Make your phone confess.

Hate blocked Caller ID calls?
Force a confession out of them.
Here's how...
"Trapcall will unblock and reveal the actual caller ID (and name) when a call has been blocked. No software or download needed! ...Record all of your incoming calls! ...Read your voicemail messages via SMS while in a meeting, class, movie or other busy area! ...Block unwanted callers! ...Billing name and address!"
Try it out. Free. (more)

FutureWatch - The 10 Trillion Bit, 2-Bit Drive

Keeping track of your data will become soon more difficult...
Ting Xu, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and Thomas Russell, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, have created a technique that could, theoretically, pack a disk the size of a quarter with 10.5 terabits (more than 10 trillion bits) of data, the equivalent of 250 DVDs. (more)

Until then, we can still cram a lot of data into a Murray Associates Spy Coin. They are going fast. Find out how you can get one. (more)

"Holy Firewall, Splatman!"

New data shows businesses may be clueless about proxy abuse in their organizations...

Schools long have struggled with savvy students who run anonymous Web proxy tools to bypass Web filters and secretly access banned Websites and content. But the use of these potentially dangerous tools within the enterprise appears to be more widespread than was once thought.

A new study released today indicates that businesses may be clueless about the breadth of the problem: While 15 percent of IT managers report that Web filter bypass tools are in use in their organizations, it turns out that these tools are actually in use in three out of four organizations, according to FaceTime Communications, which polled both IT managers and its own customers on the topic.

"In some cases, the perception is not reality," says Frank Cabri, vice president of marketing and product management for FaceTime, whose customers provided the actual usage data in the study. "This doesn't surprise us -- but the difference [in perception and reality] is dramatic." (more)

"...employee use of Web 2.0 applications such as Instant Messaging, IPTV, VoIP and Social Networking on corporate networks exceeds IT estimates by up to 10 times." (more)

Why is all this important to you?
• Your IT folks are not seeing this end run. ($)
• You are probably paying your employees to surf, not work. ($$)
• It is an open back door to your intellectual property. ($$$)

You know it's a bad law when...

Swedish intelligence official quits over wiretapping law...

Sweden - Anders Björck, a high-ranking Moderate Party politician and former defence minister has resigned from his post as head of Sweden’s intelligence oversight agency in protest against the country’s controversial wiretapping law... because he lacks confidence in the new surveillance measure which came into force January 1st... "I've thought it over carefully. The laws and the oversight activities now under consideration don’t foster privacy or efficacy." (more)

Greek Olympic Committee President Bugged

via WhiteSparks...
Greek police are investigating the discovery of an object they believe could be a covert listening device in the Athens office of Greek Olympic Committee president Minos Kyriakou.

In a statement released on Friday, Attica regional police confirmed they had been called to Kyriakou's office late on Thursday evening.

"In the evening hours of February 5, 2009 our service was informed about the existence at the office of the president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee of a suspicious object that appeared like a microphone for monitoring conversations," the statement said.

"The police were requested to investigate the incident. The object was collected and was forwarded for further examination, the result of which is still pending."

The investigation comes less than a week before the election for the new president of the committee which Kyriakou is contesting with Spyros Kapralos, the chairman of the Athens Stock Exchange. (more)

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Sneaky USB Flash Drives

Sneaking spyware in to plant on your computers?
Sneaking company secrets out from their computers?
Recording your private meetings?
Whatever the goal, drive-by spy devices are becoming harder to catch; especially USB drives.

Here is a quick update so you will know it when you see it.

from the seller's website...
Surveillance style pen containing a micro sized video camcorder with 4 GB of memory. Get the mission completed with this awesome secret agent DV pen, often called a "spy pen" in the trade.

Sitting in your shirt pocket, standing in the pen cup or lying on the desk, no-one will ever notice as you secretly capture their every move. The built in flash stores the video until it is ready to be downloaded to a computer via USB, and with 4GB's of memory you can record hours of surveillance or interviews in between trips back to the office. (more with video)

All metal cross shaped necklace containing an 8 GB USB flash drive.

These days a USB flash drive is as necessary as your house keys. Whether you are taking large work files back and forth from the office or are sharing pictures and music with friends, nothing beats the convenience of a USB thumb drive. Well, why not make sure yours fits the person you are? This is a elegant all-metal cross that has a built in 8GB's of memory so you should have space to keep in its heart. (more)

All metal heart shaped necklace containing an 8 GB USB flash drive.

These days a USB flash drive is as necessary as your house keys. Whether you are taking large work files back and forth from the office or are sharing pictures and music with friends, nothing beats the convenience of a USB storage drive. Well, why not make sure the one you get fits the person who is going to carry it? This is an elegant all-metal and jeweled heart necklace that has a built in 8GB's of memory so you or your loved one will have enough space to keep those treasured memories close at heart. (more)

Realistic looking watermelon containing 8GB of USB flash memory. If you want more than to just plug your old fashioned USB stock in, this novelty USB memory stick that is right up your alley. Just remove the tip to reveal the USB connection, and watch people gape at your one of a kind computer accessory. (more)

Does someone near you always seem to know who's calling you?

