SpyCam Story #611 - The Mac Attacker

He was hired to fix their computers, but police say that Trevor Harwell instead installed spyware software that took candid photos of his clients in various states of undress.

Trevor Harwell had been a Macintosh specialist with a Los Angeles-area home computer repair company called Rezitech. That's how he allegedly had the opportunity to install the spy software, called Camcapture, on computers.

While working on repair assignments, the 20-year-old technician secretly set up a complex system that could notify him whenever it was ready to snap a shot using the computer's webcam, according to Sergeant Andrew Goodrich, a spokesman with the Fullerton Police Department in California. "It would let his server know that the victim's machine was on. The server would then notify his smartphone... and then the images were recorded on his home computer," he said.

Police say they've found thousands of images on Harwell's computers and have identified dozens of victims, all of them women in Los Angeles and Orange County. Harwell was arrested Wednesday by Fullerton police.

Harwell was formerly a student at Biola University, a small Christian university in southern California. Many of the victims were Biola students and Harwell may have compromised university systems as well, police said. (more)

NLJD "Test Target" for TSCM Reverse Engineered

Ok, I know not everyone will "get" this, but the TSCM'ers in our readership will. Everyone else, go read the next post.

Thanks to our respected Canadian colleague for pointing this out.

Disclaimer: I will not be responsible if you read this and die laughing. You have been warned. DO NOT read this if you have a weak heart. 

This week on eBay...

NLJD “TEST TARGET” TSCM

Reverse Engineered...
$0.00 - Paint Stick (free at any paint store)
$0.35 - Diode
$0.00 - Can of paint bought for some other reason.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

$69.00 - "Buy It Now" on eBay... priceless!

$8.00 - Expedited Shipping

Of course, the reverse engineering above is just wild speculation. It is possible that the stick is rare Anigre wood, the diode is actually a specially designed array which was painstakingly tuned to provide an even 360º sphere of sensitivity with a tolerance of +/- .0045%, and all this was encased in an environmentally sealed protective coating – impervious to everything except NLJD emissions.

PrivateEye Software - Automatic Screen Shield - Major Price Drop

When this product was first pitched to the government a few years back it was about $49.95. TODAY - $1.99!!! 

These guys are brilliant, on two counts. 

1. This is a really clever, innovative security solution that works. 

2. They are really trying to sell the enterprise solution of this software... by practically giving away free individual samples to seed the marketplace.

End result. Everyone wins.

BTW, I am not affiliated in any way with any of the products I discuss here. I paid for the original version of PrivateEye I tested. I just paid for the upgrade to test that version. 

I love showing off new software and gadgets to my clients. Just after "Hello" comes "What cool stuff did you bring to show me this time, Kevin?" 

Let's review... 

"How can I stop shoulder surfers from reading my computer screen? The polarized screen thing makes me look like a paranoid dork."

Kevin says... Funny you should ask. I recently purchased some computer screen security software for testing, PrivateEyes from Oculis Labs. It works eerily well. All you need is a computer screen with a video camera and Windows. 

During the simple setup, the software learns who you are by looking at your face. From that point on, the screen automatically blurs unless you are looking directly at it. Turn to answer a phone call, or talk to someone nearby – BLURRR goes the screen. 

"What if someone sneaks up behind me?" I hear you say. No problem. When it sees an extra set of eyes – BLURRR.

Pro: The BLURRR effect changes quickly.

Con: Doesn't work as well in a high contrast environment.
The upgrade seems to have fixed this. Still testing.

PrivateEyes would also make an awesome IT guy gag. "I don't know. Your computer screen looks sharp and clear to me. Maybe you should get your eyes checked."

FREE 30-day trial, or just buy it for $1.99

"Is that an EB200 with directional antenna, or are you just glad I'm not cheating on you?"

Priming the U.S. market for TSCM practitioners coming out of the darkness of their covert inspections for bugging devices, Chinese police show that techno-proctoring school exams is a viable service.

 China's Education Ministry says police have detained 62 people for selling wireless headphones, two-way radios and other electronic devices to cheat on this week's nationwide college entrance exam. (more)

In a strange twist of fate, a man is brought to court on wiretapping charges because of a law passed at his brother's urging, a brother often burned by electronic surveillance revelations in the media and currently engulfed in his own legal quagmire because of them.

