'Big brother' Satellite Set to Launch in 2025

'Big brother' satellite capable of zooming in on ANYONE, anywhere from space is set to launch in 2025 - and privacy experts say 'we should definitely be worried'

Privacy experts are sounding the alarm on a new satellite capable of spying on your every move that is set to launch in 2025.

The satellite, created by startup company Albedo, is so high quality it can zoom in on people or license plates from space, raising concerns among expert that it will create a 'big brother is always watching' scenario.

Albedo claims the satellite won't have facial recognition software but doesn't mention that it will refrain from imaging people or protecting people's privacy. more

Nashville Funk: Eavesdropping Devices in District Attorney Offices?

...a NewsChannel 5 investigation that revealed the presence of equipment capable of monitoring conversations without the knowledge of employees and visitors to the DA's offices, located in downtown Nashville.

Documents that Nashville District Attorney General Glenn Funk fought to keep secret raise new questions about eavesdropping in and around the DA's offices — as the TBI continues its investigation into possible illegal wiretapping.

Those documents, recently produced as a result of a months-long legal battle waged by NewsChannel 5, reveal there were more microphones — and more concern about conversations being monitored — than the DA had admitted.

Among the newly obtained evidence: notes from a staff meeting indicating that an IT employee had "discovered wide range of audio throughout ofc." more

The $1.76m Eavesdropping Story

Mr Loudon, of Houston, Texas, and his wife worked in home offices within 20 feet of each other.

His wife - a mergers and acquisitions manager at BP - worked on the oil giant's takeover of TravelCenters.

"As a result, they frequently overheard and witnessed each other's work-related conversations and video conferences." ...Mr Loudon confessed to his wife about buying the TravelCenters shares after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority began asking questions about the BP deal and who was "in the know"...The US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Tyler Loudon made $1.76m in illegal profits....His wife - who was "stunned by this revelation" - reported the trading to her supervisor at BP.

Mr Loudon's wife moved out of the house and ceased all contact with him. In June, she initiated divorce proceedings. more

Dump of Chinese Hacking Documents - A Window into Surveillance

Chinese police are investigating an unauthorized and highly unusual online dump of documents from a private security contractor linked to the nation’s top policing agency and other parts of its government — a trove that catalogs apparent hacking activity and tools to spy on both Chinese and foreigners...

The dump of scores of documents late last week and subsequent investigation were confirmed by two employees of I-Soon, known as Anxun in Mandarin, which has ties to the powerful Ministry of Public Security... They reveal, in detail, methods used by Chinese authorities used to surveil dissidents overseas, hack other nations and promote pro-Beijing narratives on social media. more

Educational Opportunity: Espionage 101 for Adults

Espionage 101 for Adults

• Feb 29 at 10:40AM - Apr 25 at 11:40AM
• Room 203

  3700 Lake Wheeler Rd.
  Raleigh, NC 27606
  
• $230.00
This 8-week class is perfect for adults. Espionage 101: What does it mean to be a spy? What exactly do spies do in this day and age? This class will give you a basic history of spy organizations and delve into the world of espionage: biggest rivalries, mishaps, heroes, gadgets, and more. Please come prepared to learn! This class will be a combination of interactive lectures, short videos, readings (audio formats available), hands-on activities, and some homework. Schedule From: Feb 29 2024 to Apr 25 2024 Every Thursday: 10:40am to 11:40am more Can't make it to the course? Need extra credit? Click here.

Weird Wiretapping Headline: Turtle Boy Free Again

Turtleboy blogger freed from jail, pleads not guilty to new witness intimidation, wiretapping charges. 

Jailed for nearly two months, Turtleboy blogger Aidan Kearney is free once more after a judge on Friday ordered his release and declined to set additional bail conditions following his arraignment on new witness intimidation and wiretapping charges. The polarizing blogger exited Norfolk Superior Court to raucous cheers from a crowd of his supporters, taking selfies and doling out handshakes and fist bumps like a quarterback after the winning game. more

Show "Who's Side You Are On" T-Shirt

The Electronic Frontier Foundation brought back their popular NSA Spying shirts for the first time since 2013, with an updated EFF logo and design. more

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world.

Spybusters Tip #725: How to Find an Apple AirTag Hidden in Your Car

Apple AirTags are useful devices for locating commonly misplaced items like keys and wallets, but they can also be hijacked for more sinister purposes, such as tracking your whereabouts without your knowledge or consent. 

For a rogue AirTag to reveal meaningful surveillance information to its owner, it must be traveling with you: hidden in a pocket, purse, or vehicle you drive regularly. In most cases, Apple should alert you if it detects an unknown AirTag with a notification to your iPhone (or iPad) like "AirTag Found Moving With You." - Turn on AirTag alerts / Find an AirTag in your car... more

Man Charged for Putting 'SPY' Cameras in Seattle Expedia HQ Bathrooms

A 42-year-old Lynnwood man is facing multiple felony charges for allegedly putting hidden “spy” cameras in two bathrooms at the Expedia Group headquarters in Seattle...

According to charging documents, Vargas-Fernandez placed cameras under the sink aimed at the toilet in two all-gender bathrooms at the Expedia office building between Dec. 4, 2023, and Jan. 11, 2024. Investigators said at least 10 victims were seen in the illegal footage and believe “several more victims have yet to be discovered.”

