Friday, February 4, 2011

The "Hole in the Floor Gang" - Busted, or... Something Smells Rotten in the State of New Jersey

NJ - State Police have taken over security at New Jersey's largest sewerage authority after a small hole was found drilled into the executive director's office.

Officials say the hole would allow anyone to eavesdrop on Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission director Wayne Forrest from a storeroom below.

The embattled agency's chief financial officer Kenneth Pengitore abruptly resigned from his $163,869-a-year job Wednesday. Forrest also fired five other employees, including the wife and brother of a former commissioner. (more)

The Rising Star of Industrial Espionage

It goes out the door in many ways.
via ft.com...
Industrial espionage is being catapulted to a position of great relevance to many of the world’s top companies as technological change becomes of growing importance to business performance. Companies across the world are increasingly interested in gaining access to their competitors’ secrets as early as possible in the development cycle for new products and services.

There is ... more globalisation and the players are more ... in competition. The more competition, the more crime,” says Olivier Buquen, head of the Economic Intelligence Office in Paris, a bureau of 12 experts created in 2009 to co-ordinate French corporate intelligence efforts.

According to Dane Chamarro, managing director for North Asia at Control Risks, a security group, industrial espionage affects many more sectors than high-profile activities such as computers, cars and telecoms. “Virtually any company with high levels of research and development and where technology has an impact on the product faces some kind of threat,” he says.

The chief executive of one of the world’s biggest aerospace and defence groups says that in his industry, “industrial espionage is a problem now and it will be even more in the future”. (more)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Editors would know if journos were hacking phones

New allegations have emerged on just how insidious phone tapping was at London tabloid News of the World, as one of News Limited’s senior Australian lieutenants suggests editors should have known the practice was going on. (more)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Court Told Eavesdropping on Cell Phone Calls is Easy

India - Mobile phone users, be they politicians, sensitive post holders or the moneyed, face a serious problem with latest technology allowing rivals and criminals to eavesdrop and record their private conversations, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

A PIL by one Ravindra Kumar had alleged that the government and probe agencies indiscriminately intercepted telephones without following procedure.

The government denied the charge but clarified, "With the advancement of wireless networks worldwide, many eavesdropping techniques have also been developed." (more)

The Google Bing Sting

Un-Photoshopped autocomplete.
Suspect espionage? 
Set up a sting! 
"I'm Feeling Lucky" did.

...last May, when Google noticed that Bing was returning results similar to its own (even when users entered a misspelled word), it stared to get curious. Last October, Bing was showing even greater overlap with Google's top ten results than ever before... they set up a sting operation to catch their search engine predator.

For the first time in its history, Google crafted one-time code that would allow it to manually rank a page for a certain term (code that will soon be removed, as described further below). It then created about 100 of what it calls “synthetic” searches, queries that few people, if anyone, would ever enter into Google... (more)

This excellent piece of counterespionage strategy worked. Bing pinged the same results. When Google outed Bing at a search engine conference, the Microsoft response was something like, "So what."

The point... Business espionage is becoming more brazen. Your opponent does not even to pretend to care about morals, ethics and legalities. You need to make friends with a counterespionage specialist or your pockets will be picked. 

The Anna Chapman Spy Contest

Russian spy Anna Chapman has registered her name as a trademark to cash in on her growing popularity since she was deported in a Cold War-style swap last year, Russia's state patent agency told Reuters on Tuesday.

"Maybe she wants to open the 'Anna Chapman' dry-cleaner or make cookies," Nikolai Kravtsov, an official at the agency told Reuters... (more)

Some people become celebrities just from being named after a hotel, some for being a failed spy.

Anna's interesting time-line, July 2010 until now...
• U.S. sleeper spy who never awoke, was arrested and deported.
• Posed in lingerie for photo shoot.
• Attended a Russian space launch.
• Had a sing-along with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
• Nicknamed Agent "90-60-90" by the Russian press, referring to her alleged measurements.
• Attended a political youth rally.
• Attended a meeting of the commission on economic modernization and technological development of the Russian economy.
• Launched a weekly television show called "Mysteries of the World with Anna Chapman."
• Trademarks her name to pimp eight lines of merchandise, including vodka, clothing and watches.

