Jersey Girls Spy Hard - Court Approves their Private GPS Spying

NJ - Appellate court in New Jersey sees no issue with private use of GPS devices to secretly track motorists. 

Police are not alone in the ability to secretly use GPS devices to track someone without his knowledge, the New Jersey Superior Court's Appellate Division ruled Thursday. 

A three-judge panel made this decision in the context of a privacy invasion suit brought by Kenneth R. Villanova against Innovative Investigations Inc after his now ex-wife hired the private-eye company to spy on him. She intended to document alleged infidelities prior to filing for divorce in May 2008. At the firm's suggestion, Villanova's wife installed the tracking device on her husband's GMC Yukon-Denali which followed the vehicle's every move for forty days. (more) Villanova v. Innovative Investigations (New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division, 7/7/2011)

Psst... Wanna buy some spy HQ blueprints?

Germany is investigating reports that a set of blueprints its future BND spy headquarters under construction in Berlin may have been missing for up to a year.

Several media were citing a German-language report in Focus magazine which, if confirmed, would likely pose a serious security risk — and be a huge embarrassment for the spy agency.

According to the Telegraph: The plans for the new building included details on alarms, emergency exits, wall thickness and the locking systems designed to protect the 4,000 personnel who will work there. Focus also said the blueprints could have been missing for a year before anyone noticed their absence. (more)

Oh, like this has never happened before... 
UK - DETAILED top-secret plans of MI5's fortress HQ have been sensationally handed to News of the World.

The lost 66-page dossier of floor layouts—once used by trusted CONTRACTORS at the high-security Central London base—would be gold dust to terrorists.

The plans were given to us by a worried member of the public, who got them from a friend who worked at the building and never handed them back. (more)

Keep the Guards Awake - Make them Wear Point & Shoot BulletCams

12 Megapixel 1/2.5 HD CMOS Sensor

• HD Video Resolution 720p (1280x720 Pixel)
• 170° Wide angle
• 10 m water proof
• With Photo Capture Mode:Camera takes a photo every 3 seconds
• Aluminum housing

Top-Details

• High Definition Camcorder 1,280 x 720, 30 fps
• Up to 2 h battery power
• Incl. 4 GB Micro-SD Card
• Incl. splash-proof camera head for improved sound recordings
• Incl. adapter for helmet, goggles, handle bar, 360° universal mount, case, USB cable, power adapter, sealants, lithium-ion battery

Technical features

• Image sensor 12 Megapixel 1/2.5 HD CMOS Sensor
• Objective 170° Wide Angle | Aperture: f = 2.8
• Memory Slot for Micro-SD Card up to 32 GB
• Data format Movie: MPEG codec , AVI file format
• System requierements PC: MS Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7 | Mac 10.6.6
• Connectors Mini USB 2.0
• Battery Life Video up to 2 hours with Micro-SD card 32 GB/Class 6
• Power rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
• Dimensions approx. 90 x 30 x 10 mm
• Weight approx. 83 g (without battery)

Alert: ZeuS Trojan Runs on Android Phones - Steals Bank Passcodes

via Krebs on Security...

Criminals have developed a component of the ZeuS Trojan designed to run on Google Android phones. The new strain of malware comes as security experts are warning about the threat from mobile malware that may use tainted ads and drive-by downloads.

Researchers at Fortinet said the malicious file is a new version of "Zitmo," a family of mobile malware first spotted last year that stands for "ZeuS in the mobile." The Zitmo variant, disguised as a security application, is designed to intercept the one-time passcodes that banks send to mobile users as an added security feature. It masquerades as a component of Rapport, a banking activation application from Trusteer. Once installed, the malware lies in wait for incoming text messages, and forwards them to a remote Web server. (more)

When Computer Spy Art is Not Smart

Artist Kyle McDonald put a strange art project into practice when he installed what amounts to surveillance software on the public computers at an Apple store and used the images collected to create a presentation that he hoped would give us, by the facial expressions captured, insight into our relationship with the computers we use...

