More Kinds of Corporate Spies Target More Kinds of Trade Secrets

Efforts to steal trade secrets from U.S. companies continue at a high level and are hitting new targets, in spite of major efforts to stop such industrial espionage. Losing trade secrets hurts the economy by discouraging investments in the research critical to growth. Some new players are getting into the fray, and the attacks hit a huge variety of businesses from high tech to high fashion.

Plans for a fighter jet are an obvious target for corporate and other kinds of spies, but experts say industrial espionage also has been aimed at high fashion designers and toymakers, innovative steel makers, food and beverage companies, clean energy research and wind turbine makers. Corporate spies also are seeking information about the management practices that guide successful businesses. (think boardroom bugging) (more)

Secret Agent Suits - Odds Are You Live to See Tomorrow

"We offer our clients a bullet-proof suit to keep them safe during their travels to dangerous places for work. We wanted to create a lightweight garment that not only looks professional, but can also act as reliable body armor. The idea was to create a stylish and discreet alternative to wearing a bulky bullet proof vest underneath a suit. This way, our clients, wouldn’t have to worry about looking awkward during meetings, and they can travel to work feeling comfortable, safe, and confident.

This past year, Garrison Bespoke worked alongside suppliers for the US 19th Special Forces in developing the custom bulletproof suit. Using nanotechnology, it’s comprised of the same carbon nanotubes designed for the US troops’ uniforms in Iraq. Yet, the patented suit material is a lot thinner and flexible; fifty percent lighter than Kevlar (the material commonly used in bullet-proof gear). The entire suit acts like a shield, with nanotubes in the fabric hardening to block force from penetrating through.

The Garrison Bespoke bullet proof suit was made to fulfill three important expectations: First, to be modern and stylish. Second, to be light and comfortable. And, third, to be reliable and safe. After putting the suit to test, we can proudly say that all expectations have been met." (more)

Prices start around $20,000.00.

Hacker Who Helped Catch Cheating Lovers in FBI's Sights

Among the five people added this week to the FBI's list of "most wanted" cyber criminals is a former San Diego college student who developed an $89 program called "Loverspy" or "Email PI." Sold online from his apartment, the program was advertised as a way to "catch a cheating lover" by sending the person an electronic greeting card that, if opened, would install malicious software to capture emails and instant messages, even spy on someone using the victim's own webcam.

Click to enlarge.

The case of Carlos Enrique Perez-Melara, 33, is noteworthy because he appears to have made relatively little money on the scheme, unlike others on the FBI list who were accused of bilking millions of dollars from businesses and Internet users worldwide. But Perez-Melara, a native of El Salvador who was in the United States on a student visa in 2003 when he sold the spyware, allegedly helped turn average computer users into sophisticated hackers who could stalk their victims...

In addition to hacking-for-hire services, there is an established commercial market for snooping software that domestic violence advocates warn can also be used to stalk victims. Software such as ePhoneTracker and WebWatcher, for example, are advertised as ways to monitor kids' online messages and track their location. For $349 a year, Flexispy of Wilmington, Del., promises to capture every Facebook message, email, text and photo sent from a phone, as well as record phone calls. These services generally would be legal only if the person installing the software also owned the device or were given consent by the owner. (more)

The Current State of Cyber Security in Latin America

Latin America is experiencing tremendous growth—unfortunately the growth in question relates to cyberattacks. “If you look at Peru, you see 28 times as much malware in 2012 as in 2011; Mexico about 16 times; Brazil about 12 times; Chile about 10; and Argentina about seven times,” said Andrew Lee, CEO of ESET. These tremendous growth rates are expected to continue in the coming years, Lee noted.

Tom Kellermann, vice president of cybersecurity at Trend Micro, a network security solutions company. He discussed a report that Trend Micro released jointly with OAS called Latin American and Caribbean Cybersecurity Trends and Government Responses. 

