Time to Review Your Computer Usage Policies

Companies should spend the time to review computer usage policies. There have been a few impactful court decisions that should address expectations of privacy and permissible access.

Examples:

• Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Co. Inc.,
529 F.3d 892 (9th Cir. 2008), 2009 WL 1146443 (2009)

• Stengart v. Loving Care Agency Inc.,
408 NJ Super. 54 (NJ App. Div. 2009) 

• LVRC Holdings LLC v. Brekka,
581 F.3d 1127 (9th Cir. 2009)

...via Rob Kleeger - The Intelligence Group

Students + Keystroke Logger...

...What could possibly go wrong?

MD - Students at a Potomac high school hacked into the school's computer system and changed class grades, according to sources briefed by the school's principal, and officials are investigating how widespread the damage might be... The students involved used a computer program to capture passwords from at least one teacher, according to school sources familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. (more)

Business Espionage - Wall Street's Spy Games

Eamon Javers, author of Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy, says spying is pervasive in corporate America and especially on Wall Street as firms try to get a competitive advantage against each other. View the interview, then hire a good counterespionage consultant.

...thus creating future Wall Street's Spy Games

NYC - The American International Toy Fair began today. This is the annual event where toy makers show off new offerings that will make their way into next year's stockings. Previews from toymakers and interviews with analysts make clear that the focus is on innovation and price....

Jakks Pacific is offering some high-tech spying gear for kids in its Spy Net line, including a video spy watch for $54.99 and a Pen Audio Bug for $24.99. Yes, they're just what they sound like — miniature video and audio recorders. (more)

"Serial Bugger" or "Dude, shut up!"

Australia - A Gold Coast man who installed hidden cameras to try to spy on his flatmates now claims he felt pressured to plead guilty to the offence by his lawyer, and he has a secret recording of their conversation that he says proves it. (more)

How to Spy on a Fashion Show?

Bury a spycam in your hair!

(video)

From the Art imitates life file: "Eavesdropping is...

"Eavesdropping is the easiest form of investigation in Assassin's Creed." - via Assassin's Creed wiki

Business Espionage - Goldman Sachs

NY - A former Goldman Sachs Group computer programmer was indicted Thursday on charges he stole computer codes used for proprietary high-frequency trading program. 

Sergey Aleynikov, 40 years old, was charged in a three-count indictment with theft of trade secrets, transportation of stolen property in interstate and foreign commerce and unauthorized computer access.(more)

Internet Steganography - Data Under the Radar

7:00 p.m., Shanghai

An employee of an electronic equipment factory uploads a music file to an online file-sharing site. Hidden in the MP3 file (Michael Jackson's album Thriller) are schematics of a new mobile phone that will carry the brand of a large American company. Once the employee's Taiwanese collaborators download the file, they start manufacturing counterfeit mobile phones essentially identical to the original—even before the American company can get its version into stores.

3:30 p.m., somewhere in Afghanistan

A terrorist hunted by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation posts an excerpt from the motion picture High School Musical Three: Senior Year on Facebook. Inside are hidden instructions for a bomb attack on a commuter rail line in southern Europe. Later that day, terrorists based in Athens follow the instructions to plan a rush hour attack that kills hundreds of people.

4:00 a.m., Malibu, Calif.

A very famous actor (VFA) has a brief conversation with a well-known director (WKD) over Skype, an application that lets them make free voice calls over the Internet. They discuss the medical problems of VFA's cat in great detail. When the conversation is over, WKD's computer has a sleazy new addition—in a folder on his desktop, there is a picture of a nude teenager, along with her mobile number and the date and time at which WKD will meet her at VFA's pool party for a photo session.

What all these scenarios have in common is an information-smuggling technique called steganography—the communication of secret messages inside a perfectly innocent carrier... (more)

Roll Your Own Drone

via David Schneider...

This new branch of the [model airplane flying] hobby goes by the name first-person view, or FPV for short...

Having read up about this activity at such sites at DIYDrones.com and FPVPilot.com, I was eager to give it a try. I purchased a tiny SN555 video camera for US $129 from Hobby Wireless, an online seller of FPV gear. While there, for another $95 I also bought a diminutive 0.5-watt video transmitter and a matching receiver tuned to 910 megahertz, which is well separated from the frequencies used for radio-controlled model aircraft in the United States (72 MHz and 2.4 gigahertz).

The big question was what model to use. I ended up with a plane called the Twin Star II, which is manufactured by Multiplex Modellsport of Bretten-Gölshausen, Germany. It normally retails for $150, but I picked up a kit for this model at the bargain price of $86 from BP Hobbies of Piscataway, N. J. (more with video) (another high roller)

Conviction in First U.S. Economic Espionage Trial

A Chinese-born engineer convicted in the United States' first economic espionage trial was sentenced Monday to more than 15 years in prison for stealing sensitive information on the U.S. space program with the intent of passing it to China.

Dongfan "Greg" Chung, a Boeing stress analyst with high-level security clearance, was convicted in July of six counts of economic espionage and other federal charges for storing 300,000 pages of sensitive papers in his Southern California home. Prosecutors alleged the papers included information about the U.S. space shuttle, a booster rocket and military troop transports. (more)

Business Espionage - Samsung v. Hynix

The number of people facing charges related to the passing of process technology secrets from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to Hynix Semiconductor Inc. has risen to 18 according to a Sapa-AP report. 

It was revealed last week that a number of employees at Applied Materials' Korean subsidiary are alleged to have stolen manufacturing process technology details for DRAM and NAND flash memory as well as investment plans for chip production, and passed them to a Hynix employee who has also been indicted. The information was passed to Hynix between March 2005 and December 2009 and has cost Samsung more than $100 million, earlier reports said. (more)

The Chips are Down

Deep inside millions of computers is a digital Fort Knox, a special chip with the locks to highly guarded secrets, including classified government reports and confidential business plans. Now a former U.S. Army computer-security specialist has devised a way to break those locks...

Tarnovsky figured out a way to break chips that carry a "Trusted Platform Module," or TPM, designation by essentially spying on them like a phone conversation. Such chips are billed as the industry's most secure and are estimated to be in as many as 100 million personal computers and servers, according to market research firm IDC. (more)

Business Espionage - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

A former employee of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is being charged with stealing trade secrets from the pharmaceutical firm in an attempt to create a competing company in India, according to the federal government. 

U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that Shalin Jhaveri, who worked at Bristol-Myers from November 2007 until Tuesday, stole numerous trade secrets from the company. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. 

It's unclear what sort of information Jhaveri is alleged to have taken from the company. He worked as a technical operations associate at the company, according to a press release. (more) (FBI press release)

SpyCam Story #568 - Community Control?

OH - A Fostoria lawyer who had a pinhole camera in the restroom at his office was placed on community control for four years yesterday and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. Sitting in Seneca County Common Pleas Court, visiting Judge Russell Wiseman of Crawford County also ordered Donald Guernsey, 57, to undergo a psychological evaluation and any ordered treatment. (more)