Sad Story of the Beaten Bean Counter, or Wiretap Whistleblower Wasted

The Ninth Circuit on Monday dealt a final blow to a career prosecutor whose whistleblower lawsuit claimed the nation’s largest telecommunications bilked the federal government for surveillance services for two decades. 

The Ninth Circuit panel affirmed dismissal of prosecutor John Christopher Prather’s whistleblower suit...

He said the reduced labor should have lowered costs, but that the telecoms began charging law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Justice Department, fees 10 times higher than they should have been.

Prather, who reviewed the telecoms’ rate sheets and developed surveillance budgets as part of his duties supervising wiretapping activities, grew suspicious, and filed a qui tam action in 2009 under the False Claims Act. more previously in the Security Scrapbook

All Blacks Bugging: Man Charged

A man, understood to be a security consultant for New Zealand's All Blacks rugby team, has been charged over a listening device found in the team's Sydney hotel room during last year's Bledisloe Cup.

The device — described as similar to that used by law enforcement and spy agencies — was found inside a chair during a routine security search of the team's meeting room at the Intercontinental Hotel at Double Bay ahead of a Bledisloe Cup match against Australia last year.

Adrian Gard, 51, is understood to be a consultant for BGI Security which was contracted by the All Blacks during their Bledisloe Cup campaign.

He has been charged with public mischief over the bugging incident. more

Car Wars: Fifty Years of Backstabbing Infighting And Industrial Espionage (book)

Car Wars - An "astonishing...eye-opening chronicle" (Publisher's Weekly) of backstabbing, infighting, and industrial theft and espionage in the world's biggest business. It makes empires; it destroys economies; it shapes history.

Welcome to the world's biggest business--the automobile industry. A hundred years ago there were six highly experimental cars. Today there are close to 400 million cars on the planet: set bumper to bumper on a six-lane highway, they would stretch well over 200,000 miles, more than eight times around the earth.

With hundreds of billions of dollars at stake, is it any wonder that the major car companies wage a relentless war against one another, where (almost) anything goes? Here is the story of all the schemes and deceits, treacheries and shady deals in the battle for the world's car markets since the dawn of the global economy fifty years ago. more

The James Bond Movie Director Who Actually Was A Spy

That James Bond creator Ian Fleming drew literary inspiration from his wartime work in espionage is relatively well known. But the heroic World War Two exploits of the director of Bond films including Goldfinger and Live and Let Die are less well documented. more

Guy Hamilton's daring exploits can be relived on Inside Out South West on BBC One on Monday 6 February at 19:30 BST and on the iPlayer for 30 days thereafter

Security Director Alert - Check the Security of Your Networked Printers

Following recent research that showed many printer models are vulnerable to attacks, a hacker decided to prove the point and forced thousands of publicly exposed printers to spew out rogue messages.

Stackoverflowin claims to be a high-school student from the U.K. who is interested in security research...

The issue of publicly exposed printers is not new and has been exploited before to print rogue and sometimes offensive messages. However, the issue was renewed last week when researchers from Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany published a paper on different attacks against network printers and an assessment of 20 printer models. The researchers also released a Printer Exploitation Toolkit and published a printer hacking wiki.

Users should make sure that their printers can't be accessed through a public Internet Protocol address at all, Stackoverflowin said. However, if they need to do this, they should enforce access rules in their routers and only whitelist certain IP addresses, or set up a virtual private network, he said. more

I occasionally find networked printers are a back door to company networks. The most common issue is unsecured WiFi access. Have your IT department review this post and then double-check the security of the printers. Or, contact me for a complete technical information security inspection (TSCM). ~Kevin

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