Meanwhile, outside the Tap Cave...

Turkey - A plan to install flood-prevention sensors in southeastern Turkey has prompted a panic among local residents, who became convinced that the devices in street lamps and on roofs would actually wiretap the entire city.

Speculation about the devices began to circulate in Batman province... Amid rising paranoia in Turkey, the gossip mill in Batman quickly turned the story into a more sinister one. The rumor that the city’s street lamps and roofs were full of wiretapping gadgets listening in on all of its residents’ conversations was picked up by TV stations and online news sites, creating a furor. (more)

In past news...
The mayor of an oil-producing city in southeastern Turkey, which has the same name as the Caped Crusader, is suing helmer Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for royalties from mega-grosser "The Dark Knight."

Huseyin Kalkan, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party mayor of Batman, has accused "The Dark Knight" producers of using the city's name without permission.

"There is only one Batman in the world," Kalkan said. "The American producers used the name of our city without informing us." (more)

Old West Security Sensibility - "Drop it, pard'ner."

Wells Fargo's IT group has a simple answer for employees who want to hook personal devices up to corporate systems: No.

"They can't connect them to our networks," says Wayne Mekjian, executive vice president and CIO of information services at Wells Fargo. "We won't let them in."

The "just say no" policy applies to Apple iPads, Android tablets and smartphones owned by employees. The company also has strict policies regarding use of Twitter and Facebook, making the sites off-limits to many. Wells Fargo does, however, supply employees with corporate-approved smartphones, and a limited deployment of iPads that can connect to e-mail and other corporate systems. (more)

Le Oops - Renault plans to exonerate managers fired for alleged corporate espionage

Carlos Ghosn

France - Renault SA is making plans to exonerate the three managers fired for alleged corporate espionage, people familiar with the matter said, in what would be a major stand-down that could presage a change in the French auto maker’s senior management.

As Renault faces up to what is likely to be an embarrassing conclusion to its highly touted "affaire d’espionnage," one scenario being discussed by the firm’s board is for Chief Operating Officer Patrick Pélata to tender his resignation, the people familiar with the matter said. It is unclear whether Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn would accept the resignation, however, these people added. (more)

(Update) SpyCam Story #603 - All Things Not Considered

Vivian Schiller, the embattled chief executive of NPR, resigned from the organization Wednesday, one day after an embarrassing video surfaced of another NPR executive disparaging conservatives.  

The sudden announcement came after officials from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and members of NPR's board conferred last night about the fallout from the revelation on Tuesday of a surreptitiously recorded video of NPR Foundation president Ron Schiller (no relation to Vivian Schiller). The video, made by conservative activist James O'Keefe, shows Ron Schiller calling Republicans and members of the tea party movement "xenophobic" and "racist" and saying that NPR would prefer to do without subsidies provided by the federal government. (more) (video)


Point: Be careful, you can never tell when you'll be recorded.

Counterpoint: In less than 24-hours, the spy shop spammers on capitalizing on news.
"Welcome to our newsletter!
Our hidden Cameras are used all over the place.
Read the entire article here:
NPR CEO RESIGNS.
 
To make your own covert recording, buy our hidden video cameras from one of our Delaers here. To become a Dealer just visit www.minigadgets.com and fill in our Dealer profile page."

Security Director Alert: GPS Jammers - The Next Big Threat?

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Security Directors: Give some thought to how GPS is used in your company. Create a plan for when it dies. ~Kevin

Important...

Signals from GPS satellites now help you to call your mother, power your home, and even land your plane – but a cheap plastic box can jam it all... (more) (How GPS works.)

GPS jammers...

One manufacturer claims production of 50,000 units per year. Cheap. (ebay)

FutureWatch...

Although the GPS disruption threat is not new, we are reaching critical mass - product-wise and incentive-wise. The next terrorist, activist, protester, prankster threat - salt an area (like an airport) with hundreds of these. It will take a while to find them all. Have a security plan ready. Idea: Install a GPS frequency monitor alarm in mission critical areas. (advice from Los Alamos National Laboratory) (more)

The Ray Gun is Back...

...and you're going to need more than a tin foil hat this time.

The ray gun has become more than a boyhood fantasy. The Army is quietly working to develop technology with the potential to arm tomorrow's armored combat vehicles with the capability to destroy electronic systems with high-intensity bursts of RF energy. (video)

FutureWatch - Be sure to watch the video. This development is way more important than it first appears. ~Kevin

Like Watching a Train Wreck

Australia - Queensland Rail has released dramatic CCTV footage of people narrowly escaping oncoming trains as part of a new safety campaign. (video)

Bad ass public safety or Jackass via public CCTV? My Australian colleague thinks it might inspire both. He might be right. Let's see what happens if the concept comes to America. 

Wait... 

Remember Signal-30!?!?