So, what have you done since July?
 
FutureWatch: Anna Chapman has book signing at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC?

The first five corporate security directors (or similar, like Anna) to decipher the 5 AnnaGrams wins one of our "doesn't really work" (like Anna) break-a-way (like Anna) stainless steel (like Anna) lock pick sets. Place answers here.




You Don't Have to be NASA to Throw Up a Spy Satellite

Upstart startup rocket company SpaceX, helmed and bankrolled by renowned internet nerdwealth tycoon Elon Musk, is already taking NASA business away from the established American rocketry industry. Musk now appears to be targeting the potentially much bigger market for launching secret US spy satellites. (more)

Just Coincidence?
Russians Lose Spy Satellite Hours After Launch

Russia has reportedly lost contact with its newest military satellite just hours after launching it into space today, according to Russian reports. The satellite, called Geo-IK-2, blasted off atop a three-stage Rockot booster from Russia's northern Plesetsk Cosmodrome at about 5 p.m. Moscow Time (9 a.m. EST, 1400 GMT). But just two hours after liftoff, the satellite went missing, according to Russia's Itar-Tass and Interfax news agencies. (more)

Monday, January 31, 2011

India Squeezes BlackBerry for Emails

The Indian government, only weeks after reaching an agreement with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, now insists on intercepting corporate communications along with the BlackBerry Messenger service.

India cites its reasons to intercept BlackBerrys secure communication systems to combat terrorism, a problem it continues to suffer from with tensions with its neighbours Pakistan and the southern Arabian peninsula.

Research in Motion continues to state that it cannot provide a solution to intercept corporate emails, as the keys to its encryption is held by the entity which owns the server, outside of Research in Motion’s reach.  The company states that it does not possess a ‘master key’ which would allow unrestricted interceptions into corporate email accounts. (more)

Brooklyn state Sen. Eric Adams' YouTube video gives parents advice on how to spy on their kids

A Brooklyn pol wants to teach parents how to spy on their kids, scour their backpacks for guns - and strip-search their dollies for drugs.

State Sen. Eric Adams, who served 22 years in the NYPD before running for office, stars in a new online video (worth watching in entirety) that shows parents how to sniff out hidden contraband in a little suspect's bedroom.

"A small-caliber weapon could be hiding inside a jewelry box," the senator warns in the five-minute video. "Run your hands over the pillows and see if you feel anything that's unusual."...

"It's not spying on your children. It's protecting your home," he said. "If the police come inside a household and those items are in there, the whole house gets arrested. They arrest everybody and sort it out later in the courtroom." (more, with video)

Interesting poll results...

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The country is up in arms...

...and this sounded like a good idea? 
Egypt - Mubarak yesterday installed Omar Suleiman, his longtime intelligence chief, as vice president; and former air force commander Ahmed Shafik as prime minister. But the move has won him little popular support...about 25 demonstrators who surrounded a tank outside the Egyptian museum and chanted slogans about the Egyptian intelligence chief. “Suleiman, Suleiman, get on a plane tonight,” was one refrain. (more)

Business Espionage - Rival Tire Company Accused of Spying

PA - The tire salesman in Cleona, Lebanon County, felt a bit uneasy.

He'd been given lists — of consignments, of wholesale tire prices, of customers. Problem was, none of the information had anything to do with the Cleona business, Henise Tire. Instead, it appeared to come from a rival — K&W Tire, based in Lancaster.

The salesman called the police. And earlier this month, three former K&W employees were charged with third-degree felonies after police said they obtained the information illegally, by logging into an e-mail account assigned to a current K&W employee.

