Men In Black Kick Bu... ...gs?

It seems the line between paranoia, spying and diplomacy is blurry in New Zealand.

According to Sir Clive Woodward, spying is a fact of rugby life (and he would know) and few understand this better than New Zealand.

Hardly a tour goes by without the Kiwi camp escalating tensions with claims of spying - and this year's Tri-Nations seems no exception.

New Zealand take their 'game secrets' so seriously that they've a constant security protocol, they have food and nutrition specialists and a truckload of personal security specialists.

Ahead of their Bloemfontein game, the All Blacks have allegedly again demanded exclusive use of facilities in Pretoria, where they have set up a 'bug-free' training camp. (more)

World's Dorkiest SpyCams

NUMBER THREE
(from the seller's Web site...)
"Sunglasses can be used as part of a disguise or to build an identity. In some old school spy and detective type movies, sunglasses are used as a way to hide a character's identity and try to blend in and not look obvious. Other times, sunglasses are used by a character to display that he is a bonafide badass and not someone to be messed with.

The Spycam Video Sunglasses are not intended to be part of any disguise - they are the disguise - concealing a tiny video camera in the center of the glasses. (Click photo to see big "bonafide" hole.) Capable of capturing excellent quality video and audio, these Spycam Video Sunglasses can be comfortably worn nearly anywhere to help you get the footage. Video is stored in AVI format on a Micro SD card. These glasses also feature easy-to-use controls which are located on the glasses frame. The built-in battery is rechargeable via USB connection and has a battery operating life of about 3-4 hours." (more)

NUMBER TWO
(from the seller's Web site...)
"Digital Binocular Sports and Spy Camera with a telescopic lens that is great for outdoor surveillance. The Avatar comes with a 2.5 inch display screen for viewing comfort and multimedia functions, including music and video player. This single lens video and photo camera is often called a "Monocular Telescopic Sports Camera".

The Avatar digital camera lets you can take snap shots from one building looking out on to another building, balcony or apartment, and works best in full daylight conditions." (more)

NUMBER ONE
(from the seller's Web site...)
"No One Will Suspect That This Clock Radio Is Recording Their Every Move
(Because it is too ugly to look at?)
Standard Clock Radio Doubles As Hidden Spy Camera - This fully functional SONY digital clock doubles as a completely covert hidden camera. The SONY Dream Machine Hidden Camera records high quality real-time video day or night with an automatic switching nightvision camera that activates the moment it gets dark for nightvision up to 30 ft. away. Record real-time motion-activated video or high resolution still shots onto a tiny SD card, housed in a hidden compartment for easy transfer and viewing." (more)

Just for fun. When you have time. Frtiz Lang.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis,
with Blade Runner background score,
scores a 10.

FutureWatch - FiberCam

T-shirts that can snap photos or carpets that are able to report a buildup of dust may one day be possible, thanks to the creation of a fiber that can detect images. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a polymer fiber that can detect the angle, intensity, phase, and wavelength of light hitting it, information that can be used to re-create a picture of an object without a lens.

”Once you have the phase and amplitude of a wave, you can then figure out what the object was that the wave emanated from,” says Yoel Fink, director of MIT’s Photonic Bandgap Fibers and Devices Group. (more) (more) (video profile of Yoel Fink)

Eavesdropping on Bus-ted

Maryland's acting transportation chief, citing concerns about privacy, has pulled back an internal proposal to use listening devices on its buses and trains for recording conversations of passengers and employees.

The Maryland Transit Administration had been considering adopting a system that would allow it to conduct audio surveillance similar to that in several other large U.S. cities (San Francisco, for one.)...

The MTA asked the attorney general to clarify whether Maryland's Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act would require the MTA to obtain the consent of passengers before recording their conversations.

If consent is required, the MTA asked whether posting a sign informing riders they were under audio surveillance would be sufficient notice. (more) (video)

Mighty Mouse, Atom Ant, Secret Squirrel...

