Hollywood hacker apologises for spying on stars

FL - A computer hacker accused of infiltrating the email accounts of Hollywood stars including Scarlett Johansson has apologized, and says he plans to plead guilty to all charges.

Christopher Chaney, 35, faces up to 121 years in jail after being arrested in Florida on Wednesday. He faces 26 indictments, including accessing and damaging computers, wire tapping and identity theft.

Chaney's arrest, following an 11-month probe into the hacking of more than 50 victims, including actress Mila Kunis and singer Christina Aguilera. (more)

"Hakim, if caught, you ditch the bug, eat the notes. Got it?"

The Lebanese Army Intelligence arrested a man after doctors at a Beirut hospital found a spying device planted in his belly, As Safir daily reported on Wednesday.

As Safir said that H.M. was admitted to hospital after falling ill. When the doctors ran a check-up on him, they found the electric device.

After inspecting the device, the Army discovered that it is a highly developed spying equipment, the newspaper said. It added that the Army Intelligence is questioning the man in full secrecy. (more)

This Week in World Spy News

Cuba - Rene Gonzalez, freed from a US prison last week after serving 13 years on spy charges, pledged to "keep fighting" for the release of his jailed comrades. (more)

An Iranian Furgetaboutit

Iran - The alleged Iranian plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador to the United States may have revealed the biggest secret of all -- intelligence agencies mess up and do not always live up to the James Bond ideal. (more)

USA - A detention hearing for a Virginia man accused of spying on protesters in the U.S. for Syria has been postponed until next week. (more)

Germany - Germany's Bundeswehr introduced the latest addition too the fleet of its Luftwaffe air force: the "Euro Hawk," a massive reconnaissance plane that can zero in on targets from altitudes of up to 20 kilometers (12.4 miles). The unmanned drone is the product of a joint venture between the American defense contractor Northrop Grumman and the European aerospace company EADS. (more)

USA - According to a new Harris Interactive survey conducted with over 2,300 people, 50 percent of American adults have no problem whipping out the smartphone to take secret videos of unsuspecting people. While this doesn’t mean that all respondents have come across an opportunity to spy on someone, they did list several scenarios that would cause them to hit the record button. The most popular response at 23 percent was recording people in embarrassing outfits, perhaps to upload a silly compilation on YouTube. Fifteen percent of mean-spirited survey takers would use the video function to record someone tripping and falling. (more)

USA - The NanoEye program is a research and development effort to support future theater operations. The Technical Center is developing NanoEye as a low cost, maneuvering, electro-optical, microsatellite-class imagery satellite that will be tasked directly by the tactical ground component Warfighter, who will then receive the desired images minutes later. The on-board propulsion system can take the satellite to lower altitudes finer ground resolution imagery necessary to support the mission. (more)

USA - A retired Springfield police officer is accused of recording video from hidden cameras in the bathroom and bedroom of a teenage girl. Jack Van Matre, 54, is charged with first-degree invasion of privacy, for which he could get a prison sentence up to four years if he’s convicted.  (more)

Give 'em a liter and take a hose'n...

Germany - A group that calls itself the Chaos Computer Club prompted a public outcry here recently when it discovered that German state investigators were using spying software capable of turning a computer’s webcam and microphone into a sophisticated surveillance device.

The club, a German hacking organization, announced last Saturday it had analyzed the hard drives of people who had been investigated and discovered that they were infected with a Trojan horse program that gave the police the ability to log keystrokes, capture screenshots and activate cameras and microphones. The software exceeded the powers prescribed to the police by Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court. The public condemnation was swift and strong, renewing a national debate into how far the government can intrude into digital privacy. (more)

Why Do Business Spies Spy?

In this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News, Marc Reisch authors a rather interesting look at the multitude of US-based multinational employees who have taken company trade secrets and intellectual property and gone east with them. After talking about Michael David Mitchell, a DuPont employee who gave his company's IP to a South Korean competitor:

Nobody has a clear fix on just how often employees steal vital confidential information from their employers. What is clear is that over the past five years six former chemical company employees have admitted to or been convicted of stealing trade secrets from their employers. In five of the cases, the employee involved was of Asian descent. And in all of the cases, the intended recipient of the proprietary information was an Asian company or university.

