Wiretap Mafia (with updates)

Colombia domestic spy chief probes alleged illegal wiretapping by 'mafia' within

Colombia's new domestic spy chief said Saturday that he is probing whether agency employees have been eavesdropping on Supreme Court judges, prominent journalists and opposition leaders.

Felipe Munoz, who took over the troubled DAS domestic intelligence agency last month, was reacting to a report by Colombia's leading newsmagazine of widespread interception of phone calls and e-mail by agency officials at least through late last year.

Munoz said he was attempting to establish the existence of a "mafia network that's threatening the security of the state," at a news conference called after the report was published online. (more)

UPDATE: Colombia's General Attorney ordered on Sunday a raid on the Department of Administrative Security (DAS) headquarters in Bogota after the media reported that agency employees have been eavesdropping on Supreme Court judges, prominent journalists and opposition leaders. (more)

UPDATE: Felipe Muñoz, director of Colombia's intelligence service DAS sacked the deputy director of the service's counterintelligence department amid a growing scandal involving illegal wiretaps of judges, opposition politicians and journalists. More people are expected to be fired.

According to the Government, the mafia is behind the widespread illegal use of wiretaps and blames alleged drug lords like 'Don Mario', 'El Cuchillo' and 'El Loco Barrera' of having corrupted the service. (more)

UPDATE: Two more top deputies resigned from Colombia's domestic spy agency on Tuesday as prosecutors investigate allegations of improper eavesdropping on journalists, Supreme Court judges and opposition members... (more) Colombia has had issues in the past with wiretapping. In May 2007, the head of police intelligence and Colombia's police chief were forced to resign after an illegal interception of calls of political figures, government members, and, you guessed it, journalists... (more)

UPDATE: Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe says he was unaware of the telephone bugging activities reportedly practised by the DAS domestic intelligence service... (more)

UPDATE: Uribe fingered as heads roll in wiretap scandal
President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia has been accused of ordering his intelligence agency to engage in illegal wiretapping of opposition politicians, members of the government, judges and journalists in a scandal that has rocked Colombia’s law enforcement apparatus. (more)

UPDATE: President Alvaro Uribe said Thursday that he has ordered a halt to wiretapping by Colombia's domestic intelligence agency as the fallout from an eavesdropping scandal prompted a fourth agency official to resign.

UPDATE: DAS director Felipe Muñoz accepted the resignation of his intelligence director, Muñoz said Thursday. Fernando Tabares if the fourth high official of Colombia's intelligence agency that is forced to leave after the institution was hit by its second wiretap scandal in half a year... The DAS director acknowleged that "there are USB sticks and cd's that have some evidence stored" of the illegal wiretapping of Supreme Court magistrates, media directors and opposition politicans.

UPDATE: Colombia spyservice to be allowed wiretaps again...
Colombia President Álvaro Uribe signed a law that returns the authority to conduct wiretaps to intelligence agency DAS, lawmakers say. The DAS was relieved from that authority ten days ago after news broke the agency was illegally wiretapping political opponents, judges and journalists. (more) (background 2007)

What were they thinking?!?! (Sinophobia)

OK... "copy" "steal" we get the connection. But, geeezzz... an Asian man furtively leaving an office building at night, with a cardboard file box and a stockmarket chart in the background?!?! Nerd dudes, you have just alienated over 13-million American potential customers, and Hewlett Packard won't be pleased either. Duh!

Nobody likes spies, no matter where they come from, but let's keep things in perspective. Want to know what a spy looks like? Click on "What Does A Spy Look Like?".

CFO's Phone Call Tapped & Leaked to Web Sites

Turkey - Though it’s illegal and subject to three years imprisonment, it seems there is no end to the wiretapping records that have been leaked to some Web sites. The wiretapping and its leakage to certain Web sites of a mobile phone conversation between Soner Gedik, (CFO and also) deputy chairman of the Doğan Media Group, and Mehmet Akif Ulusoy, commissioner of the Revenue Administration, constitute a grave example of this crime, daily Milliyet reported yesterday.

