Today in Spy History

On Aug. 9, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal. (more)

Faulty Towers, or The Young Ones strike back

Scarborough bed-and-breakfast owner Paul Williams has been jailed for 18 weeks for spying on his guests through secret peepholes and making audio recordings of their most intimate moments.

Paul Williams, 60, watched three couple from holes which he had drilled in the doors of the rooms at his bed-and-breakfast in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

He was discovered when one of his victims, a 16-year-old student, spotted a poster placed over one of the holes begin to move. Her boyfriend investigated and found a hole which provided a view directly on to the bed. He then heard movement in the corridor outside and discovered Williams who was wearing just a dressing gown.

Audio recording equipment was then discovered at the Sandsea guest house. Guests were left feeling ''sick and horrified'' when they discovered what had happened.

Williams, of Devonshire Drive, Scarborough, pleaded guilty to charges of voyeurism and was sentenced at the town's magistrates' court today. (more)

Blackmail She Wrote - 'Explosive' Jackie O Tapes to Be Released

Jackie Onassis believed that Lyndon B Johnson and a cabal of Texas tycoons were involved in the assassination of her husband John F Kennedy, ‘explosive’ recordings are set to reveal.

The secret tapes will show that the former first lady felt that her husband’s successor was at the heart of the plot to murder him.

 She became convinced that the then vice president, along with businessmen in the South, had orchestrated the Dallas shooting, with gunman Lee Harvey Oswald – long claimed to have been a lone assassin – merely part of a much larger conspiracy...

The tapes were recorded with leading historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. within months of the assassination on November 22, 1963, and had been sealed in a vault at the Kennedy Library in Boston.

Caroline Kennedy, has agreed to release them early and have them aired on a special program on ABC. It is believed she agreed to the release in exchange for the network dropping its $10 million series about the family. (more) (must-see TV)

Point & Shoot Android Hacker Toolkit - $10.

While iOS users can pretend to be hackers with games like Hack RUN and iHack, those who own Android gadgets will soon be able to break into networks and computers for real. That’s because Israeli security firm zImperium is about to launch an app that can search for vulnerable targets and infiltrate them, allowing users to eavesdrop or even “attack” the devices.



The app is called Anti, short for Android Network Toolkit. It was introduced by zImperium at last week’s Defcon hacking conference, and reportedly impressed several attendees for its ease of use and affordability. With Anti, a user can infiltrate Windows machines, devices running an unspecified older version of Android and yes, even iPhones. Anti will debut at the Android Market next week as a free app that can be upgraded for $10 (USD). (more)

Security Director Alert - Networked Copiers & Cameras

Millions of copiers and printers in thousands of companies worldwide are ripe targets for cyberthieves in the hunt for sensitive business documents. 

Researchers from Web security firm Zscaler ran a simple search and easily located 118,194 Hewlett-Packard printer-scanners, 9,431 Cannon photocopiers and 3,554 D-Link webcams equipped as Internet-connected Web servers.

Any intruder could do the same thing, then take over control of devices protected by weak passwords, says Michael Sutton, Zscaler's vice president of research. The intruder could then steal images of documents stored in a copier's memory or take control of webcams placed inside a work area.

"I'd be surprised if attackers weren't already taking advantage," says Sutton, who released the findings Thursday at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference here. "They'd be foolish not to. It's just too easy." (more)

This is old news for our our client family; we warned them about this years ago. The fact that the media is finally paying attention means this espionage trick is gaining exposure. Expect more people to take advantage of it. Double-check your defenses. Electrons move fast. I wish I could tell you this is the only information security vulnerability around your office. It isn't.

Today in Spy History

On Aug. 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon announced he would resign following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal. (more)

Good evening.

This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this Nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter than I believe affected the national interest.

In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me.

In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.

But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.

I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interest of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations.

From the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders, I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter I might not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the Nation would require.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad.

To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.

Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office.

As I recall the high hopes for America with which we began this second term, I feel a great sadness that I will not be here in this office working on your behalf to achieve those hopes in the next 2 1/2 years. But in turning over direction of the Government to Vice President Ford, I know, as I told the Nation when I nominated him for that office 10 months ago, that the leadership of America will be in good hands.

