World Spy News Roundup

The world is a busy place when it comes to spying.
Here is the action over the last few weeks...

Australia
• Government email spying plan under criticism.
• Government report... embrace "illegal", "deceptive" and "underhanded" espionage overseas.

Canada
• Was the bedroom of minister's ex really bugged?

China
• China calls computer spying claim ‘totally groundless’.
• Video surveillance equipment will be installed at Beijing schools.

European Union
• In-flight spycams - one in every seat; software analyzes you.

France
• Privy Privacy in Cannes - Madonna's unpaid $93,000 hotel bill over spying camera.

Germany
• Businesses across Germany spy on their workers.
• German spying scandals reawaken dark memories.
• Deutsche Telekom admits bugging phones of top management; then denies that it listened!
• The spying scandal affecting Deutsche Telecom continues to grow.
• Government gives police greater powers to monitor homes, phones and computers.
• Heinz Geyer, deputy head of former East German spy agency, dies.
• Lufthansa admits spying on journalist.

India
• Debate continues: Should Blackberry allow government security to spy on users.
• India practices unacceptably intrusive electronic surveillance.

Israel
• Israel frees Hezbollah spy for soldiers' remains.

Italy
• Ferrari spying may still be an issue.

The Netherlands
• Netherlands banned electronic voting machines; "eavesdropping risk".

Pakistan
• Dueling wiretaps. Battle of the political phone bugs.

Poland
• Lech Walesa angry with President Kaczynski about spying accusations.
• President Kaczynski denies ordering wiretaps on ex-prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.

Russia
• Russia to demand Georgia ends spy flights.

Saudi Arabia
• 6 caught selling eavesdropping devices.

Sweden
• Swedish government may soon get power to spy on its citizens.

Taiwan
• National Security Bureau denied wiretapping telephone calls of officials and president.

Turkey
• A possible Turkish Watergate scandal.
• “AK Party is eavesdropping” claims the opposition.
• Turkish opposition claims security forces bugged its headquarters.

Uganda
• MP accuses government of spying on committees.

United Kingdom
• Government refused to investigate BT's covert wiretapping of thousands of customers.
• Councils admit spying on residents.
• Councils admit phone, e-mail spying.
• Bugging epidemic spreads - Vodafone fingered in new spying row.
• Top gadgets for spying on fellow SEO’s.
• Redcar hotel owner set up video camera to spy on couple.
• Government considering interception and data-mining all electronic communications.

United States
• Former S. Korean spy granted asylum. Had divulged illicit wiretapping of mobile phones.
• Court upholds conviction of Cuban spies.
• Study secretly tracked cell phone users outside US.
• Chinese expelled from the US for suspected industrial spying.
• Sheriff's Office disbands tarnished spy squad.
• Gutierrez possible victim of Chinese cyber spying.
• Former police chief accused of illegally bugging his secretary's office has pleaded guilty.
• P.I.'s In HP spying scandal fined.
• Billboards look back. Tiny cameras gather and analyze viewer's faces.
• Woman pleads guilty to aiding Chinese spy.
• Rent-A-Spy - 3/4's of the U.S. intelligence budget now goes to outside contractors.
• Feds encrypt 800,000 laptops; 1.2 million to go.
• Ex-CIA official indicted over agency job for mistress.
• TJX staffer sacked; talked about lax information security.

Venezuela
• Hugo Chavez's move to boost internal spying in Venezuela.
• Chavez spy laws 'creating society of informers'.
• Update! Chavez changes his mind. No new spy law.

New Bug Hides In USB Cable

A normal USB 2.0 cable?
Acts like a normal USB cable.
But, U BS and this SOB will UHF it up to several hundred feet away! UBF'ed.

A wired wireless eavesdropping device. Weird.

This bug is just one of scores of Internet-available eavesdropping devices. Bugs bugging businesses - happens every day.

So, who cleans up these problems?
SOP... US.

Reverse Phone Detective

"Find out the owner of any cell phone or unlisted number. Results include name, current address, carrier, and location details when available. Your search is 100% confidential."

