Huawei Defends Against Whitehall Bugging Claims

UK - Huawei, the Chinese telecoms company that came under suspicion of spying for the Chinese government, has been forced to defend its security records after reports that Government departments believed its technology could be bugged.

Reports at the weekend alleged that three Whitehall departments ordered that video conferencing devices supplied by Huawei should be removed, due to concerns about possible security vulnerabilities in the equipment. (more)

Eavesdropping Software Products Sold in the Open

Viet Nam - (Smartphone) software products have become so smart that they not only allow eavesdropping on normal calls or SMS, but the calls and SMS applied OTT apps as well.

There are four eavesdropping software products mostly popular in Vietnam, namely Amaza Tracker, Spyphone, Copyphone, Mobile Spy. They are originated from other countries, compatible to most of the popular operation systems now, from Android, iOS to Windows Phone, BlackBerry. Especially, the products have been updated regularly to be suitable to the mobile phones of the latest generations...

More dangerously, with the advanced technologies, some spyware products can allow to watch the messages and free calls on Line, Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook, Yahoo. Meanwhile, the majority of the popular products can be compatible with Android and iOS based smart phones.

The information can be copied in files, and then sent to the emails of the eavesdroppers. (more)

British Spies – Licensed to Speed

British spies are to be given a "license to speed", allowing the likes of James Bond to drive fast with impunity in the name of national security.

Transport minister Robert Goodwill was to announce the motoring law changes on Monday, which will hand spooks the same exemption as the police, fire service and ambulance drivers.

Officers in the MI5 and MI6 domestic and foreign intelligence agencies will be able to break the speed limit on surveillance and covert operations once they have completed a training course in high-speed driving. (more)

Business Extortion via Electronic Eavesdropping Bugs and Spyware

China - Police have arrested a divorced man and his mistress for subjecting his ex-wife to months of illegal surveillance, intimidation and extortion to gain control of half of her company, local media reported Friday.

The suspects, surnamed Zhu and Liu, spent almost a year spying on their victim, surnamed Wei, by installing monitoring software on her computers and bugging her home, her car and her luggage in a plot to destroy her reputation, according to a report in the Xinmin Evening News. By the time they were caught, the pair had cost Wei's company more than 100 million yuan ($16.5 million) in lost business.

Police said more and more illegal surveillance cases have emerged as technology has advanced, according to the report. Last year, Shanghai police arrested about 190 suspects for the illegal trade or use of surveillance equipment, seizing 500 pieces of equipment and more than 100 million pieces of personal information. (more)

Government Begins Responding to Spying Objections

Maryland legislators will consider a package of laws to curb electronic surveillance by police, requiring a search warrant to use drones, email, cellphone towers or license plate readers to track people.

Measures sponsored by a bipartisan pair of senators come amid a national debate over government surveillance after revelations about the extent to which the National Security Agency collects information on U.S. citizens. (more) 

Obama to unveil spying reforms on 17th January
 White House spokesman Jay Carney said that Obama's remarks would show the "outcomes of the work that has been done on the review process."

The White House said on Thursday that the president was nearing the end of his soul searching about US spying reforms as he met lawmakers who oversee the intelligence community. (more) 

FBI Director James Comey recently told reporters that the federal government's spying on American citizens via the National Security Agency is the "way the founders intended." (more)

CA - Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) and Sen. Joel Anderson (R-San Diego) introduced the Fourth Amendment Protection Act to prohibit any state support of the NSA. “State-funded public resources should not be going toward aiding the NSA or any other federal agency from indiscriminate spying on its own citizens and gathering electronic or metadata that violates the Fourth Amendment,” Lieu said in a press release. (more)

Interesting Spy Stories Today

Private Eye Sky Spies
Click-bait, or cold reality? The headline for Robinson Meyer’s article in the Atlantic about three Silicon Valley start-ups and their plans to make money off satellite photography of the earth is “Silicon Valley’s New Spy Satellites.” Very soon, it’s likely that it will be substantially easier to buy recent, high-resolution imagery of the Earth’s surface... the message they send together is simple: We’re all spies now. (more)

What Will Anna Chapman Do Next? Former spy Anna Chapman, who was sent back from the United States to Russia in a major spy swap in 2010, is going to present her own clothing line at a fashion show in the Turkish resort of Antalya. (more) (Anna's adventure timeline)
 
500 Years of History Shows that Mass Spying Is Always Aimed at Crushing Dissent (more)

Boycott Of RSA Security Conference Builds In Wake Of NSA Spy Scandal (more)

Amateur Spies - Surgeon Accused of Spying on Ex with Software

TX - A pioneer in cancer research is facing a second degree felony charge in an alleged plot to spy on his ex-wife while they were going through their divorce.

According to prosecutors, Dr. Steven Curley plotted with a computer expert to install a program called eBlaster. (more)

IA - ...the Iowa City landlord found guilty last year of spying on his tenants (six counts) through bathroom peepholes in 2012, has motioned for a new trial... (speed bump) ...The city’s Housing and Inspections Services office says the city’s housing code doesn’t address cases such as this, therefore Miller is able to continue to own and manage the properties. (more) 

PA - Forty-three years after the mysterious theft of up to 1,000 documents from an FBI office outside Philadelphia, three former political activists are publicly confessing to the brazen burglary, calling it an act of “resistance” that exposed “massive illegal surveillance and intimidation.”... Members of the burglary team, armed with little more than a crowbar and wearing  suits and ties, then walked off undetected with suitcases stuffed with sensitive bureau files that revealed a domestic FBI spying operation known as COINTELPRO. (more)

Canada - A St. Albert man who surreptitiously took pictures of young girls in change rooms at five Alberta recreational facilities... was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday. (more)

FL - A St. Augustine man and former Putnam County deputy (and St. Johns County reserve deputy) accused of using his cellphone to record a tanning room at the U.S. 1 South World Gym was sentenced Tuesday to 300 days in jail... a woman reported that a gym employee put a cellphone in the closet of the tanning room to record people getting in and out of the booth... (more)

The Point
Anyone can be a spy. The technology is cheap, and easy to use. Just add motivation. 

