Thursday is International Data Privacy Day

On January 28, 2010... Search Engine Startpage.com Introduces Free Anonymous Web Browsing

Startpage, the self-proclaimed "world's most private search engine", and its E.U. brand, Ixquick will release a new proxy service that allows users to surf the web with complete privacy. The proxy lets users browse websites safely and anonymously, without passing on any private, personally identifiable information to the websites they view.

The Startpage proxy is a free service that works in conjunction with the Startpage search engine, available at www.startpage.com. When users perform a search, they will find a clickable "proxy" option below each search result. When this option is selected, Startpage acts as an intermediary to retrieve the page and display it in a privacy-protected Startpage window.

The proxy offers complete anonymity, since the user never makes direct contact with the third-party website. The user's IP address is invisible to the viewed website. In addition, the website cannot see or place cookies on the user's browser. (video)

How Not to Handle a Bug Find

LA - West Feliciana Parish Sheriff J. Austin Daniel said Friday he asked State Police detectives to investigate a report of a listening device being planted in a Police Jury office.

Daniel said determining who planted the device may be difficult because a Police Jury employee took it apart and removed a battery.

The sheriff also said the device was found around Thanksgiving but was not reported to him until after Christmas. (more)

How to handle a bug find... (here)

So, a trusted employee is starting a new company.

Business espionage often begins closer to home than you think.

Over three decades, I have heard this too many times... "I think my employee is stealing business and is planning on competing with me. What should I do?"

This is pretty much a textbook case...
• Employee starts a side business using the employer’s resources, methods, client lists, and often client products.
• Employee plans to leave when business is self-sustaining.
• Employee quietly recruits other employees.
• Employee leaves, or is discovered and is fired.
• Over time, other employees desert to go work for the ringleader, taking even more intellectual property.
• Covert lines of communications remain open between the two businesses: employee chit-chat, room bugs, telephone wiretaps, computer spyware, unauthorized access to email/voicemail, etc.
• The employer takes appropriate investigative/legal steps... or slowly bleeds to death.

Recommendations:
• Act quickly and firmly.
• Secure personnel records and back them up off-site. Especially important: Non-compete agreements, termination agreements, signed copies of company rules, etc.)
• Take any collected evidence to an outside attorney to determine a course of action for investigation, employee termination and possible prosecution.• Document evidence of business diversion. (Talk to customers openly, or indirectly. Consider setting up a sting.)
• Monitor and back-up their business e-mails, if legal in your state.
• Conduct a survey for electronic surveillance devices and other counterespionage vulnerabilities. (Hire the best specialist you can find. You may only get once chance to do this part correctly.)
• As soon as possible, conduct a forensic examination all their company-owned computer devices. (Computers, PDAs, Cell phones, etc..) Hire the best specialist you can find. You may only get once chance to do this part correctly.

• Upon termination of the first rogue employee, conduct interviews with remaining employees (with your attorney). Let them know the full ramifications of intellectual property theft.
• Notify customers of personnel changes.
• Quickly, introduce replacement personnel.
• Notify recently departed customers of the situation, and warn them (nicely) of potential ramifications (if any) from dealing with renegade employees.
• Develop a marketing device to keep remaining customers loyal.
• Monitor competition for future compliance.

Your situation may require additional, or alternate, steps. Partner with a counterespionage specialist for direct advice. ~Kevin

Passwords stink... Face It

A Japanese company that specialises in face recognition technology has claimed the need for security passwords and identity swipe cards may soon become a thing of the past. Omron is working on software that scans faces to help recognise customers and employees. (more)

If we are not in your Boardroom...

...keep quiet, and put in a few of these.

The best move you can make for any Boardroom which isn't regularly swept for bugs... "Get down, and Boogie."

Improv Electronics has re-invented the old "Magic Slate."

Their version, called Boogie Board, is a pressure-sensitive tablet. It uses a watch battery for power, and only when the erase button is pushed. The secret is a Reflex LCD which doesn't need any power to keep the written secrets on the screen. The watch battery will last for 50,000 erases; cost $29.97. (more)  
(Pssst... The Apple iPad will cost a whole lot more and provide less security.)

Limited Time Offer...

Use Murray Associates to clear your Boardroom on a quarterly basis this year and we'll supply a Boogie to Board members - FREE. We are always fun, and get the job done.

