21 Technical Secrets (and their solutions)

via pcworld.com  

Here are 21 dangers that the industry is hiding from you--and what you can do about them. 

Don't despair. For every dirty little secret revealed herein, we describe a fix or a way to work around it (if any exists). You don't have to be a victim, if you know what to do.

• Your Webcam May Be Watching You
• Your Cell Phone Is a Homing Beacon
• Your Facebook Apps Are Spying on You
• Cell Phones Don't Crash Airplanes
• Your Boss Can (and Probably Does) Monitor Your Computer
• Your Geolocation Data Is Not Private
• Your Passport Could Make You a Target for Crime--Wirelessly
• The Social Web Never Forgets
• Antivirus Software Won't Protect You 
• The Cyberwar Is Heating Up (and Uncle Sam Is Losing) 
• Google Could Rat You Out
• You Can Escape Almost Any Service Contract Without Penalties
• Your ISP Is a Copyright CopYou Can Fight the RIAA and Win
• A 'Cheap' Smartphone Is a Rip-Off
• The NSA Is Tapping Your Data Stream
• Pacemakers and Other Implants Can Be Hacked
• Your PC May Be Killing YouYou're Spending Too Much on Printer Ink
• End User License Agreements May Not Be Enforceable
• 'Private' or 'Incognito' Browsing...Isn't

When not polishing his tin-foil hat, Contributing Editor Dan Tynan tends his geek-humor empire at eSarcasm.

Stare Bear "I don't want him daddy, he's creepy."

via ThinkGeek...

"The Tell Me Your Secrets Bear is an adorable plush that will be your wee geek's closest confidante. When hugged, he'll profess his love for your child, and stress that friends always share their secrets. He'll ask, "Do you have a secret, best friend? You can tell me anything." When the bear completes a trigger phrase, the audio and video turns on, recording your child's secrets, which are then wirelessly transmitted to you via email (or Twitter). Of course, mostly you'll hear things like, "I really wish Mommy would cook more bacon" or "Is this real life?" but every once in a while, you'll get valuable intelligence that will help you become a more casually despotic parent. We guarantee it." (more) (funny video)

Poll Results - Would you sell your employer's secret information? (assume you would not be caught)

Apparently, our readership is pretty honest. Not surprising, you're not the typical employee. You have an interest in security.

However... considering the makeup of the group, the dishonest results are alarming — 29% admit they do, or might, commit espionage! 

Numbers lie. I suspect many who answered "Heck, I do that now" have a sense of humor like mine.

But what about that 8%? And, would that number be higher in the general (non-security minded) population? 

Thought... If your organization doesn't have a counterespionage strategy yet, you had better visit your local strategy shop.

GPS Tracker (with audio eavesdropping) Update

About 3 years ago the Security Scrapbook alerted you to a tracking device with eavesdropping capabilities. 

The folks at GoPass Technology Corp. have been really busy since then...

Their latest real time GPS trackers – with eavesdropping capabilities – can now...

• Store data when out of cell range, and burst it back when it comes back in range.
• Can send to two different computers. (Convenient home and office surveillance.)
• Automatically snitch when the vehicle is moved.
• Locate with assisted GPS. (Garage parking won't save you.)
• Remotely immobilize the vehicle. (By killing the ignition... or the oil pump, which they suggest, but "don't recommend" in an Eddie Izzard sort of way.)
• Send back data based on the preset time internal or based on the distance driven.
• Read the voltage data by SMS message inquiry.
• Get position data via a phone call. 
• Set a timetable to send back data automatically. 
• Snitch mode. (Teens will hate this.) Only sends data when a preset speed limit is exceeded.
• And, a remote Sleep Mode. 

Need a "personal" tracker (with eavesdropping capabilities)? GoPass has you covered. "Don't leave home without it."

Why do I mention these things?

So you will know what you are up against.

P.S. Suspect you have something like this on your corporate vehicle (car, plane or boat)? Give me a call. I can help.

Contest - You vs. the Swiss Army (USB)

Carl Elsener Jr, the current president of the Swiss army knife maker Victorinox and grandson of the company's founder, was in London this morning to promote the company's latest product: a secure USB flash drive.

And when he says secure, he doesn't appear to be mucking around. Victorinox is so confident of the combination of encryption and fingerprint security built into the drive that it has offered a reward to anyone who can crack it.

Think you've got what it takes to crack the Victorinox code? If you succeed, be prepared to walk away $100,000 richer. It's that simple.
Click here to to send us your registration by email!
View Rules and Regulations (PDF)

PS - If you screw it up, the data self-destructs!

Print Center Blues

Want to know what expenses your boss claimed last month? How much your colleague makes? What the co-worker down the hall is really working on? 

Forget about hacking their computers – you might want to hit the nearest photocopier instead... copy machines in your office keep a wealth of copied data on a hard drive that anyone can hack. 

In the age of everything digital, the photocopier is probably the one workplace item you never thought to worry about. It's just making a copy of a document, right? How risky could that be?

Very risky, as it turns out. (more)

Most print center manufacturers have add-on security software; one option worth opting for.

FutureWatch - "It's just our new 'know yer customer' policy, mate."

Australia - Somewhere in Perth's central business district is a building containing the names, ages, addresses, photographs and unique fingerprint codes of thousands of revellers who danced and drank at Sydney's Home nightclub last year.

 

Home, in Darling Harbour, began trialling a biometric ID scanning entry system nine months ago. Patrons lined up before six large terminals to have their photo taken, and their driver's licence and right index fingerprint scanned. The information was copied and sent to Western Australia, where it is stored on a secured central database by the system developers.