But, guess what!

A 'Full Report' will cost you $14.95
A One-year Membership will cost you $39.95

Want to make sure no one can look up your number?
Want to opt out?
You guessed it!
That will cost you $4.95 :)
(more)

Bluetooth Bites

Bluetooth eavesdropping, and related security/privacy issues, are covered here on a regular basis. The following are from the new, and worth repeating, files...

Car Whisperer
"Once the connection has been successfully established, the carwhisperer binary starts sending audio to, and recording audio from the headset. This allows attackers to inject audio data into the car. This could be fake traffic announcements or nice words. Attackers are also able to eavesdrop conversations among people sitting in the car."

Blooover II
"Blooover II is the successor of the very popular application Blooover (Blooover is a tool that is intended to serve as an audit tool that people can use to check whether their phones and phones of friends and employees are vulnerable). After 150000 downloads of Blooover within the year 2005 (since the initial release in at 21c3 in December 2004), a new version of this mobile phone auditing tool is on its ready."

"Besides the BlueBug attack, (Exploiting this loophole allows the unauthorized downloading phone books and call lists, the sending and reading of SMS messages from the attacked phone and many more things.) Blooover II supports the HeloMoto attack (which is quite close to the BlueBug attack), the BlueSnarf and the sending of malformed objects via OBEX." (more)

Corporate Security Directors. Make your job easier.

Get your employees to love you.
Distribute this NEW book...
"Staying Safe Abroad."

Ed Lee, a retired U.S. diplomat and Federal agent, spent most of his years in the U.S. State Department as a Regional Security Officer (RSO) in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, where he successfully kept diplomats, their families and U.S. interests safe from terrorism and crime.

In 2002, Ed returned to the State Department as a senior advisor to help institute post-9/11 anti-terrorism strategies, retiring again in 2006. He then formed Sleeping Bear Risk Solutions, which provides investigative, emergency planning and staff security services. He also regularly delivers speeches on terrorism and international security to corporate and governmental audiences. (ISBN: 978-0-9815605-0-2, 360 Pages, $22.95)

Staying Safe Abroad: Traveling, Working & Living in a Post-9/11 World "is the best book yet on travel security. This book is one that should be read and kept in every traveler’s briefcase for reference.” — John L. Makowski, Director - Global Security, Briggs & Stratton Corporation

"Every person who travels, whether abroad or domestically, should own this book." — Martha Miller, Ph.D., Cross Cultural Trainer to U.S. Diplomats and Multinational Executives

P.S. - Employees... A free copy of this should accompany the plane ticket whenever your employer sends you abroad. Ask your Security / Personnel / Travel Department Director for a copy. It's the least they could do for you. If all else fails, buy it yourself.

Available from Amazon.com
or Sleeping Bear Risk Solutions

If you are my client, I'll buy it for you!
Contact me for a free copy. ~Kevin

Victorian SpyCam Project - Finally Completed!

Preceded by a great rumbling, the giant auger burst the bounds of earth – New York and London were connected, as planned!

Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean.

This past week, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed.

An extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope has been installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York
and vice versa.

"...the Trans-Atlantic Telectroscope...started out as a dream project of the eccentric Victorian engineering entrepreneur Alexander Stanhope St. George.

Some called it a "folly." Others said, "shear madness." Even the greatest visionary of the age, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, blustered, "But, I was just kidding!"

The nay-sayers were correct. The spycam tunnel – a camera just a little too obscura – failed.

But now, after all these years, the tunnel has been fitted with a giant "electronic telescope" and state-of-the-art technology, by his great-grandson!

The present-day Mr. St. George, resurrected the project and developed the Telectroscope after discovering his great-grandfather's dusty notes and diaries in an attic.

The tunnel entrances were reopened beside Tower Bridge in London and Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

Needless to say, many are excited at the prospects of "seeing" friends and relatives across the Atlantic. Imagine standing 3,460 miles away from your loved one and peep into the telescope to see them."

