Hot Wheels - Part I

A Multimillionaire Surveillance Dealer Steps Out Of The Shadows . . .
And His $9 Million WhatsApp Hacking Van


On a wildflower-lined gravel track off a quiet thoroughfare in Larnaca, Cyprus, Tal Dillian is ensconced in a blacked-out truck. It’s a converted GMC ambulance, pimped out with millions of dollars of surveillance kit, antennas on top reaching out to learn what it can from any smartphone within a 1-kilometer radius and, at the click of a button, empty them of all the content within.

WhatsApp messages, Facebook chats, texts, calls, contacts?
Everything?

“Exactly,” says Dilian, a 24-year Israeli intelligence veteran and multimillionaire spy-tech dealer, though he doesn’t look it; imagine a shabbier, more hirsute George Clooney...

He’s dialing up the charm offensive over the two days he gives Forbes unprecedented access to the normally hidden, clandestine spy-tech industry, estimated to be worth $12 billion and rising. more

Hot Wheels - Part II

Cypriot police have confiscated a van reportedly loaded with sophisticated surveillance equipment and have questioned its Israeli owner following media reports that the vehicle was being hired out to spy on people...

The police probe was initiated after local media highlighted an earlier Forbes report on the Israeli it identified as a former intelligence officer who showed off the $9 million van’s spying capabilities. more

The Invisible Man - 122 Years in the Making

“Quantum Stealth” (Light Bending material) non-powered adaptive camouflage which portrays what is behind the user in-front of the user bending the light around the target. The cost is inexpensive, very lightweight and there are no power requirements.

It even blocks thermal imaging! more

Venezuela's Ex-spy Chief Disappears on Eve of Extradition to U.S. (shocking, just shocking)

Hugo Carvajal, nicknamed "El Pollo," or "The Chicken," was the military-intelligence chief for Presidents Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro, and some experts have said he could be a source of incriminating intelligence on Maduro and his regime...

In written answers to questions by The Associated Press, Carvajal said he wanted to share secret information on drug trafficking and corruption. more | sing-a-long

More Pirates of The Caribbean

Russia’s underwater spy ship recently traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and is currently sailing in America’s backyard. 

Yantar, allegedly a ship meant to research the deep ocean, has an odd habit of skulking around sunken military equipment—and undersea telecommunications cables. 

The ship has suddenly popped up in the Caribbean, prompting military watchers to wonder what the strange ship is up to. 

Yantar is a Russian Navy vessel, but one that lacks a single weapon. The ship was commissioned in 2015 and officially is known as a "special purpose ship" or "oceanographic vessel." It is operated by the Russian Navy's Main Directorate of Underwater Research, which Russian military watchers believe controls Russia’s undersea spying efforts. more

69 Cops Get Body-Cam'ed - Clerk Gets Slammer

A former police records clerk in Southern California was sentenced to six years in jail Friday after he was charged with secretly recording dozens of coworkers as they used the bathroom. 

 
The sentencing for 29-year-old Sergio Nieto came after he pleaded no contest to dozens of invasion of privacy charges in October for spying on 69 coworkers (stop snickering) during his time working at the Long Beach Police Department’s downtown headquarters, the Long Beach Post reports. more

The New York Times Reports: "Bugging Epidemic"

With surveillance gear cheaper and easier to use, security experts say checking your environment for cameras and microphones is not a crazy idea...

A growing array of so-called smart surveillance products have made it easy to secretly live-stream or record what other people are saying or doing. Consumer spending on surveillance cameras in the United States will reach $4 billion in 2023, up from $2.1 billion in 2018, according to the technology market research firm Strategy Analytics. Unit sales of consumer surveillance devices are expected to more than double from last year.

The problem is all that gear is not necessarily being used to fight burglars or keep an eye on the dog while she’s home alone. Tiny cameras have been found in places where they shouldn’t be, like Airbnb rentals, public bathrooms and gym locker rooms. So often, in fact, that security experts warn that we are in the throes of a “bugging epidemic.” more

Spybuster Tip #621: Conduct your own sweeps for covert spycams. Learn how.

Espionage Concerns Change Hiring Policy

The recent resignation of a compliance director at GitLab Inc. illustrates anxiety in the tech industry about foreign espionage...

GitLab’s vice president of engineering, Eric Johnson, said in GitLab’s public discussion forum in October that the firm would no longer hire people living in Russia and China—countries that U.S. authorities have linked to major data security breaches—for some roles where they would be handling sensitive customer data...

