10 Gadgets That Will Make You Feel Like a Spy

1. Mini Camera Camcorder Video DV DVR Hidden Web Cam

2. SPY DVR Camera Camcorder Eyewear Sunglasses
3. Voicelok Voice Authenticating 8GB USB Drive
4. Spy Camera Tie with Wireless Audio Recorder with Remote Control – 4GB DVR Built-in
5. Mini Gadgets Inc CD60 Wireless Camera Detector
6. Spy Tec STI_GL300 Mini Portable Real Time GPS Tracker
7. Sport Treavy Lock N’ Load Gun Alarm Clock target Alarm Clock creative Clock – Black
8. US Mint Quarter – Micro SD Card Covert Coin – Secret Compartment US Quarter
9. Seek LW-AAA Thermal Imaging Camera Lightning Connector for iOS Devices, Black
10. Traveling Bartender 7 Piece Set by Brouk & Co. more

Bad Year for Former Spy Chiefs ... and it's only August

Chile - Gen. Manuel Contreras, who headed the feared spy agency that kidnapped, tortured and killed thousands during Chile's military dictatorship, died late Friday at a military hospital while serving a combined sentence of more than 500 years for crimes against humanity. He was 86. more 2013... former spy chief, Gen. Odladier Mena, commits suicide before transfer from luxury jail. more

Bulgaria - Former head of Bulgaria's National Intelligence Service Kircho Kirov was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison on corruption charges. The court said on Friday that Kirov received the minimum sentence possible under Bulgarian law, adding that half of his assets would be confiscated. more

South Korea - South Korea’s Supreme Court has ordered the retrial of the country’s former spy chief, who was jailed in February, in a development likely to ease political pressure on President Park Geun-hye. more

Burundi - The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has expressed shock at the assassination of Burundi’s General Adolphe Nshimirimana, a former army Chief of Staff and head of Burundi’s intelligence service. more

Libya - A Libyan court has sentenced to death former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi's last prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, for "genocide" during the 2011 revolt against his rule, the Lana news agency said on Tuesday. more

UK - Former MI5 chief warned of political embarrassment risk over child abuse claims more

Argentina - Carlos Menem, the flamboyant former president of Argentina, has gone on trial for orchestrating a cover-up of his country's worst ever terrorist attack. ... Hugo Anzorreguy, former spy chief, was not in court either – but was following the proceedings by video conference from his hospital bed. more

US - Barack Obama's former spy chief has admitted that drones are causing "more damage than good" and that US prisons in Iraq "absolutely" helped in radicalising young Iraqis who later joined al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn also called the US invasion of Iraq a "strategic mistake," according to reports. more

China - China's former security chief has been given a life sentence for corruption charges following a secret trial, seen as a victory for President Xi Jinping's anti-graft campaign. more

Syria - Rustom Ghazali, Syria's last chief of intelligence in Lebanon who was a suspect in the killing of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, has died in Damascus, Lebanese media reported. A Lebanese source with ties to Damascus also said that Ghazali had died on Friday. The cause and circumstances of his death were not immediately clear. There was no mention of his death on state media and the Syrian government made no statement. more

Colombia - The former head of Colombia's intelligence service was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Thursday for spying on opposition lawmakers, judges and journalists in one of the biggest scandals to mar the government of ex-President Alvaro Uribe. more

Turkey - Turkey's powerful former intelligence chief was on Monday reappointed head of the secret service after dropping a bid to run for parliament in upcoming elections (smell a rat?), a government spokesman said... more

Rwanda - Rwanda has angrily condemned the arrest of the country’s intelligence chief, Karenzi Karake, by British authorities acting on a Spanish indictment... Metropolitan police say Karenzi Karake is wanted in Spain in connection with alleged massacres in wake of 1994 Rwandan genocide more (last year...) I wish we had murdered former spy chief, says Rwandan President Paul Kagame... his country’s former spy chief's body was found in Johannesburg... more

The exception seems to be... Kazakhstan's former spy chief and a presidential family guard were acquitted by an Austrian jury on Friday of double murder in a trial whose main suspect, the president's former son-in-law, was found hanged in jail. more

Still dreaming of becoming a top spy?