U.S. Supreme Court - "No" to Corporate Personal Privacy

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the concept of corporate personal privacy in its decision today in FCC v. AT&T, Inc. AT&T sued to keep records withheld from disclosure under Exemption 7(c) of the Freedom of Information Act, which protects against the unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. AT&T claimed personal privacy protections extend to corporations. In a unanimous decision, the court held that Exemption 7(c) applied to individuals only. (more)

China Helps Build Intelligence Complex for Mugabe

Zimbabwe - Construction of the government’s secret electronic eavesdropping complex just outside Harare is moving at a ‘very fast pace’ SW Radio Africa learned on Thursday.

It’s believed the complex will, amongst many other things, be used to monitor internet use and telephone calls in Zimbabwe. The ‘snooping’ project, according to a source, is to become the government agency that monitors communications around the whole country. (more)

Considering these folks don't even have their own currency anymore, who's paying for this? Why?

Play "Connect the Dots"
Zimbabwe natural resources: Deposits of more than 40 minerals including diamonds, ferrochrome, gold, silver, platinum, copper, asbestos, nickel, graphite, coal, lithium, palladium, vermiculite; 19 million hectares of forest (more) (sing-a-long)

"It all happened after the new Donutland opened."

A random inspection of the electronic surveillance system of the Mumbai police on Wednesday, found that the Global Positioning System (GPS) in as many as 30 vehicles were malfunctioning, or not functioning at all. The faux pas came to the notice of the newly appointed police commissioner Arup Patnaik, who was inspecting the police control room to oversee the working condition as well functioning of the men and the machines deployed therein.

“I was told technical faults in the equipment led to malfunctioning of the GPS system,” Patnaik said. (more)

In other news...

CT - Police in Cheshire said a car crashed into the front of a Dunkin' Donuts on West Main Street on Thursday afternoon. There was no word if anyone was injured in the crash. No other information was available. (more)  Imagine that!

Judith Coplon - Dead at 89

Judith Coplon, a former Justice Department employee who became a sensation in 1949 when she was accused of being a Soviet spy, has died. She was 89.

Coplon, who in later years went by her married name, Judith Socolov, died Saturday in a New York City hospital, said her daughter, Emily Socolov.

As a 28-year-old Justice Department employee, Coplon was caught with secret U.S. documents at a meeting with a Russian agent on a Manhattan street. She claimed she was meeting him only because she loved him, but she was found guilty at two trials.

The convictions were overturned, and the cases were eventually dropped. (more)

"What will Anna Chapman do next?"

Russian spy Anna Chapman is in from the cold and out on the Internet with an official website featuring photos, news and an upbeat message urging Russians to smile and be self-reliant.

The site www.annachapman.ru is the latest venture from Chapman, who has made a media splash since her deportation from the United States in a Cold War-style spy swap last July. (more)

She would have loved Ed Wood.

The Pink Panther Drives Again

France - A top Renault SA official said the French auto maker is no longer certain that its electric-car development efforts were the target of corporate espionage, throwing doubts on a high-profile case that cost three executives their jobs and led the Chinese Foreign Ministry to issue an angry denial of any involvement.

Patrick Pélata, the auto maker's chief operating officer, made the admission in comments that were published Thursday evening on a French newspaper's website. He said the auto maker could have been "tricked" into bringing allegations against three senior managers. His comments added to the mystery of a case that was never fully fleshed out. (more)

The easiest way out? Just... A Shot in the Dark.

Beware the Long Arm of Social Notworking

Tip - Police and prosecutors are quickly learning that online postings can offer useful clues to a suspect's location, motives and acquaintances. (more)

Fark - On-line framing.

Cell Phone + Satellite Phone = TerreStar Genus

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Security Directors -  Please be aware that on the AT&T press release the coverage area is left to your imagination.

"it’s now easier and more convenient than ever before to have mobile coverage in remote locations"

"The access to the TerreStar™ satellite network enables wireless communications coverage in remote areas for government, energy, utility, transportation and maritime users, as well as backup satellite communications capabilities for public safety agencies, first responders and disaster recovery groups."

(My imagination... Satellite=Worldwide, Wrongo.)

According to TerreStar...
"Provides coverage for the Continental United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii and Alaska" Their graphic is accurate. But you have to visit TerreStar to find it out.

A U.S. satellite phone is here — they send a signal directly to a satellite from anywhere with a clear view of the sky without need of a cell tower. But with per-minute fees of $1 or more (sometimes a lot more), you’ll still need a regular mobile phone for everyday use. That means you need two phones. Just what you want when hiking — two weighty pieces of hardware to tote.

But now there is a hybrid mobile-satellite phone, a single device that can connect to either network. Called the TerreStar Genus, this phone is available through AT&T for $1,070 ($800 for small business and government customers).
 
The phone isn’t a brick-sized ruggedized monster, but it’s not exactly svelte either. At 4.7 by 2.5 by 0.8 inches and almost 5 ounces, it’s stolid form and qwerty keyboard will remind you of an overweight BlackBerry. (more)