Android on Security Steroids

PCTEL said Monday that the company had established a supply agreement for the development of a secure Android phone that it will market to government agencies whose employees have "Top Secret" clearance.

The phone will be branded by PCTEL Secure, the partnership between PCTEL and Eclipse Design Technologies, the companies said. The phone, which will be supplied by an unnamed ODM, will contain PCTEL's ProsettaCore solution for thwarting various threats to cell phone security, the company said.

Security will be maintained by a combination of hardware and software, most likely the combination of a plugin SD card and "extensive" software, said Tony Kobrinetz, the vice president of technology and operations for PCTEL. (more)

"Are you a tra- trader if you want to burn money?" - Max Headroom

NJ - Federal prosecutors accused a corporate lawyer and a trader of stealing confidential information about pending mergers and other deals from three prominent law firms in a decades-long scheme that resulted in (they were not just making a little pin money on the side) more than $32 million of profits.

The defendants allegedly used pay phones and prepaid phones paid with cash in order to avoid detection by law enforcement authorities and suspended the alleged scheme for a six-year period out of fear that their alleged criminal activity might be detected, according to a federal criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Newark, New Jersey... 

Mr. Bauer then promised to financial support the co-conspirator if he was charged, saying: "I am sitting with over $20 million in the bank," according to the criminal complaint. He also told him to burn $175,000 from a recent deal, prosecutors said.

"You know what, if you feel better burn the money and I'll give it back to you," Mr. Bauer said, according to the complaint. 

"Burn it?" the co-conspirator said.

"I would burn it...if there is any chance of us getting caught on that," Mr. Bauer said.

(more) (sing-a-long)

SpyCam Story #606 - Another Covert Skype'r

Australia - The Defence Force has confirmed it has called in police to investigate sex allegations made by a first-year female cadet at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.

The 18-year-old, identified as 'Kate', says she had consensual sex with another first-year cadet but it was transmitted by Skype to six cadets in another room without her knowledge. (more)

...thus leaving us all to wonder which one will get their clock cleaned in court.

NY - A major New York watch dealer has been forced out of his home and arrested after his estranged wife accused him of criminally accessing her email account.
 

Evan Zimmermann was arrested late last month in his Manhattan apartment on charges of computer trespass, eavesdropping and unauthorized use of a computer.

According to the New York Post, his wife Jennifer Zimmermann took out the charges in order to gain advantage in their pending divorce and as 'retaliation' for his refusal to move out of their Westchester home.

His lawyer Robert Wolf said: 'The charges are all fabricated, she gave him her password to prove she was not cheating on him.' (more)

Hammacher Schlemmer's World's Best Paper Shredder? You decide.

...which they will gladly sell to you. 

"The Best Cross Cut Shredder"
This shredder earned The Best rating from the Hammacher Schlemmer Institute because it shredded the most sheets at once and cut paper into unrecognizable, 1/8" x 1" pieces. The Best Cross Cut Shredder's steel gears cut credit cards and CDs into miniscule pieces that were impossible to reassemble or decipher.

Testing Criteria
A consumer panel determined that security, ease of use, shredding capacity, and quietness were the most important attributes when purchasing a cross cut shredder. The importance of each category was weighted proportionally during the Hammacher Schlemmer Institute's tests.


Test Methodology
Security: Analysts shredded paper and CDs with each model and measured the shreds to determine which unit provided the best security.

Ease of Use: The shredders were rated on how easily they accepted paper, maneuverability, and how easy it was to empty each unit's receptacle.

Shredding Capacity: Analysts determined the maximum number of 20-lb. bond paper sheets each model could shred at one time.

Quietness: A digital sound meter was used to measure the amount of noise produced by each shredder.

Additional Paper Shredder Resources
• "How to Choose A Shredder" - Dahle
(Hint: Crosscut not Stripcut. Always.)
• Lynde-Ordway
• ABCO Office Solutions
• Advantage Business Equipment
• Allegheny Paper Shredders
• Ameri-Shred
• Capital Shredder Corp
• Cummins Allison Corporation
• Dahle USA
• ECCO Business Systems
• Fellowes Manufacturing Company
• Ideal
• Industrial Paper Shredders, Inc.
• Intimus Paper Shredders
• MBM Corporation (Destroyit)
• Security Engineered Machinery
• Whitaker Brothers
• General search (Yahoo)

Never Get a Blocked Caller ID on Your SmartPhone Again

If you have an iPhone, Android or Blackberry... and are willing to spend $5.00 per month for the service, you can defeat Caller ID blocking. Just remember, it can be used against you, if someone else is willing to pay.

