$140 Million Surveillance Balloon Popped

After spending more than $140 million, the Air Force is poised to pull the plug on its ambitious project to send a king-sized, all-seeing spy blimp to Afghanistan. Which is a bit of a strange move: Not only is the scheduled first flight of the 370-foot-long “Blue Devil Block 2” airship less than six weeks away...

Not long ago, Blue Devil and its kind were being pushed as the future of aerial surveillance. Instead of a drone’s single sensor, Blue Devil would employ an array of cameras and eavesdropping gear to keep tabs on entire villages for days at a time. And with so much space aboard the airship, racks and racks of processors could process the data generated by those sensors in the sky, easing the burden on intelligence analysts currently overloaded by drones’ video feeds. Now, that lighter-than-air future could be in jeopardy, thanks to a series of schedule delays, technical complications and, above all, inflated costs. (more)

New Delhi Gummy Bugs

India - BJP on Friday dubbed the reports of alleged bugging of Defence Minister AK Antony's office as a "serious" matter which should be thoroughly probed and wondered what the reasons were for spying on the cabinet minister.

"The Defence Minister who is responsible for defending our borders, his own office borders are not secure. The reports of the bugging of his office is a matter of serious concern," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

The BJP pointed out that this is not the first case of bugging of the office of a Cabinet minister as there were earlier reports that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's office was also bugged.

"Then, it was maintained that chewing gums were stuck at 12 places in the Finance Minister's office. We hope this time too, the same excuse is not made. This matter cannot be taken lightly and the truth should be told to the country," Javadekar said. (more) 

Sing along...

Menwith Hill Eavesdropping Base Undergoes Massive Expansion

UK - America's largest eavesdropping centre in Britain, Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, is being expanded in a multimillion-pound programme as it becomes increasingly vital to US intelligence and military operations, according to a study of the controversial base released on Thursday. 

The base, which plays a key role in the global network of the National Security Agency (NSA), GCHQ's American partner, now includes 33 radomes – commonly called "golf balls" after the white sheeting protecting the satellite receiving and transmission stations – and is undergoing a big construction programme.

The study describes the programme, called Project Phoenix, as "one of the largest and most sophisticated high technology programmes carried out anywhere in the UK over the last 10 years". Work on it has been reserved for US-based arms corporations including Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, and their personnel with high-level security clearance, it notes. (more)

"Houston, we have a problem."

The "algorithms used to command and control the International Space Station" were lost when an unencrypted NASA laptop computer was stolen in March 2011. 

That tidbit came in testimony Wednesday delivered by NASA Inspector General Paul K. Martin as he reported on the space agency's IT security track record. The loss of the ISS command code was symbolic of one glaring deficiency: a lack of data encryption on mobile devices. (more)

IKEA Spy Inquiry

A French union on Thursday lodged a formal legal complaint against Swedish furniture giant IKEA accusing it of illegally spying on staff and customers, legal sources said. (more)

In the latest twist in a damaging ‘spying’ scandal, Swedish furniture giant IKEA was on Thursday accused of “harassing” its employees after media reports emerged Wednesday that the company had illegally obtained police files on French workers, clients and union leaders.
The latest allegations centre on a former employee who told Europe 1 radio that she had been asked to profile her colleagues and to keep the information on a USB key and to avoid leaving it on company computers “for security reasons”. (more)

Privacy Check: Google's Privacy Policy Changes on March 1

via pcworld.com...

If you use Gmail, Google Docs, or any other popular G-service, you’re about to surrender a lot more personal information to the Googleplex...unless you take these steps to prevent it. 
1. Check the Dashboard
Your first destination is Google Dashboard. It provides an overview of the information Google has stored on your account across many of its most popular services. To get started, go to google.com/dashboard and log in with your Google account (typically an email address). There, you can see much of the data that Google has on you--from your Google+ account to your Gmail account.

Take a few minutes to click through the various services and to review the information Google is storing. Then clear out any data you no longer want associated with your account.

2. Clear Your Google Web History

3. Tweak Your Ads Preferences

4. Liberate Your Data
If you want to remove some (but not all) of your personal data from multiple Google services, head over to Google Takeout, which lets you download a copy of your data from Google Buzz, Circles, Docs, Picasa Web Albums, Gmail contacts, and other tools and services. Get started by logging in to the Google Takeout page.

5. The Nuclear Option: Delete Your Google Account
(more)

Security Chief Sentenced in Explosion Probe

WV - A federal judge sentenced a former Massey Energy Co. security chief to three years in prison for obstructing a criminal probe into the 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners in the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster in four decades.

A jury in October convicted Hughie Elbert Stover of lying to federal investigators about a company policy of providing advance notice of federal inspections and of obstructing a federal criminal investigation into the blast by ordering the destruction of more than 50,000 documents. Mr. Stover, 60 year old, was the top security official at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., at the time of the explosion. (more)

FutureWatch - Light Field Cameras

The first consumer light field camera has just been released. You'll never take another out-of-focus picture again.

