SpyCam Story #552 - The Neighbor

FL - The Smith family was under surveillance. Every day. Every time they stepped outside their house. "We feel very violated and afraid," said Carol Smith, speaking for her husband, Terry, and their children.

The source of their fear is Timothy Dederick, with whom they had a long-running dispute over a fence on the boundary between their two properties on Evergreen Drive.

Dederick installed a sophisticated video and audio surveillance system with at least six cameras pointed right at the Smiths' home, authorities said in an affidavit. He was also listening to and recording their conversations.

When Dederick did that, authorities say, he committed a felony... (more)

FutureWatch - SenseCam, your auto diary

SenseCam is a wearable digital camera that is designed to take photographs passively, without user intervention, while it is being worn.

Unlike a regular digital camera or a cameraphone, SenseCam does not have a viewfinder or a display that can be used to frame photos. Instead, it is fitted with a wide-angle (fish-eye) lens that maximizes its field-of-view. This ensures that nearly everything in the wearer’s view is captured by the camera, which is important because a regular wearable camera would likely produce many uninteresting images.

SenseCam also contains a number of different electronic sensors. These include light-intensity and light-color sensors, a passive infrared (body heat) detector, a temperature sensor, and a multiple-axis accelerometer. These sensors are monitored by the camera’s microprocessor, and certain changes in sensor readings can be used to automatically trigger a photograph to be taken.
(more) (video)Don't laugh. Things go from geek to chic very quickly these days. Think about it. How often do you refer to your calendar program to remember what you did, when? Surveillance devices like this one will eventually become standard gear. ~Kevin

Double Agent Spyware

Parents who install a leading brand of software to monitor their kids' online activities may be unwittingly allowing the company to read their children's chat messages — and sell the marketing data gathered.

Software sold under the Sentry and FamilySafe brands can read private chats conducted through Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other services, and send back data on what kids are saying about such things as movies, music or video games. The information is then offered to businesses seeking ways to tailor their marketing messages to kids. (more)

Joseph Finder - Fiction is just his cover

This book review is so good, let's reprint it...

Is it paranoia if they’re really out to get you?
by katknit
"Corporate espionage is not one of my areas of interest, but this audio book was a gift, so I listened. I have to say, right off, that Finder knows how to write suspense. Adam is a likable protagonist, a young guy entrapped by his own naivete into an untenable predicament. What he finds himself doing, however, is sleazy. As a self-professed slacker, Adam at first feels no compunction about spying, the apparent rewards of his secret mission fueling his need to impress his hypercritical father. But in a matter of days, he finds himself drawn to the CEO of the company he’s meant to undermine, and suddenly, he’s caught in the jaws of a dilemma. For the first time in his life, Adam is forced to grapple with very real and difficult questions of morality. Falling in love only complicates the situation. Ruthless and arrogant CEO’s, high tech spy gadgets, ethical conundra, and gradually escalating danger make for a compelling story, whatever the setting. Finder’s characters are well drawn, although on occasion he goes overboard with types (i.e. Adam’s father and CEO Wyatt.) This thriller came as a pleasant surprise, gripping in spite of its business background." (source)

If this anonymous reviewer only knew...
Paranoia (published 12/04) is gripping because of its business background. You may find Finder in the fiction isle, but he has his roots digging into reality... especially the high tech spy gadgets. (He has professionals researching and fact checking.)

Joe's latest novel, Vanished (published 8/09) is another thrilling reality fiction corporate thriller. (video) ~Kevin
More novels by Joe Finder

How Team of Geeks Cracked Spy Trade

From a Silicon Valley office strewn with bean-bag chairs, a group of twenty-something software engineers is building an unlikely following of terrorist hunters at U.S. spy agencies.

One of the latest entrants into the government spy-services marketplace, Palantir Technologies has designed what many intelligence analysts say is the most effective tool to date to investigate terrorist networks. The software's main advance is a user-friendly search tool that can scan multiple data sources at once, something previous search tools couldn't do. That means an analyst who is following a tip about a planned terror attack, for example, ... (more)

To my security colleagues...
Need a job?
They are looking for an
Information Security Officer.

