From Those Wonderful Emperors of Espionage...

A popular GPS tracker used as a panic alarm for elderly people and to monitor children's whereabouts can be hacked to spy on users, researchers have warned.

The white-label location tracker, manufactured in China, is rebranded and sold by multiple UK companies - including Pebbell 2 by HoIP Telecom , OwnFone Footprint , and SureSafeGo.

"There were no signs from the device when this was activated or when you called in, turning this device issued to vulnerable people into a remote listening bug,” said Fidus.

"This issue teamed with the location tracking abilities of the device allows you to conceive some pretty scary potential use cases."

The researchers also found it was possible to remotely reset the GPS tracker without needing a PIN, and kill signal to the device altogether, rendering it effectively useless.

Fidus estimates that there are at least 10,000 of these devices in use in the UK, and thousands more around the world.

The team has informed several of the device makers about the flaws, but there is no way to fix the vulnerabilities without recalling every device. more

Smokin' - New Camera Can See 28 Miles - Through Smog

A new camera can photograph you from 45 kilometers away...

Developed in China, the lidar-based system can cut through city smog to resolve human-sized features at vast distances...

Zheng-Ping Li and colleagues from the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai show how to photograph subjects up to 45 km (28 miles) away in a smog-plagued urban environment.

Their technique uses single-photon detectors combined with a unique computational imaging algorithm that achieves super-high-resolution images by knitting together the sparsest of data points...

Click to enlarge.

The results speak for themselves. 

The team set up the new camera on the 20th floor of a building on Chongming Island in Shanghai and pointed it at the Pudong Civil Aviation Building across the river, some 45 km away...

The entire device is about the size of a large shoebox and so is relatively portable. more

Beware of New Devices in Expectation of Privacy Areas

UK - A camera hidden inside an alarm clock was used to spy on a naked student in a shower...

Maintenance man Nicholas Burford installed the secret recording device in the bathroom of a house in South Devon and deliberately aimed its lens at the shower unit.

He recorded the 20-year-old woman at least twice, but was caught because his hidden camera malfunctioned and started making a buzzing noise. more

Learn how to spot spycams.

Even Popcorn Has Trade Secrets

Caramel Crisp LLC, the owner of Garrett Popcorn Shops (“Garrett”), the renowned Chicago-based purveyor of deliciously flavored popcorn, recently filed suit in federal court in Chicago against its former director of research and development, Aisha Putnam, alleging that she misappropriated the company’s trade secrets, including its recipes for Garret’s famous popcorn...

Garrett alleges that when she learned about the termination, Putnam began downloading “virtually all of [Garrett’s] trade secrets and confidential information in her possession to a personal USB drive, which she took home.”...

This case offers two helpful reminders to employers that seek to protect their valuable trade secrets.  

First, in determining whether something qualifies as a “trade secret,” one factor considered by courts are the reasonableness of the efforts to maintain the confidentiality of the trade secrets...

Second, whenever an employee with access to trade secrets leaves their employment (either voluntarily or involuntarily), employers should consider whether to conduct a forensic review of their computers and other storage devices to determine whether the employee took any confidential information on his or her way out the door. more

"Smart" Doorlocks Let Landlords and Third Parties Spy on You

Latch is a leading vendor of internet-of-things "smart" doorlocks that are in increasing use in rental housing (the company claims 10% of all new multiunit construction incorporates their product); they allow entry by keycode, keycard, and Bluetooth.

Latch's privacy policy is the usual IoT dumpster fire, allowing the company to harvest a vast amount of information from you and also share that information with a wide array of third parties, including (sometimes) your landlord.

Almost every method of unlocking your Latch requires an app in the loop (even PINs that you use with a numeric keyboard are delivered by app) and the app gathers huge amounts of information on you. Moreover, landlords can choose to configure Latch locks to require the app. more

California Weighs Limiting Smart Speaker 'Eavesdropping'

California is weighing whether to ban smart speakers from storing customer voice recordings by default. 