In passing this office to the Vice President, I also do so with the profound sense of the weight of responsibility that will fall on his shoulders tomorrow and, therefore, of the understanding, the patience, the cooperation he will need from all Americans.

As he assumes that responsibility, he will deserve the help and the support of all of us. As we look to the future, the first essential is to begin healing the wounds of this Nation, to put the bitterness and divisions of the recent past behind us, and to rediscover those shared ideals that lie at the heart of our strength and unity as a great and as a free people.

By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.

I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong, and some were wrong, they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of the Nation.

To those who have stood with me during these past difficult months, to my family, my friends, to many others who joined in supporting my cause because they believed it was right, I will be eternally grateful for your support.

And to those who have not felt able to give me your support, let me say I leave with no bitterness toward those who have opposed me, because all of us, in the final analysis, have been concerned with the good of the country, however our judgments might differ.

So, let us all now join together in affirming that common commitment and in helping our new President succeed for the benefit of all Americans.

I shall leave this office with regret at not completing my term, but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as your President for the past 5 1/2 years. These years have been a momentous time in the history of our Nation and the world. They have been a time of achievement in which we can all be proud, achievements that represent the shared efforts of the Administration, the Congress, and the people.

But the challenges ahead are equally great, and they, too, will require the support and the efforts of the Congress and the people working in cooperation with the new Administration.

We have ended America's longest war, but in the work of securing a lasting peace in the world, the goals ahead are even more far-reaching and more difficult. We must complete a structure of peace so that it will be said of this generation, our generation of Americans, by the people of all nations, not only that we ended one war but that we prevented future wars.

We have unlocked the doors that for a quarter of a century stood between the United States and the People's Republic of China.

We must now ensure that the one quarter of the world's people who live in the People's Republic of China will be and remain not our enemies but our friends.

In the Middle East, 100 million people in the Arab countries, many of whom have considered us their enemy for nearly 20 years, now look on us as their friends. We must continue to build on that friendship so that peace can settle at last over the Middle East and so that the cradle of civilization will not become its grave.

Together with the Soviet Union we have made the crucial breakthroughs that have begun the process of limiting nuclear arms. But we must set as our goal not just limiting but reducing and finally destroying these terrible weapons so that they cannot destroy civilization and so that the threat of nuclear war will no longer hang over the world and the people.

We have opened the new relation with the Soviet Union. We must continue to develop and expand that new relationship so that the two strongest nations of the world will live together in cooperation rather than confrontation.

Around the world, in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, in the Middle East, there are millions of people who live in terrible poverty, even starvation. We must keep as our goal turning away from production for war and expanding production for peace so that people everywhere on this earth can at last look forward in their children's time, if not in our own time, to having the necessities for a decent life.

Here in America, we are fortunate that most of our people have not only the blessings of liberty but also the means to live full and good and, by the world's standards, even abundant lives. We must press on, however, toward a goal of not only more and better jobs but of full opportunity for every American and of what we are striving so hard right now to achieve, prosperity without inflation.

For more than a quarter of a century in public life I have shared in the turbulent history of this era. I have fought for what I believed in. I have tried to the best of my ability to discharge those duties and meet those responsibilities that were entrusted to me.

Sometimes I have succeeded and sometimes I have failed, but always I have taken heart from what Theodore Roosevelt once said about the man in the arena, "whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because there is not effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deed, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievements and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."

I pledge to you tonight that as long as I have a breath of life in my body, I shall continue in that spirit. I shall continue to work for the great causes to which I have been dedicated throughout my years as a Congressman, a Senator, a Vice President, and President, the cause of peace not just for America but among all nations, prosperity, justice, and opportunity for all of our people.

There is one cause above all to which I have been devoted and to which I shall always be devoted for as long as I live.

When I first took the oath of office as President 5 1/2 years ago, I made this sacred commitment, to "consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon to the cause of peace among nations."

I have done my very best in all the days since to be true to that pledge. As a result of these efforts, I am confident that the world is a safer place today, not only for the people of America but for the people of all nations, and that all of our children have a better chance than before of living in peace rather than dying in war.