The men — Robert E. Biggs, of Lancaster, Jeffrey G. Shultz, of Strasburg, and Edward Roeder, of Bethlehem — were charged Jan. 4 by Lancaster Detective Lt. Clark Bearinger with "unlawful use of computer and other computer crimes." In addition, Biggs was charged with computer theft because the information he obtained via the e-mail account "can be used to deprive KW of sales throughout their area and therefore cost them business and money." (more)

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Spy Chasing Jobs Attract Whack Jobs

New Zealand's spy agency failed to follow basic procedures when it gave top secret security clearance to a scientist who turned out to live in a fantasy world, Prime Minister John Key said Friday.

Stephen Wilce resigned as head of New Zealand's defence science agency in September after it was revealed he had made a series of false claims about his past, including serving as a helicopter pilot with Prince Andrew... 

Wilce served as chief of the Defence Technology Agency for five years, heading 80 staff and enjoying access to highly classified intelligence as he advised the military on science and technology issues. 

"...and stay off the Internet!"
The British-born scientist quit after a television programme revealed he falsely claimed to be an ex-Marine combat veteran and an Olympic bobsledder who raced against the Jamaican team depicted in the 1993 film "Cool Runnings".

Further inquiries by military investigators found he had told colleagues he was once a helicopter pilot who served with Prince Andrew, a spy with British intelligence and a special forces soldier who was on an IRA death list.

Among numerous other fabrications, he also said he designed the guidance system for the Polaris missile system, was a member of the Welsh rugby union team and once had a career as a guitarist on the British folk music circuit. (more)

Next on The Daily Show... The Funniest Man in Moscow

(...Just, because. So laugh.)
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who famously launched his career as a spy, used an old secret service joke to demonstrate the levels of bureaucracy plaguing his country.

The joke in which none of the officials want to assume responsibility for arresting a US agent, came days after a bomb blast killed 35 people in a Moscow airport that critics blamed on lapses in security and bureaucratic corruption

"So an American spy comes to Lubyanka," Putin told a government meeting in remarks broadcast on Russian television late Thursday, referring to the headquarters of the Soviet-era KGB.

"I am a spy and I want to turn myself in," Putin continued with a small smirk on his face.

"Are you armed?" the US spy is asked, to which he responds yes.

"Then you have to go to room number seven," a Russian official tells him, according to Putin.

There the US spy is asked if he is carrying communication equipment -- another affirmative answer sends the US agent to yet another official's office.

In the end, the exasperated spy is asked by yet another official if he has an actual assignment to work on.

"Yes," says the spy.

"Then go carry it out and stop bothering people at work," he is told. (more)

Spying Kickboxing Instructor Kicked Out (and similar)

 WA - A 24-year-old martial arts instructor has been arrested after he was caught spying on one of his female students.

According to Bellingham Police, a 26-year-old woman told the owner of Shayne Simpson's Pacific Northwest Karate Center that she found a video cell phone in her dressing room. The instructor was fired after it was found that the cell phone was placed in position to capture video of the student undressing.

According to Simpson, the instructor asked the student to weigh herself in a private room prior to a kickboxing competition. (more)

---

NC -A man used his cell phone to take pictures of women trying on clothes at a Goodwill store on South Boulevard, police said. The 29-year-old victim told police the suspect placed his cell phone under the dressing room door to take the pictures. (more)
 Police are looking for a camera-wielding peeping Tom near Duluth.

---

MN - A female resident of the Breckinridge Station community told police a voyeur has been spying in her windows and popping flash photographs since October. She told police she received a call Saturday afternoon and was asked: “What do you propose we do with the 40-plus pictures I have of you?” (more)

...like, "Why does your kid fart so much?"

WI - Investigators believe a woman bugged a child's car seat to keep tabs on her ex-boyfriend.

Jamie Mesang is accused of duct taping a digital recorder underneath a car seat that belongs to her ex. Police say he became suspicious when Mesang started texting him about things she shouldn't have known about.

Eventually, he took apart his son's car seat and found the recorder. She's been charged with a felony and will be in court in March. (more)