FutureWatch
This will become a real workplace issue in 2014. 
And now, a very creepy moment of spy Zen...

NSA Can Now Bug iPhones (yawn)

Reports have surfaced that the US National Security Agency can now turn iPhones into eavesdropping tools.

That’s the word from security expert Jacob Appelbaum, who told a hacker conference in Germany that the NSA can plant iPhone malware called Dropout Jeep, which gives American intelligence agents the ability to turn the gadget into a listening post using the iPhone camera and microphone. Also, it has a spyware function that can retrieve contact information, read through text messages and emails, and listen to voicemails. (more)

(Yawn.) Spyware for smartphones has been around for years. You can purchase it with a few keystrokes. 

Don't worry about the NSA. They could probably care less about you. Worry about your employer, disgruntled employee, or significant other. 

Then, if the question, "Is my cell phone bugged?" pops into your mind, buy a good book, or app, and find out what to do about it.

The Annabel Melongo Eavesdropping Case - 8 Years and Counting

The Annabel Melongo saga continues in the Illinois Supreme Court Tuesday, Jan. 14, marking the eighth year the case has been tied up in litigation.
 
Melongo was (also) indicted for eavesdropping, as a grand jury accused her of illegally recording conversations with a Cook County court reporter.

The indictment accused Melongo of:

(1) Eavesdropping without consent:

“…in that she knowingly and intentionally used an eavesdropping device, to wit: an audio recording device, for the purpose of recording a conversation, to wit: recording a conversation conducted by telephone between Annabel K. Melongo and Pamela Taylor of the Cook County Court Reporter’s Office, and without the consent of all parties to such conversation and without authorization provided by Article 108A or Article 108B of the ‘Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963,’ approved August 13, 1963, as amended.” (more)

Note to Clients: I will send you a private report this month about covert recording in the workplace, and what to do about it. You really don't want to be tied up in 8-year-long court battles.

Facebook Sued Under Federal Wiretapping Law For Mining Private Messages

Facebook faces a potential class action lawsuit (“Matthew Campbell v. Facebook Inc.”) for allegedly violating the US Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California privacy and unfair competition laws. At issue is the company’s alleged practice of scanning private Facebook messages (first discovered in 2012) for URLs and then using that information as part of its ad targeting data. (more)

Trending TV: Spies are hot, again

Secret agents are lurking everywhere on TV in 2014. 

From "The Avengers" to "Mission Impossible" to "24," spy thrillers always have been a TV staple, but with the National Security Agency under fire for spying on everyday Americans and others, espionage stories seem all the more resonant these days. Here's a look at several current or upcoming spy shows and several old favorites that can be seen online... (more)

The 2014 Privies - Dubious Achievements in Privacy Law

Recognizing Stupid Privacy Laws 
by Stewart Baker, Former government official now practicing law

It’s time to recognize just how stupid privacy law is getting. And what better way than by acknowledging the most dubious achievements of the year in privacy law? (more)

My favorite - Judge Uncovers Wiretap Plot with 425 Million Co-Conspirators
(Scroll down to Category 3 - "Dumbest Privacy Cases of the Year")

Slack Wiretapping Sentence Imposed for Slack Attack on Slack

WV - A former West Virginia sheriff convicted of hacking his now ex-wife's work computer was sentenced to probation Thursday after she made an emotional plea for leniency.

Former Clay County Sheriff Miles Slack exchanged a long hug with Lisa Slack, his friends, and relatives after U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver sentenced him to one to two years' probation and fined him $1,000 for wiretapping...

Federal prosecutors say Slack secretly installed a keystroke logger on a computer in the county magistrate court in April where his wife worked. They were married at the time. Slack admitted he intended to monitor her activity.

Slack could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison. (more)

Mobile Devices Will Pose The Biggest Risk In 2014, Survey Says

IT professionals are troubled by the risk of data leakage associated with employee smartphones and are focusing on bolstering endpoint security, according to a new study.

Mobile devices will pose the biggest threat in 2014, according to a survey of 676 IT and IT security professionals conducted recently by the Ponemon Institute. About three-quarters of those surveyed cited the risk posed by mobile devices as their biggest concern, up from just 9 percent in 2010.

Meanwhile, targeted attacks, designed with custom malware that can maintain a lengthy presence on corporate systems, is close behind as a troubling trend, the survey found. About 40 percent of those surveyed said their firm was the victim of a targeted attack in the past year, according to the survey, which was commissioned by vulnerability management vendor Lumension Security. (more)

Riga International Airport Officials - "We bought what?!?!"

Latvia - Management officials of Riga International airport were not aware of the fact that they had used budget money to buy a device that had allegedly allowed the airport’s security listen in on employees’ telephone conversations.

Security Police has launched an investigation about this possible crime.

After learning of the possible wiretapping into employees’ telephone conversations, the Board of the airport dismissed the head of its Security Department Raimonds Lazdins and two other employees. Equipment meant for wiretapping was found in the airport. (more)