"The very first light fields were captured at Stanford University over 15 years ago. The most advanced light field research required a roomful of cameras tethered to a supercomputer. Today, Lytro completes the job of taking light fields out of the research lab and making them available for everyone, in the form of the world’s first Lytro Light Field Camera" 

FutureWatch: Imagine this technology incorporated into CCTV surveillance cameras. No more waiting for the lens to focus. No more out of focus license plates, no more windy day auto-focus cognitive dissonance, no more fuzzy pictures of perps. Instant point, shoot and gottcha pix.

Click to enlarge.

Special Agent T-Shirt Contest #3

Contest Closed - We have a winner.

Who is this famous wiretapper? (Enter here.)
(Hint: the answer can be found at spybusters.com)

Click to enlarge.

The prize - our Limited Edition Special Agent Black T-Shirt. (Size: X-Large)


Answer: Gerard "Cheesebox" Callahan

("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, this is YOUR contest.

We designed this custom t-shirt ourselves! It's easy, go to 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.

Shady Rat - Cell Phone Malware

A former McAfee researcher has used a previously unknown hole in smartphone browsers to plant China-based malware that can record calls, pinpoint locations and access user texts and emails. 

Just as U.S. companies are coming to grips with threats to their computer networks emanating from cyber spies based in China, a noted expert is highlighting what he says is an even more pernicious vulnerability in smartphones.

Dmitri Alperovitch, the formerMcAfee Inc. cyber security researcher best known for identifying a widespread China-based cyber espionage operation dubbed Shady Rat, has used a previously unknown hole in smartphone browsers to plant China-based malware that can commandeer the device, record its calls, pinpoint its location and access user texts and emails. He conducted the experiment on a phone running Google Inc.'s Android operating system, although he says Apple Inc.'s iPhones are equally vulnerable. (more)

Parasites are Not Supposed to Kill Their Hosts

Canada - An electronic stealth operation allegedly based in China hacks into Nortel Networks Inc., Canada's high-flying telecom superstar, loots its secrets for a decade and, says one cyber-security expert, contributes to the company's fatal implosion. 

Queen's University professor David Skillicorn points out that after the hackers penetrated Nortel around 2000, they began stealing technical papers, research and development reports, and strategic business plans.

After that, Nortel couldn't compete for contracts "because the hackers had their technical knowledge, their financials, their bids, before they submitted them," Skillicorn told Postmedia News. "How can you compete in an environment like that? These hackers weren't into Nortel just out of curiosity. They were using the stuff they got."

A Wall Street Journal report quotes Brian Shields, a 19-year Nortel veteran who led the internal investigation into the hacking. Shields apparently found spy software so deeply embedded in company computers that it took years to realize the size and pervasiveness of the problem. (more)

Political Pots Calling Kettle Black?

via China Daily...

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation is advertising for automated computer softwares (sic) that will monitor people's posts on social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter.

The FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center (SOIC) posted a tender for a "Social Media Application" on FedBizOpps.gov web on January 19.

The advertisement says the application will collect "open source" information and should be capable of sniffing through online media sites like news and social networking sites for keywords to help improve its real-time intelligence when it comes to current and emerging security threats.

Sources said some US government institutions have already used similar software to collect "open source" information, a practice that have been kept out of the knowledge of the public.

It is believed to be the first time the US government has admitted it will apply advanced technologies to monitor the public media. (more)

FutureWatch: Looking forward to an article about how this compares to their surveillance initiatives.

Android Toilet Paper - Five Apps for Wiping Data from Your Androids

If your phone gets lost or stolen — or if you decide to return or recycle it — you need to wipe it clean of your private data.

1: Built-in Android reset - This built-in functionality is the easiest to use. Go to the restore from the Settings menu and reset.

If you lost your phone, or need some extra features, have one of these on board.
2: Mobile Security
3: Autowipe
4: Android Lost
5: Lookout Security & Antivirus
(more)

Smartphone Apps Your Personal Information

Every time you use your smartphone app your personal information – emails, phone numbers and even photos – is sent off to dozens of Internet companies all over the world. And you are the one who is allowing them access.

­Most users are aware that Internet companies like to collect information on their clients so that they can target their adverts better. But the sheer extent of their spying is shocking. And it’s all buried in the small print of the license agreement few bother to read. Often the information collected has nothing to do with function of the application. (more)

News of the World phone hacking scandal could deepen and spread to the U.S.

The phone hacking scandal could deepen and spread to the U.S. after claims the private detective who hacked phones for the News of the World had American telephone numbers in his notes.

Glenn Mulcaire, who was jailed in 2007 for illegally accessing mobile-phone messages, had the numbers of singer Charlotte Church’s Los Angeles agent and New York publicist among thousands of pages of notes seized by Scotland Yard detectives, it has been claimed.

Miss Church, 26, whose personal phones and those of her parents were hacked by Mulcaire for at least four years, settled a lawsuit against News International on February 23.

News International, which closed the News of the World in July in an attempt to contain public anger, still faces possible claims by more than 800 'likely' victims identified by police as they sift through 11,000 pages of Mulcaire’s notes. (more)