"...and she went to the hospital to have it removed! Blahaaaaaa..."

Australia - Attorney-General Robert McClelland says the proposal to let some employers access workers' emails without consent is only being considered as a way to stop cyber terrorist attacks.

He says it would not be targeted at personal communications.

"What you would be looking and permitting access to is information that would reveal an attempted infiltration," he said.

But deputy Opposition leader Julie Bishop says...
"Employers should not be burdened with the responsibility of intercepting emails involving staff suspected of behaviour that threatens Australia's national security."

"This places an unfair surveillance responsibility upon employers and effectively requires them to undertake what is a potential criminal investigation." (more)

Seriously bad idea...
- Pay IT guy to do a government intelligence agents' work?
- Pay twice!?!? Salary for IT guy and (via taxes) government intelligence agents'.
- Conflict of interest? Employees spying on friends and colleagues?
- Entrust national security to an army of untrained private employees...
- ...whose work product might equal less than educated guesswork?
- ...who may be tempted to use the snoop power for personal gain?
- Not to mention: loss of regular business productivity, opening new avenues of corporate espionage, data vulnerabilities, etc.
Outsourcing your job responsibilities should not be an option; especially when you have been entrusted with national security.

Data Land Mines

1. A slip of the finger reveals the company secret.
- Turn off that auto-fill feature.
2. People give away passwords and other secrets without thinking.
- Engage brain. Shut mouth.
3. A trusted partner ends up not being so trustworthy with your data.
- Share sparingly.
4. Web-based apps can be portals to leaks and thieves.
- VPN it instead.
5. Hoping the worse doesn’t happen only makes it worse.
- Plan for disasters.
6. Avoiding or diluting response leadership makes breaches worse.
- Designate a buck-stopper.
7. Handling breach details sloppily tips off the perp.
- Practice 'need-to-know'.
8. Trusting "silver bullet" technology hides real threats.
- There ain't no Lone Ranger.
9. Spending unthinkingly wastes resources you might need for important threats.
- Gauge threats.
10. Don't save the wrong data.
- Only store what you need.
(more)

"Afghanistan banana-stand!"

Police in Italy have issued footage of a man who is suspected of hypnotising supermarket checkout staff to hand over money from their cash registers.

In every case, the last thing staff reportedly remember is the thief leaning over and saying: "Look into my eyes", before finding the till empty. (more) (video)
('SNAP' of fingers)
Wake up!

...and, 85% declined to answer.

"Me, My Spouse and the Internet"
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford,
Survey Results...
• 20% of married Internet users admitted to reading their partner’s emails and text messages; and
• 13% to having checked their partner’s browser history.
More than 6,000 married people were invited to take part in the study. The final sample involved 929 couples, with both partners completing a questionnaire. (more) (Project website.)

Surveillance Desensitization Continues

Hal Niedzviecki writes...
I ask (Ursula) Lebana how things have changed since she opened Canada’s first spy store back in 1991.

“People who came into the store at that time were quite shocked,” she tells me. “They never realized cameras were that small. They said, ‘Oh my God, that’s scary. And isn’t it terrible to monitor the nanny? Where’s the trust?’”

Sixteen years later, business is booming. “Now people say, ‘Oh, I want a hidden camera,’” says Lebana, who has since opened SpyTech locations in Ottawa and London, Ontario. “They are more willing to use them now. They’re more familiar with it. I’m even getting repeat customers... (more)

"Youz gotta problem with dat?!?!"

from The Bay City Times Opinion page...
MI - When The Times looked into the money that road commissioners lavished on themselves, we found a board besotted with inflated retirement benefits and fancy junkets.

We also found that one commissioner, now retired, had used a Road Commission credit card to give himself quick loans at casinos. In another instance, the commission's former finance director was caught using a tape recorder to eavesdrop on employees.

In the lives of private citizens, both incidents might have resulted in felony charges. But in the buddy-buddy world of government, no charges stuck. (more)

Wireless Color SpyCam Pen

from the seller's web site...
"Our covert Wireless Spy Cam Pen is ideal for undercover assignments, wear it innocently on your shirt pocket, place it on a desk, attach it to an organizer, or just start writing with it like you would a normal pen — all while transmitting live high-quality color video images. It’s the size of a regular pen, so you can bring it with you anywhere.