The decision was prompted by “the expressed concern of several enterprise customers,” Mr. Johnson wrote on the forum... more

How People Turn iPhones into Bluetooth Bugs

With iOS 12, Apple added a feature, called Live Listen, which essentially turns your AirPods into on-demand hearing aids. 

There's a bit of setup you'll need to do, but once it's done, you can place your phone on a table closer to the person you're talking to and it will send audio to your AirPods.

On your iPhone go to Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls and tap on the green "+" symbol next to the Hearing option. Then, when you need to use the feature put in your AirPods and open Control Center on your iPhone and select the Hearing icon followed by Live Listen. Turn off the feature by repeating those final steps in Control Center. more

Corporate Espionage Alert: If a person excuses themselves from a business meeting to go to the restroom (or other excuse)... NEVER continue the discussion thinking they won't know. They may be using this trick to listen in to what you are saying. More sage corporate counterespionage advice here.

With a Laser, Researchers Say They Can Hack Alexa and Other Assistants

Since voice-controlled digital assistants were introduced a few years ago, security experts have fretted that systems like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa were a privacy threat and could be easily hacked.

But the risk presented by a cleverly pointed light was probably not on anyone’s radar.

Researchers in Japan and at the University of Michigan said Monday that they had found a way to take over Google Home, Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri devices from hundreds of feet away by shining laser pointers, and even flashlights, at the devices’ microphones. more

This Week's News About Spies

 Busy, as always...

• California Man Charged With Spying for the Chinese Government 
• Russia Pulls Diplomat Suspected of Spying in Bulgaria
• Poland detains man suspected of spying for Russia
• Youth football coach denies spying allegations after team disqualified from playoffs
• Ex-CIA Spy Flees Italy Over Fear for Her Safety
• How The Relationship Between Trump And His Spy Chiefs Soured
• FTC Banned Retina-X Spying Apps Until Proven For Legitimate Use
• The Air Force’s secretive spy spaceplane is back on Earth after a record two-year stay in space 
• Decision-making tips from a former spy

Drones: An Increasing Business Espionage Concern Worldwide

South Africa - The increased use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, in SA over the last few years has opened local organisations to a significant and evolving scope of threat in areas such as cyber espionage, illegal surveillance, electronic snooping and reconnaissance.

Security experts warn that while drone technology is increasingly being harnessed to carry out a host of commercial tasks faster, safer and more efficiently across industries including agriculture, media, health and defence, it is also increasingly being exploited by criminals as a tool to usher in a new era of physical and IT security threats. more

• Our other Security Scrapbook drone coverage.
• Researching anti-drone technology for your corporate security department? Contact us for our free Anti-Drone Research Paper.

Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant Says Pilots Streamed Secret Bathroom Live Feed into Cockpit

A Phoenix-based flight attendant has sued Southwest Airlines for retaliation after she reported two pilots for live streaming secret lavatory video onto an iPad in the cockpit. 

Renee Steinaker says...she saw an iPad mounted to the jet’s windshield where she could see the pilot in the restroom. She says the co-pilot then told her that the cameras were a new “top secret security measure” which Steinmaker later determined was not true.

She claims that the pilots also left the aircraft unattended after landing the flight, and “left a loaded firearm unattended in the cockpit” which violates FAA regulations. more

The two pilots, both based near Southwest's Dallas headquarters, have denied the allegations in court documents. So has the airline, which dismissed the incident as an "inappropriate attempt at humor" in a statement. more

UPDATE:  A statement by the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association this week:

"Southwest Airlines has never placed cameras and never videoed anyone in any lavatory, and the pilots on Flight 1088 did not video anyone. The incident, which occurred over two years ago, was a poor attempt at humor where the pilot took a selfie video from the chest up, fully clothed, in the lavatory of a completely different airplane months before Flight 1088 and then replayed the exact same selfie video on his iPad when Ms. Steinaker came into the cockpit." more

Kettle Gets Called Black... or, Who's Zoomin' Who

Facebook launched a new front in the battle over encryption yesterday by suing the Israeli spyware firm NSO Group for allegedly hacking WhatsApp, its encrypted messaging service, and helping government customers snoop on about 1,400 victims...

The lawsuit marks the first time a messaging service has sued a spyware company for undermining its encryption and it could prompt a slew of suits against companies that have developed encryption workarounds bolstering governments' ability to spy on their citizens. more

More People Searching for Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM)

Analysis: More organizations are hardening their defenses against electronic surveillance and information theft.  With TSCM information security surveys becoming mainstream attacks will shift toward the defenseless...

Defenseless equals lunch in the Infowar Jungle.