Where is our Surveillance Society headed?

via The Guardian (UK)...
Main Points
• A toxic culture of suspicion is souring our children's lives.
• Adults will find it hard to interact with young people if hysterical paranoia means they are all viewed as potential abusers.
(more)

via Atlantic Free Press...
Main Points
• New surveillance technologies increasingly threaten Americans’ civil liberties yet the public seems not to mind the ominous signs of an emerging police state, a law school professor warns.
• “If we acquiesce in technology’s wonders being utilized to track our every movement, every action, every purchase, every message — because there is benefit to us, as there is, in each of these — who is to blame when the state goes knocking on the neighbor’s door?” asks Larry Starkey, an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover. “Who is to blame when the state comes knocking on our own doors?” (more)

via The Telegraph (UK)...
Main Points
• Britain has become a ‘Big Brother’ surveillance society with “CCTV on every corner”
• Organisations have been accused of misusing the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, originally intended to tackle terrorism and organised crime, by applying the legislation to trivial matters such as littering and dog fouling.

"Teach your children well" ~Crosby Stills Nash Young

Quote of the Day - iPod Nano... spycam?

"...don't be surprised if this thing triggers a whole social wave of spy-filming.
It's totally easy to conceal... * Voice recorder. More spy fun. Each recorded audio chunk can be two hours long, although the iPod automatically begins a new chunk if your session rolls on longer."
David Pogue - The New York Times - Personal Tech Guru (more) (iPod nano)

Horny Eavesdropping Devices

Early eavesdropping was not always electronic...
Click on thumbnails to enlarge.






























Courtesy The Museum of Retro Technology.

On a smaller scale, eavesdropping could often be accomplished by using the Speaking Tube. Yes, many homes, offices and 'fine automobiles' used to have speaking tubes. You can still find them on some ships, too. (history) Of course, this should not be confused with a Whispering Tube; a story for another day.

Want one? Click here!

Rare News Item - 3 Arrested for Selling Bugs

Taiwan - The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) turned over three suspects to prosecutors yesterday for their allegedly marketing illegal bug devices.

The bureau arrested the three men surnamed Lee, Lin, and Chen after confiscating 197 sets of cutting-edge bugging instruments imported mostly from China.

The three admitted that they had been selling the instruments in their high-tech gadget stores located in Taipei City and adjacent Taipei County as well as through auction stores on the Internet.

The highly sensitive devices were in various forms like wristwatches, cigarette lighters, ballpoint pens, or buttons. (more)

Posted code enables VoIP spying

Along with keyloggers that track what you type, now we have to worry about malicious software that listens in on our voice over Internet Protocol conversations. A Symantec security blog disclosed a new Trojan horse, Tojan.Peskyspy "that records VoIP communications, specifically targeting Skype."... Eavesdropping is a risk, when it comes to industrial espionage, prying spouses or significant others, and political campaigns, as well as political dissidents. (more)

Quote of the Day

"In essence, unless the company premises have been swept for bugs, there’s no guarantee that somebody hasn’t been listening in to your conversations regarding sensitive issues. This could of course result in information regarding the company’s products or services being leaked to competitors in the field. Of course not many corporate managers like to acknowledge the fact that this could happen but the truth is; it can and does happen." - Jacques Amaya, The Tech Edition

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...