Animal Abuse Covert Video Activism Leads to Politicians Being Prodded to Outlawing Cameras Instead of the Problem

Undercover investigations of animal abuse and unsanitary farm conditions would be outlawed in eight states... under an expanding effort by legislators who say the exposes malign livestock industries... backed by Monsanto Co. and other agriculture companies, (the new laws) would halt activists from using deceptive practices (covert video) to target producers in the $74 billion-a-year U.S. beef industry, or the $45 billion poultry business, as well as other businesses...

“For politicians, it comes across looking like they’re trying to muzzle these groups,” said Wes Jamison, an associate communications professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida who studies interest-group activism, in an interview. “It’s putting restrictions on citizen ‘gotcha’ journalism.”

Media stories about animal welfare have a “significant, negative” effect on meat demand, especially poultry and pork, according to a 2010 study by economists at Kansas State University and Purdue University in Indiana on covert exposes and news articles. (more) (sample videos)

Enemies: A History of the FBI

In Enemies: A History of the FBI, author Tim Weiner used recently declassified intelligence files to write a comprehensive history of the FBI... 

Weiner said that Hoover disregarded privacy protections mandated by the constitution in order to obstruct the activities of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He ordered the FBI to bug King’s bedroom and repeatedly blackmailed the civil rights leader.

"When it came down to bugging bedrooms, you had to be careful not to get caught, but there wasn't anything to stop him," Weiner said. "He decided up to a point ... where the boundaries of the law [were] when it came to black bag jobs, break-ins, bugging, surveillance, the constitutionality of gathering secret intelligence on America's enemies — both real and imagined." (more)

Hand Grenade Bug Will Blow You Away

a la Wikileaks, but for real-time bugging...

"The lack of Corporate and Governmental transparency has been a topic of much controversy in recent years, yet our only tool for encouraging greater openness is the slow, tedious process of policy reform.

Presented in the form of a Soviet F1 Hand Grenade, the Transparency Grenade is an iconic cure for these frustrations, making the process of leaking information from closed meetings as easy as pulling a pin.

Equipped with a tiny computer, microphone and powerful wireless antenna, the Transparency Grenade captures network traffic and audio at the site and securely and anonymously streams it to a dedicated server where it is mined for information. Email fragments, HTML pages, images and voice extracted from this data are then presented on an online, public map, shown at the location of the detonation.

Whether trusted employee, civil servant or concerned citizen, greater openness was never so close at hand..

Details 

The Transparency Grenade was created in January 2012 by Julian Oliver for the Studio Weise7 exhibition at Labor 8, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, curated by Transmediale 2012 Director, Kristoffer Gansing." (more)

P.S. "Due to legal concerns the author will not provide a server for using this application. However, all code will be published for study and so that others can set up their own service, should they find a worthy need for it."

Let the Drone Wars Begin

A remote-controlled aircraft owned by an animal rights group was reportedly shot down near Broxton Bridge Plantation Sunday near Ehrhardt, S.C.

Steve Hindi, president of SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness), said his group was preparing to launch its Mikrokopter drone to video what he called a live pigeon shoot on Sunday when law enforcement officers and an attorney claiming to represent the privately-owned plantation near Ehrhardt tried to stop the aircraft from flying.

"It didn't work; what SHARK was doing was perfectly legal," Hindi said in a news release. "Once they knew nothing was going to stop us, the shooting stopped and the cars lined up to leave."

He said the animal rights group decided to send the drone up anyway.

"Seconds after it hit the air, numerous shots rang out," Hindi said in the release. "As an act of revenge for us shutting down the pigeon slaughter, they had shot down our copter." (more)

CONTEST ALERT - Wednesday Noon (EST)

The famous Security Scrapbook contest back! 

Next Wednesday (noon EST) we will post a spy question. The first correct answer received wins! 

Click to enlarge.

We post this alert to give everyone an equal chance, as readers of the e-mail version receive these posts the following next day.

The prize - our Limited Edition Special Agent Black T-Shirt. 

("How limited," I hear you say.)  

Well, there are only three in the whole world! (one medium, one large, one x-large) And, they will be awarded in that order. So if you're a big Special Agent, wait for the last contest.