The reasons for the IP (Intellectual Property) theft aren’t clear either. “Those who engage in a major scam are likely to have complex motivations,” says Chris MacDonald, author of the Business Ethics Blog and a visiting scholar at the Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics & Board Effectiveness at the University of Toronto. “It’s hard to boil it down to a single factor.”

MacDonald points out that “when people do the wrong thing, it’s generally not because they lack the relevant values.” Instead, wrongdoers find ways to rationalize their behavior. For instance, employees who steal IP may believe they serve a higher purpose in committing the act, such as helping fellow countrymen or bringing the benefits of technology advances to underprivileged people.

Although the motives of those who steal corporate secrets may be complex, monetary gain was involved in most of the chemical industry cases, according to a review of court documents by C&EN. After Mitchell stopped working for DuPont in 2006, he began to work as a paid consultant for Kolon and e-mailed proprietary DuPont documents to Kolon employees. Court documents ascribe the crimes of former Dow Chemical researcher Kexue Huang mostly to greed but also to feelings of patriotism and paternalism. (more)

Why do people betray their country? MICE, of course: Money, Ideology, Compromise, Ego.

SpyCam Story #625 - Angry Bird Brains

The California Public Utilities Commission has ordered Muni to install video cameras in the cabs of Muni metro trains to surveil operators and discourage cell phone use while operating trains. We all know that many of the drivers just like to kick it in there, up in the front of the trains, while the trains are on auto-pilot in tunnels and being controlled by computer. But now they must stop playing Angry Birds and remain ever vigilant while on the job, or else face possible disciplinary action. (more)

Business Espionage: Hooters v. Twin Peeks - Battle of the...

(stop snickering)

The AP is reporting the Hooters of America restaurant chain filed a federal lawsuit in Atlanta this week claiming that a former executive swiped mounds of documents to help an upstart competitor that plans to expand the Twin Peaks franchise.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta on Wednesday said former Hooters vice president Joseph Hummel downloaded reams of “sensitive and highly confidential business information” to help La Cima Restaurants, an Atlanta-based firm that plans to help build 35 Twin Peaks stores across the Southeast.

Both chains are known for scantily clad women serving casual food... “The casual dining industry operates on extremely thin profit margins,” it said. “As a result, every operational advantage … is a jealously guarded business secret.”

...Even after his last day, Hummel was still able to download documents from company servers and transmit them through his personal email account because the company forgot to block his access, it said.

All told, the lawsuit said, Hummel took “well over 500 pages of highly sensitive business information and trade secrets” from Hooters. (more)

Is that runny nose a cold, or just a new message coming in?

via our West Coast ghost... 
Espionage just got a little more sophisticated and scientific. Invisible ink? Decoder rings? Lemon juice? Puh-lease -- that's mere child's play compared to what double agents scientists at Tufts University just created.

Now secret messages can be hidden in genetically engineered bacteria, thanks to a new method called steganography by printed arrays of microbes, or SPAM. Developed by chemistry professor David Walt and his cloak-and-dagger team of researchers, this new method uses an assortment of E. coli strains modified with fluorescent proteins that glow in seven colors.

Multiply that number by the two colors each message character is encoded with, and spies like us have more than 49 possible code combinations. That's enough for the alphabet, plus digits 0 to 9, with room left over for a few extra symbols...

It is also possible to develop bacteria that lose their fluorescent properties over time, creating a message that self-destructs in the style of Mission Impossible. (more)

Business Espionage: Bus Staff Bus'ted

Australia - Two senior staff members admitted downloading sensitive company information from Torrens Transit before taking management roles at new bus operator Transfield, their former employer claims.

The two men were accused of downloading confidential documents including suppliers' names, contact details, rosters and costings, resulting in the men being banned from Torrens Transit sites for life.