Kellermann noted that while organized crime groups, such as narco-traffickers, have embraced cybercrime, the governments of Latin American countries haven’t been able to keep up in terms of defending against this type of crime. “Only two out of five countries have an effective cybercrime law, let alone effective law enforcement to hunt [cyberattackers],” he said. (more)

NSA Spy Scandal - The Final Word?

Get Over It: America and Its Friends Spy on Each Other

"All history teaches us that today's allies are tomorrow's rivals." John le Carré 

With the French saying they are shocked—shocked!—to discover that America is spying on them, and the long-monitored German chancellor, Angela Merkel, reportedly in a state of outrage, this may be a good time to explain why it is considered so necessary. Why monitoring "foreign-leadership intentions" is a "hardy perennial" in U.S. espionage practice, as National Intelligence Director James Clapper put it during congressional hearings this week. And why most of what is done today, one way or another, is likely to go on. 

...the NSA may be reined in. But one way or another, the spying will go on.  (more)

This story was written by, Michael Hirsh, chief correspondent for National Journal. Alternate ends to the NSA story don't seem plausible. Think back to the Church Committee hearings and Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson... "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail." 

Stimson's views on the worth of cryptanalysis had changed by the time he became Secretary of War during World War II, before and during which he, and the entire US command structure, relied heavily on decrypted enemy communications. (wikipedia)

Security Director Alert - Draft a 'No Recording' Policy for Your Company

IMPORTANT 
Here's why... 

by Philip L. Gordon, Littler Mendelson P.C.
With audio recording applications (“apps”) often standard issue on ubiquitous smart phones, employees are now armed with a relatively inconspicuous way to capture their supervisor’s every gaffe.  

Signs available here.

In September, a $280,000 jury verdict in favor of an employee on race and sex discrimination claims demonstrated just how damaging an audio recording can be in employment litigation. In that case, the plaintiff, who is African American, caught her supervisor, who is Hispanic, using the “N” word on tape, and the judge admitted the recording into evidence. Putting aside the risk of employees collecting damaging evidence for anticipated litigation, the ever-present specter of audio recording can undermine the type of corporate culture that so many employers are trying to encourage nowadays, one that thrives on collaboration and candid discussion among colleagues.

In 13 states — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington — anti-wiretap laws generally prohibit the recording of face-to-face communications without the consent of all parties to the communication. However, in the remaining 37 states and under federal law, audio recordings, whether surreptitious or not, are legal so long as the person making the recording participates in the recorded conversation. In these states, secret recordings by one of the participants not only are legal, but the former Acting General Counsel (“Acting GC”) of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently took the position that workers have a legally protected right to record their co-workers and managers. In a decision published on October 30, 2013, an administrative law judge (ALJ) flatly rejected the Acting GC’s position and upheld the employer’s general prohibition on all audio recordings in the workplace without prior management approval.

The employer in that case, Whole Food Markets, promulgated the prohibition to thwart the “chilling effect” of workplace audio recording. More specifically, Whole Foods’ policy explains that concern about audio recording “can inhibit spontaneous and honest dialogue especially when sensitive or confidential matters are being discussed.” Although not stated in the policy, Whole Foods’ head of human resources testified that the policy applied to all employees, whether management or non-management; to all devices that captured voice; and in all areas of the store, including the store’s parking lot and entrance area; but only during working time. (more)

Ask Philip Gordon about drafting a "no recording in the workplace" policy for you. 
Be sure to add video, too.

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

The Wall of Sound Meets its Match - Sono - An Acoustical Wall Filter Idea

Austrian industrial designer Rudolf Stefanich has created a concept device that is capable of filtering outside noise from entering your room.

Called ‘Sono’, it transforms any window into an “active noise canceling system”, allowing users to eliminate and filter the sounds that pass through their windows.

By turning a knob, the device filters out disruptive noises like car horns and construction works, but allows pleasant sounds like birds chirping or the sound of the wind through.
“In our loud and busy world, a moment of silence has become a scarce and almost luxurious experience,” said Stefanich. “Sono lets you reclaim that silence for your home.” (more)

FutureWatch - The same concept could be used to prevent eavesdropping via acoustical leakage from rooms.