TrapCall has just been placed in the iPhone apps store. (more)

Gucci, gucci, goo... - LAN Man Gums Up Works

NY - A former Gucci America Inc. computer network engineer was charged with remotely taking over the company's computers, shutting down servers and deleting emails, Manhattan prosecutors said on Monday.

Sam Chihlung Yun, 34 years old, allegedly created an account in the name of a fictional employee and used it to access the company's network after he was fired in May 2010, prosecutors said. He allegedly caused more than $200,000 in diminished productivity, as well as remediation costs, prosecutors said. (more)

"The world’s #1 private investigation team, EVER!"

Hey, that's how What's Your Problem? is billed. It's an amusing independent film about a private investigations firm, but I'll let the folks at Grey Sky Films speak for themselves...

"The world’s #1 private investigation team, EVER! This was a short comedy film that we wrote, produced, directed, and edited ourselves in 2006 and released in January 2007. The film features current Grey Sky Films team member Matt Horutz who also co-wrote and co-produced the film as well. What’s Your Problem? was accepted into a few film festivals and now can be seen on DVD. If you ask us very nicely we will send you a copy – get in touch!"

Did you get that!

A free DVD.

Wow, better than Netflix!

Why do I mention this? The free DVD, of course, but many of my Scrapbook reader friends are in business for themselves (like real PI's), and they are always looking for marketing tips. Here's a tip. Video. People don't have time to read your message right off the bat. But they will watch something to see if it catches their interest.

Grey Sky Films create quality videos, at surprisingly low cost. How do I know? They did mine! And no, I didn't get a discount or any other favor. I am just a satisfied customer spouting off. Use anybody you like, but do it. Market with video. It's fun. It works.

Here's the guy who helped me ...and can get you the free DVD. Dan Hollis is a real gentleman and is a deep well of movie / entertainment trivia knowledge. Send him your trivia questions, you'll see. He is also the answer man for your video marketing questions. The rest of the gang? Well, they are just as much fun as they look.

This Week in World Spy News

The Pakistani government has given another one-year extension to the chief of its powerful spy organization, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. (more)

Musa Kusa, the former Libyan intelligence chief who defected to Britain, was acting as a double agent for the MI6 and the CIA for a decade, an official said. (more)

The recently exposed Iranian spy network could just be the tip of the iceberg, a part of Iran’s larger conspiracy against Kuwait and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Al-Seyassah daily quoted a high-level security source as saying. (more)

Australia (sports spy) - Melbourne and Hawthorn have re-ignited their spy games as the two clubs prepare for the twilight clash at the MCG today. The Demons asked a Hawthorn spy to leave a closed Melbourne training session at Casey Fields in Cranbourne on Friday after he was caught monitoring the Demons from up a tree. (more)

The U.S. military likes to be a little sneaky with its robotic space planes. Unlike typical spacecraft, these vehicles can shift their orbits, frustrating the global network of skywatchers who keep track of just about every man-made object rotating the planet. But the sleuths have their tricks, too. They’ve tracked down the X-37B on its second secret mission. And the information the skywatchers are finding says quite a bit about the classified operations of this mysterious spacecraft. (more)

A federal class action claims that 3-D software developer Transmagic secretly planted surveillance technology in its software that "commandeered the computers of its customers, spied on them, and used the ill-gotten intelligence to build a recurring revenue stream exacted from an involuntary customer base." (more)

As Water Seeks its Own Level... Watergate Redux

CA - Most presidential libraries are as much celebrations of a president as historical repositories. They are packed with official papers, photographs, limousines, proclamations and baby shoes representing the president’s life and times; dark chapters are traditionally ignored or at least understated.

That tradition was exploded Thursday as the Watergate Gallery opened here at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. The unveiling ended a nearly yearlong struggle between national archivists and the Richard Nixon Foundation, a group of Nixon loyalists who controlled the former president’s papers until ceding them to the National Archives four years ago. The fight was over how to portray the scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation.

