The CIA's Greatest Hit... that we know of so far.

For more than half a century, governments all over the world trusted a single company to keep the communications of their spies, soldiers and diplomats secret.

The company, Crypto AG, got its first break with a contract to build code-making machines for U.S. troops during World War II. Flush with cash, it became a dominant maker of encryption devices for decades...

The Swiss firm made millions of dollars selling equipment to more than 120 countries well into the 21st century. Its clients included Iran, military juntas in Latin America, nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, and even the Vatican.

But what none of its customers ever knew was that Crypto AG was secretly owned by the CIA in a highly classified partnership with West German intelligence. These spy agencies rigged the company’s devices so they could easily break the codes that countries used to send encrypted messages. more

Talk about your self-licking ice cream cone. 
Profit from selling expensive crypto gear.
Profit by deciphering everything going through it. 
Brilliant! ~Kevin

US Weapons-Makers Plagued by Industrial Espionage

The U.S. defense industrial base received a "mediocre C" report-card grade as it struggles to stay ahead of adversaries, such as China, that rely on stealing American military secrets to remain competitive, according to a new report from the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA).

 "Vital Signs 2020: The Health and Readiness of the Defense Industrial Base," a data-based report compiled by NDIA and the data analytics firm Govini, analyzed 44 statistical indicators ranging from potential threats to digital systems to surge capacity over the last three years.

The report then graded eight performance areas -- on a scale of 100 -- for an average grade of 77 for 2019. more

Book: Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer

Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer
 
Chinese espionage hinges on a sophisticated network of spies focused on state-sponsored tech theft, according to a new book that dispels outdated theories of how Beijing collects intelligence around the world.

Why it matters: Old tropes cast all ethnic Chinese as potential amateur spies, a belief which has led to racial profiling. In reality, China's intelligence agencies employ highly trained professionals who operate much like spies from any other country.
 
Details: Published late last year by the Naval Institute Press, doubles as an explainer of how Chinese espionage works and as a brief encyclopedia of key figures.

• The book's authors are Peter Mattis, a former CIA counterintelligence analyst, and Matthew Brazil, a former US Army officer and diplomat.
• Their main message: That Chinese espionage is neither mysterious nor totally different than that practiced by other nations. more

Business Club Teacher Charged in Spy Camera Case

A Wisconsin high school teacher facing federal child pornography charges was charged Wednesday in Minnesota with trying to secretly record students in their Minneapolis hotel rooms on a business club trip.

Hennepin County prosecutors charged David Kruchten, 37, of Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, with three felony counts of interfering with the privacy of a minor under 18.

Kruchten is a teacher at Madison East High School and was chaperoning students on a trip to Minneapolis in December. Authorities allege Kruchtenhid cameras in a smoke detector and two air fresheners planted in students’ hotel bathrooms at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis....

The automatic air fresheners and a smoke detector were “oriented to face toward the toilet and shower area. One of the victims noticed an air freshener on her bathroom counter and went to press a button that she believed would activate the spray. When she pressed it, the device opened up to reveal the inner workers of a surveillance camera and other related electronics,” the complaint said.  more  find spycams yourself  sing-a-long

In the Era of Hacking, Bugs Remain a Critical Espionage Threat

via Scott Stewart, Vice President Tactical Analysis at Stratfor

HIGHLIGHTS

• While cyberattacks offer a powerful means for corporate surveillance, it is important to remember that it is just one option in the espionage toolbox.
  
• Some information, such as in-person conversations, cannot be obtained through hacks and thus require the use of other tools, such as human intelligence collection insiders or covert audio and video recorders and transmitters (bugs).
  
• Today, bugs are cheaper, smaller and easier to obtain than ever — and the number being deployed and discovered is vastly under-reported, masking the true scope of the threat.
  
• Therefore, in order to adequately combat corporate espionage, organizations must also implement security measures to protect against bugging. more

Brazen B&E to Plant Spy TV

NY - State Police have arrested a Town of Moreau man for breaking into a home and hiding a recording device in a bedroom.

State Police in Wilton arrested 39-year-old Todd D. Derush. Police say Derush unlawfully entered the home of the victim and hid a recording device in their bedroom. Derush's actions were in violation of a full stay away order of protection barring Derush from being on the property, according to State Police. more

Spies in the Skys

SPY ONE
From 1957, when he first started working on the project, until 2011 when it was declassified, Dave McDowell was sworn to secrecy.

But now, the results of this once top-secret Kodak program is on full display at the Strasenburg Planetarium.

“Awe” is how McDowell described what he felt standing in front of the exhibit. “It’s something we designed and built in Rochester, and this one didn’t fly in space, but 48 others exactly like it did.”

The top-secret project was the optical system for Gambit-1, a national reconnaissance satellite. Kodak engineers designed and built what was essentially a large camera encased in a capsule. It was a revolutionary technology at that time, and it played a significant role in U.S. national security in the Cold War era. more

SPY TWO

On January 20, something rather strange happened in orbit. A Russian satellite suddenly maneuvered itself so that it was closely shadowing a US spy satellite.