A Brief Spy Technology Retrospective

Government surveillance is nothing new. The United States started tracking telegraphic information entering into and exiting the country in 1945. The technology associated with spying, however, has become much more advanced. History shows a steady evolution of the ways governments secretly gather information.

More info about The Thing.

"Spying has gone on throughout history," says Peter Earnest, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer and executive director of the International Spy Museum. "Since globalization, spying has increased because countries want to know what other countries are doing.The discipline of intelligence has already increased a great deal in the post-Cold War world."

Briefcase recorders in the 1950s led to transmitters hidden in shoes in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, bugs hidden in tree stumps intercepted communication signals. Devices continued to become more compact. In the 1980s, tiny transmitters with microphones were hidden in pens.

The advent of the Internet ushered in the Web bug, which tracked who viewed websites or e-mails and provided the IP address of an e-mail recipient. In 2013, drones and computer programs continue to develop as surveillance tools.

So how does the future look for spying?

"It looks good," Earnest said. (more, with photos of spy gear)

How a Slight Movement Can ID Your Smartphone

One afternoon, security researcher Hristo Bojinov placed his Galaxy Nexus phone face up on the table in a cramped Palo Alto conference room. Then he flipped it over and waited another beat. And that was it. In a matter of seconds, the device had given up its "fingerprints."

Code running on the website in the device's mobile browser measured the tiniest defects in the device's accelerometer — the sensor that tracks movement — producing a unique set of numbers that advertisers could exploit to identify and track most modern smartphones.

The accelerometer enables, among other things, the browser to shift from landscape to vertical as a user tilts the phone. It turns out every accelerometer is predictably imperfect, and slight differences in the readings can be used to produce a fingerprint. Marketers could use the ID the same way they use cookies — the small files that download from websites to desktops — to identify particular users, monitor their online actions and target ads accordingly.

It's a novel approach that raises a new set of privacy concerns: Users couldn't delete the ID like browser cookies, couldn't mask it by adjusting app privacy preferences — and wouldn't even know their device had been tagged. (more)

When Paranoids Collide they Blow the Whistle on Tea Kettles

Customs agents in Russia found tea kettles and irons bugged with tiny Spyware chips that exploit WiFi connections, reports a local news outlet coming out of St. Petersburg.

According to Gizmodo, the microchips are capable of spreading spam and malware to WiFi-enabled devices within 200 meters.  Specific details of the dodgy shipments remain shady...

Simon Sharwood of The Register reports that it is indeed possible to build a spambot small enough to fit inside of a kettle, as the necessary components are small and cheap enough...

One question remains unanswered, however: why would China send bugged tea kettles to spy on the ordinary tea-drinkers of Russia?

Gizmodo suggests that perhaps local authorities were mistaken about their findings, pointing out that WiFi tea kettles already exist.

Business Insider speculates that if the kettles are bugged, it could very well be a test for larger operations to plant such microchips.

We'll let you weave your own intricate conspiracy theory. (more)

Last Week on Halloween

This Judge is a Surveillance Expert. He has Cred.

James G. Carr ’62, a senior judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio and a former member of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), described the process through which the federal government conducts electronic surveillance and railed against National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden in a talk in the Gund Gallery’s Community Foundation Theater...

Carr told his audience “every one of us in this room probably has been overheard under a FISA warrant... It’s a general search,” Carr said, “that which the Fourth Amendment most directly and most clearly, unequivocally prohibits. Nobody can dispute that.”...

In July, Carr wrote an op-ed in The New York Times calling for Congress to reform the court. He suggested judges be allowed to appoint outside lawyers to “represent the interests of the Constitution and the public” in cases where a novel issue, such as new surveillance technology, is present in the warrant application. Government agents are required to inform the court if their application raises that kind of issue...

