More fascinating than fiction, Seduced by Secrets
takes the reader inside the real world of one of the most effective and feared spy agencies in history. The book reveals, for the first time, the secret technical methods and sources of the Stasi (East German Ministry for State Security) as it stole secrets from abroad and developed gadgets at home, employing universal, highly guarded techniques often used by other spy and security agencies.
Seduced by Secrets draws on secret files from the Stasi archives, including CIA-acquired material, interviews and friendships, court documents, and unusual visits to spy sites, including "breaking into" a prison, to demonstrate that the Stasi overestimated the power of secrets to solve problems and created an insular spy culture more intent on securing its power than protecting national security.
It recreates the Stasi's secret world of technology through biographies of agents, defectors, and officers and by visualizing James Bond–like techniques and gadgets.
In this highly original book, Kristie Macrakis adds a new dimension to our understanding of the East German Ministry for State Security by bringing the topic into the realm of espionage history and exiting the political domain. (more)
compiled by voip-news.com
Do you hear strange noises on your phone line?
Do you feel like your secrets aren't safe?
You're not as paranoid as you might think.
Mobsters and cheating spouses aren't the only ones that get wiretapped. In fact, just about anyone who possesses confidential information is a prime target for a wiretap, so it's important that you know the warning signs. Keep an eye out for these subtle clues to avoid becoming a victim of information theft.
1. Your secrets are out.
2. You hear strange noises, like clicking, static and humming.
3. Your phone makes noise on its own.
4. Your radio has strange interference.
5. Your environment just seems different.
6. Your outside phone box has extra hardware
7. You find a recording machine.
8. You're being blackmailed.
9. Your receiver has extra hardware.
10. You notice a lot of utility trucks near the premise
11. Your TV has interference.
12. You are the victim of a burglary, but nothing was stolen.
13. Your wall plates are moved.
14. You've had a mysterious repair.
15. There are no signs.
16. Your phone company doesn't help.
17. You use a cordless phone.
(more)
(The Private Citizen's Guide to Detecting Amateur Wiretaps)
Russian security officials say they have arrested and charged two brothers with links to British interests.
Ilya Zaslavsky is a manager at the TNK-BP oil joint venture, his brother Alexander head of the British Council's Moscow Alumni club. The two, who have joint US and Russian citizenship, were gathering classified data for foreign firms, the FSB said.The Moscow offices of the British oil giant were raided by the authorities on Wednesday.
Russia's security agency, the FSB, has confirmed that the raids were related to the Zaslavsky case.
"During the raid, material proof confirming the industrial espionage was found and confiscated," it said in a statement.
This included business cards of foreign military agencies and the CIA, it said. (more)
Ilya had the other "CIA" Card
Bulk buy scary eavesdropping, wiretapping and recording gadgets - fast, easy and cheap! Where? Global Sources, of course.
In 1991, Philip Zimmermann developed a humble-sounding electronic encryption technology known as Pretty Good Privacy. In fact, it was very good--so good that not even the federal government has been able to crack it, a fact that has made Zimmermann a folk hero to privacy advocates and a headache to law enforcement. Now Zimmermann, the CEO of PGP Corp., has found himself back in the fiery debate between federal investigators and those who oppose their snooping--this time thanks to ZRTP, a technology for encrypting Internet telephone calls. ZRTP throws a wrench in the Bush administration's controversial warrant-free wiretapping program and its proposed legal immunity for the telecommunications companies. So far, not even teams of supercomputers and cyberspies at the National Security Agency have cracked ZRTP. That means anyone who uses Zimmermann's Zfone software, a ZRTP-enabled voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) program available for free on his Web site, can skirt the feds' wiretapping altogether.
Forbes.com spoke with Zimmermann about how his small company has been able to produce an encryption product that not even the U.S. government can break, what ZRTP means for national security, and why cutting off the government's access to our phones is necessary to keep out the truly malicious spies. (more)
Free advice.
Free software.
An end to wiretapping woes.
Come on. What more do you want from me?
The least you could do is send me some M&M's. :)
~Kevin
Portugal - Madeleine McCann suspect Robert Murat has discovered tracking devices fitted to his cars.
British expat Murat, 33, found the GPS bug when he was fixing a fault on his VW Transporter. He checked girlfriend Michaela Walczuch's motor and found - another stuck to that.
Furious Murat believes Portuguese police bugged his cars in a desperate bid to nail him for the abduction of Madeleine, four, from Praia da Luz in May.
He is also probing whether Kate and Gerry McCann's private detective agency Metodo 3 could have done it on its own initiative.
His lawyer Francisco Pagarete said last night: "I'm not yet sure what kind of crime we're dealing with here." (more)
from newlaunches.com...
The US Army has awarded the [University of] Michigan (UM) $10m to carry out research leading to a "six-inch robotic spy plane modeled after a bat", which would "gather data from sights, sounds and smells". The university has used the Army cash to found a Centre for Objective Microelectronics and Biomimetic Advanced Technology, or COM-BAT...