This, more than anything, is what I hoped to achieve when I sought the Presidency. This, more than anything, is what I hope will be my legacy to you, to our country, as I leave the Presidency.

To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.

Security Director Alert: Corporate Email Espionage

A cautionary tale...

The strange e-mails arrived in executives' inboxes around the same time that the Australian oil company was negotiating a deal with a Chinese energy company.

The e-mails had the same structure and format as those sent around the company and were baited with text that appeared to refer to a supposed continuing discussion between executives. The messages looked authentic from a nontechnical perspective, just part of normal electronic communication within a company.

But the corporate IT administrator felt something wasn't quite right. Upon closer examination, the administrator found the e-mails, while appearing to come from internal company servers, were actually coming from other domains not authorized to send e-mail for the company.

The e-mails contained a malicious link that would redirect the person who opened it to a website of another energy company whose Web pages had been hacked in order to deliver malicious software designed to steal data. Victims would have no indication they'd been attacked.

It became clear that hackers were on a campaign to find out more about the pending deal... (more)

Awe right, which one of youz wise guys said, "They have phones?!?!"

 In August 2011, Special Operations Technology, Inc. in Annapolis Junction, MD receives a $79.5 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification “to install, operate, and maintain the lawful intercept equipment and support equipment at various locations around Afghanistan.” 

Wiretaps can be used for a wide variety of purposes, of course, and there’s an especially pointed history tied to US wiretaps within combat zones... (more)

Where Are They Now: Anthony Pellicano Speaks

Long before the Murdoch empire’s phone-hacking scandal, Anthony Pellicano was the private eye that stars feared (and used) most. In his first interview since going to prison, he reveals new details on spying for Schwarzenegger, clearing Cruise's name—and why he dumped Michael Jackson. 

...the most explosive find in Pellicano’s office was a trove of thousands of transcripts and encrypted tapes of phone conversations he’d illegally tapped. Pellicano had designed a wiretapping program to intercept calls that he dubbed Telesleuth. Aided by several phone-company workers he employed, he installed taps in telephone junction boxes and at the main switchboard that were then connected via phone lines to the computers in Pellicano’s office and remote laptops...

The disgraced detective still insists that none of his clients knew anything about his wiretapping, in particular the high-powered lawyers, like Fields, who employed him. “I didn’t tell no one about the wiretapping,” he says. “I didn’t trust lawyers: they had an obligation to tell on me.” Still, he adds knowingly, “You can turn a blind eye, but 99 percent of the lawyers out there don’t care how the problem was solved.” (more)

UK Phone-Hacking Scandal Widens - Piers Morgan Under Pressure

Can Piers Morgan survive? It is a question his enemies and fans on both sides of the Atlantic are asking with increasing urgency. The position of the former tabloid editor turned CNN chat show host looks vulnerable as the phone-hacking scandal continues to unfold with fresh revelations almost daily.

But unlike other senior journalists caught up in the scandal, it is not Scotland Yard that has been responsible for turning up the heat on Morgan. Rather, in what his enemies might suggest is proof that there is such a thing as divine retribution, it is Morgan's unchecked vanity. Morgan, who edited the Daily Mirror for nearly a decade until 2004, faces questions over a series of boasts that suggest he was at the very least familiar with the practice of phone hacking.

Morgan admitted in a column for the Daily Mail in 2006 that he had heard a message left by Sir Paul McCartney on the phone of Heather Mills, then his wife, in which the former Beatle sounded "lonely, miserable and desperate". The disclosure has prompted Mills to claim the message could have been heard only by hacking into her phone. (more)

3 out of 10 Android Cell Phone Users Hit By Malware this Year

If... you thought your phone was safe, you, sir, were sorely mistaken. As we speak, your phone could be spying on you, getting access to all your secret passcodes, bank account information, and credit card numbers. The little bastard could even be pilfering money from you behind your back.

Now before you go thinking your phone has turned into Hal from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” it hasn’t. These attacks are the result of malware and spyware that you may have unintentionally invited into your phone when you downloaded an infected app. And a new report released Wednesday by Lookout Mobile Security finds that such malware and spyware is on the rise. One particularly troubling finding: Android users are now twice as likely to encounter malware today than they were six months ago, and three out of ten Android users are likely to encounter a Web-based threat on their device each year.