When officers searched Vargas-Fernandez’s apartment after his arrest, they found at least “33 various spy cameras carrying from full, partial, no concealment,” according to court documents. Investigators also found at least 22 SD cards and six hard drives with “at least 20 terabytes of storage.” more  video

Corporate security directors, there is an innovative, preemptive, low-cost solution...
Spy Camera Detection Training for your security and facilities personnel. It includes a Recording in the Workplace Policy and Inspection Log. Training, a Policy and Inspection Log with show your due diligence in court should an incident arise.

How Companies are Using AI to Spy on Slack

Several employers are now using an AI-powered app to analyze and monitor messages across Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and other platforms.

What spy is this?

It’s called Aware, an Ohio-based startup that launched in 2017, per CNBC, and its clients include Nestle, Walmart, Delta Air Lines, and Starbucks.

It uses AI, trained on previous employee interactions, to analyze messages and determine:

• How various groups of employees feel about the company or decisions it makes.
• If bullying or discrimination is happening.
• If employees are sharing confidential info.
• If employees are sending inappropriate texts, photos, or videos.
• How often teams communicate with one another.

In theory, this makes it easier for employers to stay on top of employee sentiment and potential risks in an increasingly online world. more

Aliens Could Be Spying On Us

Here’s What Their Space Probes Might Look Like

Maybe it’s abduction stories from the 1960s, in which alien doctors poke and prod human subjects with surgical tools. Or perhaps you picture something a little more like Oumuamua: a rocky, cigar-shaped “interstellar interloper” that slingshotted around the center of our solar system roughly 15 million miles from Earth back in 2017.

It’s this second type of potential “probe” that has attracted the attention of scientists, including Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb. In addition to suggesting that Oumuamua might have been an alien spaceship, Loeb, who holds a Ph.D. in plasma physics, has also searched the bottom of the ocean for evidence of alien visitors. These ideas, however, are not widely accepted in the greater scientific community. more

Apple Self-Driving Industrial Espionage Case Ends in Sentencing

A former Apple engineer will spend four months in prison, bringing a lengthy and contentious case to a close six years after the U.S. government first charged the engineer, Xiaolang Zhang. 

9 to 5 Mac has been covering the case since shortly after it began, and their report on Zhang’s sentencing has a good overview of the issues to date.

The basics? Zhang worked for Apple in the U.S., where he worked on the company’s self-driving car project, Project Titan. He then left abruptly to work for another company, this one based in China, XMotors. When he did so, he brought several proprietary documents with him. Hence the charges against him, to which he eventually pleaded guilty. The Department of Justice also announced several charges in the case last year. more

A Bad Week for Spys

• Beijing accused of using spying, threats and blackmail against Tibetan exiles more

• Turkey says 4 suspects confess to spying on behalf of Mossad more

• Everything wrong with South Africa’s new spying law more

• The body of a former advisor to El Salvador's president showed signs of torture after he died this week while in custody on spying charges. more

• Ireland Refuses New Visa for Russian Diplomats Over Espionage Concerns more

• Accused Russian spy worked for U.K. intelligence, met with prime ministers and princes more

• US Worried About Chinese Smart Cars Spying On Americans more

• Russia jails Ukrainian woman for 10 years for spying more

• A woman who had a six-year relationship with the man of her dreams eventually discovered he was actually an undercover cop spying on her. more

• Lebanese resistance destroys spying equipment in Israeli garrison more

...and in spy movie news... 

• Argylle: A spy martini that's shaken, stirred and somehow still flat. more

• “Argylle” is still out snooping the competition. The spy action comedy remained in first place, raking in $1.96 million on Friday, its second in theaters... So far, the flick, which cost $200 million to make, hasn’t been performing as expected. more

Well, the trailer was fun.

AI Wi-Fi CCTV - Spooky

Scientists Are Getting Eerily Good at Using WiFi to 'See' People Through Walls in Detail
The signals from WiFi can be used to map a human body, according to a new paper.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University developed a method for detecting the three dimensional shape and movements of human bodies in a room, using only WiFi routers.

To do this, they used DensePose, a system for mapping all of the pixels on the surface of a human body in a photo. DensePose was developed by London-based researchers and Facebook’s AI researchers. From there, according to their recently-uploaded preprint paper published on arXiv, they developed a deep neural network that maps WiFi signals’ phase and amplitude sent and received by routers to coordinates on human bodies...

The Carnegie Mellon researchers wrote that they believe WiFi signals “can serve as a ubiquitous substitute” for normal RGB cameras, when it comes to “sensing” people in a room. Using WiFi, they wrote, overcomes obstacles like poor lighting and occlusion that regular camera lenses face. more  Interesting, but no need for the average person to worry.

Device Camera's Ambient Light Sensors Can Spy

The ambient light sensors responsible for smart devices’ brightness adjustments can capture images of touch interactions like swiping and tapping for hackers...

Unlike cameras, though, apps are not required to ask for permission to use these sensors. In a surprising discovery, researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) uncovered that ambient light sensors are vulnerable to privacy threats when embedded on a smart device’s screen... An open-access paper on this work was published in Science Advances.

“This work turns your device's ambient light sensor and screen into a camera! Ambient light sensors are tiny devices deployed in almost all portable devices and screens that surround us in our daily lives,” says Princeton University professor Felix Heide, who was not involved with the paper. “As such, the authors highlight a privacy threat that affects a comprehensive class of devices and has been overlooked so far.” more  Interesting, but no need for the average person to worry.