The Anti-Eavesdropping Act moving through California's state legislature would require all smart speaker vendors, including Amazon and Google, to get explicit written consent from customers before voice queries are stored.

The same legislation also seeks to ban smart speaker vendors from sharing voice-recording data with a third party, unless the customer has opted into it. more

Brain Imaging Lie Detector Can Be Beaten

People have certain physical "tells" when they conceal information—and studies show that good liars can prevent these "tells" being detected by displaying physical red herrings of their own.

But scientists have now shown that even a brain imaging technique called fMRI, which in theory is much harder to trick, can be beaten by people who use two particular mental countermeasures...

This research is the first to explore the effects of mental countermeasures on brain activity in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)—and it showed that when people used the countermeasures, the test proved to be 20 percent less accurate. more

Grand Opening Party at the International Spy Museum

Join us for a night of celebration at our Opening Night Gala on Saturday, May 11. This is your exclusive opportunity to be among the first to tour our completely reimagined, state-of-the-art exhibits that provide a behind-the-scenes look at how intelligence has changed the world and continues to affect our lives today.

Enjoy live entertainment, dine on food and cocktails by Ridgewells Catering, and experience the Museum's new interactive and immersive installations at your leisure.  Tickets

On May 12, the International Spy Museum now at L'Enfant Plaza will officially opening its doors to the public! With interactive exhibitions and installations, the foremost collection of spy artifacts in the world, and first-person accounts from top intelligence officers and experts, the new Museum places visitors in the shoes of the spies.

In celebration of Mother’s day, all moms will receive free admission to SPY! To access a free ticket in advance, call the Call Center at 202.393.7798. Moms can also obtain tickets onsite that day only. NOTE: Same-day tickets are subject to availability. This special offer is not available online and no refunds are permitted for tickets purchased in advance of May 12. Tickets

Can Doctor Visits be Recorded? - State & Federal Laws Govern

Audio and video recordings of doctors’ visits can be used to improve patients’ and families’ understanding of medical conditions and care instructions. In some situations, however, providers may be concerned that recordings could be harmful or illegal or may cause liability down the line.

What legal protections apply to recordings of doctors’ visits, and what rights do doctors have to limit recordings when they are uncomfortable? more

My Way or the Huawei - The Hits Just Keep on Coming

Vodafone, Europe's largest phone company, "acknowledged that it found vulnerabilities going back years with equipment supplied by Huawei for the carrier’s Italian business."

Bloomberg reported that Vodafone identified "hidden backdoors in the software that could have given Huawei unauthorized access to the carrier’s fixed-line network in Italy, a system that provides internet service to millions of homes and businesses." more

This Week's Spy Headlines

• Your smart TV is spying on you. Here's how to stop it. more
• Your Smart Home Devices Are Spying on You – Now, You Can Spy on Them more
• Your cellphone is spying on you but you can make it stop. more
• Ex-CIA officer Jerry Lee expected to plead guilty to spying for China. more
• Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar's forces have detained two Turkish citizens on charges of spying. more
• Amnesty urges Yemen’s Houthis to free 10 journalists held for spying. more
• Whale found off Norway's coast believed to be spying for Russia. more
• Police Search For Man Caught Spying In Bathroom Stall more
• Family of Palestinian ‘Emirati spy’ disputes Turkish suicide claims. more 
• Despite U.S. spying warnings, Huawei 5G reportedly gets U.K. approval. more
• British Embassy refuses to comment on U.K. spying on Trump campaign. more
• Julian Assange has filed a criminal complaint accusing Ecuadorian embassy of spying on him. more

Colombia's Court - Let's meet at Club Nogal, we know it's not bugged.

Colombia’s constitutional court said on Sunday it had been meeting outside its normal offices citing suspicions that the high court is bugged.

