Monday, July 8, 2019

Breach at 10 of the World’s Biggest Telecoms, or Follow the Leader

A multi-year attack carried out by Chinese hackers was exposed recently, and the scope of it is beyond anything previously seen in nation-state cyber espionage.

Hacking group APT10, a notorious team that is widely believed to have Chinese government support, is believed to have compromised at least 10 major global carriers and used their networks to track and spy on high-profile business leaders and members of foreign governments.
 What makes this cyber espionage incident unique is that the Chinese hackers appear to have been following their targets as they move from country to country, hopping from one breached network to another as needed. While this ability is not new, this kind of mass scale has not been seen before. more

Ag Tech Being Targeted by International Espionage

In a special report, HAT (Hoosier Ag Today) focuses on how ag biotech has become a top priority for foreign spies. It sounds like the plot of a James Bond thriller: foreign governments trying to steal top secret military technology to take over the world. But, in reality, it has become agricultural technology that foreign governments want to steal from the U.S. “If you have a competitive advantage in the field of agriculture, there is a high chance that a foreign government would target that technology,” says Craig Moringiello, special agent with the FBI...


However, companies and universities are not the only ones at risk. The FBI is urging farmers to be vigilant as well. “Farmers should be vigilant  in protecting their operations and security measures,” said Moringiello. He warned farmers to be aware when having foreign visitors on their farms. more

How to Tell If Someone Is Bugging or Tracking You

via Popular Mechanics...

Are you being bugged?
To find out, the first step is to consider carefully whether you are sufficiently interesting to warrant surveillance. If you’re a crook, a cheater, or a keeper of political or corporate secrets, the answer may be yes...
Consider also whether that gift from a business acquaintance could be a Trojan paperweight or Dumbo-eared desk clock. Maybe pass those along to Goodwill and, if you have any lingering doubts, call in a pro to execute a “bug sweep.” more

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Spycam Found in James Bond Loo (No, really!)

A man was arrested Friday after a hidden camera was found in the women's toilets at Pinewood Studios, in Buckinghamshire, England, where the next James Bond film is being filmed.

The 49-year-old man was subsequently charged with voyeurism, a spokesperson for Thames Valley Police told CNN. He will appear in court Saturday.



Filming is currently underway at Pinewood Studios for "Bond 25," the upcoming James Bond movie that's likely to be Daniel Craig's last in the title role. more

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Washington, DC and The Running of the Spies

Washington, DC - Waves of civil servants, military and law enforcement officers, business people, students, diplomats and tourists saturate the city.

That is the scene on a typical weekday in the world’s most powerful city — whose business revolves around secret meetings, information and documents. Woven into that orderly bedlam are sophisticated networks of foreign nationals whose sole purpose is to steal secrets.

They are spies.

According to the International Spy Museum in D.C., an educational and historical center of U.S. intelligence documentation and artifacts, there are “more than 10,000 spies in Washington.”

While there may be some quibbling about the actual numbers, the FBI agrees with the premise.

“It’s unprecedented — the threat from our foreign adversaries, specifically China on the economic espionage and the espionage front,” said Brian Dugan, Assistant Special Agent in Charge for Counterintelligence with the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

As this unparalleled wave of international espionage, aided by technology, explodes in D.C., the variety of spies has diversified, as well.

“A spy is nondescript. A spy is going to be someone that’s going to be a student in school, a visiting professor, your neighbor. It could be a colleague or someone that shares the soccer field with you,” Dugan said. more

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Security Message Screen Savers for Business Computers and Laptops (FREE)

Three stock Security Message Screen Savers to choose from. Five rotating screens with the top five information security best practices employees can implement themselves.
  • Reminders work.
  • Put your idle computer screens to work as your security helpers.
  • Three backgrounds to choose from, or commission custom screens.
Click link to see these information security screensavers in action.
FREE to use as-is with "Logo goes here" removed, or can be customized with your business logo.
Need to customize? Contact us for details and cost.

Monday, June 17, 2019

Business Espionage - Thought of the Day - Loose Lips

Written by Chris Erickson is a combat veteran and former Green Beret, with extensive experience deployed to various locations across the world.  

One of the most shocking things for me entering the corporate world after serving on several Special Forces teams was how lax many organizations in highly competitive industries were with information about their operations.

It doesn’t take industrial espionage to sabotage a company, just poor operation security. In World War II, the posters warned us that “Loose Lips Sink Ships” and that’s just as true today as it was then.


Operational Security, or OPSEC as we called it in the military, should be a part of your organizational culture, from the bottom to the top. Simple things such as reminding people not to discuss projects or clients in the elevator or at lunch reduce the amount of exposure and risk of compromise for both yourself and your stakeholders.

