Inspector Suspended for Illegal Eavesdropping

Portugal - An inspector of the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) was suspended for 18 months, the hardest penalty before the compulsory retirement, for involvement in illegal listening and monitoring... discovered a net of illegal espionage that eavesdropped, monitored and followed people. (more)

"Hey Kids! Works like the real House Arrest kind!"

via the manufacturer...
Num8 is the world’s first GPS locator device that has been specifically designed with children in mind. It tells you exactly where your child is, anytime — at home or even abroad. All you need is a mobile phone or a computer to find their precise location.

And unlike similar locator products, num8 has been cleverly concealed in a child’s digital watch that is securely fastened to your child and cannot be removed or deactivated without your knowledge. (more)
24-hour time?!?! Don't most kids have it hard enough comprehending the concept of 12-hour digital time?

Why Tap It When You Can Own It?

From the reality is stranger than fiction file: Concerns about spying may have killed, or at least stalled, a plan for Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to buy some Nortel (NT) assets.

According to a Forbes piece published today, Nortel’s plans to hand off its Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) division to Huawei for $400 million were scuttled over concerns about Chinese cyber-spying.

“The Shenzhen, China-based networking giant has a murky history of cooperation with its homeland's authoritarian regime,” the Forbes piece reads. “And concerns over Huawei's government ties, according to some industry watchers and security analysts, may have spooked Nortel's customers that carry sensitive U.S. government data and scuttled the Chinese company's offer.” (source) (more)

Illegal Corporate Wiretapping Brings Disruption

Remember Bexar Metropolitan Water District General Manager, Gilbert Olivares? (background) His indictment last August included 12 counts of Illegally Intercepting Oral Communications. He was accused of wiretapping his employees. The organization was knocked off its pins... and still hasn't recovered.

Texas - The Bexar Metropolitan Water District's board asked Gov. Rick Perry to appoint a lone conservator to guide and advise the agency as it tries to emerge from years of troubled management. (more)

Security Director's Budget Booster
Bexar is an excellent example of illegal bug and wiretap fallout.
Aside from the immediate damage, colateral damage often includes:
• defending wrongful termination suits,
• hiring replacement employee costs,
• crippled employee morale,
• PR nightmares,
• stockholder suits,
• and general public embarrassment.

Budget for Eavesdropping Detection Audits with all this in mind. Proactive audits are an essential element of a complete security program.

Well, duh... DECT

The DECT Forum, the worldwide association of the home communication industry, has taken note of reports about possible security issues of DECT wireless telephony systems. The DECT Forum assures that it takes such reports seriously and will consider these investigations...

The DECT Forum also states that it is a criminal act to eavesdrop telephone conversations. It is impossible to accidentally eavesdrop on telephone conversations and therefore the risk for users is very low. Only those with a clear criminal energy and intent and a sophisticated knowledge would be capable of eavesdropping. (more)
I feel better now, don't you?

Amazing Stories #102 - The Bored Spy

Canada - A B.C. Mountie has been docked eight days’ pay by an RCMP disciplinary board after skipping 35 days of work because he got bored during a one-year secondment to Canada’s spy agency. (more)

SpyCam Story #508 - "Oh no, not the Ganesha!"

A long, interesting story which details several incidents, laws and general concerns about spycams in India, Australia and Southeast Asia...

Take care before you change clothes, before you take a shower. You could be on camera. That cute little bug inside the bathroom cabinet, behind the dressing table mirror, could make you an actor very soon...

The spycam can be concealed in many innocent looking objects, like toys, radios, clocks, speakers, smoke alarms, even Ganeshas. Some of them come with night vision and are powered by mains adaptor or battery. An audio facility is available on most covert cameras, which picks up speech up to 20 feet away. (more)

FutureWatch: Tesla Was Right

Walking around Fulton Innovations' showcase at the Consumer Electronics Show, it's easy to think that 2009 will be the year of wireless electricity.

A blender whirs wireless, and a laptop powers up without a battery. Like a modern day version of the 1904 World's Fair, it's the miracle of electricity without a plug in sight. The devices are all powered by electromagnetic coils built into the charging surface. (more)

FutureWatch: As wireless power (ecoupled) becomes ubiquitous, expect parasitic bugs, wiretaps, voice recorders and spycams to creep into these environments. With free unlimited power and no need for batteries, these devices will become incredibly smaller in size.

