Liechtenstein, focus of international investigations over tax fraud, said on Wednesday a man convicted after stealing data from a Liechtenstein bank was now being investigated for industrial espionage...
"The investigations concern suspicion of spying out business secrets for the benefit of a foreign party," the Office of the Public Prosecutor said in a statement. (more)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
German high court conditionally approves government data spying
Germany's Constitutional Court has determined that any data stored or exchanged on PCs is private and protected by the country's constitution -- just not if you're a suspect.
The court determined that data collection directly encroaches on citizens' rights, but that authorities will be allowed to spy on suspicious individuals with high court approval. (more)
The court determined that data collection directly encroaches on citizens' rights, but that authorities will be allowed to spy on suspicious individuals with high court approval. (more)
2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey:
Over Half of All Employers Combined Fire Workers for E-Mail & Internet Abuse
From e-mail monitoring and Website blocking to phone tapping and GPS tracking, employers increasingly combine technology with policy to manage productivity and minimize litigation, security, and other risks. To motivate compliance with rules and policies, more than one fourth of employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail and nearly one third have fired employees for misusing the Internet, according to the 2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey from American Management Association (AMA) and The ePolicy Institute. (more)
From e-mail monitoring and Website blocking to phone tapping and GPS tracking, employers increasingly combine technology with policy to manage productivity and minimize litigation, security, and other risks. To motivate compliance with rules and policies, more than one fourth of employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail and nearly one third have fired employees for misusing the Internet, according to the 2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey from American Management Association (AMA) and The ePolicy Institute. (more)
PartnerSpy vs. PartnerSpy
In Scotland, where punches are not pulled, a daily newspaper instructs its readers, "How To Spy On Your Partner." For us, of course, it is a cautionary tale. These tactics may be employed by anyone, against anyone.
Partner vs. Partner is only one of many snoop scenarios. Here are some others:
- Employees vs. Management
- Ambitious Executive vs. Unsuspecting Executive
- Competitor vs. You
- Defendant vs. Plaintiff
- News Media / Protest Groups vs. Your Company
Being aware of 'everyman' spy technology is the first step toward protection. The second step is actively looking. Which, by the way, is what we do best for businesses and governments worldwide.
How To Spy On Your Partner
Feb 27 2008 By Craig McQueen
Lipstick on collars or smelling of a strange perfume used to be how cheating husbands got caught out. But in these days of big divorce settlements, spurned partners are gathering evidence the hi-tech way.
One US firm has produced a SIM card reader that opens text messages AFTER they've been deleted - and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Other surveillance gadgets used today would look at home in spy films. They're legal and freely available from websites spystoreuk.com, spycatcheronline.co.uk and brickhousesecurity.com
Here are a few of the best: (described in detail here)
- HIDDEN CAMERAS
- MOBILE PHONE TRACKING
- WIRELESS BUGS
- PHONE RECORDERS
- GPS TRACKING
- COMPUTER KEY LOGGING
- THE TEDDY CAM
- INTERCEPTOR SOFTWARE
- VEHICLE TRACKING
Partner vs. Partner is only one of many snoop scenarios. Here are some others:
- Employees vs. Management
- Ambitious Executive vs. Unsuspecting Executive
- Competitor vs. You
- Defendant vs. Plaintiff
- News Media / Protest Groups vs. Your Company
Being aware of 'everyman' spy technology is the first step toward protection. The second step is actively looking. Which, by the way, is what we do best for businesses and governments worldwide.
How To Spy On Your Partner
Feb 27 2008 By Craig McQueen
Lipstick on collars or smelling of a strange perfume used to be how cheating husbands got caught out. But in these days of big divorce settlements, spurned partners are gathering evidence the hi-tech way.
One US firm has produced a SIM card reader that opens text messages AFTER they've been deleted - and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Other surveillance gadgets used today would look at home in spy films. They're legal and freely available from websites spystoreuk.com, spycatcheronline.co.uk and brickhousesecurity.com
Here are a few of the best: (described in detail here)
- HIDDEN CAMERAS
- MOBILE PHONE TRACKING
- WIRELESS BUGS
- PHONE RECORDERS
- GPS TRACKING
- COMPUTER KEY LOGGING
- THE TEDDY CAM
- INTERCEPTOR SOFTWARE
- VEHICLE TRACKING
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
SpyCam Story #436 - SpyCam Goes to School
from "blammocamo"...
"I 'hid' my camera and caught some clips of what people were doing during spare period." (boring video) (many many more boring videos)
We've come a long way from the days of Alan Funt. SpyCam'ing is an acknowledged worldwide pass-time. One second you are anonymous, the next second your are a star on youtube.com. Laws are always about 10-years behind the technology. Look for spycams to make some creative legislation.
In the meantime, at least take some steps to protect your workplace and the intellectual property kept there.
Ideas...
- Establish security policy which includes videography.
- Conduct periodic sweeps for video bugging devices.
- Learn to recognize the spycamer's tricks. (1) (2) (3), for example.