Perhaps they have one of these... linked to your cell phone.

Bluetooth bracelet with vibration function and caller ID display.

Spybusters Tip # 429 - Keep Bluetooth turned off when not in use. (more)

Business Espionage - Spanish Spies, Fruit Flies

Throughout the world, Israel is considered a superpower when it comes to the development of new citrus fruit species, but now, Israeli farmers are accusing their Spanish counterparts of stealing a new species, and have recently filed a lawsuit against them. Commercial spying attempts have lead the developers of the new species to grow their fruits in hidden fields , "but afterwards the species grew in an open orchard," said Chai Benyamini, secretary-general of Israel's Citrus Growers’ Association.

"The Spanish send people who enter the orchard for a minute, cut off a citrus branch from the new species, and send it to Spain, and this is how we lose some NIS 200,000 ($48,900) a year," he explained.

The main species in question is a new breed of tangerine, called Or, that was developed in Israel and has been patented. (more)

Moral: Every business is an espionage target. It's the money. Doesn't matter if your selling Testarossa's or tangerines — you are a target.

Make counterespionage part of your business security program. We can help.

Italy police warn of Skype threat

Criminals in Italy are increasingly making phone calls over the internet in order to avoid getting caught through mobile phone intercepts, police say... The police say Skype's encryption system is a secret which the company refuses to share with the authorities. (more)

Psssst! Wanna make a few billion dollars?

London - An industry source disclosed that America's supersecret National Security Agency (NSA) is offering "billions" to any firm which can offer reliable eavesdropping on Skype IM and voice traffic.

The spybiz exec, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed that Skype continues to be a major problem for government listening agencies, spooks and police. This was already thought to be the case, following requests from German authorities for special intercept/bugging powers to help them deal with Skype-loving malefactors. Britain's GCHQ has also stated that it has severe problems intercepting VoIP and internet communication in general. (more)

Silvio Strikes Back

Italy - Investigators have become increasingly reliant on wiretaps in recent years... Use of wiretaps by prosecutors in Italy has grown exponentially in recent years.

Investigators say intercepts of telephone calls have become an essential tool of the police, who spend millions of dollars each year tracking down crime through wiretaps of landlines and mobile phones.

But the law may be about to change.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing government has drawn up a bill which would restrict police wiretaps to only the most serious crimes.

Much crime reporting in the Italian media is based on leaks of wiretaps and leading politicians, including Mr Berlusconi himself, have found to their embarrassment that details of their private telephone conversations have sometimes been leaked to newspapers.

Under the new law reporting of details of criminal investigations obtained through wiretaps would become illegal until a final verdict has been delivered.

Given the extreme slowness of Italian justice, this would mean that details of cases now before the courts might be reported by the press only in 15 years time. (more) (background)

FutureWatch - GPS trackers & Cellular Forensics

Civil liberties groups are watching a New York court case that should decide whether a police officer, acting on his own, can attach a global positioning system to a vehicle to track someone's movements. The case will be argued next month in the New York Court of Appeals.

Last week, for example, area school administrators (Pennsylvania) were wrestling with the question of how far they can go under the wiretapping law in examining cell phones they confiscate from students. (more)

How low will they go in The Land of Limbo?

Trinidad and Tobago - Claims and counter claims of phone tapping and even spying by a government agency.

In the parliament yesterday during debate on the date protection bill, Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Chief Whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj threw allegations at each other, saying that people’s privacy has been and are being infringed.

Mr. Maharaj claimed he had solid information that the government was spying on people.

The Prime Minister would later fire another salvo, saying under the United National Congress Government (UNC) there was an agency set up to tap people’s phones and spy on them. (more)

Spy Planes Grounded. No Pilots.

UK - A new billion-pound fleet of spy planes able to spot the roadside bombs that kill troops in Afghanistan will be out of action... because the RAF has failed to train enough crew...

Each aircraft is operated by a five-man team of two pilots, a mission commander and two imagery analysts. The planes, converted Bombardier passenger jets, have been built by the American firm Raytheon at sites in Texas and near Chester...

An air force spokesman said: “You’ve got to have all five aircraft and all 10 crews ready before you have full operating capability. It could be 2011 but everybody is busting a gut to bring that date forward.” (more)

Where is Paul Garrett when we need him?

TN - Davidson County Dist. Atty. Gen. Victor S. "Torry" Johnson decided against prosecuting state Rep. Jim Cobb for hiding a voice-activated tape recorder under the desk of his legislative assistant last September. Johnson says Cobb apparently did break wiretapping and surveillance statutes, but he won't be prosecuted because he did such a lousy job of it. (more) (background)

PS - In the original report, Cobb described his actions as "just a prank." Now, it is reported, "Cobb claims he did it because he suspected his aide was treating constituents rudely, and he wanted to catch him in the act."

"In other news from the desk of Torry Johnson, it's also OK for a state representative to send a text message to try to extort a committee chairmanship out of the House speaker."
(sing-a-long) (Paul Garrett)