Excellent Article: Last Call for Gumshoes

San Francisco is missing its private investigators.
This engaging article by Phil Bronstein explains...

Something’s gone missing from the shadowy streets of San Francisco, a precious, revealing relic already mostly vanished long before the thieving suction of COVID-19. A piece of it is still with us, though who knows whether even that will survive.

Few have noticed its disappearance, which is a tragedy because it is a deliciously naughty, rich vein of life; the city and its rough-edged, romantic culture will suffer without it.

So, what is this about? What happened? There are clues... more

Conversation Piece: Harry Caul was a composite of Hal Lipset and Leo Jones.

A Blue Blaze Irregular reports...
One famous San Francisco treat missing from the article is Leo Jones. His company was named Fargo. His body wires were commonly referred to as Fargos by police, mostly west coast. Body wires on the east coast and federally were referred to as Kels. Leo was an originator of many items were mostly 39,xx mhz and other low bands. He also had a countermeasures gear company named Sabre.

Extra Credit...

Leo Hugh Jones was born in Sioux City, Iowa in 1926 and moved with his family at a young age to Stockton, California. He attended the University of Santa Clara for 3 years then took a job selling air conditioners in 1948. Jones continued his education with extension and night classes from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of San Francisco until 1949. He never completed the requirements for a degree, instead starting up the Fargo Company in 1950 at age 24. In 1957, Jones married Helen R. Kenny. Leo Jones was an avid boat enthusiast, often inviting law enforcement and political dignitaries on his boating excursions. He was also a relentless perfectionist, as was evident in his correspondence. He was closely involved in the shaping of eavesdropping laws; engaging in a letter writing campaign, making arguments to political and law enforcement leaders and providing expert testimony to congressional committees. more

Double Extra Credit...

Leo Jones: Pioneer in Electronic Surveillance
by Ralph Simpson, History San Jose, February 2012

Introduction
Leo Hugh Jones (8/17/1926 – 2/10/2002) was an early pioneer in the development of electronic surveillance and countermeasures devices. In 1950, he founded a company called Fargo to design and manufacture these high-tech specialty devices. Fargo was based in San Francisco and sold its products exclusively to law enforcement organizations around the world. more

Sad Update (1/30/21)...
Jack Palladino, the (San Francisco) private investigator who worked on high-profile cases ranging from the Jonestown mass suicides to celebrity and political scandals, has been placed on life support after suffering a head injury during an attempted robbery.

Palladino, 70, had just stepped outside his San Francisco home on Thursday to try out his new camera when a car pulled up and a man jumped out to grab it from him, police and the detective's stepson Nick Chapman told the San Francisco Chronicle.

As the suspect grabbed the camera, Palladino fell and hit his head on the pavement, causing a traumatic head injury. Chapman said Palladino was not expected to survive after undergoing surgery to stop the massive bleeding.

Palladino was wrapping up one final case before joining his wife and work partner, Sandra Sutherland, in retirement.  more

Secret Recordings Reveal Sister's Sad Schadenfreude Shortcoming

 via The New York Times...

My sister revealed that she often records phone conversations that she has with our father without his knowledge. She says she does it because he is so “funny,” i.e., eccentric, but I get the impression that she is laughing more at him than with him.  I find his conversations less humorous than distressing, since he is often, at the best of times, in a state of heightened psychological dysregulation and anxiety, and the pandemic has just made things worse.  Because of my sister’s behavior, my niece has grown up thinking there’s nothing wrong or unethical with recording conversations without the other person’s knowledge or consent and has herself started to do this.

When I found out what my sister was doing, I was uneasy and told her that it was illegal to record someone without their consent. Her rapid retort was, “It’s not in New York,” where she lives, as if that made it OK. more

Another TSCM Fail - Spycam in Girl's Changing Room - No Follow-Up

Here we go again and again. For the third time in two months a spy camera is discovered and the ball is dropped. In the last case—after assuring everyone they searched and the room was now safe—a second spycam was found two weeks later, in the same room!

In this case, the police declared, "There is no current evidence to suggest that other restrooms or private areas in the multi-tenant facility were compromised." 

No mention of a competent Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) sweep to back up this lame claim.

TN - An investigation into a camera set up in a girls' changing facility has revealed 60 victims as of Thursday afternoon, police in Tennessee said. 

The GoPro camera — which was found hidden in a girls' changing and restroom at Premier Athletics which offers training in cheerleading, dance and gymnastics — was reviewed by police after it was found last week. Sixty females, mostly minors, were recorded on the camera, police said...

