The Most Dangerous U.S. Spy You Never Heard of... until now

She put American combat troops in harm's way, betrayed her own people and handed over so many secrets that experts say the U.S. may never know the full extent of the damage.
Ana Montes was the Queen of Cuba, an American who from 1985 to the September 11, 2001 attacks handed over U.S. military secrets to Havana while working as a top analyst for the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency.

But despite her crimes, Montes remains largely unknown.

You might not think Cuba could do much harm to a superpower like the U.S., said retired DIA official Chris Simmons, appearing on CNN's "Declassified." But you'd be wrong... more

Programming note: Explore untold stories of American spies: CNN Original Series "Declassified" airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT only on CNN.

Business Espionage: A Brief History

by Daniel Corbett and Michael Disotell
...another early example of industrial espionage came about in the late eighteenth century, when France found itself attempting to compete with the emerging industrial strength of Great Britain. The French government surreptitiously placed apprentices in English iron and steel yards to abscond with production formulas. To maintain its market dominance, Britain became the first country to pass legislation aimed at preventing industrial espionage.

In the United States, American businesses employed former Pinkerton detectives to uncover employee theft after the Civil War. And during the 1920s, anxiety over Communist and unionist upheaval caused companies to hire double agents to expose internal threats. According to a report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor, a majority of American companies had placed labor spies in their plants and unions around that time.

As labor-management tensions started to ease after World War II, American companies shifted their focus away from themselves and began spying on competitors. Industrial espionage began to follow one of two familiar patterns: (1) a former employee would misappropriate confidential information before departing for a competitor, or (2) a competitor would place a “mole” inside an organization to gain access to corporate secrets.

Industrial espionage became a global affair during the Cold War, as U.S. businesses faced threats from Soviet spies and multinational competitors alike. For example, in 1982 six executives from the Japanese firms Hitachi and Mitsubishi were arrested in Santa Clara, California, for allegedly trying to steal computer parts from IBM. Companies also became increasingly worried about executives overseas defecting to competitors. A dispute between General Motors and Volkswagen arose when a group of GM executives in Germany left GM to join VW. Upon seeing similar designs in VW’s car models, GM accused VW of using proprietary information gained from its former executives. In one of the largest industrial espionage cases ever, VW settled with GM for $100 million and agreed to buy at least $1 billion worth of car parts from the company. more

Ranking Chart of Mobile Devices Perceived as Most Secure

According to a Tech Pro Research survey, Apple is viewed by tech decision-makers as the most secure mobile device option. Samsung is threatening Apple's lead, and Microsoft ranks well on tablets thanks to the Surface. more

Click to enlarge.

Why Every Business Needs a Spycam Detection Program & Recording in the Workplace Policy

The American Family Association (AFA) has renewed its call to #BoycottTarget after a man was reportedly arrested for recording girls trying clothes on in a dressing room at the store's branch in Bedford, New Hampshire.

Last week, 22-year-old Zachery Bishop was arrested by the Bedford Police Department following reports that a man was videotaping young girls undressing inside Target's dressing room. In response to the report, AFA president Tim Wildmon released a statement calling on the 1.3 million people who have already signed the #BoycottTarget petition to invite one person each to sign it also, The Christian Post details.

"Over the Independence Day holiday and throughout the month of July, we're asking all those who have signed the #BoycottTarget pledge to work diligently to get just one other person in their circle of influence to sign it as well," said Wildmon in his statement. "We want to give another boost to the boycott against Target's unsafe and family unfriendly bathroom and fitting room policy." more

Get your Spycam Detection Program & Recording in the Workplace Policy here.

Wiretaps Stymied By Encryption Decreased in 2015

by Cory Bennett
Wiretaps encountering encryption dropped from 22 in 2014 to seven in 2015, according to a new report from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The report also found that despite this decline, wiretaps overall went up 16 percent during that same time span, from 3,554 in 2014 to 4,148 last year. more (requires sign-in)

Spy Alert #734: The Olympic Games Warning

If Zika, political instability and contaminated water weren’t enough,

U.S. intelligence officials are warning Americans traveling to the August Olympic Games in Rio and other destinations abroad that proprietary information stored on electronic devices is at high risk for theft by spies and cyber criminals who are increasingly targeting global events as troughs rich in valuable intelligence.

