Pokemon Go — The Story Behind the Story

The suddenly vast scale of Pokemon Go adoption is matched by the game’s aggressive use of personal information. Unlike, say, Twitter, Facebook, or Netflix, the app requires uninterrupted use of your location and camera — a “trove of sensitive user data,” as one privacy watchdog put it in a concerned letter to federal regulators.

All the more alarming, then, that Pokemon Go is run by a man whose team literally drove one of the greatest privacy debacles of the internet era, in which Google vehicles, in the course of photographing neighborhoods for the Street View feature of the company’s online maps, secretly copied digital traffic from home networks, scooping up passwords, email messages, medical records, financial information, and audio and video files.

Before Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke was the man behind an unfathomably popular smartphone goldmine, he ran Google’s Geo division, responsible for nearly everything locational at a time when the search company was turning into much more, expanding away from cataloging the web and towards cataloging every city block on the planet.

Hanke landed at Google after his wildly popular (and admittedly very neat) CIA-funded company Keyhole, which collected geographic imagery, was acquired in 2004 and relaunched as Google Earth in 2005. more

What Has More Privacy Than the Invisible iPhone Screen?

The NoPhone, of course.
 

Click to enlarge.

more

Inventor Builds Invisible iPhone Screen for Covert Viewing

A Kurdish inventor builds a secret screen for the iPhone that enables only the user to see the contents by wearing special glasses.

It's a problem many of us have faced - how to stop prying eyes peeking at what's on our phone screen But an inventor in Turkey claims to have solved it Celal Goger has invented a secrecy screen that turns iPhones invisible. Only the wearer of these glasses can see the screen. The magic is in a chip that enables the glasses to communicate with the phone...

"The mobile's screen is completely white, nothing can be seen, you can't see the menu. He gave me the glasses and, when I put them on, I saw the complete menu. If I had this on my mobile, nobody would see what I'm looking at or which apps I'm using when I'm commuting."

His next plan is to invent a nanochip that can fit any glasses and turn the screen visible or invisible with a single button. more

Tapes Could Compel Major Fox News Settlement

A settlement with former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson
over alleged sexual harassment by Roger Ailes, the network's former chairman, is expected to reach eight figures. The reason: There are audio tapes of conversations between several female employees and Ailes, who resigned last month. A settlement would most likely keep the tapes private. more

Android Bug May Affect 900 Million Smartphones

The bugs were uncovered by Checkpoint researchers looking at software running on chipsets made by US firm Qualcomm.

Qualcomm processors are found in about 900 million Android phones, the company said...

• Affected devices included:
• BlackBerry Priv
• Blackphone 1 and Blackphone 2
• Google Nexus 5X, Nexus 6 and Nexus 6P
• HTC One, HTC M9 and HTC 10
• LG G4, LG G5, and LG V10
• New Moto X by Motorola
• OnePlus One, OnePlus 2 and OnePlus 3
• US versions of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung S7 Edge
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra

Exploiting the bugs would allow an attacker to gradually be able to take more control over a device and gain access to its data.

In response, Qualcomm is believed to have created patches for the bugs and started to use the fixed versions in its factories. It has also distributed the patches to phone makers and operators. However, it is not clear how many of those companies have issued updates to customers' phones.

Checkpoint has created a free app called QuadRooter Scanner that can be used to check if a phone is vulnerable to any of the bugs, by looking to see if the patches for them have been downloaded and installed.  more

Here's What Eavesdropper See When You Use Unsecured Wi-Fi Hotspots

You’ve probably read at least one story with warnings about using unsecure public Wi-Fi hotspots, so you know that eavesdroppers can capture information traveling over those networks. But nothing gets the point across as effectively as seeing the snooping in action. So I parked myself at my local coffee shop the other day to soak up the airwaves and see what I could see.

My intent wasn't to hack anyone's computer or device—that's illegal—but just to listen. It’s similar to listening in on someone’s CB or walkie-talkie radio conversation. Like CBs and walkie-talkies, Wi-Fi networks operate on public airwaves that anyone nearby can tune into.

As you'll see, it’s relatively easy to capture sensitive communication at the vast majority of public hotspots—locations like cafes, restaurants, airports, hotels, and other public places. You can snag emails, passwords, and unencrypted instant messages, and you can hijack unsecured logins to popular websites. Fortunately, ways exist to protect your online activity while you’re out-and-about with your laptop, tablet, and other Wi-Fi gadgets. I'll touch on those, too. more

PS - The author, Eric Geier, also provides a very good "How to use Wi-Fi hotspots securely" checklist. ~Kevin

Mayor Charged: Strip Poker, Alcohol, Eavesdropping... with minors

CA - Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva was arrested Thursday at his youth camp on charges that he played strip poker with a minor and provided youngsters with alcohol, according to authorities...

http://documents.latimes.com/complaint-against-stockton-mayor-anthony-silva/

The 42-year-old mayor stands accused of one felony count of making an illegal recording and one misdemeanor count each of providing alcohol to a minor, cruelty to a child by endangering their health and contributing to the delinquency of a minor...

Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe said the strip poker game occurred in Silva’s bedroom at the camp.

According to prosecutors, one of the participants was a 16-year-old boy. Prosecutors alleged that the audio was recorded secretly and that a “surreptitious recording clearly indicates that the participants did not want to be recorded.”

Witnesses also informed FBI agents that Silva provided alcohol to the poker game participants, all of whom were underage. Witnesses stated also that Silva had supplied alcohol and made it available to a number of underage counselors at the camp, according to officials.

Included in the evidence were details of a prior episode in which Silva audiotaped a conversation with a Stockton city employee without their consent, officials said. Prosecutors said that another witness told investigators that Silva had cameras installed in his bedroom and at the Stockton Kid's Club. more

Does dropping malicious USB sticks really work?