The timing of the leak is also very important as it came days after the Finance Ministry issued a 826 million lira levy against the DMG due to alleged tax evasion, one of the largest penalties set against a media institution. (more)

Bug Proof Window Film (Here we go again...)

(from their press release)
The German security and film technology specialist HAVERKAMP gets ready for electronic bugging and eavesdropping as well as attacks involving harmful electromagnetic radiation...

As Ulrich Haverkamp, director of HAVERKAMP, stresses, "We know all too well the risks that are associated with wireless and open forms of communication which government institutions and companies are exposed to every day." It is important to bear something in mind: Almost all electronic devices transmit RF signals, as this is either their quintessential function, e.g. mobile phones or wireless microphones - or as technically unavoidable side effect, e.g. computer monitors or hard drives.

Regardless of whether the message is encrypted or not, a broad ‘open' path is made available, upon which information can easily escape from the building and land in the hands of competitors and eavesdroppers. (more)

Can this possibly work?
Think about it...
Do radio waves only travel through windows?
Does "reduced" signal leakage prevent interception?
What are the attenuation measurements?
Perhaps this would be effective if it were presented as part of a larger architectural shielding effort.

In my opinion, the inventors worked hard and developed a clever and potentially useful product. But, to promote a window film as a simple paste-on eavesdropping solution is neither credible, nor honest. If anything, this is one small part of a holistic solution.

Before you go down this road, call me for a map.

Prior art: see The Emperor's New Shades.

P.S. Yes, I know. The press release photo seems to show a parabolic microphone - an acoustic, not RF, method of eavesdropping. This does not make sense technically vis-à-vis the product, or to portray a viable eavesdropping attack.

...and then they aimed a telephoto lens at the window.

Professor Thomas Little of Boston University would like your house lighting to communicate with your computer, TV, and even the heating thermostat. By piggybacking data communications on to LED lightbulbs, he hopes "smart lighting" will become the next generation of wireless communications technology.

...smart lighting is faster and more secure than current Wi-Fi for some uses. An LED lightbulb also uses less energy than radio frequency technology and its light won't go through walls – helping to eliminate eavesdropping. Existing wiring could carry data to smart lightbulbs, providing easy network access points throughout home or office. (more)

Security Director Alert - Inspect, or be Unemployed

Sensitive corporate data are walking right out the door with disgruntled former employees. More than half of workers who lost or left a job in 2008 said they stole confidential company data... (more) Call us. We can help you.

Microsoft Internal Xbox Financials Leaked

Microsoft is known for keeping its paid subscriber stats for Xbox live close to its vest, so when the company said it had topped the 17 million subscriber mark during back-to-back presentations at CES, it was hard to put a financial value on that.

...based on a leaked Excel spreadsheet detailing Xbox Live’s paid subscriber stats for early 2008, sheds a bit of light on this black box: The report found that 60% of Xbox Live members in the U.S. were paying either an annual, three-month or monthly fee to use the service last February; worldwide subscriptions were slightly lower at 56%. (more) (more)

Spy, thy name doth not spell "good fortune."

New York City - The Queens mother accused of hiring a hit man to kill her estranged husband bought a $740 spy camera the night before the murder, prosecutors said Tuesday. Mazoltuv Borukhova, 34, picked up the button-sized hidden camera from a spy supply store just before 6 p.m. on Oct. 27, 2007, prosecutor Brad Leventhal said. She called several times to make sure the shop would be open, he said. (more)

Your Local Drug Store Spy Shop Isle

The Law Pertaining to the Sale of Eavesdropping Devices...
(1) Except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter, any person who intentionally—
(a) sends through the mail, or sends or carries in interstate or foreign commerce, any electronic, mechanical, or other device, knowing or having reason to know that the design of such device renders it primarily useful for the purpose of the surreptitious interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications;
(b) manufactures, assembles, possesses, or sells any electronic, mechanical, or other device, knowing or having reason to know that the design of such device renders it primarily useful for the purpose of the surreptitious interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications, and that such device or any component thereof has been or will be sent through the mail or transported in interstate or foreign commerce; or
(c) places in any newspaper, magazine, handbill, or other publication or disseminates by electronic means any advertisement of—
(i) any electronic, mechanical, or other device knowing or having reason to know that the design of such device renders it primarily useful for the purpose of the surreptitious interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications; or... (see last paragraph)

The Reality... even your local drug store has an unabashed Spy Shop isle!
Loud 'N Clear Personal Sound Amplifier

"The Loud N Clear listening device is cleverly designed to look like an expensive cell phone ear piece."

