App The Untappable

via Forbes...

Worried about the NSA, the FBI, criminals or cyberspies electronically eavedropping on your private phone calls? There may be an untappable app for that. 

On Tuesday, an independent hacker and security researcher who goes by the handle Moxie Marlinspike and his Pittsburgh-based startup Whisper Systems launched free public betas for two new privacy-focused programs on Google's Android mobile platform: RedPhone, a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) program that encrypts phone calls, and TextSecure, an app for sending and receiving encrypted text messages and scrambling the messages stored in their inbox. (more)

ISS LEO BUG TAP CONFAB

Intelligence Support Systems for Lawful Interception, Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Gathering

ISS World Europe, hosted in Prague (June 2-4), is the world's largest gathering of European law enforcement, intelligence, defense, homeland security analysts and telecom operators responsible for lawful interception, electronic investigations and network intelligence gathering.

Track 1: ISS for Telecom Operator Lawful Interception
Track 2: ISS for Criminal Investigation
Track 3: ISS for Data Retention and Regulatory Compliance
Track 4: ISS for Mobile Location, Surveillance and Intercept 
Track 5: DPI for Lawful Interception, Network Security and Traffic Management
Track 6: ISS for Intelligence Gathering and Analysis
Track 7: LEA and Intelligence Analyst Training and Product Demonstrations 

Certificate of LEA/Intell Communication Monitoring and Surveillance Training Completion available upon request. (more)

TSCM Tools of the Trade

Many (but not all) tools of the TSCM trade are featured in the June issue of WIRED Magazine.

Russians and Chinese agents "spying on German firms wholesale"

Germany is full of Russian and Chinese spies working to get information about top business and technology developments, according to the country’s domestic intelligence service. 

Studies show that the German economy loses around €50 billion a year as a consequence, Burkhard Even, head of the counterintelligence section of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, told the audience at a recent security forum in Bonn...

He also described more underhand methods which he said were often employed by agents posing as visiting business delegations or even trainees who might use mini cameras to take pictures in factories, or secretly copy data. (more)

RoboBug

An innovator, Robert Wood who is an assistant professor at Harvard University is developing robotic flies. New kind of fabrication process is used in that tiny robot. The functionality of bending folding and stretching will be made possible by the help of polymer and nano carbon fibers. Using these techniques Wood made the world's tiniest robot capable of flying freely and taking pictures. This nano technology can used to make crawling, swimming and jumping bugs. (more)

The IT Girls

A study of British middle-aged couples found that 14% of wives spy on their husband’s emails, 13% read their mobile phone text messages and 10% check web browser logs. This is roughly twice the level of spousal spying that is found among men. Women are also far better at it than men, the researchers found. It appears that some women develop their IT skills simply to improve their surveillance techniques. (more)

Sex tape scandal spurs wiretapping phobia among deputies

Turkey - With the recent posting online of footage showing former Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal with a deputy from his party in an intimate setting, more and more politicians are taking measures against surveillance devices in their offices.

Many deputies are now using the 10-day break in Parliament to clean up their chambers in order to see if there are any bugs or other monitoring devices inside the room. Some have installed jammers or other preventive devices.

More than 75 deputies have employed “hunter” systems to detect hidden cameras and microphones. Fifty deputies have ordered jammers from the Tayama Security Company alone, according to executives at the company, which earlier briefed deputies in Parliament on installing such systems. They also said many deputies took these devices wherever they went. The company sells this system for $700. Parliament officials say other deputies have turned to other companies. (...for professional TSCM sweep services. These are the smart deputies. Save a spot on YouTube for the ones who bought the gadgets.) (more)

The Last 24

Time has run out for the paranoid spy TV series 24.

FutureWatch...

GSM Bug Prices Continue to Drop!

A few months ago, we found GSM bugs being sold on ebay in the $19-$60 range. Today, direct-from-the-manufacturer samples are advertised for $13.05. (Quantity pricing is even lower.)

Finding these normally dormant eavesdropping bugs is problematic. Digital Surveillance Location Analysis™ (DSLA™) is one very effective detection technique.

