SpyCam Story #636 - "Just puttin' out personnel fires, Chief."

OH - The second in command in the fire department has been placed on administrative leave following accusations that he spied on the department through webcams...

...the investigation began after complaints ''that fire department personnel believed their personal activities and conversations while working at the department were being subject to video and / or audio surveillance.''

Firefighters told the chief and trustees that they believed that cameras on fire department computers were configured to remotely video and or audio record departmental personnel without their knowledge. (more)

Business Sports Espionage: 4th Olympic Arrest

UK - British police arrested a fourth man on Wednesday as part of an investigation into allegations of spying during a fiercely contested bid process to select who will move into London's Olympic stadium after the 2012 Games.

A 45-year-old man was detained in south London by officers from the Economic and Specialist Crime Command on suspicion of fraud. Material was seized during a search of a house, Scotland Yard said in a statement.

It is the fourth arrest since November following allegations by soccer club West Ham United and the public body the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) in respect of the unlawful obtaining of information.

OPLC chairwoman Margaret Ford has accused Premier League soccer club Tottenham Hotspur of putting all her 14 board members under surveillance. (more)

Wiretapping and Divorce Advice from a Lawyer

You think your wife is cheating on you? 

You remember the password to her Gmail account because you set it up for her? 

 You log into her account and discover emails between her and her new lover? 

Think that’s legal? 

Think that’s admissible evidence in court? 

Not so fast. 

Before you log onto your spouse’s email account or intercept any messages whatsoever whether email, voicemail, etc., consult with a lawyer about wiretapping laws. In your passion to discover what your spouse is doing, you might just violate federal wiretapping laws. This could backfire on you and could be more costly to you than the information you would otherwise discover is worth. Again, talk to a lawyer about this. (more)

Shawn L. Reeves is a Columbia, SC family lawyer. His office is located at 1201 Main Street, Suite 1980, Columbia, South Carolina.

Business Sports Espionage: KC Chiefs - Wiretaps & Bugs

KS - Buried amidst the hoopla of the divisional playoffs last weekend was an eyebrow-raising report in The Kansas City Star detailing some very serious accusations about life behind closed doors at Chiefs headquarters.


 

According to a report, Todd Haley was one of many ex-employees who thought the Chiefs' facility was bugged. (John Rieger/US Presswire)

According to the report, a culture of fear and paranoia has developed since Scott Pioli was hired as general manager in 2009, including claims of wire-tapping and room bugging. The suspicions were held by many former employees of the organization, including former coach Todd Haley.

One former high-ranking staffer said the level of paranoia "was probably the highest that I had ever seen it anywhere." Haley -- who wasn't quoted in the story -- reportedly stopped talking on his personal cell phone during the past year -- fearing it to be bugged -- and repeatedly checked his office for listening devices. (more)

P.S. The original headline for this report is: League not investigating bugging claims at Chiefs headquarters.
Can you think of any good reason why? 
Can you think of any nefarious reason why?
Credit to Todd Haley who had the sense to conduct TSCM (debugging) inspections.

Sneak Peak - Cell Phone Spying for the Everyman... and women, too!

Coming soon to a spy store not necessarily near you...

"Recover It utilizes forensic quality data recovery of over 25 different types of files and works on most devices with flash memory including cameras, SD cards, and Smart Phones - including iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Plug the external device into a computer to have the Recover It scan it. Retrieve deleted data at any time even if the recycle bin has been emptied.

Search for illicit use of a PC including online chatting and visits to pornographic sites. Search your entire computer for chat logs from the most used messaging sites. Uncover the source of porn site visits and locate suspected pornographic images. This stick even scans deleted images and Internet cache files. Create a report in an easy to read format so you can see what your kids or employees are saying to people online." (more)

Why do I mention it?

So you will know what you are up against.

Security Alert: Time to Update Your HP Printers' Firmware

Not a real HP fire. Just shown to get your attention.

HP announced that the potential existed for a certain type of unauthorized access (info-theft, fiery sabotage, etc.) (more) to some HP LaserJet printers and confirmed it has received no customer reports of unauthorized access. HP has issued the following statement:

HP has built a firmware update to mitigate this issue and is communicating this proactively to customers and partners. No customer has reported unauthorized access to HP. HP reiterates its recommendation to follow best practices for securing devices by placing printers behind a firewall and, where possible, disabling remote firmware upload on exposed printers.

The firmware update can be found at www.hp.com/support and selecting Drivers.

Additional printer security information is available at www.hp.com/go/secureprinting.