Bill Evanina, the nation’s chief counter-intelligence executive, is urging travelers to carry “clean’’ devices, free of potentially valuable archives that could be tapped for economic advantage, personal data or security information.

Just as the Olympics draw the world’s most talented athletes, Evanina said the games and other international events represent a "great playground’’ for government intelligence services and criminals, if only because of the “sheer number of devices.’’ more

Nanny Cam Solves 2013 Home Invasion Case — 2016 Justice Served

A judge sentenced a New Jersey man to life in prison Wednesday for a brutal home invasion beating caught on a nanny cam, after listening to the victim describe how the attack left her with physical and psychological scars...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/25/home-invasion-millburn-camera/2458129/

(Judge) Wigler added an additional five years to Custis' life sentence for the child endangerment conviction. Custis won't be eligible for parole for more than 60 years.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for the Newark resident based on a criminal past Wigler termed "rather staggering." It included 38 arrests and 17 felony convictions before the 2013 attack in Millburn, a suburban town several miles from Newark...

"Half-measures of leniency haven't worked to deter this defendant," (Assistant Essex County Prosecutor) Semper said. "He has almost as many arrests as he's had birthdays." more

Not the World's Smallest "Camera" but... Possibly the World's Smallest Camera Lens

Tiny 3D-printed medical camera could be deployed from inside a syringe.

Getting inside the human body to have a look around is always going to be invasive, but that doesn't mean more can't be done to make things a little more comfortable. With this goal in mind, German researchers have developed a complex lens system no bigger than a grain of salt that fits inside a syringe. The imaging tool could make for not just more productive medical imaging, but tiny cameras for everything from drones to slimmer smartphones.

Scientists from the University of Stuttgart built their three-lens camera using a new 3D printing technique. They say their new approach offers sub-micrometer accuracy that makes it possible to 3D print optical lens systems with two or more lenses for the first time. Their resulting multi-lens system opens up the possibility of correcting for aberration (where a lens cannot bring all wavelengths of color to the same focal plane), which could enable higher image quality from smaller devices. more

Mark Zuckerberg Tapes Over His Laptop Camera - You can do better!

Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most powerful men in the world...

On Tuesday, observers were reminded that Mr. Zuckerberg, 32, is not just a normal guy... his laptop camera and microphone jack appeared to be covered with tape...

The taped-over camera... usually a signal that someone is concerned... about hackers’ gaining access to his or her devices by using remote-access trojans — a process called “ratting.” (Remote access is not limited to ratters: According to a cache of National Security Agency documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, at least two government-designed programs were devised to take over computer cameras and microphones.)

Security experts supported the taping, for a few good reasons... more
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Murray Associates provided our clients with a more elegant solution—a year ago. 
(free)

Spybuster Tip #812 
Protect your privacy with just two disk magnets.

1. Affix one magnet to your laptop—adjacent to the camera lens.
2. Let the second magnet attach itself to the first one. It will orbit the first magnet.
3. Orbit the second magnet over the camera lens to eclipse the view.
4. Rotate it out of the way to use the camera.

Simple. Elegant. Effective.
Tape is tawdry.

You are now very cool! More cool than Zuck with his yuck tape.

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The Great Seal Bug - Excellent Synopsis

In 1946, a group of Russian children from the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization (sort of a Soviet scouting group) presented a carved wooden replica of the Great Seal of the United States to Averell Harriman, the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union.

Click to enlarge

The gift, a gesture of friendship to the USSR's World War II ally, was hung in the ambassador’s official residence at Spaso House in Moscow. It stayed there on a wall in the study for seven years until, through accident and a ruse, the State Department discovered that the seal was more than a mere decoration.

It was a bug.

The Soviets had built a listening device—dubbed “The Thing” by the U.S. intelligence community—into the replica seal and had been eavesdropping on Harriman and his successors the whole time it was in the house. “It represented, for that day, a fantastically advanced bit of applied electronics,” wrote George Kennan, the ambassador at the time the device was found. “I have the impression that with its discovery the whole art of intergovernmental eavesdropping was raised to a new technological level.” more

The full story.