From the first words a visitor sees entering the gallery — a quotation from Nixon, “This is a conspiracy” — the exhibit offers a searing and often unforgiving account of one of the most painful chapters of the nation’s history. The timeline methodically chronicles the stream of misdeeds leading up to the Watergate break-in, followed by the attempts to cover it up, which led to Nixon’s resignation.

It is a far cry from the library’s original Watergate exhibition, “The Last Campaign,” created by the Nixon Foundation with the former president’s direct involvement. That installment portrayed Watergate as an orchestrated effort by Democrats to overturn the 1972 election. (more)

Security Director Report - Emergency Satellite Phone Review

There are 3 main choices in "global" satellite phones. Here is a quick summary. 
(If you only need coverage in specific regions contact me and I'll fill you in on your other options.)

click to enlarge

• Globalstar (partial global coverage - low Earth orbit satellites)The map above shows expected coverage for all USA Globalstar satellite phone subscribers using the Globalstar GSP phone series. For customers using the Globalstar FAU-200 fixed satellite phone calls can be placed from US/Caribbean Home Service Area and Canada to any standard phone number in the world.

Airtime minutes included in the Globalstar satellite phone service plans only apply to the United States and Caribbean Home Service Area. Roaming rates apply outside of the United States and Caribbean.

The Globalstar GSP-1700 satellite phone offers an ergonomic design that makes it comfortable for hand-held operation. The phone measures 225cc in total volume and weighs 200 grams (including battery). The height is 135 mm, the width is 55 mm and the thickness is 37 mm. The satellite antenna, when held in a vertical position, communicates with the Globalstar satellite at elevations more than 10 degrees above the horizon. The Globalstar antenna rotates and stows into the handset for convenience when not in use.

• Inmarsat (global - excepting polar regions - geosynchronous satellites)

click to enlarge

Inmarsat IsatPhone Pro, LandPhone, and FleetPhone Coverage

The map depicts Inmarsat's expectations of coverage, but does not represent a guarantee of service. The availability of service at the edge of coverage fluctuates depending on various conditions.

"The new IsatPhone satellite cell phone provides voice and data over the I4 satellite network. This is the newest satellite phone on the market, now providing some competition with Iridium.

The IsatPhone Pro, using high quality satellite phone service from Inmarsat, currently provides coverage over the entire planet, except the polar regions, using Inmarsat's latest generation Inmarsat-4 satellite network.  This phone is packed with features and compares very competitively with satellite cell phone offerings from Iridum.

The Isatphone Pro is an affordable satellite cell phone option for people who work, live, or travel to areas where communication may be non-existent or emergency back up communications is needed.  The Isatphone Pro is one of the smallest satellite phones on the market today.  It is easy to use, lightweight, and rugged. It even has a built-in GPS receiver. Your can text or email your position!" 

• Iridium (fully global - low Earth orbit satellites)

This is the smallest of the Iridium handsets.

"Iridium provides complete coverage of all ocean areas, air routes and all landmasses - even the Poles. Iridium delivers essential services to users who need communications access to and from remote areas where no other form of communication is available. Select from our range of Iridium satellite phone rental or Iridium satellite phone purchase solutions, and we will deliver a ready-to-use handheld IRIDIUM Satellite Phone kit to you overnight anywhere across North America.

Standard Voice Services

The Iridium system provides true global voice services by covering areas that cellular and landline do not. Voice services are supported using the smaller, lighter, water resistant 9505 satellite phone. The excellent signal strength provided by the Iridium constellation supports reliable connectivity across wide ranging landscapes and situations.

The three Restricted Countries where the Iridium phone will not complete a call to the local phone system are: N. Korea, Poland, and Hungary.

The embargoed countries where a satellite phone will work in these countries (we cannot guarantee service), but there (may be) issues taking an Iridium phone into these areas at customs/border patrols: Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Angola & Yugoslavia. You may need special government permission to bring a satellite phone into embargoed countries.

The Iridium 9555 satellite phone is designed to withstand the toughest environments and will work from anywhere on the planet to anywhere. All that is required is a clear view of sky.