The movie "G-Force" stars a squad of U.S. government-trained guinea pig spies on a mission to thwart an evil billionaire from taking over the world.

While the plot is pure Hollywood, nature is full of critters great and small that humanity has harnessed for espionage, protection and moral support.
• Dolphins
• Sea Lions
• Fish
• Sharks
• Dogs
• Penguin
• Insects
• Robot Chicken (just kidding)
(more)
P.S. - Could "G-Force" be based on a real rodent spy case? (Click here.)

SpyCam Story #542 - PottyCams, BullyCams...

• In South London, the newly refurbished Stockwell Park High School has nearly 100 CCTV cameras on the premises, with another 100 due to be installed. Not only are the general areas monitored but classrooms also have cameras... the school plans to use the cameras to resolve disputes about bullying or if claims are made against teachers.

• A primary school in the UK is using closed circuit television in toilets in a bid to catch vandals... "The pupils of the school saw that there was available space on the security system operating in the school and asked whether TV cameras could be installed just to cover the sink areas in order to prevent further vandalism to the toilets," said Principal, Len Holman. (more)

The Future of TSCM - Mind Reading

... Why is it so hard to know other people's minds?
Or, better yet, why is it so easy?

MIT neuroscientist Rebecca Saxe is trying to reconcile these two questions. She is studying the part of our brain called the right temporoprietal junction that is almost entirely specialized to think about and judge other people's thoughts.

Between age 3 and 5 children learn that people can have false beliefs, but only by age 7 have they developed the ability to apply moral judgments to other people's thoughts. It takes a while for the TPJ to develop, but by adulthood it lights up brightly in brain scanners when moral judgments run hot.

But Saxe's lab, using a machine called a transcranial magnetic stimulator, which applies an electromagnetic pulse to a targeted point in the brain, can temporarily disable the function in the TPJ and change what people think about someone else's actions.

Think of the possibilities for trial lawyers, spymasters and advertisers. The Pentagon has called Saxe, but she is not taking its calls. (more)

Security Direct Alert - National Critical Infrastructure

If your job involves protecting any part of the National Critical Infrastructure you will do well to engage the services of John Sullivant, CSC, CHS-III, CPP as your consultant.
Not quite ready for that yet?
Just want to pick his brain?
Here you go...

Strategies for Protecting National Critical Infrastructure Assets: A Focus on Problem-Solvingeases the research burden, develops investigative protocols, and pulls together data into a comprehensive and practical guide, to help the serious reader understand advanced concepts and techniques of risk assessment with an emphasis on meeting the security needs of the critical national infrastructure.

• Helps the reader to understand advanced concepts and techniques of risk assessment
• Provides a quick, reliable, and practical "briefcase" reference to use in the office as well as on the road
• Introduces the elements of the risk assessment process by defining its purpose and objectives, describing the behavioural and physical sciences, the techniques employed in the process, and the measurement and evaluation tools and standards used to perform an objective risk assessment.

Hardcover: 648 pages
Publisher: Wiley-Interscience; 1st edition (September 26, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0471799262
ISBN-13: 978-0471799269

Contact:
John Sullivant, CSC, CHS-III, CPP - Founder Owner and President
S3E - Sisters Three Entrepreneurs Security Consultants Company
7733 Hampton Ave. Suite 1 - West Hollywood, CA 90046
W: 323-850-6920 Direct: 310-703-4317
www.S3EConsultants.com

China - Bribery is Espionage

China’s detention of Rio Tinto Group executives amid allegations of espionage and bribery should serve as a reminder to foreign companies that they may also risk prosecution by U.S. enforcement agencies...