There have been claims that the life bans on the men exacerbated the chaos that ensued for passengers after this week's handover of services to Transfield. (more)

SpyCam Story #624 - A Bad Aim

CO - A jury on Thursday convicted a Durango man of felony stalking for secretly videotaping his housesitter and her boyfriend.

Mark “Steve” Brown, 57, showed no emotion as the guilty verdicts were announced. Wearing a suit and tie, he dabbed his eyes with a tissue shortly after the courtroom emptied. He remains free on $5,000 bail.

Brown, also known by his nickname Downtown Steve Brown, was found guilty on two counts of felony stalking, two counts of unlawful sexual conduct and two counts of invasion of privacy...

Brown set up covert cameras to record his housesitter while he worked as a civilian military contractor in South Korea... The cameras, which resembled motion detectors, recorded the housesitter and her boyfriend in various states of undress, including having sexual intercourse... Brown argued the cameras were for security...

Deputy District Attorney Justin Fay said Brown knowingly videotaped his housesitter for personal gratification without her consent. He asked jurors to consider the camera angles, especially the one in the bedroom that was pointed directly at the bed. (more)

Man Admitted Installing Spying Program

PA - A Pottstown man accused of illegally intercepting his father’s emails prior to his 2008 murder told investigators he had installed a program on two family computers that relayed keystrokes and other information on a daily basis, according to testimony given Thursday.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Robert Levan said Parth Ingle, 25, had told him in 2008 that he had installed a keystroke-logging program called eBlaster on the family computer in 2004 and on a subsequent family computer sometime in 2007.

According to Levan, Parth Ingle said his mother, Bhavnaben Ingle, told him in 2003 or 2004 that her husband had been unfaithful, but did not say his mother had directed him to install the software.

Parth and his sister, Avnee Ingle, 28, also of Pottstown, are accused of intercepting 15 emails between their father and women with whom he was believed to be having affairs.

No one has ever been charged with killing Arunkumar Ingle, whose beating and stabbing death at his Middletown home in January 2008 remains unsolved. (more)

Russia Accuses China of Spying (we're shocked)

Russia’s spy service has announced that it had arrested a Chinese citizen for allegedly attempting to steal secrets about the country’s missile system.  

The Russian statement came after a top American lawmaker accused China of exercising "an intolerable level" of espionage against the US, ABC News reports.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) said a Chinese citizen, Tong Shenyun, who pretended to be an official delegations’ translator, was working under the Chinese Government to buy "technical and repair documentation” about Russia''s S-300 missile system. 

China has so far not given response to the report, but officials have repeatedly condemned the hacking accusations against their country as "groundless."  (more)

Thus Clinching the Less Exciting than Watching Grass Grow Prize

Click to enlarge

Research scientists focused on the impact of climate change on the Himalaya have installed a new webcam to keep an eye on Mt. Everest. 

The high-definition camera is part of a larger initiative called SHARE, or "Stations at High Altitude for Research on the Environment," which hopes to track the retreating glaciers on the world's tallest peak – something that is already having a profound effect on the region. (more) (spycam)

EU restricts export of eavesdropping technology

The European Parliament has revised EU rules on the export of so-called dual-use technologies with an aim of restricting those that can be used to violate human rights.

Until now the export of products that had both civilian and military applications was not subjected to any EU authorization system, leaving the decision on the export of potentially dangerous technologies up to the member states.

The legislative resolution by Jrg Leichtfried, Austrian member of parliament for the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) party, prohibits a general EU approval for the export of telecommunications technologies that can be used to violate human rights, democratic principles or freedom of speech. The revision was made for "interception technologies and digital data transfer devices for monitoring mobile phones and text messages and targeted surveillance of internet use," the European Parliament (EP) said in a press release. (more)

5 Google Privacy Settings You Should Check

via Techlicious...

In our recent story on the privacy risks of using technology, we called out some of Google's products as potential privacy leaks. But Google also has some excellent tools you might not be familiar with that help preserve your privacy. Here are five tools you should be using... (more)