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Did You Know?
• In the early 1920s, R.A. Watkins, the owner of a small printing plant in Illinois, was approached by a man who wanted to sell him the rights to a homemade device made of waxed cardboard and tissue, on which messages could be printed and then easily erased by lifting up the tissue. Watkins wanted to sleep on it, and told the man to return the next day. In the middle of the night, Watkins's phone rang and it was the man calling from jail. The man said that if Watkins would bail him out, he could have the device. Watkins agreed and went on to acquire a U.S. patent and rights, as well as the international rights for the device, which he called MAGIC SLATE. (via DrToy.com)

• (April, 1987) American journalists meeting with Soviet dissidents in Russia have occasionally used Magic Slates as a way of communicating. And last week, even the U.S. government bought the idea. In fact, Rep. Dan Mica (D-Fla.) and Rep. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) received special instructions from the State Department to take the 99-cent toys with them on their recent inspection tour of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. "An aide ran out to the local Toys 'R Us store and picked up a dozen," said John Gersuk, Mica's press secretary.

Now, not only has the child's toy put an unexpected kink in the multibillion dollar world of espionage, but it also has the $12-billion toy industry taking notice. (more)

"The best defense is a good... no, wait, uhhhh..."

Despite the objections of senior intelligence leaders, the White House National Security Council has instructed U.S. spy agencies to make intelligence gathering for China less of a priority. The move lowers China from "Priority 1" status to "Priority 2."

Intelligence leaders are concerned that the shift will hinder initiatives to acquire secrets about the Chinese government's military and its cyberattacks.

Anonymous administration officials say the policy is part of the White House's overarching effort to cultivate a friendlier, more constructive relationship with Beijing. But critics within the government charge that strategic intelligence on China will be downgraded over time, undoing what officials say are crucially necessary efforts to accrue more knowledge about China's political, economic, military, and intelligence operations. (more)

GSM Bugs, or Cell Phones Gone Wild

If you are not already familiar with GSM Bugs, I could go over it again, or you could listen to this dangerous-sounding woman...
(These bugs are flooding the market; less than $60. on eBay.)

By the way...

New for 2010 at Murray Associates, is our in-house designed GSM Bug locator.

Our instrument instantly detects and plots the location of GSM Bugs on a computer map. Without this technology, mostly-dormant GSM Bugs range from difficult to impossible to find.

Murray Associates new investigative technique (Digital Surveillance Location Analysis™) is now part of our advanced TSCM inspection audits. Bonus... our new instrumentation also locates rogue Wi-Fi stations on our client's networks.

Not a client, yet?
Become one.
You won't find this level of security elsewhere.
Start here.

SpyCam Story #567 - HomerCam

IL - An Elgin man who admitted placing a spy camera in the women's bathroom at his workplace was sentenced Wednesday to two years of nonreporting probation, and no jail time, by a judge who indicated his lack of criminal record spared him a worse punishment. 

(He) had faced a maximum three years in prison after pleading guilty in December to a felony charge of unauthorized video recording stemming from the July 31 discovery of the pen-size camera in a washroom at Ridgefield Industries, near Crystal Lake.

Authorities said (he) recorded one female co-worker, but mostly what was recorded was himself looking into the lens while trying to figure out how to operate the camera ("Doh!"). The camera was discovered by another co-worker and turned over to police. (more)

IBM = I Be "M"

Its purchase of an intelligence firm signals boom time in the spy business.

International Business Machines's move Wednesday to purchase National Interest Security Company (NISC) shows that the technology sector believes it can find growth servicing the government with high-end intelligence services. (more)

The "Why Us?" Question

"My company is regulated, with little to no R & D, no manufacturing, and only a very limited exposure in the competitive wholesale markets. In your professional opinion, what is our exposure or risk in regards to industrial//corporate espionage?"

Your question about espionage exposure is one I hear quite often; "Why us?"

Just as every person has uniqueness — their personality, list of friends, list of enemies, list of things someone might want to steal, etc. — corporations are unique as well. While I don't know much about the characteristics of your particular company, I can hazard a few rough guesses about possible corporate espionage risk areas...

• Media interest – Reporters digging for information to make headlines. A public safety issue, for example, might prompt a full expose on the company's policies, maintenance procedures, employee health epidemiology data, etc..

• Activist Group Interest – Media reports always have the potential to spark activist groups. Catalysts include: safety issues, regulatory issues, price increase hearings, etc.

• Stockholder Interest – When a price increase hearing is not favorable (possibly due in part to activist lobbying) predicted earnings may fall below expected levels, thus sparking stockholder unrest and desire for change. To support their case, collection of internal information becomes a priority for them.

• Construction Interest – Construction contracts usually incorporate a bidding process. The higher the stakes, the more desire for inside information. If espionage is successful, the company pays more than necessary and runs the risk of purchasing inferior products and services. Due diligence on this point alone is especially important if your construction impacts the public, in any way.

• Mergers & Acquisitions – Inside information means big $$$ to many outsiders.