Wannabeanextra Tip: Crusie + Diaz = Spy Flick

MA - Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and other Hollywood names are heading to Massachusetts for two and a half weeks of filming for an upcoming untitled blockbuster. Filming begins Sept. 15 at Worcester Regional Airport, but crews are already preparing two locations, the airport and a field in Bridgewater, for their roles in the movie. The action comedy, with the working title "Untitled Wichita Project," is about a secret agent, Cruise, who periodically runs into the same young single woman, Diaz. (more)

Counterintelligence Agent - Essential Knowledge

15 of History’s Most Notable Spies
A career in espionage is easily one of the most coveted of all childhood fantasies, due largely to the unending stream of spy movies, comics, books, and real-life stories we’re inundated with growing up. While James Bond is at the top of everyone’s list, in reality things can be a bit different; spies come in all shapes and sizes, and range from honorable to just plain criminal. Some are remembered for their daring and others for their half-witted desperation and lust for money, but one thing rides certain throughout the disparate stories they tell: It takes guts to be a spy. While the greatest spies will, by virtue of their success, never be known to us (like electronic surveillance, only the failures make the news), these are the 15 most notable spies in our recent history.

Who should be on a top 15 spies list?
The question is open to debate. If your favorite didn't make the list, send me their name. I will add them below...

Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy. He is celebrated as a hero in Israel because he has been credited with being a deciding factor in the outcome of the Six-Day War. Caught when his radio transmissions - from Syria to Israel - were detected. (more) (more)

Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids

For those of you in the US...
Enjoy the holiday weekend and the last few days of summer.

Here to play off the Security Scrapbook - Summer Edition
is The Onion's news team.
Spoof or brilliant idea?
You decide.
(Alternate play off ending.)

"Yes We Can”

via PCWorld.com...
The chorus of folks singing "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" just got a little bigger and louder yesterday, after the Obama Administration issued "new" rules for border laptop searches that bear an uncanny resemblance to the old rules. (more)

q.v. "Obama's cookies may not go down so easy"

PCWorld's point...
"If you care about your data, leave your laptop at home."

FutureWatch...

ET, Spy Phome

The Motion Detecting Telephone.
This is the telephone that detects motion and silently calls whatever number you desire, allowing you to monitor the sound in the room.

It's microphone allows you to listen in on sounds and conversations, enabling you to verify if it's just your cleaning service, a neighbor watering your prized orchids, or a more nefarious plot. Ideal for use in vacation homes or any time you are away, the phone looks like a typical corded telephone and plugs into a standard telephone outlet, requiring no service fees.

It has a sensitive motion detector; when you position it to face a doorway or window and someone triggers the detector, the phone will automatically call any number your enter and let you listen. It also functions as a normal telephone. 8" L x 3" W x 3" D. (11/2 lbs.) Item 77276 $59.95 (more)

Spy Pen May Kill $27 Billion Lawsuit

The oil giant Chevron said Monday that it had obtained video recordings of meetings in Ecuador this year that appear to reveal a bribery scheme connected to a $27 billion lawsuit the company faces over environmental damage at oil fields it operated in remote areas of the Amazon forest in Ecuador, The New York Times’s Simon Romero and Clifford Krauss reported.

The videos, together with audio recordings obtained by businessmen using watches and pens implanted with bugging devices, appear to implicate Ecuadoran officials and political operatives, including possibly Juan Núñez, the judge overseeing the lawsuit, and Pierina Correa, the sister of Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa...

The recordings, which Chevron placed on its Web site, are the latest twist in a 16-year legal battle over oil contamination of jungle areas in northern Ecuador. (more)

No kidding! Two hours of covert surveillance video (in Spanish with English sub-titles), with .pdf transcripts, are on Chevron's Web site. A real-life corporate sting. Fascinating.

Think they were using high-tech, expensive surveillance devices?
Think again...
Watch the recordings made with aSpyder Agent Watch purchased out of the SkyMall catalog, and a SkyMall Pen 1: "Sky Mall, Spyer Agent Watch" (Recordings and watch no longer on site.)
Recording 2: "Sky Mall, Spyer Agent Watch" and "Sky Mall, Spy Pen"
Recording 3: "Sky Mall, Spyer Agent Watch" and "Sky Mall, Spy Pen"Recording 4: "Sky Mall, Spyer Agent Watch"

Watch: $149.95
Pen: $149.99
Look on Judge's face: Priceless

Why is this important to you?
Cheap, effective, surveillance gadgets can easily be turned against you and your company.

