Google v. Facebook - Parry for Privacy

The rivalry between Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. has a new front: privacy.

Facebook said it would roll out new controls for sharing personal information on the social network on Thursday, giving its more than 750 million users new tools to manage who can see information about them. The company plans to move a number of privacy controls—which previously required navigating to a separate settings page—to users' homes pages and profile pages, next to where they view and post content.

Facebook and other social networks have at times been criticized for designs that lead users to inadvertently share information with a wider audience than they intended. Many Facebook users have hundreds or thousands of friends, and some have have urged the company to make it easier to target smaller groups when posting information. (more)

Your Life is an Open Book - Opt Out

advice from Violet Blue...

So-called “people search” sites like PeopleFinders, WhitePages and many more all buy, sell and trade your private information for profit. Few people are happy to know how any stranger - or marketing company - can obtain their home address for a few dollars, and that it’s challenging to stop.

But not impossible.

As we learned in How To Remove Yourself from People Search Websites, “peoplefinder” sites are giant databases that make money by selling your profile to anyone with a credit card. See also: our gallery: How people search sites get your information - and what you can do about it...

What You Can Do To Protect Yourself

There isn’t much we can do to stop people finder sites from getting public record information about us and making a profit off of it. Opting out of people finder sites will get your private life off the public market.

After you opt-out, there are a number of things you can do to prevent your info from being re-populated to people search sites:
• Only give out your information when you have to. If it’s optional, don’t do it. Facebook continually prompts me to give them my phone number for “better security” but I’m not falling for it.
• Look at your privacy settings on all your social networks; change them or lock them down if you can.
• When you do have to give info out for a profile or signup, consider giving the minimum of information, and be strategic about whether or not you give them your actual information. Only give them what’s absolutely necessary for site membership.
• Be wary of sites that make you register to use them. They’re not “free” to use if you give them something of yours they can - and will - sell.
• Don’t make it easy for sites to make an accurate profile about you, and know that your email address is in the hands of anyone you give it to. Use an alias or a pseudonym, and consider using an anonymous email that forwards to your real inbox to avoid getting spammed.
• Think twice before putting content on sites that want you to make a profile, like dating sites.
• Know that your likes, check-ins and and +1’s are public - not just public, but also profitable for the companies that made the buttons. Think twice about “liking,” “digging,” “upvoting,” and especially “checking in” using Foursquare and other location-based check-in services.
• Do what you can to block online tracking; it won’t hurt to use browser add-ons that block targeted advertising cookies and trackers.
• When you see a people search site being deceptive or feel you’ve been tricked by them, use this form to report them to the Federal Trade Commission. (more)

"Helloooo..." says Google++ Android Cell Phone Spyware App

A malicious Android app that disguises itself as Google's new social networking platform, Google+, is capable of stealing data, and answering and recording incoming phone calls, researchers said this week.

The spyware app disguises itself as Google+ by installing itself with the name “Google ++,” Jamz Yaneza, threat research manager at Trend Micro, told SCMagazineUS.com on Monday.

The malware contained in the app shares the same code structure as previously discovered Android spyware that also can steal information and record phone calls made from infected devices. Unlike the older variants, however, the new variant can automatically answer incoming phone calls on versions 2.2 and earlier.

“Once it is installed you won't know it is doing anything malicious,” Yaneza said. (more)

NSA Field Station Teufelsberg - a late post mortem

The NSA Field Station Berlin Teufelsberg was one of the premier listening posts of the cold war. Situated on top of the highest elevation in West Berlin - the Teufelsberg, the station had unobstructed reception of signals from all directions. And viewed from West Berlin, in all directions was "East". Situated on an artificial hill near a string of lakes, the Teufelsberg enjoyed excellent reception in most radio bands that were otherwise difficult to receive at long distances. The NSA got so far in their search for better reception, that they prolonged the operation of a flywheel that was accidentally found to be a excellent resonator for certain radar installations deep in the east. (more)

TSCM Employment - Rare Private Sector Opportunity

via LinkedIn...
Honeywell (Kansas City, MO facility) has a great opportunity for a Technical Security Specialist with a specialty in TSCM. Salary is up to $109K.

A BS degree, 7 years experience in Technical Security and 1 year of project leadership experience is required. If you are interested in this position please send your resume to: EddieMorris@SourceRight.com. SourceRight Solutions is Honeywell's Staffing Partner.

This is a rare corporate opportunity. Go for it, and let us know how you make out. Good luck. ~Kevin

Taps Up in a Down Economy

Nearly 4,000 federal and state wiretaps were authorized last year, an increase of 34 percent from the previous year, according to an annual government report.

The administrative office of the United States Courts released a report last month that found an all-time high of 3,194 wiretaps were reported as authorized in 2010 – 1,207 by federal judges and 1,987 by state judges – and only one application was denied...

Wiretap applications in California, New York and New Jersey accounted for 68 percent of all applications authorized by state judges, the study found... Drug offenses were cited most often for using wiretaps in investigations -- 84 percent of all applications were drug-related. Homicides came next, followed by racketeering.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center noted that the report does not include “interceptions regulated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) or interceptions approved by the president outside the exclusive authority of the federal wiretap law and the FISA." (more)

SpyCam Story #617 - Bed & Breakfast, and a show

Australia - A landlord has pleaded guilty to indecently filming his tenants at bed and breakfast premises in Adelaide.