Did you know you could design custom t-shirts yourself? It's easy. I made these myself at ooShirts.com. They have a DIY on-line design lab! All types of t's, all colors, all prices. These are the Champion brand with the logo on the left sleeve.

ooShirts also provides design help, if needed. They suggested I use brighter colors to have the logo stand out better. They were 100% correct, but I went with muted gray and red for a subtle look (Special Agents don't have to shout it.) The shirt shows the colors correctly. The enlargement is brightened to show the fine detail of the printing, just look at the dots! This was a test run for us. We're thrilled.

SpyCam Story #653 - Neighbors Nail Spy Guy with SpyCam

Australia - A Geelong man has admitted to spying on his female neighbours for years...

Bruce Guy, 51, was caught in October last year after neighbours set up a night vision digital security camera...

Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Geoff Lamb said Guy, who is identified wearing underwear and work boots in the surveillance footage, had harassed neighbours around his Highpoint home for eight years. (more)

BUG FIND: Political Eavesdropping in Sudan

Sudan's Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, who is seeking a "popular revolution" in the country, on Sunday accused government intelligence agents of bugging his offices.

At a news conference the veteran politician produced three short sets of wire, each connected to a tiny metal or plastic box. He said they were bugging devices found in the electrical sockets of two meeting rooms at his Popular Congress Party headquarters on Wednesday. (more)

Hey, look! New Jersey mosquitos. No, wait. They're robots. Run!!!

Experiments performed with a team of nano quadrotors at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania. Vehicles developed by KMel Robotics. Special thanks to Professor Daniel Lee for his support.

Meanwhile,
back in the
Counterespionage Compound lab,
work begins on...

A Texacan Bugging Standoff

TX - A search warrant affidavit says a Texas constable admitted to the FBI that he had the offices of other officials secretly bugged after they were accused of illegally forcing motorists to forfeit cash. The federal affidavit quotes Shelby County Constable Fred Walker as saying he authorized the installation of hidden surveillance cameras and digital recorders. The document also includes a statement from a witness who claims Walker sold drugs seized from suspects.
 

An attorney for Walker, who hasn't been charged, says the constable never told the FBI that he authorized installation of listening devices and never sold drugs. Walker, at the time of the alleged bugging, was city marshal in Tenaha. (more)

Hacked: How China is stealing America's business secrets

...condensed version via theweek.com...
What's going on?
American companies are the victim of an "onslaught of computer network intrusions that have originated in China," according to a report by the U.S. government's National Counterintelligence Executive (NCE).

How is the technology stolen?
In the case of cyber-attacks, Chinese hackers may leave malware inside the computer systems of American firms, where the nefarious programs can go undetected for years, slowly bleeding companies of information.

What impact does the theft have on U.S. companies?
It can be devastating. Some say China is stealing $400 billion worth of sensitive information a year. The NCE report cited the case of paint company Valspar, which lost $20 million, or one-eighth of its annual profit, after its proprietary information was stolen by a Chinese rival. 

Are there national security concerns?
Definitely... For nearly a decade, hackers had access to the computer network of telecommunications company Nortel Networks. If, as suspected, China was behind the breach, it likely gained valuable insight into the internet and telephone systems that government agencies, banks, and other businesses rely on.

What has the U.S. done about this?
Surprisingly little so far. (more)

When foreign countries knocked-off our products, and sucked up our jobs with cheap labor, we had our technology to fall back on. Once they have our technology, we'll be their cheap labor. American Business, please stop the espionage before it's too late. We can help you.