EFF Browser Extension That Blocks Spying Ads Officially Launches

After more than a year of testing, 

the Electronic Frontier Foundation is releasing Privacy Badger 1.0, a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that prevents ads and sites from tracking your activity on the web. The EFF says over a 250,000 users have used the early versions of the extension, following a call for testers last May. So how does it work... more

The Android Wiretapping Case Against Apple is Rotting

Apple today asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit against it that claims the company wiretaps Android users by intercepting, and then failing to deliver, texts sent from iPhones to Android phones. 

The motion was made after Apple discovered that two of the three plaintiffs in the case had gotten rid of their old iPhones after they filed the suit against Apple. They are thus unable to demonstrate whether texts sent to their phone numbers went to their Apple or Android devices, Apple claims.

One of the plaintiffs has also asked that she be dismissed as a "named plaintiff" in the case.

And that request came a day after a judge declined to grant the case class-action status. more

A Win for Whistleblowers - Ag-Gag Law Gagged

The U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho struck down Idaho’s “ag-gag” law, which criminalized undercover investigations in which animal cruelty was filmed and publicized.

A coalition of animal right groups and activists challenged the law, and the Reporters Committee led a coalition of sixteen news organizations in filing an amicus brief in December, arguing that the law infringed on constitutionally protected newsgathering rights.

The law, Idaho Code § 18-7042, created the new criminal felony offense of “interference with agricultural production,” which occurs when a person, among other things, entered an agricultural production facility by misrepresentation and made audio or video recordings of the facility’s operations. It was enacted in early 2014 after animal rights activists aired videos of workers using a tractor to drag cows with chains around their necks, while also beating and kicking them.

Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill condemned the law as an unconstitutional ban on valuable political speech on food and worker safety, which are matters of public concern.

“§18-7042 seeks to limit and punish those who speak out on topics relating to the agricultural industry, striking at the heart of important First Amendment values,” the opinion states. “The effect of the statute will be to suppress speech by undercover investigators and whistleblowers concerning topics of great public importance: the safety of the public food supply, the safety of agricultural workers, the treatment and health of farm animals, and the impact of business activities on the environment.” more

New FBI Blockbuster Movie on Economic Espionage (2 Thumbs Up)

The Company Man: Protecting America's Secrets run-time is 36 minutes. Watch it when you have the time. I promise you, it is as suspenseful and entertaining as anything on TV or in the movies. Plus, it is a true story. Be sure to visit the 'movie FAQ' link after the movie ends.



Industries in the United States spend more on research and development than any other country in the world. The amount of effort and resources put into developing a unique product or process that can provide an edge in the business world is not unsubstantial. But what happens if someone comes in and steals that edge—a company’s trade secrets—for the benefit of a foreign country? The damages could severely undermine the victim company and include lost revenue, lost employment, damaged reputation, lost investment for research and development, interruption in production—it could even result in the company going out of business. more movie FAQ

Book: Cell Phone Investigations by Aaron Edens is 50% off.

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Cell Phone Investigations Search Warrants, Cell Sites, and Evidence Recovery

As the first of its kind, Cell Phone Investigations is the most comprehensive book written on cell phones, cell sites, and cell related data. This book also features sample search warrant templates and updated material regarding the 2014 Supreme Court ruling.  Cell Phone Investigations demonstrates how to examine mobile devices and sift through data without expensive equipment or years of specialized training. Author: Aaron Edens
Pages: 338
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ISBN: 978-1631800061
Release Date: 12/16/2014 $85.00 + $10.00 S&H
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How Your Washing Machine Can Steal Computer Files

(Leave it to CNN to come up with such a misleading lede and headline.)


Imagine hackers stealing top secret files from a military base. Except they don't need the Internet to pull data out of the facility's computers. Instead, they can just infect an office printer and -- with software alone -- turn it into a radio.

