A Short History of Wiretapping and Ramifications

Communications Surveillance: Privacy and Security at Risk
AS THE SOPHISTICATION OF WIRETAPPING TECHNOLOGY GROWS, SO TOO DO THE RISKS IT POSES TO OUR PRIVACY AND SECURITY.

We all know the scene: It is the basement of an apartment building and the lights are dim. The man is wearing a trench coat and a fedora pulled down low to hide his face. Between the hat and the coat we see headphones, and he appears to be listening intently to the output of a set of alligator clips attached to a phone line. He is a detective eavesdropping on a suspect's phone calls. This is wiretapping—as it was in the film noir era of 1930s Hollywood. It doesn't have much to do with modern electronic eavesdropping, which is about bits, packets, switches, and routers.
We start with an overview of the convoluted history of wiretapping, focusing on the United States, and then turn to issues of privacy and security. (more)

iPhone Encryption

SecurStar GmbH of Germany has added PhoneCrypt encryption for the iPhone to their line of voice security products. (more)

US Wiretapping Law - No Equal Justice for All

The News...
Police arrested a man they say caused a disturbance at a Honda dealership and who, it was later discovered, had been recording the exchange with a voice recorder in his pocket. Chi Quang Truong, 46, of 63 Flanders Road, Westborough, was arrested at 2:05 p.m. Friday at Bernardi Honda on Worcester Street... Truong has been charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, trespassing, unlawful wiretapping and possessing a device for wiretapping. (more)

The Views (#1)...
Silliest 'wiretapping' charges ever recorded
In my view it's the federal law and 38 "one-party consent" states that have this one called correctly, and the 12 others that have some explaining to do. The justification for criminalizing self-authorized self-recording has never been made clear to me; best I get from friends and colleagues is that being recorded without one's knowledge "is creepy." Yes it is, or at least in can be in some cases. But so is charging a guy with "wiretapping" just because he tossed a nutty at a car dealership. (more)

The Views (#2)...
Don't you need a wire to get charged with wiretapping?
I thought so too, and the theory here is that since Truong didn't have explicit permission to record the conversation (memories of Linda Tripp), he was slapped with the additional charges. In 12 states (California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington) you're required to get the permission of all parties on the line before making any kind of recording. In the rest of the country, any single member that's part of the conversation can legally record it without consent from the other parties. And as Network World notes, wiretapping laws largely extend to in-person communications now, so no wire is required. Still, does the punishment really fit the crime? Wiretapping is a class D felony, and that can mean (based on my admittedly limited understanding of criminal statutes) up to 12 years in prison. (more)

What's your view?
Take our new poll (top right side)

Poll Results - SpyCam'ers

The ratio of discovered spycam'ers to undiscovered is...
Nobody really knows. However, given the number of spycams we see being sold vs. the court cases being reported, your feel for it was...
1:5 -- 15%
1:10 -- 10%
1:100 -- 25%
1:500 -- 10%
1:1000 -- 45%!

Science of Spying Lecture Series

With Dave D’Auria, Acquisition Committee chairman of the National Cryptologic Museum Foundation; retired executive at the National Security Agency. “Solving the German Enigma: The Allied Code-Breaking That Helped Shorten and Win World War II.” (series information)
5:30 p.m. – Doors open, providing attendees a chance to examine the Enigma machine
7 p.m. – Lecture and Q&A
Thursday, Sept. 17, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Museum of Nature & Science, 3535 Grand Avenue, Dallas, TX
Admission: $7 - $10 Age limit: 18+

Little Buggers Spy on Neighbors and Spread Misinformation

via The Wall Street Journal...
Bacteria are the oldest living things on earth, and researchers have long felt that they must lead dull, unfussy lives. New discoveries are starting to show just how wrong that notion is. For a simple, single-cell creature, a bacterium is surprisingly social.

It can communicate in two languages. It can tell self from nonself, friend from foe. It thrives in the company of others. It spies on neighbors, spreads misinformation and even commits fratricide.

"Really, they're just stripped-down versions of us," says Bonnie Bassler, microbial geneticist at Princeton University, who has spent two decades peeking at the inner lives of bacteria. Dr. Bassler and other scientists are using this information to devise new ways to fight infections and reduce antibiotic resistance. (more) (video)

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)