SpyCam Story #652 - Today in Video Voyeurism

Canada - The husband of a home daycare operator has admitted he produced and distributed thousands of pornographic images of children. Kim Moskalewski pleaded guilty Thursday to three pornography related charges and one count of voyeurism. Moskalewski told Quebec Superior Court he used his wife's daycare to produce thousands of pictures and videos of boys and girls in sexual positions. Moskalewski worked as a computer analyst at CN rail. Police seized at least five computers from his home and office last August. Crown prosecutor Carolyne Paquin says police have found 5,000 pornographic pictures so far and are still weeding through another 200,000 images. (more)

Florida -  A new bill just passed in the state Senate increases criminal charges related to 'video voyeurism.' In a 40-0 vote, Senators approved the bill after adding an amendment saying people under 19 cannot face felony charges. (more)

Philippines - Neil Mark Romero, who was charged with violation of Republic Act 9995 otherwise known as Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009, denied the charges filed against him during his arraignment... Romero was accused of taking a video footage of Roliza Patenia, a category development executive of Nestle Philippines Inc. and a resident of Taguig City, inside a hotel's restroom. She claimed she was inside the first cubicle of the hotel's restroom at 11:20 a.m. of June 21 when she noticed that the rattan garbage bin was moving. Upon checking, she claimed she saw a cellular phone with its camera focused on her. (more)

Electronic Frontier Foundation Recommends Stopping Mass Spy Gear Sales to Authoritarian Regimes

Last week, EFF gave its recommendations to EU parliament on what steps to take to combat a growing and dangerous civil liberties concern: Western companies marketing and selling mass surveillance technology to authoritarian regimes. This technology has been linked to harassment, arrests, and even torture of journalists, human rights advocates, and democratic activists in many Middle East countries over the past year...

Privacy International recently released a mapping of companies and countries that have attended the notorious I.S.S. World trade shows, where this technology is bought and sold...

Example: Gamma International and its subsidiary FinFisher first made headlines after the fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt last year, when activists found the company’s records in an abandoned state security building, along with troves of surveillance files. The documents on Gamma and FinFisher showed how they provided Mubarak with a five-month trial of their sophisticated spying technology, most notably FinSpy, which can wiretap encrypted Skype phone calls and instant messages—a service once mistakenly trusted by activists for secure communications. (more)

Bugged Charlie Chaplin Put Through Intelligence Wringer

UK -  MI5 opened a file on Charlie Chaplin while he was being hounded by J Edgar Hoover's FBI for alleged communist sympathies.
 
The FBI, which described the star of Modern Times and The Great Dictator as one of "Hollywood's parlour Bolsheviks", asked MI5 for information to help get him banned from the US. The results, including information gathered through eavesdropping, are contained in an extensive personal MI5 file released on Friday at the National Archives. (more)

Adele, and Projectile Privacy

From a recent 60 Minutes Anderson Cooper interview with singer, Adele... 

Cooper: Have you ever thrown up?

Adele: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. A few times.

Cooper: Really?

Adele: Yeah. Projectile. Yeah. 'Cause it just comes (makes noise) it just comes out. It does.

That kind of candid talk is typical Adele. She is naturally generous with the details of her life, but her success is changing that. Fed up with paparazzi staking out her home in London, she's just rented this very large, but very private home in the English countryside.

Adele: This here, this is just safety, this house. Come on Louie!

Anderson: That's why you're out here? Just because...for privacy?

Adele: Yeah.

She's learned about fame, the hard way. In the past, too many personal details of her life ended up in the tabloid press. So she set traps to catch the sources...

Adele: I plant stories and see who leaks them and then I get rid of 'em, yeah.

Cooper: Really? So you would tell them something that--

Adele: I'd tell, like, a group of people who I was suspicious of, I'd tell them a different story with different details in it, but all roughly the same story so I could keep my eye on it. And then when I knew it would come out, yeah, I knew who it was. (more)

When it comes to snoops, electronic eavesdropping and information leaks, Adele is on the right track; keep a low profile, tie the criminal to the crime by testing for leaks, then stomp on their toes (usually with a law suit). There is more to this privacy protection technique, of course. In fact, a whole chapter ("Test for Leaks") is devoted to a privacy protocol I developed for our corporate clients in, "Is My Cell Phone Bugged?" (chapter preview here)

SpyCam Story #652 - Power, Lawyer, Judged

Australia - Prosecutors have asked the Adelaide District Court to jail a former lawyer and judge's associate who indecently filmed teenagers.

Anthony Kurt Power, 28, was a lawyer in 2010 when he set up hidden cameras in his home bathroom, at his church at Golden Grove, where he was a youth leader, and at a church camp. He filmed young people without their knowledge. Police also found thousands of child pornography files on his computer. (more)