Next out of the lab... DNA stealing mosquitos!

A vulture tagged by scientists at Tel Aviv University has strayed into Saudi Arabian territory, where it was promptly arrested on suspicion of being a Mossad spy, Israeli and Saudi media reported Tuesday.

The bird was found in a rural area of the country wearing a transmitter and a leg bracelet bearing the words "Tel Aviv University", according to the reports, which surfaced first in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv.

Although these tags indicate that the bird was part of a long-term research project into migration patters, residents and local reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper that the matter seemed to be a "Zionist plot."

The accusations went viral, with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming that the "Zionists" had trained these birds for espionage.

The Sinai regional governor last month suggested that a shark that killed and maimed tourists on its Red Sea port may have been intentionally released by Israeli agents in order to sabotage the country's tourist industry. (more)

Keeping the nation safe ...ish.

Canada’s National Intelligence Security Agency (NISA) has a team of competently incompetent agents trying to keep the country safe and (accidentally) succeeding. Fortunately, this is all a fictional premise for the new action-comedy series, InSecurity, bowing tonight on CBC.

InSecurity is mix of 24 without Jack Bauer; CSI minus the science; and James Bond — if James Bond were Mr. Bean.

It’s a comedy relevant to our post-9/11 world of high alerts, terrorist plots and attacks, controversial airport-security measures and overall anxiety. (more) (video about their spy gadgets)

FutureWatch - Somewhere in the United States another TV comedy is in gestation. Terminal Security Service Airpatrol (TSSA). Oh, oh. Red flag. When the grounds of public opinion shift, the results first materialize as satire. Time to review the mission plans? 

Just A Modest Proposal to Dr. Strangelove. ~Kevin

Early SpyCam

http://www.archive.org/details/EarlyCandidCamera

Hedgers Hedging Bets Teach Lessons

The arrests of three technology company workers who allegedly sold secrets about Apple Inc., Dell Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. signal the U.S. may be closing in on the hedge funds that paid for their expertise.

The men, who worked at AMD, Flextronics International Ltd. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., were arrested yesterday on securities fraud and conspiracy charges for a scheme that Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said operated from 2008 to early 2010...

“A corrupt network of insiders at some of the world’s leading technology companies served as so-called consultants who sold out their employers by stealing and then peddling their valuable inside information,” Bharara said in a statement yesterday. (more)

The Lessons...

As in the real spy world, the people who eavesdrop and steal your intellectual property will most likely be agents – a layer of insulation between you and the people who will ultimately use your information against you. This allows your enemy a degree of plausible deniability if their operations are exposed.

Pro-active countermeasures work.
Don't wait. Start the New Year right. Add a counterespionage strategy to your corporate security program. I would be pleased to assist you.

Happy New Year!
 Kevin

"Here's you hat. What's your worry?"

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aka Mr. Paul Poltergeist

UK - Authorities allege a Midland parolee hid a baby monitor under a dresser in his neighbor’s bedroom in order to spy on the couple.

Paul A. Rivard is charged with second-degree home invasion, larceny in a building, eavesdropping and aggravated stalking, according to reports.

Investigators also allege Rivard, 36, burned and buried clothing belonging to the neighbors, broke furniture and re-arranged items inside the house, according to reports. (more)

Pssst... Talk to the Chaos Computer Club

Botswana - The spying GSM equipment that was purchased by the government is lying idle since the government could not use it on private conversations by members of the public because cellular phone providers have upgraded their systems.

This was revealed at the Lobatse High Court before Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo after the company that had supplied the equipment, Dukef Holdings, took the Botswana Police Service to court over the failure to pay US$1,529,000 for breach of contract. (more)

Cell Phone Eavesdropping on the Cheap

Speaking at the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) Congress in Berlin on Tuesday, a pair of researchers demonstrated a start-to-finish means of eavesdropping on encrypted GSM cellphone calls and text messages, using only four sub-$15 telephones as network “sniffers,” a laptop computer, and a variety of open source software.

While such capabilities have long been available to law enforcement with the resources to buy a powerful network-sniffing device for more than $50,000 (remember The Wire?), the pieced-together hack takes advantage of security flaws and shortcuts in the GSM network operators’ technology and operations to put the power within the reach of almost any motivated tech-savvy programmer. (more)

According to Crispin Sturrock, there are yet no statistics available about the scale of corporate espionage in the UK, the recent studies in the US and other countries indicate that it may range to ’billions and billions of dollars’. “We have seen a dramatic increase from countries such as China and Russia, a high volume of new techniques come from these countries into our market, and we get a lot of reports and statistics saying that there are attacks coming from this direction,” Mr Sturrock explains.

He also indicates that while the sectors struggling with industrial espionage are traditionally high-tech start-ups, banks and pharmaceuticals, there is a massive increase of such cases in the legal sector. “It is about protecting the conversations between clients and their lawyers, which may have a great deal of value for the third party, and we are seeing an immense growth in this sector”, says Mr Sturrock.