A court heard the man set up hidden cameras in smoke detectors and had been watching his victims for months.

Frederick Payne pleaded guilty to 18 counts of indecent filming. ...Payne, who is an electrician, installed cameras in smoke detectors in the master bedroom, and a bedroom used by the victim's daughter. ...the victim's boyfriend had discovered the cameras and they moved out of the Maslin Beach premises immediately.

Wires from the hidden cameras led to a television and DVD player in Payne's bedroom in the house he lived in next door. Police found hours of footage... (more)

Media Wiretapping did not start with News of the World

How far would the media of the time go for a story or some inside information? 

The FBI of the 1930s was concerned about newspapers and magazine personnel tapping the telephones of FBI Offices, especially the Chicago Division. 

In this 1935 memo from E. A. Tamm, these fears are set out with efforts of the Bureau to code their conversations to thwart the Chicago American, and also to purposely "test" the system.

According to the Encyclopedia Of Chicago website, "In 1900, Chicago had nine general circulation newspapers when William Randolph Hearst's sensationalistic evening Chicago American appeared, followed by his morning Chicago Examiner (1902). The American upheld the raucous Hearstian/Chicago tradition of “The Front Page,” even after it was sold to the Chicago Tribune in 1956, renamed Chicago Today, and turned into a tabloid. Today died in 1974. The morning Examiner became the Herald-Examiner in 1918 and died in 1939, never able to overtake the Tribune." (more)

The FBI 1935 Tamm memo – taken from the Dillinger file.

Caller ID Spoofing and Your Privacy

via The New York Times...

For all of the palace intrigue recently about who in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation kingdom knew what about phone hacking when, one fundamental question about the scandal has gone mostly unanswered: Just how vulnerable are everyday United States residents to similarly determined snoops?

The answer is, more than you might think.

AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile do not require cellphone customers to use a password on their voice mail boxes, and plenty of people never bother to set one up. But if you don’t, people using a service colloquially known as caller ID spoofing could disguise their phone as yours and get access to your messages. This is possible because voice mail systems often grant access to callers who appear to be phoning from their own number.

Meanwhile, as Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate who founded ConsumerWorld.org, discovered recently, someone armed with just a bit of personal information about a target can also gain access to the automated phone systems for Bank of America and Chase credit card holders. (more)

So, what are your "friends" saying about you?

The real Banjo

Six-week old mobile application Banjo has been updated with a new feature that lets users virtually stalk locations, and the people there, in real-time. 

Banjo, for those unaware, is a new social discovery service which reveals the social network present at any given location at a particular time. To be clear, it’s not another social network, it’s a layer on top of social networks. With Banjo, you don’t have to create a profile, add friends or collect followers, or perform any of the other typical social networking behaviors.

Instead, to use Banjo, you simply launch the app to see what the people around you are saying and doing right now. The app pulls its data from social networking services like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, TwitPic and Instagram, accessing both the publicly available check-ins and the geotags that accompany status updates and posts. (more) sing-a-long

From our no free lunch department - Smartphone Juice Jacking

It certainly seems innocent enough at first glance: a free charging kiosk at an airport, hotel or shopping mall.

Most people wouldn't hesitate to charge their dying smartphones - even though the kiosk could theoretically be configured to read most of the data on a device and upload malware. 



To demonstrate the potential threat, Brian Markus, president of Aires Security, along with fellow researchers Joseph Mlodzianowski and Robert Rowley, built a juice jacking kiosk at Defcon 2011 to educate the masses about the risks associated with blindly plugging in mobile devices. (more)


Tip: This trick will not work on most devices if they are powered down entirely before charging.

Free Mobile Phone Threat Report

Free Mobile Phone Threat Report

Click on illustrations to enlarge...

Free Mobile Phone Threat Report

Prepared by Lookout, "a smartphone security company dedicated to making the mobile experience safe for everyone."

News of the World Phone Hacking - Another Arrest

U.K. police arrested a 38-year-old man Thursday in connection with the ongoing investigation into alleged phone hacking by News Corp.'s now-closed News of the World tabloid.

View Interactive

More photos and interactive graphics

The arrest relates to the scandal stemming from allegations that the News of the World illegally intercepted the voice mails of celebrities, politicians and crime victims, through a practice known as phone hacking. Police also are probing possible police bribery by News of the World staff in exchange for information. The weekly tabloid was closed last month amid the scandal.

The arrested man couldn't immediately be identified. His marks the 13th arrest authorities have made since reopening their investigation into phone hacking in January. (more)

Get in on the laptop privacy survey - Get free privacy software!

Oculis is running a mobile worker privacy survey to collect useful data about attitudes and experiences with display privacy. Their thesis is that display privacy is a significant security industry issue and that most people have strong but unfulfilled desires for a more private experience. They intend to use the results of the survey to generate new awareness with the press, and to answer typical customer questions about why end users need PrivateEye or Chameleon.

Take the survey and you receive a FREE license for their PrivateEye screen protector, a very cool piece of software that alerts you to shoulder surfers, and blurs your screen when you are not looking at it. How? The secret is your computer's camera. It watches your back and recognizes your face! (FAQs)

The survey link is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OculisPrivacySurvey

Here are the preliminary results from a few selected questions:

The Most Extensive Radio and Technical Museum List

If you have an interest in antique radios, TVs, computers and other technical equipment, this is the list to bookmark. Over 100 radio and technical museums around the world. Sponsored by radiomuseum.org