Foreign Spies are Exploiting the Instability

Intelligence officials among US allies are deeply concerned that the political instability triggered by more than a week of occasionally violent clashes between police and protesters across the United States has opened a new front for hostile foreign intelligence collection.
..The situation will make it that much easier to determine potential targets for recruitment as much of these conflicts are playing out in the open. Social media is an excellent source for finding people who are disgruntled, disillusioned, or potentially ideologically suitable to recruit. more

Frederick Barclay’s Nephews Thought Bugging Ritz was ‘Necessary and Reasonable’

Sir Frederick Barclay’s nephews bugged the conservatory of the Ritz hotel after becoming “seriously concerned” about the billionaire property magnate “posing a significant risk of harm” to the family business, according to documents lodged with the High Court.


The 85-year-old businessman is involved in a bitter High Court battle with three of his twin brother Sir David’s sons over 94 hours of secret recordings made over a number of months as part of what his lawyers have described as “commercial espionage on a vast scale”.

Sir Frederick and his daughter Amanda are suing Alistair, Aidan and Howard Barclay, Aidan’s son Andrew, and Philip Peters – a director of a number of companies in the Barclay Group – after the “elaborate system of covert recording” was discovered in January.

Last month, Sir Frederick released footage appearing to show his nephew Alistair handling a listening device which is said to have been used to capture more than 1,000 separate conversations. more

On the techy side... Protest Surveillance, or How Bad Guys Eventually Get Caught

It has been interesting watching the amateur-on-the-street protest reporting on Periscope and YouTube, along with the police scanner and Filghtradar24 (to track the surveillance planes / helicopters). NYC police frequencies buzzed all week.

Here we see two helicopters and two planes circulating Philadelphia during the protest/riots (left).

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

N878ST (the red plane) belongs to the PA State Police. The others are government as well. Many of the rioters will be surprised when they are later charged.

NYPD helicopter (right) making spot checks.

Vice reports...
The Military and FBI Are Flying Surveillance Planes Over Protests
"Multiple federal agencies are flying surveillance planes over protests, and it's likely that some of these planes are outfitted with a Dirtbox or similar technology," Martin Shelton, principal researcher at Freedom of the Press Foundation told Motherboard. "What this means for protesters and journalists covering these events is that phone numbers, as well as voice calls and text messages, are likely being scooped up for analysis," he added. more

In NYC there were news helicopters mixed in throughout the week. Their soundless feeds to the newsroom could be seen on Periscope. People are monitoring in other cities as well.

Not that I think you need it, but... here is Wired's advice for when you are out there protesting.

A Fortnight of Spycam News

Singapore jails man who took 1,400 videos of women and girls. The 35-year-old used his mobile phone and spy devices to carry out the crimes in toilets and changing rooms on more than 800 occasions. more

UK- Victim living with anxiety after man set up hidden cameras in bedroom and bathroom.

S. Korea - KBS released an official statement on Wednesday saying it felt great responsibility for a spycam incident involving a comedian who appears on TV show “Gag Concert.” He is suspected of having installed hidden cameras (disguised as phone chargers) in the women’s restroom inside one of its buildings. more

FL - A man hired to install security systems inside a home along Florida’s Treasure Coast found himself behind bars after allegedly setting up a hidden camera inside a bathroom to spy on teenage girls. more

WY - One after the other on Tuesday, four women urged the District Court Judge Bill Simpson to impose the maximum sentence on the man who secretly videotaped them in a workplace bathroom last year...In a rare move, Simpson told the Park County prosecutor and Abraham’s defense attorney that he wanted to add four years of supervised probation onto the stipulated two to four years of prison time. more

KY - A lawsuit has been filed against an Elizabethtown-based tanning salon chain after police say a customer used a selfie stick to secretly shoot video of a nude woman tanning at a Louisville salon. more

WY - A suspect was arrested and is facing a felony charge of Voyeurism, after being accused of taking photos under the door of a Cheyenne store changing room. more

N. Ireland - A former contestant on TV talent show The Voice from Co Down has been revealed as a self-confessed sex offender who secretly recorded women for his own sexual gratification. more

LA - An Eros teen is facing multiple charges after he allegedly captured images of a juvenile nude by leaving his cell phone recording in a bathroom. more

VT - Eike Blohm, 38, (a UVM professor and doctor) was originally arrested on multiple counts of voyeurism April 17 for placing hidden cameras in staff bathrooms at UVMMC. He was charged with production and possession of child pornography May 22 and was subsequently fired from both the University and UVMMC. more

SC - A former Limestone College employee accused of recording women at a West Virginia university is now a person of interest in a voyeurism case on the Limestone campus. Gaffney Police Chief Chris Skinner said Collins Brandon Murphy, 32, has been named a person of interest in an incident which occurred at Limestone College. more

Learn how you can detect spy cameras. 

Top 10 Intelligence Agencies Of The World 2020

Intelligence agencies are assigned with the task of gathering intelligence, conducting various forms of surveillance activities, play a vital role in recommending the government specifically when it comes to national security matters, spreading fake information, and, in the case of some agencies, even carrying out assassinations.

However, not all of these intelligence agencies are the same.

Some of these are known better than others. These agencies will be based on absolute determination on dealing with problems swiftly. Many of us really don’t know about different intelligence agencies in the world. So here we have gathered details to classify the top 10 intelligence agencies in the world.

(List created by Dawood Hassan.)

