Weird Science: Hacker Hacks Home Cam Then Reports it to Authorities

A former Davenport West High School science teacher has been found guilty of secretly recording people in various stages of undress in his Bettendorf home.

Clinton R. Vanfossen, 61, will be sentenced Jan. 5 on five counts of invasion of privacy, one count each of preventing apprehension and obstructing justice and electronic or mechanical eavesdropping...

District Court Judge Meghan Corbin filed a written ruling Monday. According to Corbin’s written ruling:

Bettendorf police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

According to the tip, a computer hacker in France hacked into the cameras of a home in Bettendorf and reported what he believed were people being unknowingly filmed in intimate moments.

Officers went to the location of the reported cameras, which were in Vanfossen’s Bettendorf home.

Officers searched the home and found two purported smoke detectors that appeared to contain a camera. The first camera was found in the second-floor hallway and the second camera was found inside a family member’s bedroom. more

Canada Awarded RCMP Contract to Firm with Ties to China

Canada - The federal government awarded a contract to provide and maintain RCMP communications equipment to a company with ties to the Chinese government, Radio-Canada has learned.

The contract has security experts raising concerns about potential Chinese access to RCMP communications and data.

On October 6, 2021, the federal government awarded Sinclair Technologies a contract worth $549,637 for a radio frequency (RF) filtering system. One of the system's purposes is to protect the RCMP's land-based radio communications from eavesdropping...

Conor Healy, a Canadian now based in Washington, said, "the risks include eavesdropping, collection of communications data and jamming or shutting down the radio communications system." more

PI Surveillance of Hand Injury Plaintiff Becomes 30.1 Billion Lawsuit

Cheap surveillance devices get expensive...

$11M settlement sparks $13.1B suit against American Family Insurance
A new lawsuit seeking billions of dollars in punitive damages claims AmFam and other parties illegally surveilled the plaintiff and her family...

It said that the lawyers hired the PI firm, at AmFam’s behest, to install surveillance devices around Mezqutal’s property and on family vehicles throughout the month of October 2019, or thereabouts.

“The AmFam defendants’ directions to the Martinelli Investigations Defendants included the mandate to have the investigators do whatever they needed to do to get surveillance of the plaintiff,” it said. “This direction was passed on to the Martinelli Investigations defendants by the Baker Donelson defendants.”

The PI defendants “unlawfully entered” Mezquitals’ property and “placed various electronic devices” on her property and two vehicles “to unlawfully record the activities of Plaintiff and her minor children. The electronic devices included at least one hidden video camera and multiple GPS tracking devices.”

The complaint said the PI team strapped a Spypoint Link-Dark “trail cam” digital camera, which is to a tree positioned to “capture plaintiff’s house, vehicles, and a portion of Plaintiff’s driveway. “The view provided by the Spypoint Link-Dark camera is not possible to obtain from a public road or from any other public property, it said. The “unlawful recordings were made without the consent of all persons observed and included photographs, videos, and electronic recordings of the activities of plaintiff and her minor children in a private place that was out of public view.”

The complaint includes claims for invasion of privacy, trespass to realty, trespass to personality, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and punitive damages and seeks joint and several liability for all the defendants. more  (Spypoint camera sales video)

Just Because You are Paranoid... Device Found in CEO's Car

Eskom CEO, André de Ruyter, has doubled down on the claim that he stumbled upon a highly sophisticated tracking device under the driver’s seat of his Volvo...

This comes after details were provided to press in October about a circuit board, described as an “NSA-level device”, that De Ruyter found while cleaning his car.

Articles cited a preliminary report prepared by former police commissioner George Fivaz who claimed the device isn’t commercially available, and is typically used by law enforcement and intelligence agencies...

Journalists were provided photos of the circuit board, which they duly published....

Security researcher Daniel Cuthbert was willing to comment on the record.

He explained that, based on the evidence, the device was likely nothing more than a remote of some kind.

Such a remote button could be a gate or garage opener, a panic button, or a way to arm and disarm a home alarm.

MyBroadband’s in-house researcher and electronic engineer Wikus Steyn agreed.

