Weird TSCM Science - Tuning Windows to Block Radio Frequency Eavesdropping

A new flexible material developed by engineers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is claimed to be able to tune out various portions of the electromagnetic spectrum while allowing others to pass through, such as being opaque to infra-red but transparent to visible light, for example. This material has the potential to vastly improve the efficiencies of solar cells, or create window coatings that not only let in visible light and keep out heat, but also stop electronic eavesdropping by blocking electromagnetic signals.

Though still very much at the working prototype stage, the researchers intend to further their research by analyzing the effects of different materials, physical arrangements, and semiconductor properties in an attempt to create materials that absorb light at different wavelengths for use in a variety of applications.

The results of this research were recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. more

How to be a Spy

Are you cut out for 00 status?

Rule #1 - Don't look goofy.

In America, spies in trench coats are usually bugging your office and listening in on your phone calls. In Britain, her majesty’s secret servants are busy code breaking between rounds of cricket.

In Vienna, instead, you just spend a day at the coffee house and, if you listen carefully, you will soon be up-to-date about the latest rumors of this city that loves secrets – and even more, to gossip about them on the sly...

Luckily, the city offers everything you need to live the high life of a spy. more

Even Your Car is Spying on You

You may not know this, but your car is collecting lots of information about your driving habits and history.
Who has access to this data and for what purpose? We speak with Lauren Smith, policy counsel at The Future of Privacy Forum. audio download

Recent Spy Camera News

A radiologist at a private practice has been spared jail after stashing his mobile phone in an air vent to record patients using the unisex toilet. more

An Orleans Parish judge dealt several setbacks late Tuesday to a prominent New Orleans breast reconstruction surgeon who faces rape and video voyeurism charges. Dr. Alireza Sadeghi, 41, is accused of raping and surreptitiously filming his now-estranged wife and of videotaping four nude patients in the operating room without their consent. In at least one instance, prosecutors claim, Sadeghi forwarded the footage to a friend. His trial is scheduled for March 20. more

A Utah man and student at BYU-Idaho has been accused of placing a small camera in the bathroom of a Rexburg apartment where six female students live... Rexburg police say a small camera was found hidden inside a towel hook mounted in the bathroom. more

A handyman who was jailed for 24 weeks after he hid a spy camera in a woman's bathroom after being invited round to fix her banisters is appealing his conviction... The court had heard Burnett, 41, planted the covert device in a vase in the victim's bathroom and could control it using an app on his mobile phone. When the victim went to change the flowers in the bathroom two months later she discovered the device and contacted the police. more

Some Indiana lawmakers suggest drone users with nefarious intentions could be flying under the radar under existing laws. ...the proposal creates a “remote aerial voyeurism” crime and addresses penalties for sex offenders operating drones inappropriately. more

Shaun Turner accessed his victims’ personal webcams but was caught by the Eastern Regional Operations Unit (ERSOU) following a tip-off. Turner, 29, of Race Course View, Cottenham, was used a malware system known as a Remote Access Trojan or ‘RAT’, a court heard. The RATs used by Turner enabled him to download all files held on his victims’ computers – including personal pictures, videos and identity documents. In addition, he deployed software to victims’ computers that streamed live images taken by their webcam to his own computer to view. more

TV News Report: Peeping Toms Go High-Tech with Covert Cameras

When it comes to hidden cameras, cellphones are just the beginning. 12 News had two well-known licensed private investigators show us just how covert cameras have become...

So the question is, with cameras being so available and affordable – is there any way to protect yourself from being spied on without knowing it?

He showed us one of several products they have to detect hidden cameras.

The basic device uses a red strobe light to reflect light off the lens of a camera that may be hidden in an object.

They also sell radio frequency detectors which can help detect any wireless signals.

Still, according to our private investigators, neither detection method is full proof.

“There is no sense of protection in terms of a cure all,” George said, “if somebody wanted to set up a camera without your knowledge and you weren't inquisitive - you would never know it was there.”

He says simple awareness and just being inquisitive is your biggest weapon. more with video report

Learn how to discover covert spy cameras yourself.