Working with facility management, detectives have identified 47 of the 60 victims and are in the process of notifying their parents. Detectives are working to identify the remaining 13 victims.The girls' changing and restroom at the center of this investigation is located inside the Premier Athletics suite. There is no current evidence to suggest that other restrooms or private areas in the multi-tenant facility were compromised, police said. more

A good investigator will tell you... "If you find one bug or spycam there is a possibility there are others. Keep searching."

A good attorney might tell Premier Athletics... "You now have foreseeability. Conduct and document regular inspections of your expectation-of-privacy areas.

Professional Recommendation — Premier Athletics, and similar businesses, need to create an in-house TSCM inspection program. It's cheap, it's easy, it's great for public relations, and it's especially good for staying out of court. Everything you need to know to get started is here.

Home Alarm Tech Backdoored Security Cameras to Spy on Customers

A home security technician has admitted he repeatedly broke into cameras he installed and viewed customers engaging in sex and other intimate acts.

Telesforo Aviles, a 35-year-old former employee of home and small office security company ADT, said that over a five-year period, he accessed the cameras of roughly 200 customer accounts on more than 9,600 occasions—all without the permission or knowledge of customers. He said he took note of homes with women he found attractive and then viewed their cameras for sexual gratification. He said he watched nude women and couples as they had sex.

Aviles made the admissions Thursday in US District Court for the District of Northern Texas, where he pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud and one count of invasive visual recording. He faces a maximum of five years in prison. more

Legislation Proposed in NY to Protect Owners from Eavesdropping Devices

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is proposing ground-breaking legislation that would require companies that make “smart” devices like smart phones and televisions that can record, retain and transmit recordings to clearly display those capabilities to consumers.

The Democrat says the legislation is intended to make sure people know their smartphones, smart speakers and smart TVs that are connected to the internet can record what their owners are doing so they can manage their settings accordingly. 

The Governor says everyone has heard stories about smart devices connected to the internet recording people without their knowledge. Cuomo says people should be better informed about those capabilities and not have to search for that information hidden in fine print.

The Governor’s announcement did not go into detail on how that information would be displayed and what penalties could be levied against companies that failed to clearly disclose recording capabilities. more

German Laptop Retailer Fined €10.4m for Video-Monitoring Employees

Data protection authority LfD Niedersachsen has fined Germany-based IT products supplier Notebooksbilliger.de AG €10.4 million ($12.6 million) for video monitoring its employees without any legal basis, ZD Net reported. 

The video surveillance system was active at all times and recordings were saved for as many as 60 days in the company's database, breaching employees’ privacy rights under the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation. more

Russia’s Overseas Spies Keep Getting Caught

Spy rings keep getting busted and a massive hack of U.S. government departments has been exposed, but Russia’s spooks keep blundering on...

Lithuania is the latest country to announce that it has busted a Russian spy ring on its soil. The allegation that two of its citizens were spying for Russia comes a few weeks after the Dutch authorities rolled up another of the Kremlin’s “substantial espionage networks.” It’s been a tumultuous few months for President Putin’s overseas espionage operation, which keeps getting caught in the act.

It is unclear if a string of recent arrests blowing up Russia’s overseas missions is merely a coincidence, or whether there has been some kind of leak from inside Russia’s notorious intel agencies. “There is some penetration,” Andrei Soldatov, one of Russia’s best-informed trackers of the security agencies, told The Daily Beast. “Whether it’s relatively new or old, I don't know, but it looks like a big decision was made to use that penetration to slow down Russian offensive ops.” more

Antonio Prohías - 100th Anniversary of his Birth

Antonio Prohías arrived in New York in May of 1960 with just $5 in his pocket, pressured to leave Cuba after Fidel Castro accused him of being a CIA agent.

It took a Cuban illustrator to really capture the essence of Cold War intelligence and counter-intelligence for the MAD-reading public. After penning one too many cartoons that were critical of Fidel Castro, Prohías — who was a prominent cartoonist and illustrator in his home country — headed for New York, writes Eric Grundhauser for Atlas Obscura. At the time, he didn’t speak a word of English.

“In New York, Prohías took work in a factory during the day, while working up his illustration portfolio at night,” Grundhauser writes. He changed the appearance of one of his characters from the strip he published in Cuba, El Hombre Siniestro, and gave him a counterpart: Spy vs. Spy was born. 

“The sweetest revenge has been to turn Fidel’s accusation of me as a spy into a moneymaking venture,” Prohías said in a 1983 interview with the Miami Herald. “One of these days I am going to have to make a sign saying, ‘Thank You, Fidel.’ ”

On the 100th anniversary of his birth last Sunday — the Cienfuegos native died in Miami in 1998 — Prohías is still spreading laughter with his Cold War spies, who pummeled each other brutally with whatever sophisticated weapons they could grab from the black humor bag of their creator. more & more

Inside Information... When Government and Business Clean House

Cleaning up the White House after Donald Trump and Melania Trump moved out cost taxpayers about $127,000. No, this doesn't include biohazard remediation, or surveillance bug sweeps. more

What security directors need to know about "The Other Covid Deep Clean."