“There is no GPS chip or antenna, so no tracking that way. I see no mic onboard, although there is what seems to be a 2-pin input at the top, but that is most likely for a push button,” Steyn stated. He also said the quality of soldering suggests cheap mass production. more

Our take... I agree with Dan and Wikus. (but be sure to read the last paragraph) If the TI IC info in the photo is correct TI lists the chip's applications as:

1.2 Applications

• Low-Power, High-Performance, Wireless Systems With Data Rate Up to 1250 kbps
• ISM/SRD Bands: 169, 433, 868, 915, and 920 MHz
• Possible Support for Additional Frequency Bands: 137 to 158.3 MHz, 205 to 237.5 MHz, and 274 to 316.6 MHz
• Smart Metering (AMR/AMI)
• Home and Building Automation
• Wireless Alarm and Security Systems
• Industrial Monitoring and Control
• Wireless Healthcare Applications
• Wireless Sensor Networks and Active RFID
• IEEE 802.15.4g Applications
• Wireless M-Bus, All Modes

Eskom CEO, André de Ruyter, may have misidentified this item, but it definitely doesn't mean he is not being surveilled. Thoughts of tracking and bugging are not normal. Something has made him suspicious. Trust your instincts, André. Get some professional TSCM help, and don't make it a public issue.

Sophos 2023 Threat Report

The Sophos 2023 Threat Report uncovers the latest cyberthreat trends and provides the insights you need to defend against evolving attacks.

Based on the research and real-world experiences of Sophos X-Ops – a new cross-operational unit that links Sophos' threat, incident response and AI cybersecurity experts, the report covers:

• The lasting cyber impact of the war in Ukraine

• The maturity of the “as-a-service” industry and how it has put advanced threat tactics into the hands of nearly any criminal

• How ransomware operators have evolved their activities and mechanisms, both to evade detection and to incorporate novel techniques

• A deep dive into the abuse of legitimate security tools by criminals to execute attacks

• An analysis of the threats facing Linux, Mac, and mobile systems

Spy Tech: Amazing Microphone Tricks

Forget about turning up the TV to block eavesdropping bugs. 

The EveryWord™ Ultra Far-Field AFE Processor is here.

ArkX Labs' EveryWord ultra far-field voice capture and control DSP solutions offer an unmatched voice experience for H2H and H2M interfaces. 

Utilizing 3-D reverberation technology, the AFE voice module and development kit capture voice commands from 3x the distance (up to 9+ meters) versus traditional beam-forming technology. 

These solutions work reliably around corners, and in noisy and reverberate environments without having to lower the playback volume from other loud or competing single-point noise sources... Just watch the video.

Quote of the Week

 “Realizing that espionage is not science fiction, but a tangible and real risk, is the first step to protect ourselves against it,” 

- Nicolas Fierens Gevaert, a spokesperson for the Belgian foreign affairs ministry. more

Five News Outlets Urge U.S. to Drop Espionage Charges Against Assange

The New York Times and four other major media outlets that first helped WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange publish sensitive U.S. government documents sent a letter on Monday to federal prosecutors urging them to stop prosecuting him.

The open letter, titled "Publishing is Not a Crime," was signed by the editors and publishers of The Times, The Guardian, the French outlet Le Monde, the German outlet Der Spiegel and the Spanish paper El Pais...

He faces extradition to the United States to stand trial for the hacking-related offenses and violating the 1917 Espionage Act. If Assange is convicted, he could serve up to 175 years in prison. more

Espionage Group Using USB Devices to Hack Targets

USB devices are being used to hack targets in Southeast Asia, according to a new report by cybersecurity firm Mandiant.

The use of USB devices as an initial access vector is unusual as they require some form of physical access — even if it is provided by an unwitting employee — to the target device.

Earlier this year the FBI warned that cybercriminals were sending malicious USB devices to American companies via the U.S. Postal Service with the aim of getting victims to plug them in and unwittingly compromise their networks...

The hackers behind it are concentrating on targets in the Philippines. The researchers assess the group has a China nexus, although it did not formally attribute the cyber espionage operation to a specific state-sponsored group. more

Tiny State Buys $60 Million Surveillance System

(Kogi is a small state in Nigeria.)

Kogi governor acquires $60 million Chinese surveillance to eavesdrop on people. “We are putting the whole state on the map, real-time, virtual, audio and visual, so as you enter Kogi state from anywhere, we will see you. I won’t go into too much detail.”

