In 1953, the fledgling CIA hired professional magician John Mulholland to adapt his techniques of stealth and misdirection to the craft of espionage. Mulholland produced two illustrated manuals featuring a range of tricks from placing pills into drinks to stealing documents and avoiding detection.
The classified manuals were believed to have been destroyed in 1973, but the authors discovered a copy in 2007 among recently declassified CIA archives.
Some Twin Falls teenagers are promising to pay attention to the road. And if the preservation of life isn’t enough of an incentive, they can also win video games...
Enrollment in the program provides parents with a high-tech method of conducting covert surveillance on their kids’ driving habits. A video and audio unit in the vehicle captures dangerous driving behavior and gives parents access to a “driving report card,” along with tips for improvement. (more)
At a tense, emotional moment during Denver's crucial 26-6 victory over the New York Giants, McDaniels went nuclear, dropping a verbal bomb on his players. Thanks to an eavesdropping camera and microphone from the NFL Network, the tirade on the sideline was telecast to prime-time viewers across America in all its profane glory. (more)
Prototype contact lenses developed by Babak Parviz at the University of Washington, in Seattle.
Dr. Parviz’s prototype lenses can be used as biosensors to display body chemistry or as a heads up display (HUD). Powered by radio waves and 330 microwatts of power from a loop antenna that picks up power beamed from nearby radio sources, future versions will also be able to harvest power from a cell phone. (more)
Alright, knock it off with the "See I A" and "eyes buggin' out" jokes.
Australia - A former drama teacher at a Melbourne girls school has been accused of installing a spy camera to capture students undressing and making child pornography. Mark Stratford, 49, was employed as director of drama at Lauriston Girls School when the alleged offences took place from early last year. He pleaded guilty today in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to possessing child pornography and installing an optical surveillance device. (more)
via makeuseof.com... Make 4 Cool Spy Gadgets With Your Windows Mobile Phone... Have you ever wanted to live like a real spy, even for just a little while? Just to help you inch just a little bit closer to that cloak and dagger lifestyle, I’d like to offer 4 Windows Mobile downloads that you can use to transform your regular mobile phone into an honest-to-goodness cool spy gadget. • Cool Spy Gadget #1 – A Room Bug To Record Conversations • Cool Spy Gadget #2 – See In The Dark With Sonar • Cool Spy Gadget #3 – Disk Encryption Software • Cool Spy Gadget #4 – Remote Video Streaming(more) "Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are."
The use of wiretaps and recordings of conversations to help underpin the insider trading case against the Galleon Group hedge fund struck legal experts as unusual, for an investigation involving the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“It is unusual,’’ said Robert S. Khuzami, the director of enforcement at the S.E.C., at a discussion of hedge fund regulation at the Practising Law Institute in New York Monday. But, a year from now, “I hope it’s more common.’’ (more)
A new service called Motionbox may be the answer. Unlike Youtube.com, Motionbox makes it easy to share videos with a select group of viewers instead of broadcasting to the world.
There are plenty of other features, too.
You may even want to consider this for personal use. Store all those home videos (and films, once converted to digital video). Allow relatives and others access as you see fit. Even watch your library on your TV...
Motionbox is soon to be a featured Channel on the Roku digital video player. You'll be able to hook the player up to your television and enjoy instant access to all the videos you’ve uploaded to Motionbox. All you need is a TV, a high-speed Internet connection (wired or wireless), and a finger to click the remote! (Win a FREE Roku drawing.)
Like any new business, they want to build momentum quickly. Hence, this special offer aimed at business users...
"I thought that you and the readers of Kevin's Security Scrapbook would be interested. We'll waive the pro-account setup fee for you or any of your readers who sign up - it's a $50 value. There are now 3 levels of Motionbox service - Basic, Premium, and PRO." Lowell Dempsey, Motionbox(more)
For personal use, choose the freeBasic package, or the Premium upgrade. ~Kevin
Peter Earnest is former CIA and the founding executive director of the International Spy Museum, located in Washington D.C.
Get signed copies... for you, and every shady character (or future shady character) on your holiday gift list.
• Have you ever wondered what spies really do? • What kind of training is involved? • How do you live your “cover”? • How does your work life affect your relationships with your friends and family?
Join the International Spy Museum's Founding Executive Director and Former CIA Operations Officer, Peter Earnest, as he discusses his new book The Real Spy's Guide to Becoming a Spy. This fascinating, fact-filled book answers these questions and more while providing a historical timeline, definitions of key terms, suggestions for further reading, an index, quizzes, and exercises to see if you have the right spy stuff. The author will be available for book signing and informal Q&A.
Spy Tip: A good spy knows the ropes. Use the secret password "I SPY" and get a 25% discount to the museum. Also enter to win a basket of top-secret spy tools and a one-year museum membership!
via The Wall Street Journal... US - Companies Face Tougher Tests to Justify Monitoring Workers' Personal Accounts; Rulings Hinge on 'Expectation of Privacy'
Big Brother is watching. That is the message corporations routinely send their employees about using email.
But recent cases have shown that employees sometimes have more privacy rights than they might expect when it comes to the corporate email server. Legal experts say that courts in some instances are showing more consideration for employees who feel their employer has violated their privacy electronically. (more)
UK - Staff at mobile phone company T-Mobile passed on millions of records from thousands of customers to third party brokers, the firm has confirmed...
Christopher Graham said brokers had sold the data to other phone firms, who then cold-called the customers as their contracts were due to expire. (more)
Suggestion... Find out who keeps the data key at you company. Review the security checks and balances. Let them know you are minding the store.
This just in! Used car dealers take the lead...
NY - Starting next week, Verizon will double the early-termination fee for smartphones... "David, I read your posts about how the cell carriers are eating up our airtime with those 15-second 'To page this person, press 5' instructions, but I think Verizon has a bigger scam going on: charging for bogus data downloads.
"Virtually every bill I get has a couple of erroneous data charges at $1.99 each—yet we download no data.
"A surprising number of otherwise smart people find themselves remarking on the phone that they hope the line isn't tapped." ~Ann Woolner, Bloomberg News, commenting on federal wiretaps investigating insider trading. (more)
Other great quotes we hear... "I hope the room isn't bugged." "I hope you're not recording this." "I hope there are no hidden cameras here."
The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception
) reunite for this unremarkable reproduction of a long-lost cold war–era relic.
