How to Solve a TSCM vs, CCTV Mystery

Chicago, IL - It may sound like cloak and dagger fiction, but FOX Chicago News has learned something very odd happened Wednesday night on the fifth floor of the Cook County building. The latest bizarre twist in the ongoing corruption scandal in Stroger's office involves high-tech surveillance experts caught leaving the office of Cook County Board President's office.

A deputy sheriff patrolling the building stopped a group of five men leaving Todd Stroger's office around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

One of the men identified himself as the county's Homeland Security Director David Ramos. The other four men were asked to provide identification.

They did, and at least three of them have experience in surveillance and counter-surveillance... (One of the men) would not comment on what they were doing in Stroger's office, but there is rampant speculation at the County building they were sweeping the offices for electronic bugs.

Cook County Inspector General Pat Blanchard said his staff visited Stroger's office Thursday afternoon and removed some evidence related to the ongoing investigation into sham contracts...

 

David Ramos, the county's Homeland Security Director who escorted the men into the office, said through a spokesman they were simply scouting locations for placement of security cameras in the President's office. (more)

Solution: Ask the Deputy if the "visitors" were leaving empty-handed. A sweep requires several cases of instrumentation. Conducting a CCTV design layout does not.

CSI - Who Poo'ed

What can property managers do when dog owners don’t pick up after their dogs? Under normal circumstances, not much, because there is no way of knowing who the violators might be. But now, with a new program called PooPrints that uses DNA to identify the dog in question, managers can catch the culprit (dog owner) in a matter of days.

PooPrints is a dog DNA identification program from BioPet Vet Lab built on a scientific foundation, providing communities with a means to enforce community regulations for pet waste clean-up. “The problem of pet owners not picking up after their pets is tearing apart communities,” says BioPet Vet Lab CEO Tom Boyd. Consumer Reports lists ‘dog poop’ as one of the nation’s top ten personal gripes. So BioPet Vet Lab used its research in animal DNA identification systems to help provide community leaders with a tool to bring peace back to the neighborhood. (more)

Ex-Chief Legal Counsel Pleads Guilty

OH - The former state lawyer behind an electronic eavesdropping scheme agreed yesterday to plead guilty to three misdemeanor charges and cooperate in other investigations, including one into an aborted operation at the Governor's Residence.

Joshua Engel, the former chief legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, faces three misdemeanor counts of intercepting and disclosing sensitive, confidential information from investigations by the state inspector general, the Ohio Ethics Commission and federal authorities. (more)

Weird Wiretap Story of the Week

How does watching a football game land you in court facing wiretapping charges?

You're a former police detective. Your accuser is a former judge.

Care to judge this one yourself? 

If you have the time... (more)

P.S. Wiretapping is a McGuffin.

In the Land of the Lords, no tenant skips

Australia - Tenants' groups say they are outraged by a service that enables real estate agents to find out when a tenant is considering moving house. The service is offered by the database company TICA and involves the company sending an email alert to an agent if a tenant submits an application for another property. (more)

U.S. Pushes to Ease Technical Obstacles to Wiretapping

Law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, citing lapses in compliance with surveillance orders, are pushing to overhaul a federal law that requires phone and broadband carriers to ensure that their networks can be wiretapped, federal officials say.

The officials say tougher legislation is needed because some telecommunications companies in recent years have begun new services and made system upgrades that create technical obstacles to surveillance. They want to increase legal incentives and penalties aimed at pushing carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast to ensure that any network changes will not disrupt their ability to conduct wiretaps. (more) (sing-a-long)

Business Espionage - The Feds are Warning You

via The New York Times...

Huang Kexue, federal authorities say, is a new kind of spy.

For five years, Mr. Huang was a scientist at a Dow Chemical lab in Indiana, studying ways to improve insecticides. But before he was fired in 2008, Mr. Huang began sharing Dow’s secrets with Chinese researchers, authorities say, then obtained grants from a state-run foundation in China with the goal of starting a rival business there...

Law enforcement officials say the kind of spying Mr. Huang is accused of represents a new front in the battle for a global economic edge. As China and other countries broaden their efforts to obtain Western technology, American industries beyond the traditional military and high-tech targets risk having valuable secrets exposed by their own employees, court records show.

Rather than relying on dead drops and secret directions from government handlers, the new trade in business secrets seems much more opportunistic, federal prosecutors say, and occurs in loose, underground markets throughout the world.

Prosecutors say it is difficult to prove links to a foreign government, but intelligence officials say China, Russia and Iran are among the countries pushing hardest to obtain the latest technologies.