This sounds like sci-fi, but it's now possible. Security researchers at a Manhattan startup have discovered how to make any modern device -- printer, washing machine, air conditioner -- broadcast invisible, inaudible signals for miles.

That's a game changer -- and a huge step forward for hackers...

Last week, the team at Red Balloon Security demonstrated how it works to several news reporters.

They infected a Pantum laser printer and toyed with its circuits, making it do something it was never meant to. By quickly switching a chip's energy output back and forth, the printer emits electromagnetic radiation. more

TEMPEST re-packaged.
Note to clients... Please don't worry. We can easily detect this.

No Time for Spycam'er - Video Voyeurism Victims Pissed

Kevin Thomas Roy worked on the production crews of some of Hollywood’s biggest movies,

including the “Lone Ranger,” “Transcendence” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.” But it was the filming he was doing in secret that landed him in trouble with law enforcement, according to court documents.

Roy’s computer hard drives contained more than 40 videos and 400 photographs capturing unsuspecting women showering or changing in private areas, on film sets and at shopping centers, according to a search warrant affidavit.

Roy, a Los Angeles County district attorney’s investigator wrote, appeared to be a “prolific collector and producer of voyeuristic matter” with a “voracious appetite and affinity for videos ... depicting women in bathrooms, dressing rooms and other places of privacy.”

As part of a deal with Los Angeles prosecutors, the district attorney’s office said, Roy pleaded no contest June 26 to a single misdemeanor charge of unauthorized invasion of privacy. He was sentenced to three years of probation and required to undergo 52 weeks of sex offender counseling in Georgia, where he now lives.

“It’s an awful feeling knowing that you’re a victim of such a sneaky, disgusting crime, and it is as though the law isn’t protecting us or any other women out there,” said Donna Unsinn, who was identified in the search warrant as being shown in some of the images.

A district attorney’s spokesman declined to respond to the criticism, saying the office’s investigation into Roy is ongoing. Roy, 38, and his attorney did not return calls seeking comment. more

Down Under News - Spy Camera Found in Toilet at Shopping Center

Australia - Detectives are investigating how a small camera came to be hidden inside a smoke alarm in a public toilet at a suburban Perth shopping centre.

Its discovery by a worker, understood to be an electrician, on Friday prompted management at Belmont Forum to conduct a “thorough sweep” of all its facilities to ensure there were no other devices.

WA Police are examining the contents on the camera.

A man posted on Facebook on Friday that he was working at Belmont Forum and when he went to the toilet he noticed the smoke alarm flashing. He said he pulled the smoke alarm cover off the ceiling and found a cordless camera inside.

The man said the discovery made him feel sick. He urged people to be vigilant about anything “dodgy” and to check for “domestic battery-operated smoke alarms” in public toilets.

Images posted on Facebook of what looks like a hidden camera, discovered in a smoke detector.

A spokeswoman for Belmont Forum said: “The device was immediately handed into centre management and subsequently turned over to WA Police.

“Belmont Forum is assisting WA Police with the investigation and has conducted a thorough sweep of all the facilities in the shopping centre. No further devices have been found.” more 

Interesting... This is the same camera I featured in the Basic Cameras chapter of my on-line Spycam Detection training course. Even more interesting... the camera also transmits a wireless signal directly to a smartphone. You can preview the Basic Cameras chapter for FREE. https://www.udemy.com/spycam-detection/ (scroll down to Basic Cameras)

New Ultra Low Light Level Camera for Investigators... named Amos Burke

Ever been poking around in low-light with your camera and thought, "you know what, I could really do with an extra few million ISO"? To be honest, neither have we because such a light-sensitivity would be ludicrous for most users.

Well, that hasn't stopped the folks at Canon stepping things up in a big way with its full-frame ME20F-SH, a 4,000,000 ISO HD video camera that seems sure to bring the noise.