• Ministry of State Security (MSS)
• Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS)
• Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)
• Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE)
• Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI)
• Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)
• Federal Intelligence Service (BND)
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)
• Mossad

Bonus points if you know every country they represent. more

In Case You Are Keeping Score

Pakistan Army hits 8th Indian spying quadcopter this year. more

Data Breach Report: 28% Involved Small Businesses

Almost a third or 28% of data breaches involved small businesses. The data comes from one of the most acclaimed cybersecurity reports in the industry, the Verizon Business 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report (2020 DBIR).

Currently, in its 13th year, the DBIR is an industry-standard when it comes to gauging the state of cybersecurity around the world...

Click to Enlarge

With small businesses making up 28% of the breaches, owners have to be more proactive in protecting their digital presence. Whether it is an eCommerce site, blog, V-log, podcast, or other digital assets, you have to protect your domain. This not only ensures your data is safe, but it is one more tool you can use to attract new customers; robust security. more

Spy Pigeon Arrested... again

A pigeon suspected of being trained to “spy” by Pakistan has been captured in India along the Kashmir border. Indian officials say the bird was carrying a “coded message” which they are trying to decipher. In 2016, police in India found a bird with a note attached to it inscribed with an alleged threat to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. more

UPDATE 6/8/2020 — Indian police have released a pigeon belonging to a Pakistani fisherman after a probe found that the bird, which had flown across the contentious border between the nuclear-armed nations, was not a spy, two officials said on Friday. more

Sheriff’s Office Communications Specialist Charged with Spying on Roommate

A Florida sheriff’s office employee hid a camera in his roommate’s bedroom to spy on her, authorities said.

Llewellyn Berkheiser III, a 28-year-old communication specialist for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, was busted Saturday after his roommate found a GoPro camera in a vent in her bedroom, according to an arrest report obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

Berkheiser’s roommate, who was not identified, told deputies she discovered the recording device Friday when she noticed she couldn’t see light in the vent from an adjoining kitchen that was usually visible, deputies said. more

The Man Who Hacked Former President Francois Mitterrand's Phone

One of the richest men in France claims to be a former spy who once hacked former President Francois Mitterrand.

The billionaire co-owner of Le Monde newspaper, Xavier Niel, 52, told the Parliamentary Channel that as a teen in the 1980s he worked undercover for the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance after he was caught hacking the French channel Canal+...

Niel claims he was tasked with hacking into the mobile telephone of President Mitterrand in 1986 as well as the car company Renault. In the process he found that Renault was being hacked by people from Australia who were downloading large chunks of data.

“We were doing all this for ourselves as a game and we would pass on the information,” Niel said. “It was just fun. It was thrilling to get around the system. They told us it was impossible.” more

Yet Another Spy Movie List

The 58 Best Spy Movies of All Time

Were this a year like any other, we’d already have seen the year’s two most-anticipated spy movies: the 25th James Bond film No Time to Die and Marvel’s Black Widow solo film.

Both were scheduled for spring releases and will now open in theaters in November…if theaters are, in fact, open.

Fortunately, there’s no shortage of great spy movies to keep us occupied while we wait... The List

From The Very Practical News (VPN) File...

Hong Kong saw a spike in downloads of VPN software designed to mask internet usage Thursday after Beijing signaled plans to usher in a new national security law that could tighten its grip... more

Bosnian Leader Brags He Illegally Wiretapped - (WWHT)

Opposition parties and Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TIBiH) have filed criminal charges against the Serb member of the tripartite Bosnian state presidency member Milorad Dodik, whom they accuse of illegal wiretapping based on his own statements.

The charges were filed after Dodik told the parliament in the mainly Serb entity of Bosnia, Republika Srpska, on May 20 that he often listened in to telephone conversations between representatives of the opposition parties, saying it was normal practice.

Dodik stated that he was eavesdropping on the representatives of the opposition by phone, that every government was eavesdropping on the opposition, and he recounted the content of telephone conversations of opposition members...  more

Proposed Bill: Anti-Espionage Theft in Airports

U.S. Rep. Ross Spano (R-FL) signed on to co-sponsor a bill designed to protect the transportation infrastructure from espionage and intellectual property theft. 

The bill, HR 6917, the Airport Infrastructure Resources (AIR) Security Act, would prohibit federal airport improvement funds from being used in the purchase of passenger boarding bridges made by companies that have violated the intellectual property rights of the United States.

Introduced by Reps. Ron Wright (R-TX) and Marc Veasey (R-TX), the bill is intended to keep the Chinese Communist Party from spying on American airline passengers, and to prevent China from any further power grab, Wright said. more

Amsterdam School Bugging Incident

The director of the Cornelius Haga Lyceum in Amsterdam planted eavesdropping equipment in the office assigned to the Education Inspectorate for its investigation into the school...

This is not Soner Atasoy.

During the investigation, the school made an office available to the inspectors, where they had sensitive conversations with each other, with pupils, and with staff. These conversations were recorded and eavesdropped on multiple times...

NRC's sources said that school director Soner Atasoy wanted to keep an eye on the Inspectorate's investigation and on what employees of the school said about him and the school...

The Education Inspectorate told NRC that there was a "suspicion" that the room given to inspectors to use was being tapped. After that, the inspectors slightly adjusted their working methods at the school, switching rooms "with some regularity" and conducting confidential conversation by phone or outside.

The office in question was never searched for eavesdropping equipment because there was "insufficient cause" for it and it would have led to "unnecessary unrest", the Inspectorate said. more