The pair are now less than 186 miles (300 kilometers) apart—a short distance when it comes to space. While we don’t know for sure what’s going on, the Russian satellite’s actions strongly suggest it is there to spy on the US one—and there is very little the US can do about it. more

How to Turn a Tesla Into a Surveillance Station

Truman Kain, senior information security analyst at Tevora, has developed a new device called the Surveillance Detection Scout. As Wired describes it, the DIY computer plugs into the dashboard USB port of a Tesla Model S, 3 or X and uses the car’s built-in cameras to read license plates and faces to alert the driver if someone is following them.

“It turns your Tesla into an AI-powered surveillance station,” Kain told the magazine. “It’s meant to be another set of eyes, to help out and tell you it’s seen a license plate following you over multiple days, or even multiple turns of a single trip.” more

Encryption Using Palindrome Number (Never odd or even.)

Posted in honor of this special day*

This paper provides a technique for message security in which palindrome number is used for encryption message. Colour is important in authentication process as it acts as a password. Using this technique message can be protected from on-line cyber crime and accessible to an authorized individual when required.  more

Who cares? The important thing is this historical date... 

02/02/2020 
*Palindrome Day... for the first time in 909 years! Wow, yet another palindrome!

Here in the U.S., it is also a trifecta: Palindrome Day, Groundhog Day and Superbowl Sunday.

FutureWatch: You've Probably Been Photo-Napped by an App

Clearview AI, devised a groundbreaking facial recognition app. You take a picture of a person, upload it and get to see public photos of that person, along with links to where those photos appeared.

The system — whose backbone is a database of more than three billion images that Clearview claims to have scraped from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo and millions of other websites — goes far beyond anything ever constructed by the United States government or Silicon Valley giants...

The computer code underlying its app, analyzed by The New York Times, includes programming language to pair it with augmented-reality glasses; users would potentially be able to identify every person they saw...

Searching someone by face could become as easy as Googling a name. Strangers would be able to listen in on sensitive conversations, take photos of the participants and know personal secrets. Someone walking down the street would be immediately identifiable — and his or her home address would be only a few clicks away. It would herald the end of public anonymity. more

Quote of the Month

“Absent a very strong federal privacy law, we’re all screwed.”
—Al Gidari, a privacy professor at Stanford Law School.
(via The New York Times article above)

Five Mile GPS Tracker Doesn't Require Cellular Service

GoFindMe is a real-time GPS tracker that works without cell service. By built-in GPS & long-range radio technology, it allows you to stay in touch with people even if your phone fails by rich handy features such as:
 -Real time location tracking
 -Send & receive texts, built-in voice and GPS coordinates
 -One-button emergency SOS
 -Automatic trace record
 -Sync up group activity
 -Set customized safe zone
 -Pin meeting place or home base
 -Mesh network to extend connectivity range
more


But what if you can't find it when you need it?

NIST - Detecting and Responding to Ransomware and Other Destructive Events

In response to growing ransomware attacks on businesses and governments small and large, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released draft guidelines to help organizations prepare for “data integrity cybersecurity events” that threaten their operations...

The free guide, which will be available for public comment through Feb. 26, focused specifically on potential tool sets for mitigating and containing cybersecurity attacks as well as what strategies security teams could adopt to respond...

Security teams and organization leaders can read the full report and provide public comment through NIST’s website. more

Facebook Tracks You - You can stop the spying, sort of.

If you’ve ever thought Facebook is listening or watching you when you’re not on the social media site, you are right. ...  The Washington Post says Facebook-owned apps like Instagram and Messenger are tracking you, too.

But now developers at the social media giant have rolled out a tool that may stop most of it, or at least tell you how Facebook is spying on users’ daily lives. It’s called off-Facebook activity...

Click the small triangle at the top right of Facebook and go to settings. Then click “Your Facebook Information” on the left column, then select Off-Facebook Activity to manage the information the company gleans from your life. Here you can either manage it or clear the entire history from your account.

But the company also has a caveat. You may clear your current history, but new activity will be shared back to Facebook in the future. more

Geez... just like barnacles.

FBI: Harvard Doc Can't Have Rice Cake and Eat it Too

Federal law enforcement officials arrested a top Harvard scientist on Tuesday for allegedly lying to the U.S. government about his involvement in a massive Chinese program that authorities say is responsible for stealing proprietary information from U.S. institutions.

Authorities arrested Dr. Charles Lieber, 60, chair of the department of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University...

"...received more than $15,000,000 in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DOD),” The Department of Justice said in a statement. “These grants require the disclosure of significant foreign financial conflicts of interest, including financial support from foreign governments or foreign entities.”

“Unbeknownst to Harvard University beginning in 2011, Lieber became a ‘Strategic Scientist’ at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China and was a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from in or about 2012 to 2017.” more

The original traveling professor.