UPDATE 1/21/09 - This year probably won't be the tipping point for wireless electricity. But judging from all the new techniques and applications of this awe-inspiring technology, getting power through the airwaves could soon be viable. (more)

"Watch your head."

A spying device for the incredibly introspective, or just a great gift for your special someone...

"360 degree mirror 7 panel system is the first mirror ever that allows you to see any part of your head. Open up the 7 panels to see completely around your entire head, or pull the 360 degree arms strait forward and have a double mirror within inches of your face." (more)

...or, make one surveillance camera do the work of several cameras.

More 'How-to-Spy' Websites

Security Directors
Show to the boss that,
"If they can read, they can spy.
If they can spy, they will spy."
• http://www.how-to-spy-computers.info/
• http://www.e-stealth.com/
• Spy on any Bluetooth equipped cell phone for $9.54
• Spy Transmitters on Ebay click click click click click click click
• Yes, Ebay has a special section called "Bugs & Transmitters."
• Homemade Spy Gear
• Make Magazine's Homemade Spy Gear (video)
• Dress like a spy. :)

Electronic Eavesdropping Audits
are no longer an optional budget item.
Call me to begin your quarterly inspections. ~Kevin

Private Security Company Wiretapping 'Service' Busted

In another twist to Peru's oil-kickback scandal, police have arrested five people for allegedly recording the telephone conversations that revealed the scheme.

Attorney General Gladys Echaiz on Thursday announced the arrest of two active and three retired naval officers who ran a private security company that allegedly ran a black market wiretapping service. A civilian woman who worked at the company, Business Track SAC, was also arrested...

Investigators have not revealed if Business Track was hired to tap the lobbyists' telephone lines or who fed the tapes to the news media...

Jailed lobbyist Romulo Leon testified to the state attorney's office that Business Track sold the tapes to Petro-Tech Peruana S.A., a company competing with Discover Petroleum for contracts in a September public auction...

Petro-Tech has repeatedly rejected links to the wiretaps but acknowledged Friday that it hired Business Track in 2006 to audit its computer security systems...

Business Track offers "information security" services and equipment, according to its Web site, including the detection of wiretaps on telephone lines, cell phone service blockers, polygraph test equipment and voice distorters. (more)

R/C spy plane claim two al-Qaeda chiefs

Predator drones, operating with impunity in the skies above north-west Pakistan, have claimed their latest high-profile victims, it was confirmed yesterday...

Both have been linked to suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan in recent months and were on the FBI's most-wanted list over the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. (more)

An Eavesdropper Reminisces

Billed as the most embarrassing book ever written about the private life of an African leader, a former Nigerian president is portrayed by his first wife as a sly, violent, vindictive womaniser...

What ensues is an almost slapstick riot of affairs and breathless high politics punctuated with domestic violence and desperation. And it's one in which Mama Iyabo is happy to name names. In the early 1970s her particular nemesis was an older married woman called Mowo Sofowora. One evening, she recalls: "I was eavesdropping on the phone downstairs while Obasanjo was in the bedroom. They had spoken for about 30 minutes when she then said she was having a headache. I had heard enough, so I butted in: 'It's that headache that will kill you, shameless married woman dating a younger man'. On hearing my voice, Obasanjo charged downstairs to beat me and we had one of the many fights that had come to define our marriage." (more)

20 Minute Video About Cell Phone Bugging

Cell Phones are being used as bugs, taps, tracking, spying.

Here are 20 minutes of various video clips about how it works. (video)

"They just make nice paperweights."

Thailand - Chief of Department of Special Investigation (DSI) Thawee Sodsong denied having tapped a telephone of Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga. His statement came after Mr Pirapan claimed his phone has been tapped.

Although DSI has the bugging equipment, the organisation has the rules and laws of using it, and the ones who want to use the equipment need to ask for permission from DSI chief or his deputy, he said.

"Since I have taken this position for about one year, I can ensure you that we do not use the equipment to tap anyone," Pol Col Thawee told reporters. (more)