Mercury, and Uri Geller, the psychic spoon-bending fraudster. (more) (the manual)

For those long, lonely surveillances...

Just in time for holiday gift-giving. "You gotta slop, bop, flip flop, hip hop, never stop." Be a 21st Century Dovell Electronic Bubble-Wrap'er!

...from the website...
One of the single greatest gifts (and curses) to anyone who is a little anal retentive is bubble wrap. Sure it's good for protecting packages, but the real joy is popping each and every bubble. You can't let even one survive or your mission as bubble popper has failed. But what happens when you desire the joy of popping bubble wrap but don't have the time to invest in popping a full 60' roll? Welcome to the future, my friends; electronic bubble wrap is here.

Each keychain device has 8 rubbery little "bubble" buttons. They have a pretty close tactile feel to actual bubble wrap. Guess what happens when you push one? That's right, you hear a little pop. In a nutshell, that is the simple beauty of the electronic bubble wrap keychain. But there is one bonus, and here's where the OCD can kick in a little. Every 100th "pop" is not a pop at all, but a silly sound: a boing, a bark, a rude noise, etc. And since you can easily pop (pun intended) the keychain in your pocket, you'll always have bubble wrap when you need it most (you know, like when your boss starts talking). (more) (movie)

Top 10 Sports Spying Stories

...peeking into closed practices or electronically eavesdropping on coach/player meetings (as China allegedly did to Denmark during the Women's World Cup of soccer), that is cloak and dagger stuff.

Now, with the teams facing off this Sunday, here are 10 glaring examples of sports spying... (more)

Industrial Spying Threatens Local Firms

S. Korea - Concerns have re-emerged over the illegal transfer of high technology abroad, which has been worsening in recent years, in the wake of the latest leak case in which industrial spies handed over key automobile building technology of Hyundai Motor to Chinese firms.

Prosecutors Friday arrested two Hyundai Motor employees, who stole core technology for the automatic transmission of a sports utility vehicle (SUV) that the carmaker has developed with an investment of 300 billion won ($323 million) for two years, to a Chinese carmaker.

Experts estimate the leaked information could cause trillions of won in damages...

Samsung Electronics, for example, has already adopted an advanced security system in its Digital Media Research Center, where each researcher’s location can be traced through satellite-recognized identification cards, in addition to anti-eavesdropping devices. (more)