In a pair of messages on Twitter, the court also said it would ask the National Police and the Prosecutor General’s Office if their equipment and personnel are used for possible wiretaps...

Several magistrates confirmed to newspaper El Espectador that they believe that also their phone conversations are being intercepted after several personal conversations were leaked...

“We met in Club Nogal because there are no microphones there,” an anonymous magistrate told the television network. more

I wouldn't bet on it, especially now that you told the press where you meet. ~Kevin

Shooting Where the Sun Don't Shine, or New Cell for Solar Guy

NY - A Rocky Point man secretly video recorded his former co-workers while they were using the bathroom in their Ronkonkoma office, police say.

Michael Evans, 32, allegedly hid a camera in the ladies' room at Trinity Solar in Ronkonkoma last month.

According to prosecutors, the suspect installed the recording device in the restroom on three separate occasions. Authorities say it was plugged into a wall socket and was disguised to look like a phone charger. more

and another Voyeur Films Self...
KY - The Murray Police Department said in a release that officers responded Thursday to Murray High School after staff reported finding a recording device set up in the bathroom of the nurse's station. Police spokesman Sgt. Brant Shutt said the video recorder captured the person putting the device in place. Police arrested 53-year-old Mark Boggess, who is a teacher at the school as well as the track and field coach. He is charged with possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor and voyeurism. more

and The Lollypop Man
UK - An Ipswich lollipop man who secretly filmed a member of staff in a school’s disabled toilets with a mobile phone has been spared an immediate prison sentence... On March 27 staff noticed that a mobile phone was recording from the pocket of a jacket belonging to Thompson which was hanging in the disabled toilets. The phone was taken to the staff office and Thompson was told about the discovery of the phone and asked to leave the school premises. When the phone was checked it was found to contain footage of a staff member using the toilet facilities. more  sing-a-long

and Police Get Moist
FL - The Brevard Sheriff’s Office says a local man used a hidden camera in a cell phone charger to watch women showering in his home. BCSO says he asked his niece to house-sit for him and she brought a friend.  Innvestigators say the women plucked the charger out of the wall, found a memory card in it, put that into a laptop, then saw the footage. Jonathan Moist, 46, is now facing a felony charge of video voyeurism. more
 

Tunnel Spy Traps Himself: "But it worked for El Chapo."

A man in northern Mexico had to be rescued after he accidentally trapped himself in a hole that he dug so he could spy on his former girlfriend in violation of a court order to stay away from her, authorities said Sunday.

The Sonora state attorney general’s office said the 50-year-old man had spent days digging the hole in Puerto Penasco, a town on the Gulf of California, only to become trapped and require assistance to get out...

The newspaper El Universal said the man dug a tunnel under the woman’s house. It said the woman told police that over the course of a week, she had heard scratching noises but assumed the noise was cats.

But when the sound grew louder, she investigated and found her former partner of 14 years trapped below, the report said. She said she ended the relationship because her partner was very jealous. more

Secret Video Surveillance in Hospital Labor and Delivery Rooms Suit

Early this month, 131 patients (and counting) of a women’s hospital in San Diego, California filed a lawsuit against the hospital after discovering that there was secret video surveillance in three labor and delivery operating rooms, recording medical procedures without patients’ consent.

Patients were recorded during Cesarean sections, birth complications, treatment after miscarriage, hysterectomies and other medical procedures from July of 2012 to July of 2013. Approximately 1,800 patients were recorded during this period. The patients are suing the hospital for invasion of privacy, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress and unlawful recording of confidential information.

In addition to not informing the patients of the hidden cameras, the lawsuit alleges that the hospital was “grossly negligent” in its storage of the recordings. The lawsuit claims that recordings were stored on employee computers, often without password protection and that the hospital “destroyed at least half the recordings but cannot say when or how it deleted those files and cannot confirm that it took the appropriate steps to ensure the files were not otherwise recoverable.” This is not the first lawsuit against the hospital regarding the hidden cameras. more