The seeds were sewn for Canon's new shooter in 2013, when the company announced the development of a new 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor specifically for filming in poorly lit environments. This sensor has now found its way into a cubed-shaped 4 x 4.5 x 4.4 in (10.2 x 11.4 x 11.2 cm) body that weighs approximately 2.4 lb (1.1 kg) and features an EF mount for compatibility with the Canon's interchangeable EF glass...

The result is, Canon says in lieu of sample footage, the capture of low-noise, color, Full-HD video of subjects with a minimum illumination of less than 0.0005 lux. For reference, a crescent moon is about 0.3 lux. Infrared illumination has made it possible to capture such dim environments previously, but only in black and white. more

Suggested retail price: US$30,000

Great On-Line Movie - Dr Megavolt: from Geek to Superhero - Pay What You Want to See It

For 30 days, pay what you want is on!
Buy Dr Megavolt: From Geek to Superhero the feature documentary for as little as...

But, please, don't be too cheap. It cost him a lot of money to give you these visual thrills.

Run time 72 minutes.

Interesting Case - Two Lawyers Face Felony Wiretap Charges.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane filed criminal charges against two Pennsylvania lawyers alleging violations of the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act, 18 Pa. C.S.A. §§ 5701, et seq. (“Wiretap Act”).

Both lawyers are facing two felony counts under the Wiretap Act, and the charges arise from allegedly using illegally-obtained recordings in court proceedings. More specifically, charges against attorney Stanley T. Booker arise from his alleged use of a recorded telephone call (between his client and the victim of a robbery) during his cross-examination of a witness during a preliminary hearing. Attorney Gerald V. Benyo, Jr., allegedly attached a transcript of an unlawfully recorded call when he filed a motion for an evidentiary hearing. Both attorneys questioned why the Attorney General “would press charges,” but an Attorney General spokesperson stated: “Given all the new technology that is available today, we are aware that there may be more opportunities for potential violations of these laws. We are prepared to act when the situation warrants prosecution.” However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s 2014 decision, Commonwealth v. Spence, which held that telephones are expressly exempt from the devices prohibited by the Wiretap Act, could be a challenge to the Attorney General’s prosecution of these cases. more

Ratters: Hackers spying through computer microphones, webcams

A new report says hackers can take remote control of a computer and not only steal passwords and credit card numbers, but also listen through the microphone and watch through the webcam.

The hackers, known as ratters, can then post that information online with advertising.

It’s done by Remote Access Trojans, or RATs. According to the Digital Citizens’ Alliance, they are a growing threat to innocent people...

Benson shared a few tips to help computer users protect themselves:

• Cover a webcam when it’s not in use
• Update the computer’s operating system and make sure its anti-virus software and firewalls are up to date
• Beware of suspicious links 

more


Kevin's Spybusters Tip #834: Blind Ratters with this.

Guy Shoots Drone To Smithereens For Spying On Sunbathing Daughter

William Merideth was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and wanton endangerment Sunday evening after shooting down an $1800 drone he claims was spying on his teenage daughter sunbathing in Hillview, KY.

“My daughter comes in and says, ‘Dad, there’s a drone out here flying,’ ” William H. Merideth told WDRB, Tuesday.

“I came out and it was down by the neighbor’s house, about 10 feet off the ground, looking under their canopy … in their back yard," Merideth said. "I went and got my shotgun and I said, ‘I’m not going to do anything unless it’s directly over my property … Within a minute or so, here it came … hovering over top of my property, and I shot it out of the sky."

Soon after Merideth shot the drone, four men showed up at his door “looking for a fight” and asked Merideth if he was “the son of a bitch that shot my drone.”



Merideth, with a 10mm Glock holstered on his hip, confirmed he had shot down the drone and told his accuser "if you cross that sidewalk onto my property, there’s going to be another shooting."
The men left, but soon after the police arrived and arrested Merideth. Though Ars Technica reports that law enforcement officials allegedly told Merideth they agreed with his actions, he was being charged due to an ordinance against discharging firearms in the city.

Though Merideth was disappointed in the law enforcement’s response to the situation, he feels “confident” his charges will be reduced or dismissed entirely. more