McDonald figured that Apple had decided the program wasn't a big deal. That was until four Secret Service men in suits woke him up on Thursday morning with a search warrant for computer fraud. They confiscated two computers, an iPod and two flash drives, and told McDonald that Apple would contact him separately. (more)

People Staring at Computers from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo. 

Dude, next time just Christo the store.

Need Expert Police & Security Advice? Check Police-Writers.com

Police-Writers.com was founded by Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.).  An educator and prolific writer himself, Lt. Foster observed that many of the best people in law enforcement were sharing their expertise by writing books. He also recognized that their works needed a headquarters to be easily found. Hence, Police-Writers.com.

The book isles include diverse topic sections, such as:

Academic

Advancement and Promotion

African American Law Enforcement Writers

Biographical

Becoming a Police Officer

Children's Books

Community Policing

Corruption and Misconduct

Crime Analysis

Crime Prevention

Criminal Investigations

Ethics

Fiction

Firearms

Forensic Science and Crime Scenes

Juveniles (Prevention, Crime and Investigations)

Law Enforcement History

Law Enforcement Jobs

Law Enforcement Stress

Law Enforcement Technology

Leadership, Management and Supervision

Legal Resources

Other

Police Humor

Police Officer Survival

Police Spirituality and Religion

Private Security

Report Writing

Spanish Language Resources

Tactical

Terrorism

Traffic Collision Investigations

True Crime

Women Police Officers

Historically, a listing in Police-Writers.com was only granted to "anyone person who completed their probationary period in a state or local police or law enforcement organization." This has recently been expanded to include Other Law Enforcement Writers including Security Professionals, thus making the site an even more valuable repository of expertise.

As Mr. Peabody might say, "This is a site you should ...bookmark!"

Hacked Off - SuperSized - 9 Becomes Almost 4000

UK - Scotland Yard on Thursday night admitted that almost 4,000 people may have had their phones hacked by the News of the World's private investigator, placing further strain on the testimony of senior officers to Parliament that there were only a handful of victims.

In a statement, deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers, indicated that the new investigation into the illegal eavesdropping of mobile phone messages was struggling to deal with the mass of evidence of wrongdoing contained in Glenn Mulcaire's notebooks. 

The Yard's latest statement sharply contrasts with the evidence given by Andy Hayman, the officer who led the original investigation into Mulcaire's activities in 2006-07, which led to prosecutions regarding nine victims, including three Royal aides. (more)

Hacked Off - Is Your Cell Phone Next?

If the cellphone hacking scandal that caused the downfall of Britain's best-selling tabloid, News of the World, made you wonder about your own vulnerability, consider these statistics.

Globally, telecommunications-fraud losses, which includes cases of mobile-phone fraud, were estimated to hit $72 billion to $80 billion in 2009, up 34 percent from 2005, according to a 2009 survey of security experts from the Roseland, N.J.,-based Communications Fraud Control Association. Hacking alone accounted for $3.2 billion in losses for the telecom industry, says CFCA. What's more, the problems have likely only expanded as smartphone use has escalated. (more)

Goodbye Cricket. Hello, Whack-A-Hack-A-Phone

UK - The news keeps getting worse for News Corp. The phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed the company has now spread to The Sunday Times, the British broadsheet that has long been one of Rupert Murdoch's “quality” newspapers.

News Corp.'s daily tabloid The Sun has also been implicated, according to the Guardian, which reported Monday that both newspapers targeted the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. (more)

Not one to be one-upped by British hack(ing) journalists...

ZombiePhone

Korea - The police and public broadcaster KBS are in a bitter tug-of-war over a reporter’s suspected bugging of the opposition Democratic Party.

Last Friday, police officers searched the journalist’s home and seized his laptop, mobile phone and portable recorder. The broadcaster angrily responded, saying the act ``insulted” KBS and ``infringed on” press freedom.

In a duel between a powerful state organ and a media outlet, one tends to side with the latter. Not in this case. In all likelihood, the public broadcaster is hiding something.