"So powerful, you can even hear conversations from across the street." (more) (more)

Listen Up Personal Sound Amplifier

"It's so powerful you can even hear the faintest whispers and conversations up to 100' away! Smaller than a credit card, fits easily into a purse, pocket or securely clips to a belt." (more)

But, of course, these items are "primarily useful" for things other than illegal eavesdropping... they're just promoted that way.

But wait!
There's more!
(ii) any other electronic, mechanical, or other device, where such advertisement promotes the use of such device for the purpose of the surreptitious interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications, knowing the content of the advertisement and knowing or having reason to know that such advertisement will be sent through the mail or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Gottcha.

Quality Inn-verse Peephole

Colorado couple finds peephole reversed in Fla. hotel...
A trip to Florida was supposed to be filled with rest and relaxation. But it was more infuriating for a Highlands Ranch couple. Aaron and Amy Cali found a peephole in their room had been reversed. So people on the outside could look inside their room.

The couple ended a Caribbean cruise on Valentine's night at a Quality Inn in Hollywood, Fla. The next morning, Amy got a disturbing surprise. "I noticed a light coming from the hotel door about 3 feet up. I realized it was a peephole. I tried looking out of it and didn't see anything," says Amy. So, she went outside and looked in.

"You could see the entire hotel room, the bed, bathroom. You could see the entire room. Everything," she said. "We don't know if photos were taken. We don't know if videos were taken. We don't know who was looking, how many were looking." (more, with video)

Thoughts...
Hotel door peepholes are mandated by law. This door had two; one at regular height, and lower one three feet from the ground (ADA compliant for people in wheelchairs). The door opened onto an outside shared walkway – not a very safe area to sit and peep.

More likely, a mini wireless spycam was temporarily affixed to the door, with the receiver in another hotel room, or parked car. There, viewing / recording could be accomplished safely.

Additional police work we would like see...
• Check all other doors for reversed peepholes.
• If more than one is reversed, consider this a for-profit, organized crime.
• Match the rooms against customer records. Look for a pattern. The same person might have rented each room once, just to reverse the peepholes.
• Look for 'regular' customers. Are their rooms usually near the the 'reversed' rooms?
• Look for connections between the night managers / staff with any suspicious names found.
• Background check night managers / staff.
• Take a peephole photo. Try to match it with Internet voyeur site photos / movies. If a match is found, many more leads will open up.
• Check other hotels in the area for similar problems.

Hotels in the Hollywood, Florida area cater to young couples visiting on vacation, school breaks and cruise ships. The area is a rich target for pornography manufacturers. It is unlikely this is an isolated incident.

Still think this is an isolated incident?

University of Georgia
...every dorm room is equipped with a peephole in order to provide extra security and precaution for every student.

Yet, the extra security measure has been turned into a practical joke as a peculiar trend circulates through the residence halls - reversing peepholes so their principle function is to peer in on people, rather than allowing residents to peek out.

"I'm not quite sure who started it, but someone said, 'Hey, look in here,' so I did and I saw the people inside," said Ileana Figueroa, a freshman from Augusta residing in Lipscomb Hall in an interview last week.

"The peepholes are pretty easy to unscrew - all you have to do is have the door open," Figueroa said. "Everyone in our hall is pretty close so anything like this is just a joke."