Users can choose from prepaid service plans or monthly service plans to complete the package. With Irdium there are no roaming and no long distance charges, just one simple rate."

I'll keep you posted on worthwhile advancements as they emerge. ~Kevin

Data courtesy of: http://www.globalcomsatphone.com

eBlaster'ed Wife Kicks Butt

TX - An Austin man is accused of spying on the e-mails of his estranged wife and one of her friends, using the information to build a case for divorce...

Austin police investigators charged Karl Redden Dalley, 41, with unlawful interception of electronic communication -- a second-degree felony. He allegedly spied throughout much of 2010.

Investigators said Dalley used eBlaster, made by SpectorSoft , to monitor his wife's e-mails from their home computer. They also claim he used the same software to spy on a computer at an Austin karate school.

Police said Dalley's wife also claimed her estranged husband used photos from her cell phone as evidence during their divorce proceeding in November 2010.

Police first learned of the case in February 2010, when Dalley's wife told them that he had sent an e-mail to all of the brown and black belts in the Austin area karate school. Dalley's wife was an instructor there, and the e-mail accused her of having an affair with the school's president. (more)

Cell Phone Panic Button App

There's a new app being developed by the U.S. Government and it seems like everyone should want to add it to their phone for all kinds of different reasons. If a cell phone is confiscated by police or government agency, the panic button app will wipe the cell phone's address book, history, text messages and broadcast the arrest as an emergency alert to fellow activists...

 Since 2008, the U.S. has budgeted about $50 million to promote new tech to help out social activists. Secretary Hillary Clinton is behind the U.S. technology initiative to "expand Internet freedoms." (more)

Several cell phone operating systems, like iPhone's iOS, already have a similar capability built in. The emergency broadcast is a new twist... but would that identify who all the cohorts are?

Security Tip - $5 p/m Stolen Laptop Solution

Eighteen-year-old "technology entrepreneur" and Bentley College student Mark Bao had his MacBook Air stolen in February. Unlike other bright-eyed college freshmen, Bao didn't write his laptop off as gone forever (ok, maybe he did--he went out and purchased another laptop the very same night it was stolen), he set out to find the thief.

Using online backup software BackBlaze that he'd installed on his laptop, Bao was able to see the machine's browser history and track any hard drive updates.

"Woah. Thanks to @Backblaze, I think I might be able to figure out who stole my MacBook Air at college. Creeping through the Safari history!" Bao Tweeted on March 19.

(D'oh!)

Apparently the first thing the thief did was take a photo of himself using the laptop's Photo Booth program... After discovering the photo, Bao discovered a video the thief had taken of himself dancing to Tyga's "Make it Rain." Bao uploaded the video to Vimeo, managed to hunt down the guy's Facebook page using the aforementioned Safari history, and then turned everything over to the police. 

Bao told the Daily Mail that he holds no grudges against the thief, because "I don't have time nor patience to. There are more important things in life." Mark no longer has any use for his old laptop, so he's selling it and donating the proceeds to the Red Cross Japan fund. (more)

Security Tip - Free Program Protects USB Ports from Maleware Infections

Did you find a USB memory stick and are afraid to plug it in? (good)

Does your friend want to insert their (possibly infected) drive into your computer? 

Panda USB Vaccine may help...

There is an increasing amount of malware which, like the dangerous Conficker worm, spreads via removable devices and drives such as memory sticks, MP3 players, digital cameras, etc. To do this, these malicious codes modify the AutoRun file on these devices.

Panda USB Vaccine is a free antimalware solution designed to protect against this threat. It offers a double layer of preventive protection, allowing users to disable the AutoRun feature on computers as well as on USB drives and other devices:

Vaccine for computers: This is a ‘vaccine' for computers to prevent any AutoRun file from running, regardless of whether the device (memory stick, CD, etc.) is infected or not.

Vaccine for USB devices: This is a ‘vaccine' for removable USB devices, preventing the AutoRun file from becoming a source of infection. The tool disables this file so it cannot be read, modified or replaced by malicious code.

This is a very useful tool as there is no simple way of disabling the AutoRun feature in Windows. This provides users with a simple way of disabling this feature, offering a high degree of protection against infections from removable drives and devices.

You can download Panda USB Vaccine free here.