The unit will have the ability to tiny cameras for stereo vision, an array of mini microphones that could home in on sounds from different directions, and small detectors for nuclear radiation and poisonous gases. Low-power miniaturized radar and a very sensitive navigation system would help the bat find its way at night. Energy scavenging from solar, wind, vibration and other sources like hanging upside down from power cables would recharge the bat's lithium battery. The aircraft would use radio to send signals back to troops.
And that's not all. It seems "the bat" might "perch at a street corner or building for longer assignments and send back reports of activity" - a capability which might be referred to, we suggest, as "gargoyle mode". (more)
At least 13 hospital employees are being fired, and 6 suspended, after an investigator concluded that they broke the rules by accessing (Britney) Spears' medical records without any particular reason (except their own curiosity).Not only would Britney's medical files give them the answers to some closely guarded secrets, but a photocopied page could sell to the tabloids for thousands. (more) Hip, HIPPA, Hooray
UK - Detailed top-secret plans of MI5's fortress HQ have been sensationally handed to News of the World.
The lost 66-page dossier of floor layouts—once used by trusted contractors at the high-security Central London base—would be gold dust to terrorists.
The plans were given to us by a worried member of the public, who got them from a friend who worked at the building and never handed them back.
Our source said: "It's shocking that such high-level paperwork is out of MI5's control. These are many possibilities once a terrorist has detailed information like this."
The drawings, which we have blurred to protect national security [and are no longer shown], detail 11 of the 13 floors at Thames House—the real-life HQ well-known on the outside to viewers of TV's Spooks.
They reveal lift shafts, ventilation pipes and other places perfect for hiding BOMBS and spy TRANSMITTERS. They also show where the fibre optic cables are that transfer electronic data— a godsend for COMPUTER HACKERS. (more)
History says we should worry less about privacy and more about political spying.By Julian Sanchez As the battle over reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act rages in Congress, civil libertarians warn that legislation sought by the White House could enable spying on "ordinary Americans." Others, like Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), counter that only those with an "irrational fear of government" believe that "our country's intelligence analysts are more concerned with random innocent Americans than foreign terrorists overseas." But focusing on the privacy of the average Joe in this way obscures the deeper threat that warrantless wiretaps poses to a democratic society. Without meaningful oversight, presidents and intelligence agencies can -- and repeatedly have -- abused their surveillance authority to spy on political enemies and dissenters....for decades, intelligence analysts -- and the presidents they served -- had spied on the letters and phone conversations of union chiefs, civil rights leaders, journalists, antiwar activists, lobbyists, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices -- even Eleanor Roosevelt......Political abuse of electronic surveillance goes back at least as far as the Teapot Dome scandal that roiled the Warren G. Harding administration in the early 1920s. ...
In 1945, Harry Truman had the FBI wiretap Thomas Corcoran......John F. Kennedy's attorney general, brother Bobby, authorized wiretaps on lobbyists, Agriculture Department officials and even a congressman's secretary......Lyndon Johnson found the tactic useful when he wanted to know what promises then-candidate Richard Nixon might be making to our allies in South Vietnam......Johnson famously heard recordings of King's conversations and personal liaisons with various women. Less well known is that he received wiretap reports on King's strategy conferences with other civil rights leaders......Few presidents were quite as brazen as Nixon, whom the Church Committee found had "authorized a program of wiretaps which produced for the White House purely political or personal information unrelated to national security."......It's probably true that ordinary citizens uninvolved in political activism have little reason to fear being spied on, just as most Americans seldom need to invoke their 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech. But...
...if you think an executive branch unchecked by courts won't turn its "national security" surveillance powers to political ends -- well, it would be a first.Julian Sanchez is a Washington writer who studies privacy and surveillance. (more)
Have you ever been a victim of cell phone spying? If your significant other or family member has ever plotted to listen in on your calls, even check your records or download spying software on your phone, we want to hear from you.
GMA is looking for guests who can talk about their experience with cell phone spying. Fill out the info below and you might just end up on GMA. (more)
TN - A former Nashville police officer/union organizer has been indicted on federal charges in connection with the break-in and illegal surveillance of a Fraternal Order of Police youth camp.Calvin Edward Hullett was indicted on bribery, misappropriation of union funds and other charges.Investigators have alleged the hidden cameras were placed at the Wilson County camp in an effort to discredit the FOP by catching officers engaged in some type of misconduct.Hullett, a national organizer for the Teamsters, is accused of using union funds to purchase the surveillance and recording equipment. (more with video)
Prosecutors were investigating a former LG Electronics technician Thursday for allegedly spying and providing a Chinese firm with South Korea's leading plasma display technology. (more)
Research from the Ponemon Institute finds that either companies are not setting, or employees are not following, data security procedures in several high-risk areas.
“Data Security Policies Are Not Enforced,” a survey of 893 corporate IT workers, examined the risks associated with storing and transporting sensitive information and looked at how well companies are implementing and enforcing policies to protect against this risk.
1. Copying confidential information onto a USB memory stick.
2. Accessing web-based e-mail accounts from a workplace computer.
3. Losing a portable data-bearing device.
4. Downloading personal software onto a company computer.
5. Sending workplace documents as an attachment in e-mail.
6. Disabling security and firewall settings.
7. Sharing passwords with co-workers.
(more)
More fascinating than fiction, Seduced by Secrets
