Believe It, Or Not, or... Laugha While You Can

via The New York Times

A team of scientists hunting dark matter has recorded suspicious pings coming from a vat of liquid xenon underneath a mountain in Italy. 

They are not claiming to have discovered dark matter — or anything, for that matter — yet. But these pings, they say, could be tapping out a new view of the universe. more

This might be old news to some. Cue the music.

Is Your Hotel or AirBnB Spying on You?

Have you ever found a random USB charger in a hotel room and thought “How lucky, someone left their charger and now it’s mine!”?

Have you ever plugged your phone into the USB of an alarm clock and said, “I’m so glad this hotel or guest house made my life easier with this bedside technology!”?

Have you ever looked up at a smoke detector and said, “Thank god that’s there in case of a fire, I’ll be protected!”?

Well, here’s some bad news: all of those items can be, and possibly are, hidden cameras that are watching you, recording you, spying on you, and violating you. And the worst part, these disguised cameras are only sometimes illegal.

Don’t believe us? Do a simple Amazon search and prepare to be frightened by the amount of spying equipment you can get two-day shipping on. There are hidden cameras in wall outlets, clocks, picture frames, clothes hooks, pens, and so much more. more

Learn how to detect covert spy cameras.

Privacy Protector – Anonymous Camera for iPhone

 A new camera app has been released for iOS that, unlike basically every other photography app, is designed to hide the photo’s subject rather than highlight them. Called Anonymous Camera, this app works to protect the people captured in a video or photo by blurring or otherwise hiding their faces — or, in cases where it is necessary, by removing their bodies entirely.

There are times when you may need to interview someone or take a picture, but hide someone featured in the content for their sake. This could include interviews with someone who wishes to remain private, protecting whistleblowers, or simply hiding the faces of protesters and activists so that facial recognition technology can’t be used to identify them.

Anonymous Camera is a free app that can perform these actions, as well as entirely removing the subject’s body in cases where they have other identifiers like tattoos. The app is free to download, though there’s also a Pro version priced at $2 that includes watermark-free video recording. more

Why Law Firms Need TSCM More Than Ever

Law firms are still the firm favorites and proverbial jewel in the crown for cyber criminals. 

Hackers for hire can be extremely useful for some people and organizations. Although the report by the University of Toronto revealed that Dark Basin had infact conducted commercial espionage on behalf of clients against opponents involved in high profile public events.

But their work didn’t stop there. They also worked on criminal cases, financial transactions, news stories and advocacy in an attempt to throw doubt on prosecutions. more

TSCM - Technical Surveillance Countermeasures / Bug Sweep / Information Security Audit

Bugged Office with Concealed Cameras by Persons Unknown

Australia - The Labor MP whose office was the scene of an elaborate 60 Minutes surveillance operation that brought down three Victorian Ministers has briefly surfaced to reveal he is co-operating with authorities.

In a stunning political sting that was conducted over months, veteran MP Anthony Byrne’s office was rigged up with broadcast quality concealed cameras by persons unknown.

The factional powerbroker Adem Somyurek was then led into a bugged office, an invitation the sacked minister now regards as an elaborate trap. more

Learn how to detect concealed cameras.

An Eavesdropping Story with a Ring to it...

Australia - Heavily-tattooed Jacob Nyrhinen has admitted to assaulting his ex-girlfriend after he eavesdropped on her conversations via a secret video doorbell, and concluded she was seeing another man. more

Industrial Espionage Case: U.S. Company Awarded $3.36 Million

United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), Taiwan's second largest pure wafer foundry operator, has been ordered to pay a fine of NT$100 million (US$3.36 million) by a district court in Taichung City which found the company and three of its employees guilty in a trade secret theft case brought by U.S.-based memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc...

