When Suits Spy II

Australia - Senior managers of the companies building Australia's largest desalination plant in Victoria have denied authorising covert surveillance at the site.

Construction workers have walked off the site near Wonthaggi, south-east of Melbourne, following allegations the project's joint venture company, Thiess Degremont, hired operatives to spy on them. The allegations were revealed this morning by The Australian newspaper, which says it has sources and documents about what was called Operation Pluto. 

The newspaper says it was a secret deal between senior managers of Thiess and the Australian Security Intelligence group (ASI), a company run by experienced strike breaker Bruce Townsend. (more)

The China Whooshing Sound (It's the Same Old Song)

CA - A San Ramon, California, man is facing charges he stole valuable technology (The sugar pie.) from his former employer in hopes of building competitive location-aware products.

Zhiqiang "Michael" Zhang was arrested Tuesday, on charges that he stole trade secrets from Sirf Technology, a San Jose, California, maker of Global Positioning System chipsets, used by wireless location-aware programs in devices such as mobile phones and automobile navigation systems. A noted expert on location aware technology, Zhang had been a director of software development before resigning from Sirf in May 2009. He had been with the company for seven years.

According to prosecutors, Zhang then set up a company called Anywhere Logic "in order to develop and sell location-based services utilizing trade secrets stolen from Sirf."

Zhang allegedly hired two Sirf engineers (The honey bunch.), Xiaodong Liang and Yanmin Li away from Sirf to work at Anywhere Logic. They have also been charged in the case, but are now living in China. (The same old song.) (more) (sing-a-long)

Third of Smart Phone Users Not Smart

Almost a third of employees regularly breach enterprise mobile management policies by using personal smartphones for work purposes, according to a report.

The survey of 1,100 mobile workers by iPass, a provider of enterprise mobility services, found 22% of employees breached their employers' strict smartphone policies when using non-managed personal smartphones to access corporate information, putting data at a security risk.

"Un-provisioned smartphones are a significant risk to enterprises," said Steven Wastie, senior vice-president marketing and product management at iPass. "20% of these mobile employees have experienced a relevant security issue with their smartphone containing business data lost, stolen, infected or hacked." (more)

Spoof your GPS location on Facebook & Twitter

Facebook has released the updated application for BlackBerry handsets which finally brought Places, the location-based tagging facility to rival the popular Foursquare service.

Yet with this, the developers must not have taken into account the BlackBerry Simulation Software, which for all intents and purposes is a fully functional device for the desktop yet purely for simulating the phone and testing applications, can be used to spoof your Facebook Places and Twitter status locations.

This screenshot gallery will guide you through everything. (more)

If you want to, however, go right to the good bit, by all means skip to it by clicking here.

The Big Ear Goes Up

 One cannot overstate the importance of Thursday night's Delta 4-Heavy launch from Cape Canaveral to national security, a mission by the massive rocket that will deploy "the largest satellite in the world" to hear the whispers of evil...

The clandestine payload going up this time, known only by its launch identification number of NROL-32, is widely believed to be an essential eavesdropping spacecraft that requires the powerful lift provided by the Delta 4-Heavy to reach its listening post...

...this new spacecraft supposedly will unfurl an extremely lightweight but gigantically huge umbrella-like antenna to overhear enemy communications and aid U.S. intelligence.   (more)

Covert Recording - There's an app for that!

IL - Student journalists for Northwestern University's Medill Innocence Project wore hidden recorders to secretly tape their interviews with witnesses as part of their investigation into an alleged wrongful conviction in the murder of a Harvey security guard, prosecutors told a Cook County judge today...

"I would put the parties on notice that a cell phone wire was used at least once by students with other witnesses," Stack said.

In Illinois, it is illegal to record anyone without their knowledge or consent -- without court authorization. (more)

Soderbergh to revive The Man From UNCLE

Steven Soderbergh is an awful busy director, normally banging out at least a film a year. But it's been a while since he did something blockbuster wise which may now all change. 

According to The Heat Vision Blog, the Oscar winning director of Ocean's 11 and Traffic is developing a big screen adaptation of the classic 60s series, The Man From UNCLE. The show involved lots of espionage and spying, and was co-created by the man behind James Bond, Ian Flemming. Apparently Warner Bros. have been trying to get a film version made for about 15 years. (more)

I had the experience of seeing Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney work together on a spy theme show. They are great. Hope this project brings them together once more. U.N.C.L.E. was everyone's favorite. 

SpyCam Story #586 - Tiny Town. Big Problems.