• Intellectual Property Protection – Any unique advantage that makes your business profitable is a target for outsiders. They can make money by stealing it, or even just neutralizing it.

• Lawsuit Strategy – Inside information from the Legal Department means big $$$ to the opposition.

• Labor / Management Issues – Contract negotiations create periods of very high-risk. Also consider this... Your Personnel Department is involved with a multitude of high-value situations (every day) where meetings, conversations and other 'real-time' decision-making conversations and data hold immense value to outsiders.

I am sure I can come up with a few more examples, but this should get you started.

Recommendation – Identify key physical areas impacted by the above. Provide these areas with quarterly or biannual (or a mixture) counterespionage audits. In addition to providing specific sensitive work environments with heightened privacy protection, you will have shown due diligence; necessary for obtaining 'business secret' status for your side in court.

A Counterespionage Strategy is an important element in every corporate security program. Thank you for asking.

~Kevin

The Latest Surveillance Video Winners

The winners are in for the top three surveillance videos of the quarter... (videos)

Business Espionage - Starwood vs. Hilton

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. Thursday raised new allegations about the role of top Hilton Worldwide executives in an escalating corporate-espionage case.

Starwood sued Hilton and two former Hilton executives last April, alleging that they stole more than 100,000 documents containing "competitively sensitive information" and used it to pursue a rival to Starwood's successful "W" hotel chain.

On Thursday, it filed an amended complaint in U.S. District Court, White Plains, N.Y., claiming that Hilton's misconduct reached the highest levels of the McLean, Va., chain's management, including its chief executive officer, Christopher Nassetta, and its head of global development, Steven Goldman. The complaint says that the alleged theft was known to and condoned by at least five of the ten members of Hilton's executive committee. A Hilton spokeswoman declined all comment. (more)

Burglar Leaves Present... that keeps on giving.

Australia ...police are investigating a computer crime they is the first of its type in the state. A man broke into a recruitment company's premises recently and stole cash and equipment. (nothing new so far) Police say security vision revealed he was in the office for several hours and installed software on a computer. They say the software could have allowed him remote access to sensitive information. (more)

Moral: Treat all security alarm calls (even if "false" and "nothing taken") as espionage events. ~Kevin

Close Your Windows... and they still see in.

A widespread but highly targeted cyber-attack shows that all versions of Windows can be compromised by a determined hacker - right now.

The consensus is that the attack came from Chinese-sponsored agents, using every trick they could to hack specific, profiled targets. These weren't your usual criminals aiming the daily blind scattergun at a huge swathe of Windows users, hoping to find those without anti-virus software, or running unpatched and outdated versions of Windows.

No, they pointed their laser sights at selected Western technology company staff, who were more likely running fully-patched versions of Windows and Internet Explorer. And, it's fair to suggest, with their corporate PCs fully equipped with modern anti-virus software.

And yet still they got in...

The hackers used a combination of social engineering - for example, spoofing an email to appear to come from a trusted colleague - along with zero-day vulnerabilities in all versions of Microsoft's swiss-cheese browsing device, otherwise known as Internet Explorer.

‘Zero-day vulnerability' is of course a euphemism for ‘a barn-sized security hole in the software to which the maker is entirely oblivious'. The software maker's screw-up is discovered by a would-be intruder, who uses it to walk in and effectively own the computer.

The suggestion is that this particular attack was industrial espionage, with the aim of stealing corporate technology secrets - all without the target ever aware that their PC was leaking its juicy contents to a distant spy.

(more)

Social Networking - Another Tenticle of Corporate Espionage

Social networks have become a goldmine of information for companies skilled in the art of connecting the dots - a little-noticed development that is beginning to concern companies.

Main Points...

• (Some companies) have an all too clear understanding of the impact social media data has - and are mining it for competitive purposes.

• ...unlike corporate espionage and hack attacks, it is legal, according to Bob Fox, head of a competitive intelligence program for Canadian entrepreneurs." he says (via the Globe and Mail).

• ...advises firms to monitor competitors' comments in the media, on industry blogs, at conferences and, yes, on social networks like Twitter and Facebook... These sites are potential gold mines for competitors that want to better understand client and partner relationships.

• A key question in most investigations is relationships - who knows who, who is transacting business with whom, she said. Connecting these dots becomes much easier when people link to their friends for all the world to see. Twitter especially can be valuable in this way.

• People aren't using nearly as much discretion as they should - they will mention a project they are working on on Twitter. If a competitor is watching, it could pick up valuable nuggets of information.

• New hires can also be telling - information that is readily found on LinkedIn.

• Corporate 'spying' has never been easier - companies and organizations have little or no control over the information their employees share on social networks, and individuals generally make no distinction between public or confidential corporate data that they disseminate.

(more)