Italy - A judge in the northern city of Milan on Friday sent Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's brother to trial for the illegal publication of a wiretapped phone conversation in conservative Italian daily Il Giornale. (more)

Finally, Something in the Smoke-Filled Room that Actually Works

NC - North Carolina House Republicans caucused Friday at the state capitol. These meetings are essentially strategy sessions that are closed to the public. But unbeknownst to lawmakers, the media was able to listen in. WFAE's Greg Collard reports. 

About 20 minutes into the meeting, a lawmaker walked up to a microphone and asked, "Is this working?"

Was it ever.

The meeting took place in a legislative committee room where debate during public meetings is streamed on the web. There's also a feed to the press room.

These feeds are turned off when the political parties caucus. But today, the feed to the press room stayed hot.

So reporters listened in, recorded and posted the audio of a rare behind-the-scenes look at the political process. (more)

"How I lost three fingers making a cupcake bomb in the kitchen of my mom."

British intelligence agents have hacked into the online magazine of the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda and sabotaged an article on bomb making, a government official said Friday. 

The English-language magazine Inspire had published an article last year titled “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.” The agents, reportedly working for Britain’s eavesdropping agency, replaced the instructions with a recipe for cupcakes. (more) (cupcake cannon video)

The Future of Warrantless GPS Tracking in Doubt

DE - A criminal case making its way to the Delaware Supreme Court could help define personal privacy and set limits on how far police can go when using electronic surveillance in Delaware and perhaps across the United States.

The American Civil Liberties Union this week filed a brief in Delaware v. Michael D. Holden, urging the state justices to uphold a lower court ruling that essentially bars police from using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to track people without a court-approved warrant.

Holden, 28 of Newark, was suspected of being a drug dealer and was electronically tracked for more than 20 days by police without a warrant, ending with his arrest after police discovered 10 pounds of marijuana in his vehicle after he visited a suspected drug distribution house. The judge in the case tossed out the drug evidence, ruling that the lengthy warrantless tracking of Holden amounted to an illegal search.

In its brief, the ACLU notes the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet ruled on this issue and legal experts agreed the state case could be part of a growing national debate over the reach of technology versus the boundaries of privacy.

The case will likely turn on the concept of the "reasonable expectation of privacy," said defense attorney and former prosecutor Peter N. Letang. (more)

What Will Anna Chapman Do Next?

Move over, TechCrunch and watch your back, Wired. The voracious self-promotion empire that is Russian spy babe Anna Chapman now claims another conquest. Russia’s sweetheart and America’s favorite deportee is taking over the reins as editor for a small venture capital newspaper.

Yes, hard as it may be to believe, a Putin ally from the intelligences services has found success in Russian business, politics and, now, media. Chapman will take over as editor of the Russian-language Venture Business News, a publication covering the world of venture capital. We’ll also be treated to Anna’s musings on matters economic in a weekly column, Field News. (more)

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."

• Trademarked her name to pimp eight lines of merchandise, including vodka, clothing and watches.

• Assist the Russian space agency in designing a stylish new uniform for its personnel.

• Will run for Parliament in her native Russia. (No word on how this is working out.)

• And now, editor of a newspaper.

So, what have you done since last July?

Slacker Sack becomes Instant Private Meeting

All of us feel the need to make like an ostrich and hide from the world around us now and then. Could this be the answer? Lying somewhere between a travel cushion and a soft bag to put over your head, the OSTRICH is a design concept that aims to provide a portable retreat from any waking daytime environment where the stresses and strains of the day can melt away. (more) (more) 

Not being one to let a bad concept lay an egg, the scientists at the Spybusters Countermeasures Compound put their heads together and created the electronic surveillance resistant Instant Private Meeting.

Corporate Spying: The Next Growth Industry

via economywatch.com...

The corporate spying business is booming. The largest companies around the world are all involved in “competitive intelligence gathering” by highly trained professionals according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"Corporations have people trained to obtain raw data from a wide range of sources* and apply traditional intelligence analysis techniques to produce usable information," PwC dispute analysis and investigations director Richard Batten said. (more)

* electronic surveillance, dumspter diving, social engineering, decaying perimeter security measures, lack of (or ignored) information security policies, etc. — All are things a good counterespionage consulting specialist will address for you.