“In the new global economy, our businesses are increasingly targets for theft,” said Lanny A. Breuer, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division. “In order to stay a leader in innovation, we’ve got to protect these trade secrets.” (more)

If you still don't have a counterespionage strategy, or your current one isn't working, call me. ~ Kevin

WSJ Finds Sheep Are Easy to Track

The down side of social not-working...

Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings. (more)

Turk Taps Top 70,000 Drops

More than 70,000 telephones in Turkey are currently officially under electronic surveillance, daily Radikal reported Sunday.

Radikal said it was the first media institution to have visited the Telecommunications Directorate, or TİB, in Ankara, the institution responsible for installing and maintaining telephone surveillance by court order.

Exactly 71,538 telephones have been tapped by TİB through court orders, among which 65 percent have ostensibly been tapped to gather intelligence on terrorism and organized crime, Radikal reported. 

Wiretaps for the purpose of gathering intelligence can be requested by intelligence institutions to prevent crimes from being committed.

The remaining 35 percent of surveillance is being carried out because of strong suspicions that a crime has been committed and no other way to obtain evidence. (more)

RED - A spies-in-action comedy

A spies-in-action comedy (based on a graphic novel), populated by terrific actors and blessed with a consistently funny and occasionally hilarious script, however implausible. The acronym RED stands for “Retired, Extremely Dangerous” and refers to Frank Moses (Bruce Willis).

A retired CIA “black ops” agent, Frank is so bored in his suburban home that he keeps calling a Social Security clerk, Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) in Kansas City, pretending his check didn’t come, just to chat. When masked Ninja-like assassins break into his home, Frank demolishes them, then heads to Kansas City to protect Sarah, knowing their calls have been tapped. (more) (trailer)

Local Politics - Wiretapping II

The Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board has no plans to investigate how fired Capt. Thomas R. Leicht Jr. kept his job for years despite failed internal investigations, allegations of bid rigging and a controversial wiretapping program, the board's chair said...

He also used county equipment to wiretap jail telephones from his home and sent recordings of at least six attorney-client calls to prosecutors, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. (more)

Local Politics - Wiretapping I

Editorial from local paper...

NC - Even before anyone knew for sure what was on the digital flash drive that mysteriously appeared in Hope Mills Mayor Eddie Dees' mailbox, town residents had plenty of reason for concern about their leaders.

The "thumb drive" contained recordings of conversations between Town Manager Randy Beeman and Police Chief Robert Hassell. They were all or part of five calls recorded between Feb. 25 and May 17...

It appears that the wiretap originated in the town's Police Department. The mayor says the drive contains calls made into and out of the department. If that's true, it also raises serious questions about the department and its internal security. It fairly screams for a full-blown criminal investigation.

But instead, the commissioners have chosen to wait for the town attorney to investigate, which he's been doing for months now. (more)

iLied, iSnapped.

via Cult of Mac...

"There’s no other way of saying this: Camera Camouflage is sneaky. It’s a camera app that goes out of its way to avoid looking like a camera. It disguises itself as an incoming phone call. You can even instruct it to activate your phone’s ringtone, so you can pretend to take the call and hold the phone to your ear. At which point, things get even sneakier. Camera Camouflage is activated by your voice. When you start speaking, it takes a photo. To onlookers, you’re just answering a phone call. You can keep talking, and keep snapping, for as long as you want." (more)

Do You Know How to Protect Your Cell Phone Calls?

via SC Magazine and Cellcrypt

...So, the problem of cell phone interception is real, growing and unlikely to be eliminated in the foreseeable future.

For an organization, knowing that phone calls have been intercepted at all is difficult. There is rarely a test that can be done, other than looking at the consequences of a lost deal or secret information in the public domain. In fact, in 2010, the Ponemon Institute found that 80 percent of CIOs admitted they would not find out directly if they had been intercepted.

The problem shows a wide geographical variation, both in the number of instances and in the public perception of risk. 

In the United States and mainland Europe, the perception of risk is relatively low. However, travel to Latin America or some parts of Asia, and the perception of an issue has reached the consumer with advertisements on mainstream television for protection equipment. 

Yet few executives traveling around the world have taken special measures to secure their cell phone conversations.

Research from ABI shows that 79 percent of companies' cell phones were routinely used to discuss information that, if intercepted, would lead to material loss to the business. Yet less than one in five had in place adequate measures to address this risk. (more)

New book coming soon...  

Is My Cell Phone Bugged? 

Stay tuned for details.

PA Spycam Suit Settled - Lawyers Win

PA - A suburban Pennsylvania school district accused of spying on students using school-issued laptops has agreed to pay $610,000 to settle litigation stemming from its controversial practice.

Under the proposed settlement, the Lower Merion School District will pay $185,000 to two high school students who had sued the district earlier this year for allegedly snooping on them. The remaining $425,000 will go to attorneys fees. (more)