Godless Android Malware - Secretly Roots Phone, Installs Programs

Android users beware: a new type of malware has been found in legitimate-looking apps that can “root” your phone and secretly install unwanted programs.

The malware, dubbed Godless, has been found lurking on app stores including Google Play, and it targets devices running Android 5.1 (Lollipop) and earlier, which accounts for more than 90 percent of Android devices, Trend Micro said Tuesday in a blog post.

Godless hides inside an app and uses exploits to try to root the OS on your phone. This basically creates admin access to a device, allowing unauthorized apps to be installed.

Godless contains various exploits to ensure it can root a device, and it can even install spyware, Trend Micro said...

Trend recommends you buy some mobile security software. more

My solution. ~Kevin

Security Director Alert: Check the Settings on your Video Teleconferencing Equipment

Closed-door meetings by Canada's Quebec Liberal Party were exposed to trivial eavesdropping thanks to flaws in its video conferencing software.

The flaws, found and reported by a resident white hat researcher, are being fixed.

The researcher speaking on the condition of anonymity told local tabloid Le Journal de Montreal (French) he accessed the video streams using a vulnerability and the default password which was in use.

They were able to gain on-demand access to two meeting rooms in Quebec and Montreal, and supplied screen captures as evidence of the exploit.

"It was just too easy," the researcher told the paper. "It is as if they had stuck their PIN on their credit card."

Party communications director Maxime Roy says nothing relating to national security was discussed at the meetings... "We are working with our supplier." more

Need help? 
Call me.

Seek Thermal CompactPRO — Possible TSCM Tool Coming Soon

Seek Thermal has announced the first thermal imager for smartphones with 76,800 temperature pixels.

The new CompactPRO is said to deliver the high-quality thermal image resolution and the enhanced software features professionals demand, including:

• 320 x 240 thermal sensor
• Wide 32-degree field of view
• Minimum focusable distance of 15cm
• Emissivity control
• Thermal level and span
• 9 color palettes

I plan on testing this and will report in a future post. ~Kevin

Snooping on Mobile Phones: Prevalence and Trends

Abstract: Personal mobile devices keep private information which people other than the owner may try to access.

Thus far, it has been unclear how common it is for people to snoop on one another’s devices. Through an anonymity-preserving survey experiment, we quantify the pervasiveness of snooping attacks, defined as "looking through someone else’s phone without their permission."

We estimated the 1-year prevalence to be 31% in an online participant pool. Weighted to the U.S. population, the data indicates that 1 in 5 adults snooped on at least one other person’s phone, just in the year before the survey was conducted.

We found snooping attacks to be especially prevalent among young people, and among those who are themselves smartphone users. In a follow-up study, we found that, among smartphone users, depth of adoption, like age, also predicts the probability of engaging in snooping attacks.

In particular, the more people use their devices for personal purposes, the more likely they are to snoop on others, possibly because they become aware of the sensitive information that is kept, and how to access it. These findings suggest that, all else remaining equal, the prevalence of snooping attacks may grow, as more people adopt smartphones, and motivate further effort into improving defenses. more

A Technology that lets Companies Eavesdrop on Mobile Calls Made on their Premises.

Ever sought a bit of privacy by stepping away from your desk to make a personal call on your cell phone?

Soon, that may not be enough to prevent the boss from listening in -- at least not in Russia.

A Moscow security firm has developed technology that lets companies eavesdrop on mobile calls made on their premises. InfoWatch says the product is legal in Russia and that it’s scouting for other markets where customers -- banks, government agencies, or anyone else trying prevent leaks of confidential information -- would be allowed to use it.

“These technologies have been used by secret services or the military in certain countries,” said Natalya Kaspersky, chief executive officer of InfoWatch. “Our breakthrough is in applying them for corporate security.”The product expands an employer’s arsenal for fighting industrial espionage but is also likely to further fuel the global debate about data privacy. more

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