FREE - Mobile Security V6.0 - Android Security Software

Now available as a free download, Mobile Security V6.0 offers Android users several new features to protect their privacy and financial information, as well as significant improvements to the user interface.

Mobile Security 6.0 detects and deletes viruses, malicious URLs, and other threats before you even know they exist. With newly enhanced features including GPS-based anti-loss/theft features, backup and restore tools for your contacts, complete privacy protection, traffic monitoring, and more...
 
Version 6.0 includes the following features that enhance the already extensive capabilities of 5.0:

Anti-eavesdropping protection: With anti-eavesdropping, users can be sure their calls are not being recorded by third party apps or viruses.

Financial security protection: When users access financial websites via their system browser or start e-bank/securities apps, NQ Mobile Security V6.0 automatically scans all running apps to determine if any active apps pose a security risk.

Mobile Security: Fights malware, spyware, phishing, viruses, hacking, and more.

Privacy Protection: Protects the data stored on your phone, ensuring that your social networking, email, and financial accounts can't be hacked and your personal calls can't be recorded.

Anti-Theft/Anti-Loss: Remotely locates, locks, or deletes information from a lost or stolen mobile device, and sounds an alarm to help you find it.

Backup and Restore: Safely and seamlessly stores your contacts so you can easily access them from any Web browser.

System Optimization: Provides control over running apps and power consumption.

Traffic Monitoring: Provides real-time updates on data usage and caps on maximum data usage.

NQ Mobile Security V6.0 for Android can be downloaded for FREE at: http://www.nq.com/mobilesecurity or from the Android Market. (more)

SpyCam Story #635 - Stock(boy) Photography

IL - Madison County prosecutors have charged a Troy man with spying on a woman in a restroom in a store in Troy on July 16.

Police Sgt. James Newcombe said police believe 21-year-old Jonathan D. Spotanski used a mobile phone to make a video recording in a public restroom at the Schuette SuperValu market, 523 Troy Road. Newcombe said Spotanski resigned shortly after he was spotted trying to retrieve the phone from a dropped ceiling. (more)

Mandela Spy Camera Probe Continues

South Africa - A probe was still under way into the spying on former South African President Nelson Mandela by two Western news agencies, authorities said on Friday.

A completed docket against British news agency Reuters and US Associated Press (AP) have been handed over to prosecutors, Eastern Cape police said. Meanwhile, national police confirmed that the probe was still under way.

Reuters and AP reportedly had installed at least three closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras spying on Mandela's house in Qunu in the Eastern Cape. (more)

Business Espionage: Arrest for Unsportsmanlike Conduct

UK - A third person has been arrested by police investigating allegations that people acting for Premier League soccer club Tottenham spied on officials during the club's failed bid to take over London's Olympic Stadium after the Games.

Tottenham has been accused of ordering surveillance on the London Olympic executives who eventually chose the bid of rival London club West Ham to take over the stadium.

Since August, London police have been investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the bidding process that were made by West Ham and the Olympic Park Legacy Company, whose board members decide the future of venues on the site of the Games. (more)

SpyCam Story #634 - The Busted Busman

NH - The former Provider bus driver charged with sexually assaulting two boys riding his school bus allegedly filmed those assaults with hidden cameras, according to recently unsealed court documents.

The documents, an affidavit and inventory regarding a Sept. 28 search at the home of John Allen Wright, 45, of Milton, allege Wright used a number of cameras hidden in pens and a pair of sunglasses to film encounters, both sexual and not, on his bus... a pair of spy-camera sunglasses and directions on how to use them were found in Wright's living room, along with a number of pens containing hidden cameras. (more)

SpyCam Story #633 - "A big troop cheer for the FBI!"

MI - Scott Allan Herrick, 40, of Twin Lakes, Michigan, was sentenced to serve 95 years in prison, U.S. Attorney Donald A. Davis announced today. Herrick surreptitiously videotaped boys as they were dressing in the boys’ locker room in the YMCA in Muskegon and kept a massive collection of 100,000 images of child pornography with him at the Gerber Boy Scout Camp in Twin Lakes, Michigan. He was convicted at trial of three counts of attempting to produce child pornography. On the first day of trial, Herrick pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography...

The Honorable Paul L. Maloney, Chief U.S. District Judge, presided over the trial and sentencing... sentencing Herrick to 1140 months (95 years) of incarceration...

