Cool Idea - Eavesdrop On Your Car Being Stolen

Morris Mbetsa, an 18 year old self-taught inventor with no formal electronics training from the coastal tourist town of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean in Kenya has invented the "Block & Track", a mobile phone-based anti-theft device and vehicle tracking system.

The real-time system uses a combination of voice, DTMF and SMS text messages over cell-based phone service that allows control of some of a vehicles' electrical systems including the ignition.

Another feature of the system is the capacity to poll the vehicle owner by mobile phone for permission to start, as well as eavesdrop on conversation in the vehicle. Mbetsa is now looking for funding to commercially develop his proof of concept and bring it to the market (video)
Good work, Morris. I hope you get your funding.

SpyCam Story #455 - The IT Boy

FL - A Gainesville man has been arrested for allegedly installing software on a woman’s computer, then using the software to remotely control the camera on her computer to take videos of the woman and her friends while they were clothed and while they were naked.

The alleged victim is a Hialeah woman who told police she had a man perform some maintenance on her computer in early July. The woman told police she discovered the program on Monday along with about 20,000 photos of herself and her friends that had been made from the videos taken with the camera.

The man arrested in the case was identified as Craig Matthew Feigin, 23, who was charged with modifying computer data and disrupting or denying computer system services.

Once he was taken into custody, he quickly admitted to this crime, but also admitted to installing these programs on other computers as well. The Gainesville Florida Police believe there are eight or nine other victims. (more) (more)

Bug Bites... with Bluetooth

Smart spies can build their own bugs; ones which average TSCM detection equipment can't see.

One example of this are bugs which use off-the-shelf Bluetooth technology, like Bluegiga. Short range, but very effective.

Another example is second generation Zigbee which can transmit audio a much greater distance.

Both signals are digital. Both blend their transmissions into the sea of legitimate WiFi signals which surround us.

The cost for building these advanced bugging devices is less than $100. per bug.

Discovery requires the most advanced TSCM instrumentation... like what you will find only here.

Bugs don't grill people. People grill people.

Philadelphia - A gun-control activist who championed the cause for more than a decade and served on the boards of two anti-violence groups is suspected of working as a paid spy for the National Rifle Association, and now those organizations are expelling her and sweeping their offices for bugs.

The suggestion that Mary Lou McFate was a double agent is contained in a deposition filed as part of a contract dispute involving a security firm. (more)
The employee double-cross is an old and highly successful trick. Aside from the obvious, undercover employees also have the time and opportunity to plant bugs and wiretaps. If an employee-spy is discovered be sure to conduct a thorough bug sweep after they are fired. Better... Conducting thorough bug sweeps on a regular basis is a good way to uncover the undercover spy.

SpyCam Story #454 - "Baby let me be..."

Your lovin teddy bear
Put a chain around my neck,
And lead me anywhere
Oh let me be
Your teddy bear.

Australia - A Rivervale man has admitted to secretly filming his female housemate with a camera concealed in a teddy bear in her bedroom.

Russell Christopher Hounslow, 22, pleaded guilty to one count each of using an optical device to record a private activity and possessing an obscene article in the Perth Magistrate's Court today.

Magistrate Steven Heath heard how on April 22 this year, Hounslow's flatmate found a covert camera in the toy, linked to a transmitter under her bed.

Police prosecutor Steve Mayne said the woman then found a similar transmitter on top of a video recorder in the house. (more)

"You talkin' to me?" - India

India - Telephone booth operators, taxi drivers and guesthouse owners in the national capital have been asked to keep an eye and eavesdrop on people calling Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Jammu and Srinagar as Independence Day approaches. Cyber cafes and guesthouses have been told to install closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras. (more)

"You talkin' to me!" - China

China - Tens of thousands of taxi drivers in Beijing have a tool that could become part of China's all-out security campaign for the Olympic Games. Their vehicles have microphones -- installed ostensibly for driver safety -- that can be used to listen to passengers remotely.

The tiny listening devices, which are connected to a global positioning system able to track a cab's location by satellite, have been installed in almost all of the city's 70,000 taxis over the past three years, taxi drivers and industry officials say.

...those devices in Beijing taxis can be remotely activated without the driver's knowledge to eavesdrop on passengers, according to drivers and Yaxon Networks Co., a Chinese company that makes some of the systems used in Beijing. The machines can even remotely shut off engines. (more)

"No, I wasn't talkin' to you!" - New Zealand

New Zealand - National leader John Key has hit back at suggestions his party has a hidden agenda after a second set of secret recordings were leaked to 3 News.

Key says the latest recordings are not significant and he has accused Young Labour activists of bugging National's party conference. (more)

Yawn, and your laptop goes to sleep

What if you could simply think about an action, and the computer would respond?

Emotiv is currently fine-tuning a mind-reading headset called the Epoc, which should ship late this year. The $299 device purports to eavesdrop on your thoughts and translate them into computer instructions, so you can play a game or arrange photos without using your hands or speaking words.