"I 'hid' my camera and caught some clips of what people were doing during spare period." (boring video) (many many more boring videos)
We've come a long way from the days of Alan Funt. SpyCam'ing is an acknowledged worldwide pass-time. One second you are anonymous, the next second your are a star on youtube.com. Laws are always about 10-years behind the technology. Look for spycams to make some creative legislation.
In the meantime, at least take some steps to protect your workplace and the intellectual property kept there.
Ideas...
- Establish security policy which includes videography.
- Conduct periodic sweeps for video bugging devices.
- Learn to recognize the spycamer's tricks. (1) (2) (3), for example.
FREE Password Cracker
Here is how it works in geek-speak...
RainbowCrack is a general propose implementation of Philippe Oechslin's faster time-memory trade-off technique. In short, the RainbowCrack tool is a hash cracker. A traditional brute force cracker try all possible plaintexts one by one in cracking time. It is time consuming to break complex password in this way. The idea of time-memory trade-off is to do all cracking time computation in advance and store the result in files so called "rainbow table". It does take a long time to precompute the tables. But once the one time precomputation is finished, a time-memory trade-off cracker can be hundreds of times faster than a brute force cracker, with the help of precomputed tables.
Bottom line...
Your cat's name never was a good password anyway. Change it. (help)
RainbowCrack is a general propose implementation of Philippe Oechslin's faster time-memory trade-off technique. In short, the RainbowCrack tool is a hash cracker. A traditional brute force cracker try all possible plaintexts one by one in cracking time. It is time consuming to break complex password in this way. The idea of time-memory trade-off is to do all cracking time computation in advance and store the result in files so called "rainbow table". It does take a long time to precompute the tables. But once the one time precomputation is finished, a time-memory trade-off cracker can be hundreds of times faster than a brute force cracker, with the help of precomputed tables.
Bottom line...
Your cat's name never was a good password anyway. Change it. (help)
National Lottery operator employee spied on rivals
UK - A manager at Camelot, the national lottery operator, used false identities to gather intelligence on rival companies, according to an official investigation.
Alexia Latham, a media relations manager, used three aliases to glean information over a 10-month period as Camelot fought off competitors to win a lucrative 10-year licence...
Camelot, which has run the UK lottery since it started in 1994, was awarded a new 10-year licence by the NLC last August.
Following a close competition, the company beat off a rival bid from Sugal & Damani, which runs state lotteries in India. The new licence will begin in February next year. (more)
Alexia Latham, a media relations manager, used three aliases to glean information over a 10-month period as Camelot fought off competitors to win a lucrative 10-year licence...
Camelot, which has run the UK lottery since it started in 1994, was awarded a new 10-year licence by the NLC last August.
Following a close competition, the company beat off a rival bid from Sugal & Damani, which runs state lotteries in India. The new licence will begin in February next year. (more)
Turn your iPhone sideways, and "Open Channel D"
The Incredible World of SPY-Fi: Wild and Crazy Spy Gadgets, Props, and Artifacts from TV and the Movies
by Danny Biederman
from Publishers weekly...
Even people who aren’t big spy movie fans know that James Bond gets to play with some great gadgets. The same goes for the casts of Mission: Impossible, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and I Spy.
Biederman has been immersed in the spy world, at least as Hollywood depicts it, from the time of his youth in the 1960s, when he was introduced to a world of "spies, gadgets, adventure, and beautiful women—everything that a ten-year-old boy could possibly want."
Since then he has collected over 4,000 props from various sets, amassing such an impressive trove that in 2000 the CIA asked him to exhibit it at its headquarters.
This book tells the story of each TV series and movie through Biederman’s props, which range from the coat hook used in U.N.C.L.E. to open a secret passageway, to the gold sofa that adorned James West’s private railroad car in The Wild Wild West.
Executive Briefing - "Wiretapping Made Easy"
from forbes.com...
Silently tapping into a private cellphone conversation is no longer a high-tech trick reserved for spies and the FBI. Thanks to the work of two young cyber-security researchers, cellular snooping may soon be affordable enough for your next-door neighbor.
In a presentation Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference in Washington, D.C., David Hulton and Steve Muller demonstrated a new technique for cracking the encryption used to prevent eavesdropping on global system for mobile communications (GSM) cellular signals, the type of radio frequency coding used by major cellular service providers including AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ), Cingular and T-Mobile. Combined with a radio receiver, the pair say their technique allows an eavesdropper to record a conversation on these networks from miles away and decode it in about half an hour with just $1,000 in computer storage and processing equipment...
Who will be the customers for their innovative espionage technique?
Hulton and Muller say they aren't sure yet. (more)
Silently tapping into a private cellphone conversation is no longer a high-tech trick reserved for spies and the FBI. Thanks to the work of two young cyber-security researchers, cellular snooping may soon be affordable enough for your next-door neighbor.
In a presentation Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference in Washington, D.C., David Hulton and Steve Muller demonstrated a new technique for cracking the encryption used to prevent eavesdropping on global system for mobile communications (GSM) cellular signals, the type of radio frequency coding used by major cellular service providers including AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ), Cingular and T-Mobile. Combined with a radio receiver, the pair say their technique allows an eavesdropper to record a conversation on these networks from miles away and decode it in about half an hour with just $1,000 in computer storage and processing equipment...
