Who Stole the Plans for iRobot's Battle Bots?
Jameel Ahed was 20 years old when he joined iRobot in May 1999, a biomedical engineering student at the University of Illinois on a summer internship. In those days, the company was just 80 or so geeks in the Boston exurbs designing toys for Hasbro and doing research for Darpa. Ahed stood out. He was hardworking, flirtatious, and outgoing...
In December 2001, he bought the domain name roboticfx.com, planning to launch his own startup...
Before he left, a company staffer demanded that he sign a final confidentiality agreement. Ahed complained but signed. The next day, an email was sent at 10:18 pm from his still-active iRobot account to his new Robotic FX address detailing how the PackBot's batteries were made. Shortly thereafter, Ahed packed up and returned to Chicago...
By 2004, Ahed had a bare-bones prototype he called the Negotiator. It weighed just 20 pounds and cost less than $30,000 — half what iRobot was charging for a comparable early version of the PackBot...
...the Army announced its biggest ground robot contract ever. The so-called xBot deal would be worth up to $300 million and cover as many as 3,000 units...
In February 2007, iRobot's lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to Ahed, demanding that he stop making and marketing the Negotiator...
On September 14, 2007, the Army awarded the five-year xBot contract to Ahed for $279.9 million. iRobot went into battle mode. (more) (coda)
Lessons:
• Keep all confidentiality / nondisclosure agreements current.
• Create an environment which discourages intellectual theft.
• Don't delay. If you suspect something is wrong, trust your instincts.
• Implementing a defense after loosing a $279m contract is expensive.
• Implementing a defense at the outset is cheap insurance.
New anti-terrorism rules 'allow US to spy on British motorists'
UK - Routine journeys carried out by millions of British motorists can be monitored by authorities in the United States and other enforcement agencies across the world under anti-terrorism rules introduced discreetly by Jacqui Smith.
The discovery that images of cars captured on road-side cameras, and "personal data" derived from them, including number plates, can be sent overseas, has angered MPs and civil liberties groups concerned by the increasing use of "Big Brother" surveillance tactics. (more)
Germany's foreign minister has apologized to his Afghan counterpart for officials' snooping on correspondence between a German reporter and an Afghan government minister, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
A spokesman at the ministry, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Frank-Walter Steinmeier telephoned Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta about the wiretapping incident and said those involved had been disciplined and three officials transferred to other duties.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen confirmed the call had taken place. He said Spanta accepted Steinmeier's apology "and both foreign ministers emphasized the good relations of both countries and both mentioned that this will not affect bilateral relations." (more)
Israel on Wednesday assured the United States that it had not spied on its key ally since 1985, after the arrest in New York of an US Army veteran (Ben-Ami Kadish) charged with passing defense secrets to the Jewish state nearly 30 years ago...
The case has been linked to the 1980s Jonathan Pollard spy scandal which rocked US-Israeli relations... The government publicly admitted in 1998 that Pollard had been an agent acting on its behalf and awarded him Israeli citizenship.
"Relations between the United States and Israel have always been based on true friendship and mutual values and interests," foreign ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said. (more)
Question: What happens when tiny towns are given big £'s to watch for terrorists who never come?
UK - Campaigners have called for a "root and branch review" of spy laws after it emerged local councils were using them to track dog-foulers and litter bugs.
The Press Association contacted 97 councils to find out how they were using the powers, originally designed to combat crime and terrorism. It followed the controversy surrounding the case of a family in Poole, Dorset, who were tracked covertly for nearly three weeks to check they lived in a school catchment area...
...the research found the law was also used to find out about people who let their dog foul, a breach of planning law, an animal welfare case and an instance of littering.
Surveillance was also used to investigate alleged misuse of a disabled parking badge. (more)
Once surveillance is part of the civil infrastructure justifying usage moves from difficult to easy.
Las Vegas, NV - Clark County police and prosecutors say they have intercepted more than 29,000 incriminating conversations in 11 years, yet the wiretap recordings usually are hidden -- even years later -- because they are rarely used in open court to prosecute murderers, drug dealers and others.Now a prominent Las Vegas defense attorney, Dominic Gentile, suggests they are being used, instead, to improperly gather intelligence about alleged crimes for which no wiretap was authorized. Failing to reveal the search results is cheating, he said, because when those other crimes are prosecuted, it denies defense lawyers any chance to examine the wiretap affidavit and question the tap's legality. (more)
German police have launched a probe after an attempt was made to eavesdrop on Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking while he was staying in a luxury hotel.
Security staff from the the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Wolfsburg found a "babyphone" concealed under a sofa in his room, the media reports said, which had been turned on and was transmitting.
Porsche has filed a complaint with the prosecutors' office in Braunschweig, a company spokesperson told the AP news agency on Saturday, April 26.
The news magazines Der Spiegel and Focus said an investigation (a different investigation) is underway after a monitoring device was found in Wiedeking's room at the Ritz-Carlton in Wolfsburg in November. The reports said there was suspicion that the spying attempt took place one day before a meeting on Nov. 16.
Left behind?
The online news site Spiegel Online has reported that hotel security ruled out that a family with a child could have stayed in the suite previously and simply forgotten the device. For several weeks, there was no record of a family having spent an evening in the room.
Porsche told AP that other company officials had also been spied upon, including works council head Uwe Hueck, but did not supply any details. Focus has reported that his telephone conversations at Porsche headquarters in Stuttgart were allegedly wiretapped. It is not known who was behind the action but the company has reportedly notified prosecutors.
Porsche owns 31 percent of shares in Volkswagen, the biggest European automobile manufacturer, and wants to take full control of the firm. Volkswagen has denied any role in espionage, Focus reported. (more)
Update...