Interestingly, the report notes that while application-based threats affect both Android and iOS devices, malware and spyware have primarily targeted Android devices. iOS devices are more likely to be hit with commercial spyware apps developed specifically for jailbroken devices.

For Android phones, malware has been increasing at a faster rate than spyware, but spyware still remains the larger threat. In January 2011, 34% of all threats were malware and 66% were spyware. But as of June 2011, malware made up 48% of all threats, compared to spyware’s 52%. (more)

Spybuster Tip: Go iOS. Don't jailbreak.

Software Security Wins when Combating Phone Hacking

The recent events involving the mobile phone hacking actions of News of the World journalists – and quite possibly many others – have highlighted the fact that there are insecurities in the world of mobile telephony.

And with approaching five billion mobiles in circulation – almost at the level of one handset for every person over the age of 10, it is perhaps inevitable that some elements of the services available may be found wanting when it comes to certain aspects of security.

Against this backdrop, much has been made of the fact that cellular phones operate across open radio channels that – with the right equipment in place – they can be subverted.

But this isn’t actually true... (more)

"Yuki 7 and the Gadget Girls" (for your morning coffee break)

 WHO IS YUKI 7? 

"Fashionista and spy girl Yuki 7, along with her team of beautiful secret agents, the Gadget Girls, will excite the world with their gorgeous outfits, amazing gadgets, and fabulous escapades! From their glamorous headquarters outside of Tokyo, this team of spies can crack any case and look stunning while they do it!" (video) (fan club)

Book written by Elizabeth Ito. Includes DVD with "Looks That Kill" and "A Kiss From Tokyo" short films + Special Bonus Features! 72 Pages. Paperback with Acetate Dust Jacket.

 

ABOUT THE CREATOR
Artist Kevin Dart dreamed up the character of Yuki 7 while In London on a business trip in 2008. Yuki and her glamorous, jet-setting lifestyle provided an outlet for Kevin's fascination with the 1960s, retro spy flicks, and powerful female characters. Working in his spare time between freelance illustration gigs, he put together Yuki's first book, "Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7", along with writer Ada Cole and a host of contributions from his close circle of friends around the animaton industry. The book debuted in Summer 2009 along with Yuki's first animated trailer, "A Kiss From Tokyo". Since then, Kevin has continued to expand Yuki's universe and is planning a new series of books and other exciting products.

Kevin currently lives in Pasadena, CA with his wife and works in the local animation industry.

Child ID - A Must-Have App from the FBI

You're shopping at the mall with your children when one of them suddenly disappears. A quick search of the nearby area is unsuccessful. What do you do?

Now there's a free new tool from the FBI that can help.  

Child ID app—the first mobile application created by the FBI—provides a convenient place to electronically store photos and vital information about your children so that it’s literally right at hand if you need it. You can show the pictures and provide physical identifiers such as height and weight to security or police officers on the spot. Using a special tab on the app, you can also quickly and easily e-mail the information to authorities with a few clicks.

The app also includes tips on keeping children safe as well as specific guidance on what to do in those first few crucial hours after a child goes missing. (more)

Can't Touch This - A Tribute to Leon Theremin

Scarborough, UK - Hands Off 2011 is a musical festival featuring Theremin players.

Enthusiasts will congregate in the town for a long weekend of talks, workshops, masterclasses and performances, some of which are open to the public to attend.

The Theremin is an electronic instrument invented in 1919 by Leon Theremin and mastered by Clara Rockmore and is played by the likes of electronic guru Jean Michel Jarre, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and musical comedian Bill Bailey.

Film buffs will know the sound of the Theremin from movies such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (Hear the original studio recording session!), Spellbound and The Thing.

Recent films scores of note include Ed Wood and The Machinist, both of which feature virtuoso Thereminist Lydia Kavina who is just one of the many experts coming to Scarborough. (more) (video - Hands Off 2011 ) (Theremin's spy history)

I built my first theremin in the early 60's (engineered by Robert Moog) and today use a real Moog made model. This is a very difficult instrument to master. I'm still trying. The folks you see at Hands Off 2011 are incredibly talented.

Leon Theremin plays...