Business executives – You can no longer skate on the chance that one of these won't end up in your Boardroom. 

Quarterly eavesdropping detection audits are more important than ever. Be sure your TSCM provider is aware of this new threat, and can effectively deal with it. (Click graphic to enlarge it.)

(Update) One of our sharper colleagues noted the logo on this thing and mused... "Wonder what they think about the use of their logo?"

Hummmm... I seem to recall (this) (and this). But, nah. That would be too much of a stretch :)

An Old Score Settled

Italy - Italian magistrates and media are up in arms over a government attempt to restrict wiretaps and slap fines and jail sentences on newspapers that publish transcripts, saying it will help criminals and muzzle the press.

While the centre-right coalition of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says it wants to protect privacy, the opposition says the government is just scrambling to cover up widespread corruption in its ranks with yet another tailor-made law...

The bill languished in parliament for months. But the government quickly dusted it off after newspapers published leaked transcripts from a high-profile graft probe into public work contracts that has tainted Berlusconi's cabinet. (more) (background)

Quote of the Week - The BugNets are Coming

"Remote surveillance is a significantly invasive threat, arguably even more so than identity theft. As it stands now, most vulnerable devices (mobile devices and computers) do not have the protection necessary to distinctly address microphone or camera hijacks. As a growing number of mobile devices with exploitable operation systems gain more reliable Internet access, this long standing problem is reaching a critical potential." 

from Roving Bugnet: Distributed Surveillance Threat and Mitigation
by Ryan Farley and Xinyuan Wang

Mobile Phone Eavesdropping - The Next Level

Imagine sitting in a café and discussing the details of a business proposal with a potential client. Neither you nor the client has a laptop; you're just two people having a conversation. But unbeknownst to you, someone half a world away is listening to every word you say. Later, as you leave, you receive a text message referring to the proposal and demanding money in exchange for silence.

Recent research from two universities suggests that such a remote-eavesdropping scenario may soon be possible.

According to George Mason University researchers Ryan Farley and Xinyuan Wang, cell phones make excellent surveillance devices for remote snoops. In a paper, Farley and Wang discuss a "modernized mic hijacker" [PDF] that an attacker could control over what they call a "roving bugnet." The eavesdropper would use a piece of malware called a "bugbot" to listen in on in-person interactions via a nearby smartphone or laptop. Such attacks would be more likely to target specific people (a wayward spouse, say) than to play a role in widespread attacks on the general public. (more)

Commercial Quantum Cryptography System Hacked

It is supposed to be absolutely secure – a means to transmit secret information between two parties with no possibility of someone eavesdropping. 

Yet quantum cryptography, according to some engineers, is not without its faults. In a preprint submitted late last week to arXiv, Hoi-Kwong Lo and colleagues at the University of Toronto, Canada, claim to have hacked into a commercial quantum cryptography system by exploiting a certain practical “loophole”.  

So does this mean high-profile users of quantum cryptography – banks and governments, for example – are in danger of being eavesdropped after all? (more)

Don't even think of saying "pampas ass."

The mayor of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, has been indicted on charges of illegal wiretapping of citizens including political and business leaders.

Mauricio Macri has allegedly authorized the secret recordings of many individuals, including politicians and business moguls, in the 1990s...

Despite his indictment, Macri says he will not resign. (more)

Cordless Phone Question

via The Journal Times...

When we're using cordless phones, can others pick up our conversations?

"Yes, depending on the kind of phone you use," according to a fact sheet from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer-oriented group based in California. "In most cases, your cordless phone conversations are probably overheard only briefly and accidentally. But there are people who make it a hobby to listen to cordless phone calls using radio scanners."

Analog phones, which include most older ones, are more susceptible to eavesdropping. Nothing's a guarantee, the mildly paranoid-sounding fact sheet points out, but newer digital models often have better built-in security features.

Those include channel hopping, which constantly changes the frequency during a call, and more complicated stuff known as digital spread spectrum technology (DSST) and digital enhanced cordless technology (DECT). (more)

For more information on both cordless and cellular phone privacy click here.