Humbug or Amazing?
You decide...
On view until June 15th.

UPDATE...
06/01/08 0253HRS EST COUNTERMEASURE'S COMPOUND SURVEILLANCE CHOPPER PHOTO - ANALYSIS: USA SIGHTING CONFIRMED

DOUBLE UPDATE...
60/01/08 0023HRS GMT WHITEROCK DEFENCE SURVEILLANCE PHOTO - ANALYSIS: UK SIGHTING CONFIRMED

Before you upgrade your iPhone next month...

Scary stuff in the news...
"iPhones sold as refurbished units may contain personal data from their previous owners that, with a little leg-work, is readily accessible by new owners. These data include email, images, contacts and more. ...performing a “Restore” operation on the iPhone does not delete personal data from the device. Such information remains intact on the device after a restore, making the process unsuitable as a preparatory measure for iPhone resale or service. Apparently, Apple’s refurbishing procedure also does not delete the personal data.

There currently exits no viable, publicly available method for erasing personal data on the iPhone. Erasing your content and settings has no effect on whether a subsequent owner can recover personal information." (source)

Kevin's Reality Check
1. Go into Settings > General > Reset
2. Hit "Erase all Content and Settings."

This will keep your info from most people, but not forensic types with toolkits. They can access what doesn't get erased - the application screenshots. Screenshots are taken every time the Home button is pressed. Reason: to generate the zoom effect for the next time an application is accessed.

Still paranoid?
• Make new screenshots after you erase all content.
Still paranoid?
• Search the net for info on reformatting the phone's NAND.

Spook Vault Stuff - Data Loss via Optoanalysis

Researchers have developed two new techniques for stealing data from a computer that use some unlikely hacking tools: cameras and telescopes.

In two separate pieces of research, teams at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and at Saarland University in Saarbrucken, Germany, describe attacks that seem ripped from the pages of spy novels. In Saarbrucken, the researchers have read computer screens from their tiny reflections on everyday objects such as glasses, teapots, and even the human eye. The UC team has worked out a way to analyze a video of hands typing on a keyboard in order to guess what was being written. (more)

Wannaknowhowitisidone?
Reflections.
Observations.

Q&A Time - Radio Frequency (RF) Blocking

From a professional colleague...
Q. "I would like to know if there is any security film that can be applied to windows to help block RF emissions. I have heard of curtains that are made for purpose? not sure though? Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks."

A. Their are all sorts of RF shielding materials on the market: window film, speciality glass, screening, wallpaper, paint, gaskets, curtains, beanies, etc. Each item, by itself, is not a very effective solution. Used in conjunction with one another, RF may be attenuated to a point where it solves a particular problem. The attenuation will not be 100% unless one constructs a fully shielded room (Faraday cage). In government circles these specially built rooms are called Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility, otherwise known as a SCIF. Even then, the slightest crack or deformed door gasket will allow RF in/out.

100% shielding becomes problematic when the application is eavesdropping countermeasures. Shielded rooms are ugly and expensive, and other methods are not 100% effective. In counterespionage and TSCM, the information is either protected, or it is not protected.

Blindsided

What do you think?
• Disrepair breeds disrespect.
• Focus on the expected, and the unexpected.
• Like deer, security would do well to look up.
• Kilroy had kids.

Chlorine for stagnant security thinking...
Our roof artist might have spent their time entering the building, planting bugs or stealing documents, instead of graciously exposing a security vulnerability.

Time to shake it up. Make sure 80% of your security budget isn't protecting 20% of your company's value.

The value ratio in many companies is more like 20% physical assets, 80% intellectual assets. Many security budgets protect in the opposite direction – which is like looking in the wrong direction.
(photo courtesy of spiggycat)

Alert - Throw These Bums Out!

Bum One...
The FM analog wireless presenter's microphone – one of the Top 5 corporate eavesdropping threats. Why? No secret. Radio waves travel. A quarter mile is the advertised standard. Interception of an FM analog signal is easy. Safer solutions exist. Throw these bums out.