Town Supervisor Resigns, Pleads Guilty to Felony Eavesdropping

NY - Geddes town supervisor Manny Falcone has just pleaded guilty to felony eavesdropping for ordering his secretary to illegally listen to conversations among others in the town hall...

Falcone admitted he ordered the audio capabilities on a town hall security camera to be activated so he could eavesdrop between February and September 2016. The camera was located in the main entryway of the building. more

Police Chief Pleads Not Guilty to Eavesdropping

CA - David Paul Edmiston, an acting Kern High School District police chief accused of surreptitiously recording his officers, pled not guilty in Kern County Superior Court Wednesday to four counts of misdemeanor eavesdropping.

Edmiston was named acting police chief in August, after Chief Joseph Lopeteguy, who alleged high-level school district administrators were illegally using a sensitive police database, went on medical stress leave. more

Spy History - Secret Radio Eavesdropping 'made operators deaf'

UK - 2 February 1982: GCHQ staff are suing for their loss of hearing after spending decades listening to ‘interesting’ frequencies...

...had been employed “to listen to radio signals — which the makers would not wish other people to listen to. “The desired signals would frequently be found among a large number of other signals — the way that one is accustomed to ‘finding on the ordinary radio particularly outside VHF and particularly in the evening.”

Many signals were “deliberately drowned” to prevent others hearing them. Their volume controls were always the highest pitch in case they missed anything. As a result, operators were listening to relatively faint signals among a barrage of much louder ones. Over a period of years, their hearing had been impaired. All had suffered from ringing in the ears.”

The case was settled a week later with damages of £25,000 paid to the operators. more

North Korea’s Spy Agency Head-less

The head of North Korea’s spy agency has become the most senior victim of another round of apparent purges ordered by the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, South Korean officials have said.

Kim Won-hong, the state security minister and a close aide to the leader, was sacked in mid-January after being accused of corruption, abuse of power and human rights abuses, according to the unification ministry in Seoul, which handles cross-border issues.

It is not clear whether he has been permanently banished or ordered to undergo “re-education” with a view to being brought back into Kim Jong-un’s inner circle. His removal has not been confirmed by North Korea. more

Wiretap Warrant v. Data Warrant = Kinetic v. Static

A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that law enforcement agencies can view private messages and tweets from private accounts on Twitter if they get a warrant...

The case turned on what type of warrant is needed: a communications data warrant or a wiretapping warrant, which is needed for electronic communications in transit and has tougher legal requirements.

Essex County officials argued they were trying to access audio that had already been transmitted as opposed to live transmissions. The court agreed, ruling that law enforcement could use a data warrant.

According to Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Camila Garces, the court's ruling "ensures that the state can access electronic footprints when conducting a criminal investigation."

Defense attorney Lawrence Lustberg said that investigators should only have a right to see private message if they get a wiretap because they happen in real time. more

The Birth of WiFi — Thank you, Australia

Australian scientific invention — The invention of a new wireless data transmission system in the early 1990s led to modern wi-fi, the most popular way to connect computers without wires.

The prototype test-bed invented by researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Invention leads to modern wi-fi.

CSIRO’s wireless local area network led to modern wi-fi and liberated the internet from dial-up. It marked a change in communication technology that is comparable to the invention of the telegraph in 1831.

The WLAN allowed instant contact with, and access to, information resources – anytime and anywhere in the world. It solved the main problem of indoor wireless networking – radio waves bouncing off walls and furniture, creating a distorted signal – by transmitting several signals over various frequencies simultaneously, merging into a complete signal at the reception point. more

Thank you, Mike! ~Kevin

Spy Sites of Washington, DC (book)

SPY SITES OF WASHINGTON, D.C.
By Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton (with Henry R. Schlesinger)

“Spy Sites” could be considered two books in one. It is a capsule history of spying in and around D.C., with crisply written profiles of the major players.

Even intelligence buffs will encounter a few unfamiliar names. Consider, for instance, Thomas Atwood Digges, a Marylander who worked in London to free American sailors imprisoned by the British. Yet he was so sloppy with his accounts that Benjamin Franklin (for whom he was a sometime courier) denounced him as a rogue and scoundrel. But there is a monument to him on the Digges family estate across the Potomac from Mount Vernon.