Of course it does.
Common sense.  
I warned about this years ago. 
Now, we have empirical evidence!



Research presented this week at BlackHat by Elie Bursztein of Google’s anti-abuse research team shows that the danger is alarmingly real:

• …we dropped nearly 300 USB sticks on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus and measured who plugged in the drives. And Oh boy how effective that was! Of the drives we dropped, 98% were picked up and for 45% of the drives, someone not only plugged in the drive but also clicked on files.

It seems folks just can’t resist picking up a USB stick that they see lying around – Bursztein says that it only took six minutes for the first device that he “lost” to be picked up.One would like to imagine that people are less likely to plug in a USB drive if it is clearly labelled with the owner’s contact details, and that appears to be borne out by the statistics.
On each type of drive, files consistent with the USB stick’s appearance were added. So, “private” files were added to USB sticks that were unlabelled or were attached to keys or a return label, “business” files to sticks marked confidential, etc.

However, in reality each of the files was actually an HTML file containing an embedded image hosted on the researcher’s server. In this way they were able to track when files were accessed. more

Smartphone Security Alert - "Juice Jacking" or... Getting your phone's brain drained at the airport,

“Juice-jacking” as the new travel scam is called, targets desperate travelers in need of a charge. Daniel Smith, a security researcher at Radware explains how this works.

“Attackers can use fake charging stations to trick unsuspecting users into plugging in their device. Once the device is plugged in the user’s data and photos could be downloaded or malware can be written onto the device.”

Hackers can download anything that is on your phone since the charging port is doubling as a data port. We’re talking passwords, emails, photos, messages, and even banking and other personal information via apps.

How to Prevent Juice-Jacking 
“Don’t use public charging stations. more

Solutions...

• This is a tiny and lightweight external battery that is easy to travel with: Amazon.com

• Plug into your laptop to charge your phone if you’re traveling with one and don’t have an external charger. 

• If you absolutely need to use public charging stations you can block the data transfer using SyncStop ($19.99).

More Than 1,000 U.S. Spies Protecting Rio Olympics

U.S. intelligence has assigned more than 1,000 spies to Olympic security as part of a highly classified effort to protect the Rio 2016 Summer Games and American athletes and staff, NBC News has learned.

Hundreds of analysts, law enforcement and special operations personnel are already on the ground in Rio de Janeiro, according to an exclusive NBC News review of a highly classified report on U.S. intelligence efforts.

In addition, more than a dozen highly trained Navy and Marine Corps commandos from the U.S. Special Operations Command are in Brazil, working with the Brazilian Federal Police and the Brazilian Navy, according to senior military officials.

The U.S. military, as expected, has placed larger military units on call should a rescue or counter-terrorism operation be needed, the officials said.

The classified report outlines an operation that encompasses all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, including those of the armed services, and involves human intelligence, spy satellites, electronic eavesdropping, and cyber and social media monitoring. more

Snapping Up Cheap Spy Tools, Nations ‘Monitoring Everyone’

Governments known to stifle dissent with

imprisonment and beatings or otherwise abuse their power are buying cheap, off-the-shelf surveillance software that can monitor the phone conversations and track the movements of thousands of their citizens, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Such so-called “lawful intercept” software has been available for years to Western police and spy agencies and is now easily obtained by governments that routinely violate basic rights — outside a short blacklist that includes Syria and North Korea. For less than the price of a military helicopter, a country with little technical know-how can buy powerful surveillance gear. more

Spy Bugs Wrong Phones

An Australian spy earned the nickname 'fat fingers' after he incorrectly bugged multiple phones by entering the wrong numbers. 

Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security revealed the anecdote during an address at the Australian Policy Institute on Tuesday night, reported Fairfax Media.

She told the story of the time she asked a senior ASIO officer how wrong numbers had been used in multiple telephone intercepts.

'I said: 'How can this happen? There's a whole series of them here.' And the answer was: 'It's fat fingers.'

 more

The Spy Who Turned... female

When the Chevalier d’Eon left France in 1762, 

it was as a diplomat, a spy in the French king’s service, a Dragoon captain, and a man. When he returned in July 1777, at the age of 49, it was as a celebrity, a writer, an intellectual, and a woman—according to a declaration by the government of France.

What happened? And why? 

The answer to those questions is complex, obscured by layers of bad biography, speculation and rumor, and shifting gender and psychological politics in the years since, as well as d’Eon’s own attempts to re-frame his story in a way that would make sense to his contemporary society. more

Pokemon Go No Go, or What a Great Spy Pretext

The Canadian Armed Forces are warning Pokemon Go players — both in and out of uniform — not to search for Pokemon on military property. 

A spokesperson said military police have reported "Pokemon Go occurrences" at three bases — CFB Borden and 22 Wing North Bay in Ontario, and 14 Wing Greenwood in Nova Scotia — within the first week of the game's release.

"In the interests of public safety, Pokemon Go players must refrain from attempting to access defence establishments without authorization for the purpose of searching for Pokemon,"...

"A Pokemon Go player found on a defence installation who is not authorized to be there could face sanctions including a warning, a citation and fine, or arrest and prosecution." more

Who Might Have Copies of Everyone's "Deleted" Emails?

The National Security Agency (NSA) has “all” of Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails and the FBI could gain access to them if they so desired, William Binney, a former highly placed NSA official, declared in a radio interview broadcast on Sunday.

Speaking as an analyst, Binney raised the possibility that the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s server was done not by Russia but by a disgruntled U.S. intelligence worker concerned about Clinton’s compromise of national security secrets via her personal email use.

Binney was an architect of the NSA’s surveillance program. He became a famed whistleblower when he resigned on October 31, 2001, after spending more than 30 years with the agency. more