Who will be the customers for their innovative espionage technique?
Hulton and Muller say they aren't sure yet. (more)
SpyCam Story #435 - Bottoms Up
UK - A council worker has been arrested on suspicion of spying on women in the toilets at Coventry's historic Council House. The arrest came after police were called in following a complaint by a victim. There are fears that a man may have somehow concealed himself underneath the floorboards of the toilets and filmed unsuspecting victims on his mobile phone. (more)
Industrial Espionage in Brazil
Brazil - Brazilian police said on Tuesday they were treating the theft of strategic data from Brazil's state-run energy giant Petrobras as a case of industrial espionage.
Petrobras confirmed last Thursday that four laptops and two RAM memory chips were stolen in late January from a transport container owned by the U.S. oil-field service company Halliburton, a longtime Petrobras business partner.
The data came from a drilling ship in the Santos basin, where a huge new oil reserve was recently discovered. The find could make Brazil one of the world's major oil producers...
Caetano confirmed it was not the first case of data robbery from Petrobras. The company reported similar cases to police about a year ago but said they did not involve important information.
He faulted the security in the latest case. (more)
Petrobras confirmed last Thursday that four laptops and two RAM memory chips were stolen in late January from a transport container owned by the U.S. oil-field service company Halliburton, a longtime Petrobras business partner.
The data came from a drilling ship in the Santos basin, where a huge new oil reserve was recently discovered. The find could make Brazil one of the world's major oil producers...
Caetano confirmed it was not the first case of data robbery from Petrobras. The company reported similar cases to police about a year ago but said they did not involve important information.
He faulted the security in the latest case. (more)
Pellicano Wiretapping Case
The case is scheduled to resume March 5th. The Huffington Post claims they have the Witness List: "Chris Rock, Stallone, Bert Fields, Tom Cruise and hundreds more." The list of 244 people, however, has made the rounds and wound up here. Rambo says he is willing to testify, "Why not? I don't want to be left out." Stallone said he wasn't surprised to hear the allegations that such activity occurs in Hollywood. "In this town, nothing seems as it is," Stallone said. "There's so much skullduggery." (more)
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Eavesdropping on private chats is... art!
Conversations from thousands of internet chatrooms, message boards and other public forums have been transformed into an electronic art piece. Described as a unique portrait of the internet, the electronic art - called the Listening Post – forms a free exhibition at the Science Museum in London.
The piece samples text fragments of uncensored and unedited internet conversations over 231 small electronic screens standing approximately 4m high and 5m wide. The text is accompanied by computer-synthesized voices reading or singing the words that surge, flicker and disappear over the screens.
Listening Post is a collaboration by sound artist Ben Rubin and statistician and artist Mark Hansen, who wanted to address the question: "What would 100,000 people chatting online sound like?" (more)
Americans are not as bugged as they think
Israel - The number of wiretaps performed by the police rose 22 percent last year, from 1,128 in 2006 to 1,375, despite Knesset members' complaints that this tactic is overused. Over the last five years, the number of court-approved wiretaps has risen 42 percent.
By comparison, only 1,839 wiretaps were carried out in the entire United States in 2006.
According to Professor Yoram Shahar of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, this means that per capita, Israeli policemen use 20 times as many wiretaps as do their American counterparts, and a random Israeli is 30 times as likely to be wiretapped as a random American. (more)
By comparison, only 1,839 wiretaps were carried out in the entire United States in 2006.
According to Professor Yoram Shahar of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, this means that per capita, Israeli policemen use 20 times as many wiretaps as do their American counterparts, and a random Israeli is 30 times as likely to be wiretapped as a random American. (more)
FutureWatch - New technology spells end for wiretapping
It's the stuff the best spy stories are made of, the broadsheets this week had a small story in their technology sections about the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) National Institute for Electronics and Encryption Research (UEKAE) having developed a completely original software package that allows mobile phones to be encrypted.
This makes it possible for mobiles to be safe enough to discuss national secrets without fear of interception. This type of protection is, officials at TÜBİTAK say, especially vital in the field of military communication when phone calls intercepted by foreign agencies could have potentially fatal consequences for soldiers in the field.
According to TÜBİTAK's February press statement, they have been working on the technology for 20 years and it will be offered first to Turkey's army and then to the public and private companies. This software, they say, will put Turkey in the top league of countries for protecting information and privacy. There will be many for whom the encrypted cell phone has come not a moment too soon and others who are already regretting the development. (more)
This makes it possible for mobiles to be safe enough to discuss national secrets without fear of interception. This type of protection is, officials at TÜBİTAK say, especially vital in the field of military communication when phone calls intercepted by foreign agencies could have potentially fatal consequences for soldiers in the field.
According to TÜBİTAK's February press statement, they have been working on the technology for 20 years and it will be offered first to Turkey's army and then to the public and private companies. This software, they say, will put Turkey in the top league of countries for protecting information and privacy. There will be many for whom the encrypted cell phone has come not a moment too soon and others who are already regretting the development. (more)
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