New Zealand - A 25-year-old man has been charged with covertly filming unsuspecting Starbucks' customers with their pants down.
Two weeks ago a staff member of Rotorua's Starbucks cafe discovered an elaborate hidden camera operation in a toilet brush holder in a unisex toilet.
Detective Warwick Webber of Rotorua police said a 25-year-old Rotorua man had been arrested on Friday. He was facing five charges of making inappropriate visual recordings.
Police also seized the man's computer and storage devices during a search of his home on Friday. They did not believe any other toilets were involved.
Webber emphasised Starbucks was the victim and hoped people would not boycott the cafe franchise giant. (more)
UPDATE - 10/9/08 - Fei Yu Zhou, 25, has been sentenced to 200 hours community service and nine months supervision at the Rotorua District Court. (more)
As telephone conversations have moved to the Internet, so have those who want to listen in...
• The advent of computer-based telephone switches and the Internet has made it more difficult for the government to monitor the communications of criminals, spies and terrorists.
• Federal agencies want Internet companies to comply with the same wiretapping requirements that apply to telecommunications carriers. This proposal, though, may stifle Internet innovation.
• Furthermore, the new surveillance facilities might be misused by overzealous government officials or hijacked by terrorists or spies interested in monitoring U.S. communications.
A Brief History of WiretappingTo understand the current controversy over wiretapping, one must understand the history of communications technology. (more) (more) (more) (more)
The Australian Council for Civil Liberties has accused Gold Coast pubs and nightclubs of going too far by fingerprinting patrons. (more)
...in Scientific American...
Looking back at the surveillance all around us – from wiretapped phones to security cameras... over 30 articles with photos and slideshows. (more)
If you go out in the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise.
sing-a-longA carer suspected of stealing money from a terminally ill great-grandmother was caught by a secret camera hidden in a teddy bear.Mrs Sampson’s family became suspicious after they noticed £40 had gone missing from her handbag after Allen visited her Walton home in July.At the suggestion of his daughter Emma, a forensic science graduate, Mrs Sampson’s son Robert bought a small camera and hid it inside a teddy bear in his mother’s bedroom. (more) (video)Beneath the trees, where nobody sees
They'll hide and seek as long as they please
Today's the day the teddy bears catch cleptomaaan-iac!
The Defense Intelligence Agency's newly created Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center is going to have an office authorized for the first time to carry out "strategic offensive counterintelligence operations," according to Mike Pick, who will direct the program.
Such covert offensive operations are carried out at home and abroad against people known or suspected to be foreign intelligence officers or connected to foreign intelligence or international terrorist activities...
These sensitive, clandestine operations are "tightly controlled departmental activities run by a small group of specially selected people"...
In strategic offensive counterintelligence operations, a foreign intelligence officer is the target, and the main goals most often are "to gather information, to make something happen... (more)
Britain's most senior police officer of Asian origin was illegally bugged and put under surveillance on the orders of the Metropolitan police chief, leaked Scotland Yard documents have revealed.According to the papers, over 300 telephone calls of Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur were tapped in an elaborate operation overseen directly by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair. (more)
...from the seller's web site...
"Here’s a new undercover color camera designed to fit into the proliferation of personal devices (PDA’s, cell phones, MP3s, etc.) that seem to be everywhere these days.
The camera’s pinhole lens aims out of your ear, perpendicular (90°) to your target, allowing for high angle above the neck mobility. The camera has 350 lines of resolution and a super low 0.6 Lux for evening observations.
The 3.6mm lens gives you a sharp 78° field of view. Includes a hardened case, rechargeable battery pack and charger." (more)
...from The Financial Express...
"Virtually, every company seems to be in a rush to merge email, fax and voice communications. IT, BPO, media, telecom, banking and retail enterprises are embracing Unified Communications (UC).However, the risks associated with UC security are now beginning to surface as companies start merging their various channels of communications.Eavesdropping, unauthorised access of messages, unauthorised handsets connecting to the network and disruption of phone network are some of the threats, faced by enterprises.
"According to Jayesh Kotak, vice-president, product management, D-Link India, denial of service, spoofing, eavesdropping, signaling and media manipulation are few security threats to the UC. (more)
Laser televisions have an image produced by three lasers that are each less than one cubic centimeter in size and that are a million times brighter than current state-of-the-art 
light-emitting diodes (LEDs). They provide sharper, crisper, more brilliant pictures than you have ever seen. And this new television costs less to produce than the television you own now.Novalux of Sunnyvale, CA has developed the Novalux extended-cavity surface-emitting laser (NECSEL™) for use in high-definition (HD) rear-projection televisions (RPTVs).
Laser televisions will provide speckle-free images that have more contrast and better color coverage than their unwieldy, expensive counterparts. They also use 60% less power and have a lifespan more than 10 times as long as lamp televisions. And unlike LED televisions, laser televisions have incredible longevity without giving way to distracting color shifts over time.
Projection and illumination optics for laser televisions will cost less than those of either lamps or LEDs, resulting in a lower price for the entire system. Novalux estimates that a 50" laser television will cost significantly less than $1,000. (more) (follow the action)
From artist Ross Robinson...
"Your government is watching you. All. The. Time."...now buy my tee-shirt.
TX - Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed announced Friday that Gilbert Olivares, General Manager of Bexar Metropolitan Water District, has been indicted for wiretapping, misapplication of funds, and sexual harassment.The indictment includes 12 counts of Illegally Intercepting Oral Communications, 1 count of Misapplication of Fiduciary Property, 1 count Abuse of Official Capacity, and two counts of Official Oppression.
...the indictment alleges Olivares ordered the monitoring and recording of phone conversations of four Bexar Met employees' who were viewed as critics of his leadership. The recordings allegedly took place over a 8-month period and without the knowledge or consent of any of the parties to the conversations. (more) (video)
Ira Winkler offers chilling accounts of espionage...A former National Security Agency analyst who is now an expert on corporate espionage offered chilling accounts yesterday of his easy penetration into a variety of U.S. companies. In one case, in just a few hours he was able to make off with product plans and specifications worth billions of dollars.
Ira Winkler, global security strategist at CSC Consulting, spoke at Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders Conference here and punctured several popular misconceptions about information security...
At one large company, for example, he persuaded a guard to admit him by saying he had lost his badge and presenting a business card as a substitute. He'd stolen the card -- which belonged to an employee who worked at the plant -- from a local restaurant that collected business cards in a jar for prize awards. Winkler went on to exploit a number of security weaknesses, from doors he found unlocked to using forged signatures to using simple computer hacks. The result: Designs for nuclear reactors and other 
technologies were compromised, possibly with national security implications.
"Never measure security budgets by IT," said Winkler, author of Spies Among Us: How to Stop the Spies, Terrorists, Hackers and Criminals You Don't Even Know You Encounter Every Day. (more)
Homeland Security setting up counterspy unit...
Concerns about foreign spies and terrorists have prompted the Homeland Security Department to set up its own counterintelligence division and require strict reporting from employees about foreign travel, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. (more)
New Zealand - A 25-year-old man has been charged with covertly filming unsuspecting Starbucks' customers with their pants down. 