Epoc "neuroheadset" has 16 sensors embedded in its crossbars that communicate wirelessly with your PC. There are no messy smears or tangles of wires. But in order to get correct readings, the sensors must make just the right contact with your scalp, which can take a fair amount of fiddling. And once the headset is in place, you have to be careful not to move around too much or the sensors will slip, preventing the computer from getting a clear signal. (more)
...and you were self-conscious about wearing your Bluetooth earpiece.
Seriously, you are witnessing the future of eavesdropping. Near-term... physical motion replacement, a boon to the seriously handicapped. Mid-term... Doors that auto-lock if the person approaching is of the wrong frame of mind. Far-term... TiVO your life whenever you want. I can't wait.

PI Toolkit Item #141 - Pocket Phone Bud-dy

Need to record a cell phone call, or any telephone call?

Call on your Pocket Phone Bud-dy! An Olympus TP-7 headset.

Plug it into the ‘MIC’ jack of a recorder. Pop the bud in your ear and you are good-to-go.

Captures both sides of the conversation. Frequency range is 50 - 20,000 Hz. Plugs into a 3.5mm monaural jack and comes with two plug adaptors to convert either to a 3.5mm stereo plug or a 2.5mm monaural plug. (more)

Deep Packet Inspection - Computer Santa Claws

Imagine a Santa who receives bags of mail every second, reads and sorts each request, knows everybody's naughty or nice quotient and dispenses the correct 'just deserts' as fast as each request arrives.
Creep'ed out yet?
If so, stop reading now.

"Anyone who uses the Internet needs to be aware of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), its uses, and potential misuses... DPI is next-generation technology that’s capable of inspecting every byte of every packet that passes through the DPI device, that means packet headers, types of applications, and actual packet content... DPI allows people controlling the device to know everything, including the payload of each packet in the data stream. For example, if an unencrypted e-mail is scanned, the actual body of the e-mail can be reassembled and read.

What makes DPI all the more impressive is that the packet analysis happens in real time, with data stream throughput approaching 20-30 Gb. See where I’m going with this? With no loss of throughput, ISPs are able to insert these devices directly in their data streams, forcing all traffic to pass through the devices. Procera, Narus, and Ellacoya are front-runners in development of this technology, having placed equipment throughout the world.

DPI developers are adamant that the technology is benign and will create a better Internet. experience. However, privacy groups have two major concerns: little or no oversight and the potential for losing still more individual privacy.

An optimist would say that DPI will help enhance the experience, even producing ads that are relevant to each individual user. Whereas a pessimist would say it’s “big brother” technology that only benefits ISPs." (more)
A realist would say: "history tends to repeat" "mission creep" "if a technology can be abused..."

"Nailing bronze in the Tap-athlon...

...Sweden." Swedes may cherish openness and transparency, but not enough to accept a new law giving the government the right to snoop on all e-mails and phone calls crossing the country's borders. Outrage over the statute has led to 2 million protests — filed by e-mail... Swedish telecommunications group TeliaSonera AB and U.S.-based Google Inc. have called the law passed June 18 the most far-reaching eavesdropping plan in Europe, comparable to snooping powers authorized in the United States. The law narrowly passed Parliament in a 142-138 vote two weeks ago, despite protests that included demonstrators handing out copies of George Orwell's novel "1984" about a fictional futuristic police state. It gives Sweden's National Defense Radio Establishment, or FRA, the right to scan all international phone calls, e-mails and faxes without a court order as of January. (more)

 

"Nailing silver in the Tap-athlon...

...USA."

The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The surveillance system, called DCSNet, for Digital Collection System Network, connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is far more intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure than observers suspected...

DCS-3000 client, also known as Red Hook, handles pen-registers and trap-and-traces, a type of surveillance that collects signaling information...

DCS-6000, known as Digital Storm, captures and collects the content of phone calls and text messages for full wiretap orders.

A third, classified system, called DCS-5000, is used for wiretaps targeting spies or terrorists. (more)

"Nailing gold in the Tap-athlon...

...China."

"The Chinese Government has put in place a system to spy on and gather information about every guest at hotels where Olympic visitors are staying," Senator Sam Brownback said.

The conservative Republican from Kansas, citing hotel documents he received, added that journalists, athletes' families and others attending the Olympics next month "will be subjected to invasive intelligence-gathering" by China's Public Security Bureau.

He said the agency will be monitoring internet communications at the hotels.

The US senator made a similar charge a few months ago but said that since then, hotels have come forward with detailed information on the monitoring systems that have been required by Beijing.

Senator Brownback refused to identify the hotels, but said "several international hotel chains have confirmed the existence of this order".

Spokesmen at the Chinese Embassy in Washington were not available for comment. (more)

Builders uncover 'bugging device'

Northern Ireland, UK - A suspected bugging device has been found at a house in Coalisland.

It is believed that Sean O'Farrell, an IRA member shot by the SAS in 1992, may have had some connection with the house.

Builders working at the house on Monday found a 60cm box-like object with batteries in a roof space. It is believed the device had been there since the early 1990s. (more)