Sam White and his roommate Peri Finch, who both reside in Lipscomb Hall, are victims of the peephole tampering trend... (more)

P.S. "Kramer and Newman did it in a Seinfeld episode so they could check to make sure no one was in their apartments waiting to jump them." ~Tim

World Spy News Round-up

Italian authorities have closed all legal action against McLaren for its part in a spy scandal with Ferrari, McLaren said Monday. (more)

Kazakstan's former defense minister Wednesday accused the country's intelligence services of conducting an illegal wiretapping campaign against him and other members of parliament... (more)

The Finnish government may silence corporate whistleblowers by supporting a proposal backed by Nokia Oyj that would ease rules on monitoring workers’ emails... (more)

EU's judicial cooperation agency Eurojust will take the lead in finding ways to help police and prosecutors across Europe to wiretap computer-to-computer phone conversations enabled by programs such as Skype... (more)
UPDATE - Eurojust retracted previous statements saying it was taking the lead in helping national authorities to wiretap Skype conversations, saying they were issued "prematurely" and were "incorrect"... Skype, a Danish-Swedish business developed by Estonian programmers that was sold to E-Bay in 2005 and has over 350 million customers worldwide, is said to be un-spyable by intelligence services. (more)

Two more top deputies resigned from Colombia's domestic spy agency on Tuesday as prosecutors investigate allegations of improper eavesdropping on journalists, Supreme Court judges and opposition members... (more) Colombia has had issues in the past with wiretapping. In May 2007, the head of police intelligence and Colombia's police chief were forced to resign after an illegal interception of calls of political figures, government members, and, you guessed it, journalists... (more) Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe says he was unaware of the telephone bugging activities reportedly practised by the DAS domestic intelligence service... (more)

An Estonian court convicted a former top security official of treason Wednesday for passing on classified information to a foreign power in the Baltic country's biggest espionage scandal since the Cold War. (more)

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration failed to adequately protect a glamorous female spy when she was captured in Colombia in 1995, a Miami judge says. The former DEA informant, identified in court documents only as The Princess, is suing the agency for $33 million... (more)

Information Security and Cryptography Seminar

Date: June 8-11, 2009
Venue: Davos, Switzerland
Lecturers: Prof. David Basin and Prof. Ueli Maurer, ETH Zurich
Organized by Barbara Geiser, Advanced Technology Group
Further information and registration at www.infsec.ch
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A partial list of the topics covered includes:
- Cryptography: Basic Concepts and Mathematical Foundations
- Advanced Cryptography with Applications
- PKI and Key Management
- Nonrepudiation and Digital Evidence
- System and Network Security
- Web Application Security
- Authentication, Authorization, and Access Control
- Privacy and Usage Control
- Digital payment systems
- E-voting
- Security Engineering
- Selected advanced topics

The material is presented in a self-contained way, understandable to
a wide audience. The seminar is aimed at professionals ranging from
system engineers and project managers to cryptographers and security
experts, who wish to better understand, develop, or use systems
employing modern security technologies.

NIST revises guidance for remote access and teleworking security

NIST is revising its "Guide to Enterprise Telework and Remote Access Security," which was first published in 2002. A draft of Special Publication 800-46 Revision 1 has been released for public comment. It is intended to help organizations understand and mitigate the risks of teleworking, emphasizing the importance of securing sensitive information stored on telework devices and transmitted across external networks. The draft also provides recommendations for selecting, implementing, and maintaining the necessary security controls. (more)

SpyCam Story #519 - Bay City Troller

MI - Brandon D. King of Bay City, who was convicted of videotaping a woman changing clothes inside a Target fitting room, is serving three months of electronic monitoring for violating probation.

...initially sentenced King to three years of probation for using an eavesdropping device to watch the 24-year-old woman, clad in undergarments, try on a pair of shorts June 12, 2007, at the store, 2272 Tittabawassee, Kochville Township.

Sheriff's deputies said the victim was changing clothes when she noticed a pair of hands holding a Sony video camera under the wall. (more)

Vienna, one of the spy capitals of the world

Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, Vienna remains a spy haven, swarming with foreign agents who think nothing of killing in broad daylight, while the Austrian authorities turn a blind eye, experts say.

Vienna formed the backdrop to Orson Welles's legendary spy thriller "The Third Man" in 1949, but even today it remains a hive of secret service activity.

"Austria is still a favourite place for agents. They're frequently known to the authorities, but rarely hindered. Everything is handled courteously and diplomatically. There's a long tradition in that," said Siegfried Beer, director of the Austrian Centre for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (ACIPSS), at the University of Graz. (more)