“Spy Sites” is also a guide book that should be invaluable for weeks of Sunday afternoon spy walks or drives — from downtown to tranquil suburbs. With maps and photos, it enables the reader to view the obscure dead drops that such rogues as Aldrich Ames, John Walker and Robert Hanssen used to pass secrets to the Soviets — “you are there” experiences of the first order.

There are also some seldom-discussed secrets as to how FBI and other counterintelligence officers “spied on the spies.”

Readers can trust the expertise of the authors. Robert Wallace ran CIA’s Office of Technical Services, which invents spycraft equipment for communications and other covert chores. R. Keith Melton, an Annapolis graduate, owns one of the largest collections of spy artifacts in existence.  more

2017 Information Security and Cryptography Seminar — Fundamentals and Applications

June 12-14, 2017 in Zurich, Switzerland | Lecturers: David Basin and Ueli Maurer

This seminar provides an in-depth coverage of Information Security and Cryptography from both a conceptual and application-oriented viewpoint. At the same time, the mathematical, algorithmic, protocol-specific, and system-oriented aspects are explained in a way understandable to a wide audience. This includes the foundations needed to understand the different approaches, a critical look at the state-of-the-art, and a perspective on future security technologies.

The material is presented at three different levels. At the highest level, the basic concepts are presented in detail, but abstractly (e.g., as black boxes), without mathematics. No background is required to follow at this level. At an intermediate level, the most important concrete schemes, models, algorithms, and protocols are presented as well as their applications. Here some minimal mathematical and systems background is assumed. At the deepest level, which is not required to understand the higher levels, different special topics, requiring some mathematical background, are discussed.

The lectures and all course material are in English. more

Make Your Smartphone 007 Smart (book)

via amazon.com
The smartphone in your pocket can easily be turned into a high-tech spy tool and counter-surveillance device to rival anything that Ian Fleming’s Q might have dreamt up.

$2.99 at Amazon

You can communicate secretly, browse the web anonymously, access the Deep Web and hidden networks, view banned content, download privately and continue using Twitter and Facebook if their services are ever blocked locally.

Conversely, mobile devices are not secure unless you make them so. If somebody wants to know where you are at this precise moment, your smartphone will tell them – even if it is turned off...

Rather like spies in a James Bond movie, mobile users have an array of digital tools to call upon, both to mask their identity and to provide real confidence that their correspondence, data and contacts are secure.

There are smartphone apps that let you see in the dark or measure the height of a building. You can film and record without being rumbled; send emails, PMs and SMS that cannot be intercepted or read. You can even take over and control many public and private security cameras. more

The Obama Cybersecurity Report Card

by Taylor Armerding
President Obama is only a couple of weeks out of office, but his legacy on cybersecurity is already getting reviews – mixed reviews.

According to a number of experts, Obama said a lot of good things, did a lot of good things and devoted considerable energy to making cybersecurity a priority, but ultimately didn't accomplish the goal of making either government or the private sector more secure...

As Kevin Murray, director of Murray Associates, a counterespionage consultancy, put it, “government can make as many policies as it wants, but if it doesn’t solve the problem, what good is it?”

Or, as Paul Rosenzweig, founder of Red Branch Consulting, former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official under President George W. Bush and frequent contributor to the Lawfare blog, put it, “they had the tools, they just chose not to use them when the chips were down. I don’t know why.”...

Finally, Murray said government needs to focus not just on those who hack or steal data, but also on those who let it happen. He said government won’t get better results until it demands accountability. In virtually every case of a failure, including the OPM breach, those in charge are allowed to resign, which means they keep their pension and all other government benefits.

“There’s a lot of hand wringing, but not enough action,” Murray said. “You have to make the people in charge of holding this information accountable. Somebody should get paid a lot of money, but then told, ‘You are going to be held responsible if it leaks out on your watch.’

“You start doing that, and people will start taking it (information security) seriously,” he said.  more