SpyCam Story #596 - Your City. Your Drugstore. Our SpyCam.

NY - Sixteen employees of a New York City branch of pharmaceutical giant Duane Reade filed a $110 million lawsuit alleging cameras were planted in a washroom.

The employees at the store in the Maspeth section of Queens said video surveillance and recording devices were secretly installed by a security officer in washroom air vents, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.

After the cameras were discovered in January 2008, managers warned that anyone who complained would be fired, the Daily News reported.

Duane Reade denied the allegations. (more)

Security Director Alert: Unsecured Webcams Hacked

Did you know... 
• There is an underground community of people who hack webcams for a hobby?
• Many corporate security webcams are vulnerable to discovery and remote control?

Are you sure your corporate webcams secure? Can someone commandeer them for fun, revenge or profit – from a criminal act? Double-check with your IT department.

To get a feel for the issue, try it yourself. Google "intitle:liveapplet" and see what you come up with. There are many more search phrases which will ferret out unsecured webcams posted elsewhere, but this will get you started.

Here is a live, multi-camera Australian webcam controller in Hobart, Tasmania.

I have a feeling you won't be getting much real work done today. ~Kevin

Shirley he jests. But wait! There's more...

MA - Fired Shirley Town Administrator Kyle Keady pleaded innocent in Middlesex Superior Court Tuesday to a bevy of illegal-recording charges in the wake of lurid video and wiretapping allegations against him that have shocked the small town.

Keady, 46, of Shirley, was released on $2,500 cash bail after pleading innocent to four counts of breaking and entering, five counts of wiretap violations, and 10 counts of video recording a person in a state of nudity...

Prosecutors allege that between 2006 and 2010, Keady recorded numerous conversations in the Shirley Town Hall, including using special spy pens equipped with cameras in the potted plant to record his female assistant. He is also accused by investigators of hiding a baby monitor in the ceiling in the town accountant's office to record her.

Perhaps most shocking of the allegations is that Keady is accused of using pens with cameras to record video of the ladies' room in Town Hall.

He also allegedly broke into his assistant's home to photograph her undergarments, as well as used photo-editing software to put her photo on top of nude bodies, according to investigators. (more)

Wiretap Tag with Silvio Berlusconi

Italy - A tabloid tidal wave washed over Italy on Tuesday as newspapers published eye-popping wiretapped conversations from a nightclub dancer who said she had dallied with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as a minor, but whether it would sweep the wily prime minister out to sea was still anyone’s guess. (more)

Wiretaps emerged days after a probe was launched against Berlusconi on charges he paid Moroccan-born Karima el-Mahroug, called “Ruby Rubacuori” for sex at his villa when she was a minor.

Berlusconi, 74, is also accused of helping to get her released from custody when she was held for theft. Now 18, she said she had asked Berlusconi for $6.7 million to keep quiet, according to wiretaps. (more)

Cast your mind back to last summer...

June 29, 2010 - Berlusconi to push through wiretap law
Critics say the law would muzzle the press and help organized crime.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, however, is a man on a mission. He has threatened lawmakers that they will have to work well into August to make sure that a new law curbing wiretaps is passed before the fall.

When passed, it will place severe limits on phone intercepts during investigations, as well as imposing heavy fines on newspapers that publish the transcripts of wiretapped phone calls. Wiretapping happens routinely in Italy, even where no charges have been brought.

A law against wiretaps will amount to imposing a "gag" on the Italian media, according to major news outlets. (more)

Is this all starting to make sense now?

New Smart Phone Eavesdrop Attack Coming

More than three years after the iPhone was first hacked, computer security experts think they've found a whole new way to break into mobile phones -- one that could become a big headache for Apple, or for smartphone makers using Google's Android software.

In a presentation set for next week's Black Hat conference in Washington D.C., University of Luxembourg research associate Ralf-Philipp Weinmann says he plans to demonstrate his new technique on an iPhone and an Android device, showing how they could be converted into clandestine spying systems. "I will demo how to use the auto-answer feature present in most phones to turn the telephone into a remote listening device," he said in an e-mail interview.

Weinmann says he can do this by breaking the phone's "baseband" processor, used to send and receive radio signals as the device communicates on its cellular network. He has found bugs in the way the firmware used in chips sold by Qualcomm and Infineon Technologies processes radio signals on the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks used by the majority of the world's wireless carriers. (more)

Local Blimpy's Wants Ad Space on the Side

UT - A proposed unmanned floating airship surveillance system is being hailed by city officials in Ogden, Utah as one way to fight crime in its neighborhoods.

Last tried in Glendale, CA.

 "We believe it will be a deterrent to crime when it is out and about and will help us solve crimes more quickly when they do occur," Ogden City Mayor Matthew Godfrey told Reuters.

The airship entails military technology now available to local law enforcement, he said.

Godfrey floated the idea of a dirigible in the skies above Ogden for his city council members last week. The council is expected to vote on the measure in coming weeks. (more)

Electronic Surveillance Up Down Under

Australia - The number of warrants allowing police to spy on suspected criminals and allegedly corrupt police and public servants increased by 67 per cent over the past year.