Abdulkareem Siyaka, Kogi State Investment Promotion and Public Private Partnership Agency CEO, disclosed that the project would create 685,000 jobs and attract over N591 billion in investment yearly while encouraging migration to Kogi’s rural areas. more

The EU's Spyware Conundrum

MEPs are concerned that eavesdropping with Pegasus-type software is escalating, but the bloc is unlikely to impose rules as the final word rests with member states who dislike such oversight, experts said.

Pegasus and other software, such as Predator, have gained significant notoriety in recent years after it came to light they were being used by governments and politicians against political rivals, journalists, and activists, amongst others...

Jeroen Lenaеrs, chair of the PEGA European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware, said it was “pretty scary” how much information about personal life the Pegasus-type spyware can get...

“The Commission realises that something must be done,” said Lenaеrs... But he lamented the lack of political will from many capitals. more

Under Appreciated Espionage Attach Vector - Computer Repair Shops

If you’ve ever worried about the privacy of your sensitive data when seeking a computer or phone repair, a new study suggests you have good reason. It found that privacy violations occurred at least 50 percent of the time, not surprisingly with female customers bearing the brunt.

Researchers at University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, recovered logs from laptops after receiving overnight repairs from 12 commercial shops. The logs showed that technicians from six of the locations had accessed personal data and that two of those shops also copied data onto a personal device. Devices belonging to females were more likely to be snooped on, and that snooping tended to seek more sensitive data, including both sexually revealing and non-sexual pictures, documents, and financial information. more

Trade Secret Litigation 101

Trade secrets, and their associated value, are an understated facet of commercial activity. The intellectual property owned and protected by businesses carry with them enormous economic weight and are often the target of inappropriate corporate activities such as espionage and theft. 

Too often, these pieces of property are insufficiently protected, misunderstood, and do not get the attention they deserve. As such, trade secret litigation has evolved into a niche, but growing area of law practice.

Below, we will explore some of the key elements of trade secret litigation, its scope and magnitude, distinctions between trade secrets and other types of intellectual property, as well as several other important considerations... more

This Week in Spy News

Swedish brothers face trial on Russia spy charges
Two Swedish brothers accused of selling secrets to Russia's intelligence services have gone on trial in what has been called one of Sweden's worst ever alleged cases of espionage. more

Alleged Chinese spy detained in Quebec seeks bail, wants to clear name
A former employee of Quebec's electricity utility who is charged with economic espionage for the benefit of China denied on Thursday that he was a flight risk and said he wanted to stay in Canada to fight the charges. more

US Senators Reportedly Worried About Foreign Espionage As Chinese Drones Fly Over No-Go Zones In DC
Recreational drones made by Da-Jiang Innovations, or DJI, a Chinese technology company, have been reportedly detected in restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. more

Pakistan appoints ex-spy master Gen. Munir as new army chief
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has named the country's former spy chief as head of the military, the information minister said Thursday, ending months of speculation about the new appointment. more

Fear of espionage: USA bans Huawei products from stores
The US government bans the sale and import of communication devices from Chinese smartphone manufacturers and network suppliers Huawei and ZTE. They posed an unacceptable risk to national security, the US telecommunications regulator FCC said on Friday. more

UK bans Chinese surveillance cameras from 'sensitive' sites
Hikvision, a leading Chinese surveillance company, has denied suggestions that it poses a threat to Britain's national security after the UK government banned the use of its camera systems at "sensitive" sites. more

Travelling Australian espionage exhibition reveals double life of post-WWII spies
The touring exhibition is at the Albury Library Museum, on the New South Wales and Victorian border, where it explores espionage and counter-espionage in Australia, from federation through to the present day. more

Bond-inspired watches pay homage to franchise’s 60 years

Swiss watchmaker Omega has released two 007-inspired timepieces.
Photos courtesy Omega

In honour of six decades of high-tech gadgets, espionage, and ‘shaken, not stirred’ martinis, Swiss watchmaker Omega has crafted two new James Bond-inspired timepieces. more

Autonomous Vehicle Espionage Concerns in Congress

A member of the American House of Representatives has raised concerns about the dangers of AVs, warning that these vehicles represent a treasure trove of data that could be exploited against American citizens—or national interests...

According to an article by Wired, AVs effectively serve as moving cameras with access to emails, messages, phone calls.

...even though AVs can improve mobility for people with disabilities and make roads safer, they also enable larger, more sophisticated foreign espionage against industries, organizations and dissidents in the United States. For the original letter posted by Wired, click here.