While Home is the only NSW venue to use fingerprint technology at present - there are 13 nationwide - various forms of ID scanning are being quietly rolled out at other nightspots. (more)

"Sheila, if we didn't do this you might get carried off by an alien. It's for your own good, you know, not to mention limiting our liability."  

It may take a decade or so, but once this generation has been privacy desensitized the concept of a business 'knowing the customer' as they enter the establishment will become more commonplace. 

Personal security won't be the only reason. Think about the counter-shoplifting possibilities. When businesses network their customer knowledge, mobile shoplifting gangs will find it harder to operate. 

The marketing mantra... "This enhances and customizes your experience with us."

I Spied (We'll miss you.)

Robert Culp, the veteran actor best known for starring with Bill Cosby in the classic 1960s espionage-adventure series "I Spy" and for playing Bob in the 1969 movie "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," died Wednesday morning. He was 79.

Culp fell and hit his head while taking a walk outside his Hollywood Hills home. He was found by a jogger who called 911 and was pronounced dead at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Lt. Bob Binder of the Los Angeles Police Department. An autopsy is pending.

"My mind wants to flow into sadness, but I want to stay above that," Cosby told The Times on Wednesday. (more)

Australia Week at KSS continues...

The Queensland government has tipped $14 million into wiretapping capabilities to support new phone interception powers handed to police last year. (more)

Plant a bug, grow a business? You decide.

Australia - A Sunshine Coast jury will decide the fate today of two women and a son who placed a fake bug in the home of a Nambour woman with mental health issues.

In each of their recorded police interviews, which were shown during a Maroochydore District Court trial over the past two days, they said they thought planting the bug would “help” the woman, who believed someone was monitoring her.

They took $100 from the woman’s daughter for removing the bug, which was a circuit board and wiring they obtained from a Mooloolaba surveillance store.

Kathleen Joan Kitchner, 54, and Corinne Martell, 47, from Private Eyes007, and Ms Martell’s son, Shane Robert Martell, 26, have pleaded not guilty to attempted fraud.

Their defence barrister has told the jury that “the reason the bug was placed there” should be the issue in their deliberations.

He said while the Crown argued the women planted the fake listening device with a view to getting further business through installation of a surveillance system and possibly security patrols, they had other motives.

The women were hired after Cheryl Metcalf called them to sweep her mother’s home for cameras and bugs in June, 2008. (more)

Bug Found on Activist's Phone Line

Australia - The former fashion designer Prue Acton, who is campaigning to save a koala colony from logging in a south-east forest, has discovered a bugging device in her phone.

The MP3 recorder was found by chance three weeks ago when Ms Acton, pictured, and her partner, the artist Merv Moriarty, received a delivery of water on their property at Wallagoot near Bega.

When the truck arrived, it ran over the Telstra pit (an underground phone junction box) on the track leading to their home.

The couple noticed their email had stopped working so Mr Moriarty went to check the pit. "He and the tanker driver pulled off the broken top and saw some strange devices attach to the phone lines but didn't realise they were listening devices," Ms Acton said.

Telstra fixed the line hours later, but the next day a detective from Bega police arrived.

"She came out to ask us first whether either of us were having an affair and bugging the phone. Hilarious! She next said a recording device, not a broadcasting device, had been found on the line."

The device was sent to Sydney for forensic examination, but Ms Acton said that because she had not been threatened directly, police were not giving the matter high priority.

She had no idea who might have installed the bug, but said it would not stop her from battling Forests NSW over logging in the Mumbulla and Murrah state forests near Bermagui.

Insight 

• Most bugging devices are found by accident. 

Imagine how many would be found if high-risk individuals and businesses hired a professional counterespionage consultant to look of them.

China Holds 4 Australians for Espionage Trial

Australia - Australian mining executive Stern Hu admitted to receiving bribes of up to 6 million yuan ($960,000) during a sensational opening day of the trial of four Rio Tinto executives in China yesterday... The four Rio executives were arrested on July 5 last year and charged with bribery and stealing state secrets, a charge that was later downgraded to stealing business secrets... The charges of stealing business secrets could add up to seven years to any bribery sentences, if they are found guilty. (more)

"Fair dinkum, money's no object!"

Australia - The general manager of a council in Sydney's inner-west has admitted spending council funds to employ a surveillance company to follow a man he feared was involved with his wife... It is alleged Mr Romano used council funds to pay for security expenses for personal purposes. Mr Romano has told the inquiry he spent more than $44,000 to conduct surveillance on a man he believed may have been harassing his family. The inquiry also heard Mr Romano thought the man was involved with his wife. (more)

Catch an E-Mail Snoop Yourself

via Erik Larkin, PC World...

Your Web mail account is a treasure trove of private and potentially valuable information -- and thieves know it... Normally you can't tell whether you've been hacked... Even if you cannily leave a juicy-sounding e-mail unread, a thief or snoop may read it and then return its status to unread. But with a little bit of know-how, you can create an electronic trip wire that will trigger whenever someone reads a rigged e-mail... The gist of it is to keep an e-mail message in your account that includes the code for a counter. Opening the attachment trips the counter, thereby alerting you that someone was snooping. (how-to details)

Better than a Sharp Stick in the Eye Alarm System

The Snow Queen or The Emporer's New Clothes? You decide.

From those wonderful folks who brought us Hans Christian Andersen...

“Dry” fog from PROTECT A/S obscures everything in protected areas in less than 20 seconds after a break-in. When activated, the fog generator produces dense but harmless fog and making thieves flee the way they got in. Because thieves cannot steal what they cannot see!

A PROTECT™ Fog Cannon completes the “circle of protection” when used with conventional burglar alarms, giving customers an additional sense of security. (more) (actual break-in video)

A competing product, FlashFog, also has some great surveillance and demo videos worth viewing.

Looks pretty cool. I'll go with Snow Queen.