Is This Mystery Unmanned Vessel Really A Chinese Spy?

On December 20, Indonesian fishermen netted an unusual catch – a torpedo-like submarine drone or unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), still functioning with an indicator light blinking. They passed their find to Indonesian authorities. Military analysts have been quick to identify the craft as a Sea Wing or Haiyi, a Chinese-made UUV operated by China's navy. But it might not be so simple.

Most UUVs are bright yellow or orange to make them easier to retrieve; this one is dull grey, a strong indication that the operators did not want the vessel to be spotted. The fact that nobody has stopped forward to claim the device is a further indication it was on a covert mission. 

In fact, the circumstances rather closely mirror the mystery unmanned vessel washed up in Scotland last year. However, this is a rather different and even more covert craft. more

Landlord Used Hidden Cameras to Spy on at Least 13 Tenants

UT - Criminal charges were filed Thursday against a Salt Lake landlord accused of putting hidden cameras in his tenants’ rooms and recording them.

Larry S. Phillips, 69, of Salt Lake City — is already a registered sex offender from a previous conviction...

Police believe Phillips has secretly recorded at least 13 people over the past several years at his house and at other properties...

The investigation began when two men renting rooms in Phillips’ home...each found hidden cameras in their bedrooms that were designed to look like iPhone charger blocks... A SWAT team served a search warrant on Phillips’ house and seized multiple electronic devices.

“A search of the devices located 320 videos of the bathrooms, bedrooms and private bedrooms being rented by the victims...

Investigators say some of the videos also recorded Phillips setting up the hidden cameras (Darwin Award) and adjusting the camera angles. more

US Capitol Needs A TSCM Deep Clean

Multiple electronic items were stolen from senators' offices yesterday, U.S. officials confirmed.

“This is probably going to take several days to flesh out exactly what happened, what was stolen, what wasn't,” he said. The stolen electronics and documents “could have potential national security equities,” he said. 

The exact number of devices is still unknown. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) confirmed yesterday a laptop had been taken from his office. His office did not respond to a request for comment.

House administrators remotely locked laptops and shut down wired network access, Eric Geller reported. IT hasn't identified any breaches so far, a memo sent to members said. more

While the Zombies were sucking up sensitive government electronics, they also opened the congressional doors to foreign entities. Spies couldn't ask for more: ample time to prepare, excellent cover, or easier access. 

A TSCM Deep Clean will be required to detect the electronic surveillance devices and cyber viruses that may have been embedded during the brief apocalypse. ~Kevin

Gouverneur Vetos Protective Video Surveillance for Nursing Home Residents

MI - Gov. Gretchen Whitmer opted not to sign a bill allowing nursing home residents to install surveillance cameras in their own rooms...

In a statement opposing Whitmer’s pocket veto,  Sen. Jim Runestad, the bill's sponsor, mentioned the story of 75-year-old Norman Bledsoe, who was severely beaten in May by a 20-year-old patient receiving COVID-19 treatment. Bledsoe suffered four broken fingers, broken ribs, and a broken jaw after the attack.

“Without the benefit of video, no one would have known the truth of how Mr. Bledsoe was injured,” Runestad said in a statement. “The governor had a chance to sign this bill and help stop the type of abuse we’ve seen in nursing homes for years. Instead she chose to turn a blind eye, and now seniors pay the price.” more

Spy Chip Detector to Thwart Spy Chip Semiconductors

Toshiba and Japan's Waseda University have teamed up to develop a system that can detect so-called spy chips, tiny intruders in servers that are barely visible to the naked eye or are even incorporated in circuitry.

Spy chips made headlines about two years ago when China allegedly planted the devices into servers, which reportedly reached 30 American companies. The tool, called HTfinder, determines if a semiconductor contains spy chips based on the makeup of the circuits...

Spy chips can be hidden in semiconductors and circuit boards by resembling part of the circuit. The chips can receive signals so that third parties can take control or cause a device to malfunction at any given time. more

Court Order Doesn't Stop Man from Eavesdropping & GPS Tracking

NY - An area man has been arrested for allegedly installing a GPS device in order to eavesdrop and spy on a person who has an order of protection against him.

Dutchess County resident Brett M. Marinaccio, 33, of Hopewell Junction, was arrested on Monday, Jan. 4, by New York State Police, said Trooper AJ Hicks.

According to Hicks, an investigation determined Marinaccio utilized hidden GPS tracking devices with audio capabilities to eavesdrop (similar to this) on the victim while an order of protection was in place issued by the Dutchess County Family Court to protect the victim. more