German electronics company Siemens has gone a step further, developing a complete “surveillance in a box” system called the Intelligence Platform, designed for security services in Europe and Asia. It has already sold the system to 60 countries.
The system integrates tasks typically done by separate surveillance teams or machines, pooling data from sources such as telephone calls, email and Internet activity, bank transactions and insurance records. It then sorts through this mountain of information using software that Siemens dubs “intelligence modules”. (more) (more)
Cindy Sheehan, American activist, running for Congress.
"So I walked into my room and bigger than life, there was a man standing by my desk holding the room phone with a screwdriver in his hand!I immediately said; "What the hell are you doing? Are you putting a bug on my phone?" He looked like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and stammered out: "N--no, we are having problems with the phone." I told him to get out of my room because my phone was fine and I called the front desk and the person at the front desk stammered something out about "problems" with some of the phones." (more)
Obviously, this was not handled well. No follow through, no credibility. Next time, get to the bottom of it. Call hotel security. Demand proof of identity. Not satisfied? Think a crime is being committed? Call the police. Press charges.
If you think you have found a bug, wiretap, spycam or other form of electronic surveillance, follow this advice.
The growth of shared Wi-Fi and other wireless computer networks has increased the risk of eavesdropping on Internet communications, but researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science and College of Engineering have devised a low-cost system that can thwart these "Man-in-the-Middle" (MitM) attacks.The system, called Perspectives, also can protect against attacks related to a recently disclosed software flaw in the Domain Name System (DNS), the Internet phone book used to route messages between computers. (more)
When was your last Wi-Fi Security Audit conducted?
Did it include a Compliance Report?
Did you know which laws require you to be Wi-Fi compliant?
Find out... here.
In the meantime...
Download a FREE copy of Perspectives for Foxfire v3.
15 new GSM bugs - eavesdropping devices which can be listened to from anywhere in the world by simply dialing their cell phone number - are featured here, and on ebay here.
Why do we mention it?
So you know your vulnerabilities.
P.S. Murray Associates developed a unique inspection method to find them.
"Oh, there’s also a poster in a window across the street that reads: If you can see this, you’re spying on me. It makes me think about how many people could be spying on me right now, what with my blinds open and desk light on, while I awkwardly blow my nose and type this entry. Then again, I’m sure I’d be watching my neighbors if I were staring out my window and someone’s light happened to be on. Voyeurism: every New Yorker’s favorite pastime - it’s like live reality TV!" ~ Nina Yiamsamatha (August 24, 2008)
Altered with the proper steganography algorithm, this innocuous picture of a cat could be a carrier for corporate espionage.
Earlier this year, someone at the United States Department of Justice smuggled sensitive financial data out of the agency by embedding the data in several image files. Defeating this exfiltration method, called steganography, has proved particularly tricky, but one engineering student has come up with a way to make espionage work against itself.Keith Bertolino, founder of digital forensics start-up E.R. Forensics, based in West Nyack, N.Y., developed a new way of disrupting steganography last year while finishing his electrical engineering degree at Northeastern University, in Boston.
FutureWatch...
Steganography is a moving target. Now exfiltrators are beginning to make use of streaming data technologies like voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Disrupting or even detecting hidden transmissions inside real-time phone calls is the next hurdle for digital forensics companies, and Hosmer says it poses a significantly more challenging problem.
(more)
Tom Keegan writes...
"I know a guy who knows a guy who got his start in the college football coaching business as a spy. This is how the spy didn’t do his job: He didn’t wear a big red “S” on his forehead. He didn’t wear a Groucho Marx nose, glasses and mustache set. He didn’t carry a briefcase.This is how the spy did his job: He peeled back a few bills from the huge wad of cash one of the coaches paid him, purchased a round-trip airline ticket, and arrived in town mid-week, late enough that if he were spotted, the enemy couldn’t redo its entire game plan. He immediately stopped at the bookstore to load up on gear, so that he could wear it around campus and blend in...
Spies don’t announce their arrivals and departures." (more)
NY - An airport employee, Jeremy Martin, apparently put a hidden camera in the women's bathroom. His female co-workers at Mattituck Airport are upset, not just about the camera, but how the company reacted when it was discovered.Police say the airport employee confessed to setting up a camera in the bathroom, and he says he realizes he has issues to deal with...Police say Martin hid the camera from July to mid August in a potted plant in the bathroom of the facility. They say anyone who used the bathroom could have been caught on camera.Authorities discovered the bathroom spying when one of 32 employees at the airport saw a device sticking out of a plant. (more)
Spy Micro Camera Watch Product Code: GGSPY004100US$236.00Features: Built-in Camera, Rechargeable Battery and 2GB Memory Resolutions: 352 x 288 pixels Video Format: AVI Battery Capacity: 270mhA Charging Interface: USB cable with adaptor
The lens is in the two.
...and Men Gone Lazy, too!
A growing number of employers are hiring private investigators to spy on employees suspected of taking leave dishonestly under the Family Medical Leave Act.Management-side attorneys claim that FMLA abuses have gotten out of hand, and employers need a tool -- in this case surveillance -- to catch malingerers using FMLA improperly. And it's been pretty successful, they said, noting that private investigators in recent years have helped catch employees bowling, doing yard work or holding second jobs when they're supposed to be out on sick leave.Employee-rights attorneys, meanwhile, view surveillance as harassment, intimidation and an interference with a worker's right to take FMLA leave. It also has a chilling effect on other employees who may not take the leave for fear of being spied on.Both sides, however, note that the courts appear to be siding with employers. (more)
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)
German electronics company Siemens has gone a step further, developing a complete “surveillance in a box” system called the Intelligence Platform, designed for security services in Europe and Asia. 