It’s far less likely that nefarious agents or bad actors are going to give up sensitive information than the possibility you’ll be compromised by the careless and/or reckless behavior of your employees. more

Spying on Your Pet Has Just Become Easier

Comcast has released a new Artificial Intelligence-powered pet filter feature to its Xfinity Camera that allows customers to check in on their pets throughout the day.

The filter is an addition to their security camera and uses AI to quickly sort through hours of footage to identify only clips featuring owners pets. Customers are able to see their pets at home through an app on their phones.

The product came in response to Americans’ increasing obsession with watching their pets on security cameras while away from home, officials said.

Comcast published a survey that determined just how much pet owners enjoy spying on their furry friends...

Results also found that 93% of participants said checking in on their pet is one of the best parts of their day. Almost half of the participants (42%) said they checked in on their pets four or more times a day. more

How often are spycams found in short-term rental properties?

From the IPX1031 Insight Blog
Click to enlarge.

A Tanning Salon Spycam & Molka Madness

IN - A Sullivan man is facing charges of voyeurism after an investigation at a local tanning salon found a hidden camera in one of the tanning rooms. ...a woman reported that a video was taken of her by a cell phone located in a vent in the tanning room. more

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In South Korea, the use of hidden cameras to spy on women in public places - known as molka - is a massive problem. This high-tech voyeurism is made possible by the availability of tiny spycams.

The government is now taking the crime more seriously. It has introduced heavier punishments for perpetrators, shut down websites used to share molka footage, and stepped up checks of public places. more

Government funded Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) inspections...




Last year, tens of thousands of women took to the streets of Seoul in protest. 


Apple-knocker Forensic Advancement - iOS & Android are No Longer Secure.

The “arms race” of mobile forensics – ever-tougher encryption and the breakneck operations to crack it – has become more of a public tug-of-war than ever before.

Cellebrite, the largest player in the mobile-forensics industry, unveiled its UFED Premium last Friday. Along with the announcement came the bombshell: that it can now get into any Apple iOS device, and many of the high-end Android devices. 

“An exclusive solution for law enforcement to unlock and extract data from all iOS and Android devices,” the company said in a tweet.

Those devices have historically been the toughest to crack... more

Monday, June 10, 2019

Security Director Alert: Espionage-as-a-Service Takes Hold on the Dark Web

The cybercrime underground has become a service-driven, on-demand economy, including making available targeted corporate espionage services. According to an analysis, about 40 percent of Dark Web merchants offer spearphishing-as-a-service and targeted hacking services, aimed at infiltrating Fortune 500 businesses and other high-value targets...

“These services typically come with service plans for conducting the hack, with prices ranging from $150 to $10,000 depending on the company involved and the extent to which the malware was customized for targeted attacks,” McGuire explained in the report, released Thursday at Infosecurity Europe...


“Purchasing corporate invoices is easy on the dark net, with prices ranging from $5-$10,” said McGuire. “These documents can be used to defraud organizations or as part of phishing campaigns to trick employees into opening malicious links or email attachments, which deliver malware that triggers a breach or gives hackers a backdoor into corporate networks which could be sold on the dark net.more

Guess Who... Offered Bonus to Workers who Stole Confidential Information from Companies Around the World

A 10-count indictment unsealed today in the Western District of Washington State charges Huawei Device Co., Ltd. and Huawei Device Co. USA with theft of trade secrets conspiracy, attempted theft of trade secrets, seven counts of wire fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice.

The indictment, returned by a grand jury on January 16, details Huawei’s efforts to steal trade secrets from Bellevue, Washington based T-Mobile USA and then obstruct justice when T-Mobile threatened to sue Huawei in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

The alleged conduct described in the indictment occurred from 2012 to 2014, and includes an internal Huawei announcement that the company was offering bonuses to employees who succeeded in stealing confidential information from other companies. more

White Paper: Business Espionage: The Employee Competitor… and what to do about it.

Store Manager Used Hidden Camera to Spy on Customers in Restroom

A North Carolina man was arrested after the hidden camera he allegedly used to spy on people in the bathroom was discovered, the Black Mountain Police Department said.

Robert Thomas Orr was charged Friday with six counts of felony secret peeping, police said in a news release shared on Facebook. Police said Orr used an electronic device to spy on people in another room...

The room in question was a public women’s restroom at Black Mountain Stove & Chimney, where a spy camera was discovered behind an air filter, the Citizen Times reported...

(Example of a portable type of air filter camera.)
Officials said Orr owns multiple properties, including some rental units, and an investigation of the iPad showed one of the “peeping images” is of a tenant... more

In other spycam news...
A Planet Fitness employee has been arrested for allegedly hiding a camera in a tanning room. Denzel Fraizer, 24, was arrested for video voyeurism... Detectives say a female victim noticed something strange after she had finished tanning, realized it was a camera and reported it to workers... Police say the camera had been live streaming and not recording. more