The Pen Camera cleverly conceals a quality color video camera inside a working pen. Minimal illumination makes it difficult to detect that you’re using it for anything more than writing.

To start transmitting, simply click the top of the pen, yeah it’s pretty cool. Just attach the receiver to any TV or VCR for easy recording, or even a security monitor.

This little hidden camera in a pen has a transmission range of more than 300 ft." (more)
Why do I mention it?
So you will know what you are up against.

SpyCam Story #440 - The Dentist

TX - An Ennis dentist accused of videotaping his female employees in their changing room with a hidden camera pleaded guilty...

The employees went to authorities in August after finding a video camera in a room where they changed into and out of medical scrubs at Durbin's dental office. According to an affidavit, the women confronted Durbin, who admitted making video recordings.

Stephen C. Durbin, also a city commissioner in Ennis, got five years of community supervision with deferred adjudication in the plea agreement on a state jail felony charge of improper photography or video recording. (more)
"She said my boy I think someday
You'll find a way
To make your nat-u-ral tendencies pay!
Yooou'llll be a Den-tist!"

SpyCam Story #439 - Action Jackson (update)

CA - Three more victims have come forward in the Jackson spying case that began in October when a woman alerted police she saw a camera lingering above an uncovered opening of a changing room at Holiday Cleaners.

Alex Ko, a 35-year-old Pine Grove resident, allegedly recorded digital videos and photographs of women as they undressed in the cleaner's changing room from May to August 2007. Ko runs the business with his parents and siblings. (more) (original story)

Crime Does Not Pay! (No, really, it doesn't.)

According to a new study dug up by Secrecy News, modern-day spies -- at least the ones who get caught -- don't appear to be making much money.

The study (.pdf), conducted for the Defense Personnel Security Research Center based on its Espionage Database, concludes that "Two thirds of American spies since 1990 have volunteered. Since 1990, spying has not paid well: 80% of spies received no payment for espionage, and since 2000 it appears no one was paid.” (more)

Well... sometimes crime pays.

PA - A Pennsylvania state police trooper who claimed a phone conversation with a supervisor was illegally recorded without his permission has been awarded more than $500,000 in damages by a federal jury.

Mario J. Diana was awarded $262,126 in compensatory damages for invasion of privacy and unlawful seizure, and $238,878 in punitive damages against Carmen Altavilla, former commander of Troop P in Wyoming, and Lt. Willard Oliphant. The jury rendered the verdict late Thursday afternoon following a four-day trial before U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo in Wilkes-Barre.

Diana filed suit in 2005, alleging Altavilla ordered Oliphant to tape a phone conversation in which Oliphant advised Diana, who was off on a workers’ compensation claim, that he was being ordered to return to work. (more)

Blackemail, Espionage or Just Coincidence?

MA - Two staff members in the school superintendent’s office spied on e-mails sent to Cambridge School Committee members over the span of one month. (more)

...administration officials did not tell the School Committee they were receiving committee e-mails from parents and others. A School Committee member only found out the two school officials were copied into School Committee e-mails after they hit “reply all” and found the duo copied in the e-mail. 14 days after it was discovered, School Committee members voted to enter contract negotiations with Superintendent Thomas Fowler-Finn. (more)

News Flash? "Covert video surveillance becomes widespread in Russian offices"

from Pravda...
"Most of you work in companies equipped with video surveillance systems. As it turns out, video surveillance affects employee’s work more significantly than other control methods (wiretapping, looking through emails and reading the most frequently visited websites)." (more)

Search Engine with Reduced Squeal

Ixquick.com deletes its users' search data (including IP addresses) within 48 hours... Furthermore Ixquick does not set any uniquely identifying cookies or share your privacy details with 3rd parties.

UPDATE - NEW URL. Startpage.com

More Animal Eavesdropping

Climate change may be predicted by fish who "eavesdrop" their way to healthy food sources using chemical cues given off by ocean organisms. This research, conducted by the University of North Carolina Wilmington assistant professor Sean Lema and collaborators, was published in the March edition of the journal Science in the article "Dimethylsulfoniopropionate as a Foraging Cue for Reef Fishes." (more)

There's something kinky going on in the world of Barbary macaques. Researchers have found the males eavesdrop on their mates having sex in order to make sure they don't miss out on the fun... (more)