In this case, a $3 million dollar bribery scheme is revealed, and a $27 billion lawsuit may be lost.

Imagine the damage electronic eavesdropping could do in your business.

Bugs, taps, video and voice recorders provide extreme leverage. For less than the cost of a good dinner out with friends, fortunes can be moved and careers wrecked.

Recommendation: Get a good counterespionage specialist on your team, today.

Two History Spy Mysteries

Mystery 1
Could world-changing series of events in the last century have been influenced by an American president's mistress?

That's one question posed in Cleveland attorney and writer Jim Robenalt's book "The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage during the Great War." The book deals with (Warren G.) Harding's 15-year affair with Carrie Phillips, the wife of a prominent Marion businessman, and suggests that Phillips may have become a German spy.

The author also questions whether Phillips convinced Harding not to run for the presidency in 1916, which could have affected the United States' involvement in World War I as well as events that later influenced Nazi leader Adolph Hitler's rise to power. (more)

Mystery 2
Was this beekeeper a spy for Stalin?

Dorothy Constance Galton, a university secretary and bee keeper, was investigated by security services who believed she was acting as a go-between for Stalin, secret files disclose.

Galton also came to the attention of the notorious double agent Kim Philby at MI6 who wanted to know what Security Service knew about her.

Her file shows she visited Leningrad on the SS Sibier in August 1934, and by January 1935 was working at London University and had been elected as a delegate from the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries. (more)

Buck Howdy - Wiretapper DNA Gone Good

Life is strange. Take a moment to listen to a Roy Rodgers / Rolling Stones mash-up “Hey! You! Get off of my cow!” The artist is Buck Howdy, a singing cowboy, specializing in kid-friendly tunes. He’s also a genuine, tractor-driving, turkey farmer.

Ok, now that you have stopped laughing...

Buck Howdy: “I inherited my geek DNA from my dad [Jim Vaus Jr.]. As a kid my dad helped me build a ham radio and then I got my broadcast license WN2FEZ was my call sign.

He was a HUGE geek - he invented wiretapping and tracing phone calls - and then employed his skills at the same time for the L.A. Syndicate (mob), the police and Hollywood movie stars all at the same time!

He also invented the machine that they patterned the big sting in the movie “The Sting” after - where they were supposedly intercepting horse race results on the wire service - and then delaying those results just long enough to place bets on the horses.”

(Jim Vaus cleaned up his act, by the way. You can find out more in his book, “Why I Quit Syndicated Crime,” the basis of the 1955 movie Wiretapper.) (more)

I know a few folks from the Vaus clan.
They are really wonderful people. ~Kevin

The Unsolicited "Gift" USB Stick

This is the scariest thing I saw during our bug sweeps this past week. It was sitting on top of a corporate president's desk.

Anyone can have custom printing put on USB sticks. (Not knowing if the printing on this one was legitimate or fake, I blurred the top two lines.) They can also load the stick with a megaton blast of spyware, destructive malware or a fast spreading virus that hits your corporate nervous system like Tourette's Syndrome.

Put the trick-stick into a pretty package. Mass mail it to company employees. Good chance one of them will open their Pandora's Box.

My new corporate client was not completely naive. They had a USB lock-out policy in place. The USB ports were turned off on all employee computers... except top executives, who were exempt from the policy.

Worried about your USB ports?
Good, here is a plan...
• Try USB lock-out software. You can get a Free 30-day trial from Lumension.
• Identify employees who have a real need to have their ports unlocked.
• Give them a clear education about the USB vulnerability.
• Let them know they will be responsible for their security lapses.
• Ask them if they are really sure they want their ports left open.
~Kevin

YG, phone home. (YG = Your Gadget)

If your gadget can connect to the Internet, it can probably call you when it is lost or stolen...

A while back, I discussed a FREE way to get you laptop back using a combination of Adeona and isightcapture. If you are willing to spend a few bucks, and also need to protect: Mac or PC laptops, BlackBerrys, Smart mobile phones, cameras, GPS devices, external hard drives and even USB thumb drives, GadgetTrak can help.

Not electronic?
No problem.
GadgetTrak also offers "Trak Tags" so honest people have a way of returning lost, non-electronic items.

Companies even put GadgetTrak technology into their own products. (see FLIR ThermaTrak™) Smart!