But the number of arrests and charges arising from the bugging of houses and cars, and the tracking of cars and computers, remained low, at about one for every 10 device warrants issued.

More than 860 warrants were issued by NSW Supreme Court judges last financial year, triggering the installation of more than 2100 surveillance devices including listening devices, hidden cameras, tracking devices and technology to monitor emails.

The figures do not include the use of other surveillance devices, such as telephone intercepts. (more)

Renault affair heralds era of corporate spying

Forget James Bond and MI-5: the war has changed and espionage has a new industrial face. 

...these days, spy action is more likely to be found in a seemingly dull car factory in the western suburbs of Paris.

It's a diplomatic crisis which looks set to cloud France's future economic ties with China and possibly an omen of similar cases to come.

Renault has fired three high-ranking executives in strategic positions who are accused of industrial espionage. The three are suspected of transmitting information about Renault's flagship electric vehicle programmes to a Chinese entity, which as yet remains unnamed. The stakes are high...

One thing is clear -- the alleged 'spies' were paid very handsomely indeed. According to French broadsheet Le Figaro, one executive was paid a lump sum of $500,000 (€375,000), another $130,000 (€97,500), while a third received a monthly payment of $5,000 (€3,750). 

The French intelligence agency DCRI (Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur) are working with Renault to investigate the case. (more)

Poll results - "Wikileaks should..."

...publish without restrictions" is the winner.

Wall Thermostat GSM Cellular Bugging Device

The seller says...

"This revolutionary surveillance product has a wireless (gsm bug) audio monitoring device hidden inside a Thermostat. The central feature of this GSM--based solution is that it's a sophisticated, totally concealed bugging device.

Now Includes Sound or Voice-Activation!

When used in the spy mode, the Thermostat is called (from anywhere) and will answer immediately without any ringing so it will not alert anyone. The caller can then hear all conversations around the Thermostat and on ending the call, the Thermostat resumes standby. Just plug and play. This model is conveniently portable." (more)

Why do I mention it?

So you will know what you're up against.

TSCM Sweep Featured on the Discovery Channel

The Daily Planet, a popular Canadian show on the Discovery Channel, interviewed the Murray Associates technicians while they conducted an electronic eavesdropping detection audit. The video clip shows them conducting spectrum analysis, non-linear junction detection, infrared detection, a wi-fi security and compliance audit and more. If you ever wanted to look over the shoulder of a bug sweep team in action here is your chance. (video) Note: A short Discovery Channel promo comes first, followed by a promo for the show, followed by the sweep.

Spectrum analyzer catches exam cheats in Taiwan

Police in Taiwan used a set of spectrum analyzers to catch at least three people suspected of cheating on an exam by monitoring them for mobile phone signals, a first case of its type, the equipment maker said on Wednesday.

Officers used three FSH4 analyzers specially configured by the German manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz to monitor an exam in south Taiwan for prospective government workers, said senior company engineer Lai Cheng-heng.

The handheld devices are normally used to help telecom companies check the strength of phone signals, but Taiwan's National Communications Commission had asked the designer for a special order aimed at catching exam cheats. (more)

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean...

Brooklyn College in the Land of the Free had a novel way of dealing with a student who claimed that there was a spy camera in her room.

When she went to the Brooklyn College Campus Security and Safety Office to complain that her off campus landlord was using a spy cam on her, they offered her an involuntary two-week stay at a psychiatric hospital to treat her "paranoia".

The only thing was that the landlord had installed a spy camera in Chinemerem Eze's bedroom. It is not clear why, or what he was doing with the film. However, Eze found the camera after she had been "cured" by the hospital.

By the time she got out of the loony bin she missed her final exams and was not able to complete them.

As a result she wound up losing a scholarship she'd received from the school. (more)

SpyCam Story Update

Michael Lyon, the former CEO of the Sacramento-area's largest independent real estate company, entered a plea of not guilty to four counts of electronic eavesdropping in Sacramento County Superior Court Wednesday.

Lyon, 55, has been accused of secretly video-taping female guests at his home. Criminal complaint

Lyon has been free on $60,000 bail since his November arrest. (more)

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."

French car maker PSA Peugeot-Citroen Thursday said it is well armed to avoid an industrial spying affair like that involving rival Renault SA, adding that affair won't affect its relationship with China. (more)

The head of EADS, Europe's leading aerospace company, never said that industrial spying was a "reality in China," a company spokesman said Thursday.

"We strongly deny the Financial Times' allegation that EADS CEO Louis Gallois declared spying to be a 'reality in China'. This is complete nonsense as he never said that," Pierre Bayle, head of corporate communications for EADS, told Xinhua.

"Mr. Gallois only pointed to the fact that industrial espionage generally is a matter of concern. He did not single out any specific countries. So, to suggest otherwise is totally wrong," Bayle said. (more)