It's One Thing If You Lose Your Wallet...

It's another thing if Google loses it... 

"Your phone will be your wallet." That's what Google's promising with Google Wallet and Google Offers, which'll combine payments and deals in one neat package. And it's a pretty compelling little vision of the future of paying for stuff.

Google Wallet isn't really one thing, so much as a bundle things tied together in one package. It's an Android app. It's a way for you to pay for things with your credit or debit cards, using your phone. It's a coupon collector and loyalty card system. It's another way for merchants to let you pay and offer up deals. It hooks into other Google services, like Shopper (which shows you nearby deals) and Google Offers. And Google is planning for it to eventually store everything you'd keep in a wallet. (more)


It's the future. 
No escaping it. 
Déjà vu time. 
"With new conveniences comes new security vulnerabilities."

Two CyberWar Hacking Stories. Just Coincidence? You decide.

China has admitted for the first time that it had poured massive investment into the formation of a 30-strong commando unit of cyberwarriors - a team supposedly trained to protect the People's Liberation Army from outside assault on its networks.

While the unit, known as the "Blue Army", is nominally defensive, the revelation is likely to confirm the worst fears of governments across the globe who already suspect that their systems and secrets may come under regular and co-ordinated Chinese cyberattack.

In a chilling reminder of China's potential cyberwarfare capabilities, a former PLA general told The Times that the unit had been drawn from an exceptionally deep talent pool. "It is just like ping-pong. We have more people playing it, so we are very good at it," he said. (more)

Lockheed Martin Cyber Attack: Routine, a Warning or a Possible Act of War?

Last Thursday, Reuters ran a story that the US defense firm Lockheed Martin was experiencing a major disruption to its computer systems because of cyber attack.

The Reuters story said that the attack began the weekend before and indicated that it involved the company's SecurID tokens which allow Lockheed's 126,000 employees "... to access Lockheed's internal network from outside its firewall."

As a result of the attack, Lockheed reset all of its employees' passwords.

Thought Wall Stickers:
• "You have no idea how many people are freaked out right now [about the SecurID breach] ... TASC is no longer treating the RSA device as if it were as secure as it was beforehand."

• As one military official in the WSJ article stated it: "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks."

A while back, I visited the new Cyber-war exhibit at the Spy Museum in DC. It was about just this sort of thing, and the consequences of remotely destroying electrical generators using code. The outcome is very scary. Glad to see folks waking up and smelling the coffee.

The hackers have done us a favor, this time. ~Kevin

Aerial Espionage is No Longer an Obvious Piper Cub Buzzing Your Plant

Pix4uav provides hands free solutions for UAV imagery. The processing includes the automatic external and internal orientation of the input images, the computation of an orthographic image, its robust geo-referencing and the creation of digital surface models.

This functionality is provided by a fast cloud service, a private server solution that can be placed in your office as well as a light version that can run on your laptop with basic functionality. (more)

In other words... 

Aerial surveillance is now being accomplished in 3D, using stealth model aircraft with a semi-silent electric motor, by a guy working out of the trunk of his car, a mile away. If intelligence can be gleaned about your company, manufacturing processes, work force size, stockpiles, and interior open spaces... you need to think about some countermeasures. Contact a professional counterespionage specialist for assistance.

CONTEST: The Tunny Machine Missing Diagrams Question

(WE HAVE A WINNER. DF from Canada.)

UK - The National Museum of Computing has finished restoring a Tunny machine - a key part of Allied code-cracking during World War II.

Tunny machines helped to unscramble Allied interceptions of the encrypted orders Hitler sent to his generals.

The rebuild was completed even though almost no circuit diagrams or parts of the original machines survived...

The first Tunny machine was built in 1942 by mathematician Bill Tutte. He drew up plans for it after analysing intercepted encrypted radio signals Hitler was sending to the Nazi high command. (more)

CONTEST: What happened to the original circuit diagrams?

PRIZE: First correct answer wins an autographed copy of "Is My Cell Phone Bugged? Everything you need to know to keep your mobile communications private."