Daily Business states that although corporate espionage has become increasingly common, companies tend to forget that simple old-fashioned eavesdropping and bugging are still the most popular ways to gather confidential information. Mr Sturrock explains that spying equipment has become much cheaper, more accessible and easier to deploy. “In the UK, a small GSM bug can cost only GBP150 and it works incredibly well. Most companies spend a lot of money on IT systems and firewalls to protect themselves against corporate espionage, where as they spend very little money protecting their key conversations,” says the founder of a company that counters unauthorized surveillance, information leaks and other forms of commercial espionage. 

BBC World Service interviewed Crispin Sturrock, the Founder and CEO of WhiteRock, for the Daily Business program. (audio interview available until 1/1/11)

Business Espionage: Insiders Sell Out

CA - A key cooperator aiding a major federal investigation into insider trading admitted this month to obtaining and selling confidential information about Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and other companies, according to documents unsealed in federal court.

The documents unsealed Thursday relate to Karl Motey, a California-based investment consultant, and they provide insight into how he was ensnared in the investigation and within months began to help authorities in their probe into the activities of analysts, hedge funds, mutual funds and investment bankers, among others. The extent of Mr. Motey's activity suggests that the insider-trading probe could expand in coming months. More arrests are expected next year. (more)

Voicemail Hacking Pays $3,270.00 Per Week?!?!

Actress Sienna Miller is seeking damages from the U.K.’s News of the World newspaper for hacking the voice mail on three of her phones to get personal information, according to court documents.

Miller claims the newspaper, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., paid private investigator Glenn Mulcaire 2,500 pounds ($3,270) a week to eavesdrop on personal messages between her, her friends and business associates. The actress, who also works as a model and fashion designer, claims news editor Ian Edmondson approved the work contract. (more)

Business Espionage: Hhonors

Hilton Worldwide Inc. will be banned for two years from creating a luxury "lifestyle" hotel chain under an agreement to settle a corporate-espionage lawsuit.

The settlement stems from a suit filed last year by rival Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, which accused Hilton officials of stealing confidential Starwood documents to develop a new boutique-style chain that would appeal to modern tastes...

The lawsuit alleged that Ross Klein and Amar Lalvani, two former Starwood executives who had joined Hilton, took more than 100,000 documents to recreate the success of Starwood's W Hotel. Neither man could be reached for comment; both left Hilton after the suit was filed. Starwood said it discovered Hilton had the documents only after Hilton returned them. Hilton officials have said they returned the documents out of "an abundance of caution." (more) 

Don't count on your competitor to "do the right thing." 

Develop a counterespionage strategy. 

Need help? 

Call us.

Santa Claus Is Tapping Your Phone

Sung to the tune of... 
"Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why,
Santa Claus is tapping
Your phone.

He's bugging your room,
And reading your mail,
He's keeping a file
And running a tail
Santa Claus is tapping
Your phone.

He hears you in the bedroom
Surveills you out of doors
And if that doesn't get the goods
Then he'll use provocateurs.

So you mustn't assume
That you are secure
On Christmas Eve
He'll kick in your door
Santa Claus is tapping
Your phone.

Business Espionage: If you're not a client, you will remain bugged.

UK - From the top of the Gherkin building in London, Crispin Sturrock points out an anonymous-looking office block in the swirling snow below. “There’s a device in there,” says the chief executive of WhiteRock Defence Systems, an information security consultancy that helps companies protect themselves against spies. “They’re not clients of ours, but whenever we scan for transmissions in nearby buildings, we pick it up. It’s been there for ages, just streaming information out.” The building in question is bugged with an electronic device transmitting information about one of its tenants. In the era of WikiLeaks, it is tempting to view all leaks as news headlines. But in general, corporate leaks tend to be of interest only to a very small group of people – an organisation’s competitors or potential buyer. “The reasons people engage in competitive information gathering are usually financial gain and leverage,” says Mr Sturrock. (more) (free business espionage newsletter)

Workplace Bugging - If it works, don't call it primitive.

Officials in the Vermont town of Charlotte say they found listening devices in the Town Hall that would have allowed someone to eavesdrop on both public and private town business sessions.

Town Planner and Selectboard assistant Dean Bloch says the bugs were discovered in October during a retrofit of a dropped ceiling.

A small dynamic speaker, which may also be used as a microphone.

Shelburne Police, who serve Charlotte, say the devices weren't working and they could have been up to 10 years old.

Officer Chris Morrell tells the Burlington Free Press the spying device were "primitive." He says the two microphones were connected to battery-powered, wireless transmitters that might have carried a signal into the parking lot. (more) (more)

Security Directors: FREE Security White Paper - "Surreptitious Workplace Recording ...and what you can do about it."