Focus reports that the offices of Porsche workers’ organization head Uwe Hück are to be made bug proof after it was discovered that his phone was being tapped. And Der Spiegel says that a bug was found planted in the private flat of former VW chief Wolfgang Bernhard. (more)
SpyCam Story #441
The mysterious tale of 16 SpyCams, 16 Microphones, and a recorder!
FL - A 45-year-old Vero Beach woman has been arrested on eight felony charges that allege illegal electronic eavesdropping on doctors, copying hard drives from their computers and the theft of a laptop.
But the seven-page complaint filed by the State Attorney's Office against Brenda Doan-Johnson, of the 3400 block of Atlantic Boulevard, does not explain why 
she supposedly paid a Melbourne man to place cameras and microphones in the private offices of three doctors at the Florida Eye Institute in Vero Beach.
Both a Jan. 24 Vero Beach Police report and a Jan. 28 civil lawsuit filed by three of Dr. Paul V. Minotty's business partners, say Minotty, founder of the institute, had hired a private investigator and the police report identified her as Doan-Johnson.
According to the state attorney's complaint affidavit, Doan-Johnson paid Mark Lynch, of Spy Source Warehouse in Melbourne, with a $6,000 personal check as deposit on $13,000 to install 16 video cameras, 16 microphones and a digital recorder at various places in the Florida Eye Institute — including the offices of doctors Karen Todd, Mark Gambee and Val Zudan.
Lynch worked after business hours for six days, starting Jan. 11, to install the equipment, the affidavit states, noting that audio recording apparently did not function.
Investigators reported that Doan-Johnson introduced Lynch to two other people who also were working in the building, identifying them as computer forensic specialists who were copying the hard drives from the desk computers of doctors Gambee, Todd, Zudan and Thomas Baudo.
According to investigators, Lynch phoned Gambee (!?!?!) Jan. 24 and told him about installing the electronics in Florida Eye Institute offices — including Gambee's office. The Vero Beach police were called to Florida Eye Institute the same day.
Gambee told Vero Beach officers his computer was missing. Doan-Johnson returned it, saying it was thought to be company property... (more) ...and, more to come as this case unfolds.
Hannaford spending millions to upgrade after security breach.
Background...Yet Another Corporate Info-Loss Confession"But, IT said our data was secure."Hannaford Bros. Co. said it is spending millions of dollars to enhance the security of its data network following a massive security breach that exposed up to 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers to fraud...
Hannaford President and CEO Ron Hodge apologized again Tuesday to customers for concerns and inconvenience they experienced because of the breach...
In a conference call with reporters, Hodge and Bill Homa, senior vice president and chief information officer, declined to address the cause, scope and nature of the breach, citing the ongoing criminal investigation and pending litigation.The Hannaford case is among the largest security breaches on record but is much smaller than the tens of millions of credit cards that were exposed at TJX Cos. of Framingham, Mass., which has 2,500 stores and includes the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls chains. (more)
The "millions" figure is likely just a system fix number. The final cost, which will include: public embarrassment, loss of customer good-will and customer ill-will lawsuit losses, can not be tallied just yet.
Recommendation:
Be smart.
Be frugal.
Be a corporate hero.
Spend the bucks to protect your company's communications privacy (voice and data). There is a good chance you will save money in the long run... a lot of money! ~Kevin
UK - Anti-terrorism surveillance is being used to spy on kids
Councils are using anti-terrorism surveillance laws to spy on children trying to buy alcohol, it has emerged. One authority alone has run 70 snooping operations, including tracking youngsters and covertly filming people selling counterfeit DVDs. It also admitted using the laws to obtain phone records and e-mails of those suspected of what it described as 'petty' offences. (more)
Talks between Indian officials and Canada's Research In Motion (RIM, the BlackBerry Bunch) would seem not to have gone very smoothly...
The backstory here is that the top brass at India's burgeoning and powerful state security services are concerned that Blackberry's advanced communications technology cannot be breached by their operatives and thus the "authorities" are currently unable to eavesdrop Blackberry users. They have asked RIM to provide them with the capability to conduct covert surveillance on Blackberry users by requiring the company to install local servers and provide secret back door access to services, but the Canadian vendor has so far refused to comply. (more)
UK - O2’s PR team mistakenly connected a journalist of tech website The Register to a call earlier this month, allowing him to eavesdrop on their conversation about his news enquiry.Turns out, O2 (a UK cellular service provider) reckons The Register’s readers are “techie nerds” and “Muppets” for wanting to move to 3. O2 duly apologised on the website, and said to Mobile News: “Hey, we’re techie nerds ourselves.” (more)
Germany - The branded 'Einmal' (Deutsch for 'once') discs employ a chemical coating that starts breaking the disc down once the vacuum seal is breached. On average, users get 48 hours of use from a €3.99 ($6.44) disc. Once the disc has run its course, it'll show up as non-readable when popped into a player (no explosion). (more)
Proposition Impossible, unless a good security application comes along.
Austria - Taking a cue from France's national railway, which offers phone-free «zen zones» on high-speed trains, Austria's second-largest city this week began ordering public transit commuters to keep their phones on silent mode.
The crackdown in the southern city of Graz has triggered a loud debate between advocates of free speech and people who say they're simply fed up with having to listen to annoying ring tones and intrusive cell phone chatter while riding a public bus or tram. (more) (etiquette) (how other are dispensing justice) (Divine justice)
Extra Credit...
''No matter the excitement in the industry he had created, Bell forever refused to have a telephone in his study. He resented its persistent jangle.'' - from ''Once Upon a Telephone: An Illustrated Social History
'' (Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994) by Ellen Stern and Emily Gwathmey
Who Stole the Plans for iRobot's Battle Bots?