Herrick was the camp director for Gerber Boy Scout Camp in Twin Lakes, Michigan. Herrick also worked as a pool safety instructor for third grade children at the YMCA in Muskegon, Michigan. Herrick was trading child pornography and was discovered during a series of undercover FBI operations. On July 1, 2010, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“HSI-ICE”) agents executed a search warrant on the Gerber Boy Scout Camp and discovered evidence of child pornography. Herrick was arrested on July 8, 2010, and has been held in custody since. (more)

Security Directors: FREE Security White Paper - "Surreptitious Workplace Recording ...and what you can do about it."   

Peter Shankman on Situational Awareness - A Cautionary Tale

How One Bit of Stupidity Could Have Brought Down a Multi-Million Dollar Media Company - An (abridged) true story, by Peter Shankman, who has a better grasp of business espionage than most executives.

Everyone is always concerned about digital espionage. “My account was hacked!” “I clicked on a bad link!” “Fifty million credit card numbers were stolen!” The fact is, however, that digital espionage is the least worrisome thing for the majority of companies. The chances of your company getting “hacked” and information being stolen is minimal, compared to getting in trouble due to the stupidity of your employees.

I was flying home this past weekend from Florida. I got into my seat and got settled. My seatmate sat down, an older gentleman in a suit and tie...

I happened to look over to my left, and this man was reading a huge binder. Had to be at least 100 pages, if not more. He was on the first few pages. I looked over, and in giant letters, it said “KEY INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS.” That caught my interest, as it would anyone. Within five words, I realized that he was reading an overview of a very large media company – In another thirty seconds, I’d put it together – This guy worked for a company that was hired to help this very large media company sell themselves. In other words, a company that produces both online and offline properties, that you probably read every week, was up for sale.

My seatmate couldn’t have been more clueless. He had his headphones on, enjoying his silence, while flipping pages in this binder, taking notes, not looking up, not aware of his surroundings in the slightest...

He spent an hour of the flight on several pages that were titled “Liabilities” – It was all proprietary information about problems the company was having, and how they planned to fix them. Unreal...

...the man sitting next to me was reading proprietary information, information that could be very, very damaging to this company if in the wrong hands, and he couldn’t have cared less about it. When I landed, I confirmed it. This was extremely private information.

I’ve often said that privacy doesn’t exist, that we all need to be smarter, that instead of working on new ways to gain more fans, perhaps we should take a day and work on situational awareness!

I decided to see how out of it he really was, and also prove a point. Check this out.


Heavily Redacted by Me

This is one of a handful of photos I took with both my iPad and my Droid. Just to see if I could, which obviously, I could.

The man next to me caught a break that day. I’m not a dick. I’m not going to name the company, nor the company he works for (which was on the bottom of every page of the report.) But I have a feeling I’m in the minority here.

Guys, we have to be smarter than this. We simply have to. We can’t afford not to. Here are four tips on how to be:

1) Assume you’re always being watched. Assume everything you do can be watched, and probably is. You have to assume this for everything, from your work life to your personal life. It means you’ll be seen doing anything stupid that could get you in trouble, from doing drugs with people you assume are friends, to meeting someone for insider information in a parking lot. It’s too easy to get caught nowadays.

2) Assume most people are much less nice than me. I knew immediately what I was looking at, and also that I’d never go public with the information... I’m not saying don’t be nice to people you meet – But don’t start sharing information with people until you truly trust them. In other words, enter every interaction with a healthy dose of cynicism. That’s not a bad thing. It’s a smart thing.

3) It’s always little things that will nail you. You have any idea how many times I’ve been in an airport or hotel lounge, when I’ve heard someone spouting off their credit card to the person they’re talking to? Or explaining, step by step, their entire itinerary, while their home address sits on their luggage?... We need to pull our heads out of our collective smart-phone asses and start realizing what the hell is going on around us!

4) As always, alcohol comes into play. Some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my life has come at events where I’ve stayed sober... I still say the best way to get drunk is with a trusted friend, in your own home. Anything else just asks for trouble.

I’d suggest that we make 2012 the year we become smarter – But I’ve been suggesting that for years. And it never seems to happen.

We need to be smarter. (unabridged version)

From our "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" files...

A Polish military prosecutor has shot himself in the head during a break in a press conference at which he was defending his office against allegations of illegal wiretapping. (more)

SpyCam Story #632 - Darwin Award to Video Voyeur

Australia - A man who secretly filmed his housemate showering is ashamed and embarrassed about what he did, a Northern Territory court has been told.

20 year old Jayden Trevitt, 20, cried in the Darwin Magistrates Court as he was given a two-month jail sentence, which was then suspended.

Trevitt had pleaded guilty to filming his housemate on his phone while she was showering. He secretly filmed her from outside a bathroom window on five separate occasions last year. (more)