Instead of flatly denying the suspicions of eavesdropping by its employee ― and proving it ― KBS said he did not bug the office of DP Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu in the way the DP and the police allege (by, for instance, using a wireless microphone). DP officials testified the KBS reporter retrieved his cell phone that he (deliberately) left in Sohn’s room. (more)

Business Espionage - Biting the Apple Can Get You Expelled

A technology executive charged with leaking sensitive information about Apple products to hedge fund traders pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Manhattan, the latest guilty plea in the government’s crackdown on insider trading facilitated by so-called expert networks...

Walter Shimoon, a former employee at electronic manufacturer Flextronics, is the 12th person to plead guilty in the government’s investigation of expert network firms...

In addition to sales figures, prosecutors said Mr. Shimoon also tipped a cooperating witness to Apple’s plans to develop a new iPhone. But later in the call, according to a transcript from prosecutors, Mr. Shimoon leaked word of an even more secret product in development, the iPad, which at the time was referred to as K48.

“So, you can get, at Apple you can get fired for saying K48…outside of a, you know, outside of a meeting that doesn’t have K48 people in it,” he told a cooperating witness, according to taped calls. “That’s how crazy they are about it.” (more)

Take a tip from Apple. Buy yourself a business counterespionage program. Shop here.

Phone Hacking Kills a Multi-Million Dollar Business

News Corp.’s News International unit announced that it will shut down its News of the World tabloid, and that this Sunday’s edition will be the last one, amid a deepening phone-hacking scandal... The News of the World is the U.K.'s best-selling Sunday paper, with an average circulation of 3.7 million people, according to analysis firm TGI. (more)

The alternative... Being sued out of business? FutureWatch - News of the Universe 

Why this is important to you... You are responsible for your employee's actions. Ethics, like security is a top-down corporate culture. A strong corporate counterespionage program sends two messages: spying is not tolerated (in either direction), and employees are obligated to pro-actively protect corporate intellectual assets. One visible reminder of this are the corporation's quarterly audits for electronic eavesdropping devices. (more)

Apple Cedes to Patch

Apple Inc. said Thursday it is working to resolve a security hole in its iPhone and other mobile products that German authorities warned could allow cyber criminals to access confidential information or intercept phone conversations.

Users are particularly vulnerable when they view Portable Document Format, or PDF, files, which give attackers an opportunity to infect the devices with malicious software, giving them administrative rights to the device, the German Federal Office for Information Security said Wednesday.

Once the device is infected, cyber criminals could read confident information such as passwords, online-banking data, calendars, e-mails and other information, as well as intercept telephone conversations and the location of the user. The security hole is present in several versions of Apple's iOS software on its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch products, the agency added. (more)

It Was 1984 When 'Runaway' Predicted Our Robotic Future

This beer can-sized gadget is one of the most surprising military inventions ever. Launched from a cannon, it allows to infiltrate any pirate’s ship with ease. Jack Sparrow, beware! 

Recon-Bot by American manufacturer Recon Robotics is truly amazing. It’s durable enough to be fired from a cannon. 

When it gets to the ship it was aimed at (pirate, most likely) it sticks magnetically to the ship’s side and climbs it all the way up. Being so tiny, it’s perhaps hardly noticeable. Recon Robotics describes it “marsupial”, because there’s another bot, equipped with an infrared camera, nesting inside the bigger one.

When the smaller robot is deployed on the board, it wanders around looking for pirates, hostages, illegal cargo, etc. and sends the footage to the operator. The Recon-Bot is most likely launched from a remote controlled unmanned vessel, allowing very quiet operations. (more)

And, other uses...

Runaway

If You See Your Password Here - Your Account Was Hacked

via consumerist.com...

Stare agog as all the the passwords released in the Sony LulzSec breach race past your eyes in this video.

In it, the computer shows and reads aloud all the passwords, one password per frame. If you're actually able to make out a word or a series of numbers, then that means it's a string being used by more than one person as their password.

Watching some of it might make you want to revaluate your password creation system. Do you see your password in there? Here's advice on creating a strong password that's unique to every site you visit, yet you'll never have a problem remembering. (more)