Carr had harsh words for Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who provided documents about NSA surveillance procedures to journalists before fleeing to Hong Kong and then Russia. He asked audience members how many of them thought Snowden’s actions were worthwhile, and upon seeing hands raise, said, “I want to try and disabuse you of that view.”

Snowden, he said, had been “in the hands of the Chinese and the Russians for months, and if anybody in this room thinks for a moment that they don’t know everything he learned … c’mon now.” 

The NSA, Carr said, “does a crucially important job,” whereas Snowden, whom he mockingly called “the great American patriot,” had done “irredeemable” damage.

In the Q & A after the talk, one student asked Carr, “Why bother protecting our lives if you don’t first protect our rights?” Carr responded, “Because if we have no lives, we have no rights.” (more)

Why is Carr the expert? 
Because he wrote the book. (more)

10 Most Audacious Eavesdropping Plots

Operation Ivy Bells
At the height of the cold war, the National Security Agency, CIA and the US Navy collaborated to tap into underwater communication lines used by the Soviet Union. 

Operation Stopwatch
This joint operation between the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service was again an attempt to tap into communications by the Soviet Military.

The Cambridge Spies
Rather than relying on modern eavesdropping, this operation used old fashioned infiltration.

Click to enlarge.

The Gunman Project
During 1976, the KGB managed to install miniaturized eavesdropping equipment and transmitters inside 16 IBM Selectric Typewriters used by staff at the US embassy in Moscow and consulate in Leningrad. 

The Bundesnachrichtendienst Trojan Horse Affair
Germany may have been the victim off NSA eavesdropping, but its own Federal Intelligence Service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, has also engaged in such activities.

The MI6 Spy Rock
In a modern version of the dead letter drop, British spies working out of the embassy in Russia used a transmitter concealed in an artificial rock to pass classified data. 

Acoustic Kitty
Acoustic Kitty was a top secret 1960s CIA project attempting to use cats in spy missions, intended to spy on the Kremlin and Soviet embassies. (more)

Moles in Berlin

In 1956, American and British agents tunneled into East German territory in order to tap a telephone line. This allowed them to eavesdrop on important conversations between Red Army leaders and the KGB. A segment of the tunnel can now be visited. (more)

U2
An international diplomatic crisis erupted in May 1960 when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) shot down an American U-2 spy plane in Soviet air space and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. Confronted with the evidence of his nation's espionage, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to admit to the Soviets that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been flying spy missions over the USSR for several years. (more)

Animal Spies
A former CIA trainer reveals, the U.S. government deployed nonhuman operatives—ravens, pigeons, even cats—to spy on cold war adversaries. “We never found an animal we could not train.” (more)

What Corporations Can Learn from the Vatican

Contrary to a widely circulated report, the US National Security Agency (NSA) could not have eavesdropped on the conclave that elected Pope Francis, a veteran Vatican journalist has reported.

Andrea Tornielli of La Stampa writes that the Vatican had deployed sophisticated anti-bugging technology in the Sistine Chapel and throughout the apostolic palace in the days leading up to the conclave. The anti-bugging measures were already in place during the general congregations at which cardinals exchanged ideas prior to the opening of the conclave. Reporters who were in the building testified that internet connections were interrupted and cell-phone signals lost when the system was activated. 

Vatican security experts take pride in their ability to foil espionage, Tornielli reports. (more)

Can a Perv Skirt Privacy Laws by Raising The First Amendment?

MA - An Andover man is hoping to slip past the law by arguing women in skirts are taking a chance when they ride the T (Boston's transit system) because there’s no guarantee of privacy. 

Michael Robertson is appealing to the state’s highest court saying he didn’t commit a crime when he allegedly tried to take cellphone photos up women’s dresses on the Green Line in August 2010.

That “up-skirt” case included an undercover transit cop and another T passenger. The 31-year-old now faces more than two years in jail if convicted of two counts of photographing an unsuspecting nude or partially nude person.

His lawyer argues it’s the outdated law that’s in the wrong — not her (sic) client — and other photographers could have their First Amendment rights trampled, too. (more)