Guttenberg, NJ - Police officers here were shocked to find a hidden camera in a police station ceiling and officials disclosed last week that it was placed there as part of an internal investigation...

A lawyer representing the Guttenberg Police Benevolent Association said the surveillance is a violation of the privacy of PBA members and the camera is in an area where female prisoners are strip-searched. Police brass say the area is never used for strip-searches.

"It was part of an investigation being done by the Police Department," Guttenberg Mayor Gerald Drasheff confirmed. The mayor said the probe is ongoing and refused to say any more on the surveillance at police headquarters on Park Avenue. (more) (Guttenberg)

Spanish Reporter Bugged

According to Spanish sources, a few months ago Mr. Ignacio Cambrero has discovered a bug in his personal laptop.  After it was by Mr. Cambrero,  the Spanish Intelligence services determined that the signals sent from the device went to a computer housed at the headquarters of ENTV, the Algerian state television Service.

The Spanish services who proceeded to disable the device, have determined that this kind of chip can only be installed through a physical contact with the computer. This means that  Ignacio Cembrero’s computer was implanted with the device during his visit to Algeria or from a contact with an "Algerian official”. (more)

Business Espionage Tip - Don't Let it Happen

Oracle still hasn't succeeded in dragging SAP's ex-chief executive into court to testify on what he knew about the subsidiary TomorrowNow's "industrial espionage."

On Monday, what Oracle got instead was an apology from the former CEO's replacement: co-CEO Bill McDermott.

It was another tech-sector captain deflated in the circus of Oracle's prosecution of its number-one business applications rival over money. (more) 

Business espionage is costly. It is costly if you don't catch it. It is costly if you do catch it and ride the legal hamster wheel. While an apology is gentlemanly, it doesn't fill the loss. 

Tip: Don't let it happen in the first place. Get your ounce of prevention, here.

Illegal Government Wiretapping Reported

Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar says the state-owned Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), as well as the Irish-owned Digicel, were "commanded" to open their facilities so that the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) could engage in the illegal wiretapping of citizens.

"Do you remember there was a time in Trinidad when people used to say use a Digicel phone, don't use a TSTT phone... they were right," she told reporters. (more)

UPDATE - The country’s top telecommunications companies have both distanced themselves from any involvement in the illegal wiretapping of their customers’ phones.

State-controlled Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) would not comment in detail about the wiretapping of phones belonging to Members of Parliament, private citizens and President George Maxwell Richards by the Strategic Intelligence Agency (SIA) but the company is willing to co-operate in any investigation into the matter. (more)

Cell Phone Spying Apps Next Step...

Sell the app antidote!

Google may have "Don't be evil" as its motto, but DLP Mobile seems to be embracing the dark side in charging £1.86 for an app to remove its own spyware.

Companies that sell software for spying on partners are already on highly-dubious moral ground, but selling an application to remove your own spyware would be a step too far for most. But not DLP Mobile, who will sell you a copy of Reveal, an application designed to remove their own spying application... despite the fact that the former isn't available any more. (more)

Elaborate Eavesdropping System Discovered in Mayor's Office and Other Areas

Dominican Republic - The Santiago City Council dismantled an espionage system of several high tech miniature microphones which had been secretly installed in the office of mayor Gilberto Serrulle and other areas. The Mayor confirmed the finding, but downplayed the case, affirming that he has nothing to hide or fear. (more)

Everything you wanted to know about the legalities (USA law) of telephone wiretapping in your home.

ELECTRONIC EAVESDROPPING AND WIRETAPPING:

How 20th Century Technology Can Cause 21st Century Headaches for You and Your Client

by John H. Case, Gilbert B. Feibleman and Mark Gruber

"In a day and age where everyone can go to Radio Shack and purchase their own miniaturized microphone, recording device and spy camera it has become abundantly clear that every spouse is a potential James Bond. It is not uncommon to be asked by your client: “Can I record secretly conversations with my spouse?” Unfortunately it is more common that the family law practitioner is merely told about recordings long after they have been made or even after they have been republished. As a result, learning the answer to the question is only part of the lawyer’s job. Learning how to advise your clients and how to extricate your client from a potentially criminal quagmire is equally important - the answer is not as simple as the question." (more)

Russian Embassy Bugging Documents Released

via Bruce Schneier...

Old -- but recently released -- document discussing the bugging of the Russian embassy in 1940.  The document also mentions bugging the embassies of France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Also...

A long list of declassified NSA documents. These items are not online; they're at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, MD. You can either ask for copies by mail under FOIA (at a 75 cents per page) or come in person.  There, you can read and scan them for free, or photocopy them for about 20 cents a page.