Prosecutors launched a probe into the alleged industrial espionage in February 2017 and decided to charge UMC and the three UMC employees in September, citing violation of Taiwan's Trade Secrets Act for sharing the information with Jinhua. more

‘My Spy’: Film Review

The long line of Hollywood tough guys appearing alongside cute kids continues with “My Spy,” a passable PG-13 action-comedy in which big ’n’ brawny Dave Bautista plays a CIA man whose nose-diving career and damaged emotions are rehabilitated by a clever nine-year-old girl with an aptitude for espionage and a matchmaking plan for her widowed mom. more

My Spy will premiere on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service on June 26, 2020.
Trailer.

In other spy film news... The closely watched arrival of Christopher Nolan's big-budget sci-fi espionage film “Tenet” will finally happen on July 31, Warner Bros. announced Friday.

'Spy City: The History of Espionage in New York City' Interactive

Secret Passphrase: "Your shoe is untied."

“Upon Secrecy, Success Depends.”
– George Washington

From the Revolutionary War to the present day, covert ops have flourished in the five boroughs of New York City — after all, its myriad of parks, miles of subway, and millions of residents have long created the perfect environment for espionage activity. This is the story of Spy City, your mission begins now.

Join our special guest as we explore the history of espionage in New York City over four centuries of covert activity, from government spies to top-secret programs. more

Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 1:00 PM
Click link for full info and to get tickets ($10, thanks for your support!):
https://bit.ly/SpyCityNYCJune

U.S. Security Director Sentenced to 16 Years Hard Labor in Russia

Ex-US marine Paul Whelan has been sentenced to 16 years of hard labour on spying charges in Russia.

He was arrested in a hotel room in Moscow 18 months ago with a USB flash drive which security officers say contained state secrets.

The Moscow City Court found him guilty of receiving classified information.

Whelan - who is also a citizen of the UK, Canada and Ireland - denounced the closed trial as a "sham" ahead of the verdict.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for Whelan's immediate release. more

Novel Eavesdropping Attack or The Bright Spy

The usual way of eavesdropping with a glass over the wall has come a long way: bugs in the wall, hacking weak passwords, wiretaps, and more. Now, as if there weren't enough ways of being an audio spy, the good old light bulb has become a nemesis to be feared: Any light bulb in a room that is visible from the window can be used to spy on your conversations from afar.

A team of researchers at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel has found that the vibration patterns in a light bulb can enable us to recover full conversations from hundreds of feet away.

But how can that be possible? The thing about the hanging bulb is that it acts both as a diaphragm and transducer. Apparently, these two, sound waves cascading on its surface and it converting air pressure from sound to small changes in light, means it is a useful gadget for intruders.

The paper states, "We show how fluctuations in the air pressure on the surface of the hanging bulb (in response to sound), which cause the bulb to vibrate very slightly (a millidegree vibration), can be exploited by eavesdroppers to recover speech and singing, passively, externally, and in real time." more

Senate Panel Says U.S. Telecoms Failed to Prevent Chinese Spying

The federal government failed for nearly two decades to properly guard against the cybersecurity risks posed by Chinese government-owned telecoms operating in the United States, a Senate report released this morning finds.

That resulted in four of China’s largest such telecom companies being able to operate subsidiaries here with almost no oversight, according to the report from the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s investigations panel.

It might also have allowed them to help the Chinese government spy on reams of data from U.S. companies by routing their phone and Internet traffic through China, the report finds. more

Lawsuit Disputes Google's Private or Incognito Mode

Search engine behemoth Google found itself in the middle of a proposed class action lawsuit filed in California for invading the privacy of users even when they are browsing the web in what is called the private or incognito mode.

The $5 billion class action suit alleges that the tech giant collects user's data by tracking his activity on the web even in the private mode through Google Analytics, Google Ad Manager and website plug-ins, a Reuters report said.

Users normally login through the incognito mode assuming that it's safe as their search history isn't being tracked. The petitioners have alleged that Google collects the private data even as the users are under the impression that their data is safe and that amounts to misrepresentation. more

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