By treating information from state-owned companies as secrets, China affirmed the broad definition of public officials under the U.S. legislation, said Shanghai-based lawyer Lesli Ligorner. (more)

SpyCam Alert - From Head to Toe

From the Omejo Web site... This is a hidden top hat, but inside built in a ultra-small digital spy camera recorder DVR, it looks like an ordinary small top hat, but it has a powerful feature that can record cover real time videos, its a normal mini top hat that most of interesting part is that it internally hides in a small ultra-shaped camera DVR, it does not need any external plug-in card, built in 4GB memory, can work up to 6-7 hours. There is time and date for the recorded video, you can get the most authentic evidence by this wonderful spy device. Ideal for CIA agents, police, detector, and spy agency. (more)

The World's the most powerful audio video 2.4 GHz wireless with Hidden Shoes camera, super crisp real time audio video recording with date time stamping. Specially designed for Law enforcement agencies for their hidden investigation. This amazing device is ideal for covert or spy operations. (more)

Why do I mention it?
So you will know what you're up against.

SpyCam Story #541 - Erin Andrews

As millions of Internet users continue scouring the Web for videos of Erin Andrews, the ESPN sportscaster who was surreptitiously filmed naked in a hotel room, amateur and professional sleuths looking for a culprit now contend that there are actually multiple clips which appear to have been filmed in at least two different locations....

The grainy images shot through what appears to be a makeshift hole in a wall, show Andrews undressing and appearing nude in an unknown hotel room, apparently unaware that she is being filmed...

The Web site TMZ.com has viewed several pieces of footage and surmised there are six separate clips circulating online, four filmed at one hotel and two from a second.

According to the site, the first set of videos was filmed through a round hole, and the second set filmed through a jagged hole. There is reportedly different furniture in each of the rooms.

TMZ speculates that the alleged peeping tom was someone -- possibly an ESPN employee -- who had knowledge of Andrews' schedule. (more)

Security Directors: FREE Security White Paper - "Surreptitious Workplace Recording ...and what you can do about it."   

Missing iPhone Leads to Suicide

Police in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen are investigating the suicide of an employee of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which assembles the popular iPhone for Apple Inc....

Sun Danyong, a recent engineering graduate, jumped out of the window of his apartment last Thursday. The reports said Sun, who had been tasked with sending iPhone prototypes to Apple, had been under suspicion for stealing after one of the handsets went missing. Some publications reported that, in the days prior to his suicide, Sun had been detained and beaten by a senior official in the security department of the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing giant.

Hon Hai also said it suspended a security official who had questioned Mr. Sun before his death. The security official couldn't be reached for comment...

Apple is known for requiring suppliers to sign contracts that impose hefty financial penalties if they are found to have leaked sensitive information. (more) (more)

The Berry Patch

UAE - The battery-sapping "performance patch" that Etisalat sent to its BlackBerry subscribers over the last few days was designed to give the UAE operator the ability to read its customers emails and text messages, a Qatar-based software expert told CommsMEA yesterday.

Last week, Etisalat told its 100,000 BlackBerry subscribers that a "performance enhancement patch" would be sent to them to "provide the best BlackBerry service and ultimate experience". But users who downloaded the software complained of dramatically reduced battery life and slower than usual performance of their devices.

Nigel Gourlay, a Doha-based Sun-certified Java programmer who has been developing open source software for 15 years, analysed the patch after it was posted on BlackBerry’s community support forum and he said that once installed, it potentially gives Etisalat the power to view all emails and text messages sent from the BlackBerry. (more)

FutureWatch - Governments may make the manufacturer or carrier pre-load this capability as a condition of doing business in that country.

What CEOs Don't Know About Cybersecurity

A new study hints at how often cyberthreats aren't communicated to the boss.

Being the chief executive has its privileges. And one of them may be a blissful ignorance of your company's data breach risks.

According to a study to be released Tuesday by the privacy-focused Ponemon Institute, companies' chief executives tend to value cybersecurity just as--if not more--highly than their executive colleagues. But compared to lower-level execs, CEOs also tend to underestimate the frequency of cyberthreats their organization faces. (more)

Having observed the scene for over 30 years, these findings may be extended to include any technical threat to information security.

Quote of the Day -- "We don't know how much filtering of bad news happens that keeps CEOs from hearing some of the darker secrets." ~ Dr. Larry Ponemon