Bum Two..
Any meeting planner who still uses FM analog wireless microphones for your sensitive presentations or meetings. Educate them. Give them a chance to change. If they don't, your sensitive meetings become Town Hall Meetings. Throw these bums out.

Bum Three...
Any security director or security consultant who does not point out the dangers of FM analog wireless microphones. They have an obligation to stand up to meeting planners and AV crews. They have an obligation to recommend one of the several, more secure, options available. If they don't. Throw these bums out.

Bum Four...
These days, any AV production company that doesn't invest in digital, encrypted wireless microphones for their clients is stupidly cheap. For years, they hid behind excuses like "digital technology is not reliable enough," and "it lacks fidelity." Those days are over.

You pay these guys hundreds of thousands each year to produce your corporate events. The least they can do is update their equipment (a one-time investment).

They KNOW they are leaking your sensitive/secret information when they continue to use FM analog wireless microphones. Not upgrading to secure communications is negligence on their part. Demand secure wireless microphones, or... throw these bums out.

Bum Five...
YOU. If you are not part of the solution, as of this moment you are now part of the problem.

The New Wireless Mics Can Make Your Meetings More Secure.
Some even have encryption capabilities!
• Lectrosonics (...and an Encryption White Paper)
• Zaxcom
• Mipro ACT-82
• Telex SAFE-1000

Infrared Choices...
• Glonetic Audio
• PA-System
• Azden

Q&A Time - GPS Trackers

This question comes from a novelist working on a plot.
We also receive similar inquiries from other folks
– corporate security directors to scared spouses!

Q. If a bad guy places a real-time GPS tracker on my hero's car, and knows my hero is a skilled investigator...
• Where might they put the tracker?
• Where might investigator not look for it, or find it?
• And, is there a detector that would allow him to find it? The car is parked either outside or in a parking garage, and the bad guys have lots of access to it.

A. The best answer could come from Lo-Jack mechanics. They do this type of covert installation daily.

Real-time GPS trackers are very cool devices. They are small and may be secreted anywhere in/on a vehicle (in hollow body panels, atop gas tanks, inside bumpers, under seats, within dash panels, etc.). The real trick hiding the power connection and the two antennas properly.

For long-term tracking, a connection has to be made to the car's 12 volt power bus, preferably where the connection can not be seen and the new power wire to the GPS device can not be seen. This part is fairly easy.

Next, get two radio-frequency signals to/from the tracking device...
• The satellite signal (to the device).
• The cellular signal (to/from the device).

A GPS antenna is required to receive the weak satellite signal...

(Either a standard size GPS remote antenna, or a much smaller GPS antenna)
Ideally, this antenna needs to "see" the sky. However, this doesn't mean the antenna will be visible to you.

A GPS antenna can "see" it's signal through non-metallic materials, like: back seat windows and decks, rubber material on bumpers, plastic tail-lights, etc. Make the antenna connecting cable look like the factory installed wiring and you're in!

The cellular GSM antenna is not as hard to position since it will work wherever a regular cell phone will work.

Again, hiding the cable is important. Imagine, embalming the antenna and cable in a car's undercoating; making it 100% invisible!

Caution: Do not position the GSM antenna cable near any of the car's audio wiring or you may hear the GSM transmission noise through the car sound system... a definite tip-off that something ain't Kosher.
(small GSM antennas)
How to detect a real-time GPS/GSM tracking device?
• Physical search.
• Take car to an isolated area and use a real-time spectrum analyzer and look for the cell site registration burst transmissions.
• Keep a cell phone detector in the car. If it alerts on a regular basis, and there are no other cell phone users in the area, the problem might be a tracking and/or listening device in the car.

And, then there is the 'ol sharp stick-in-the-eye approach...
Blockers!
• GPS Blocker
• GSM Blocker
• GPS/GSM/GPRS Blocker
(all are illegal, but available, in the U.S.)
~Kevin

The Geek Chorus Wails, "Beware VoIP. Shun GSM."

"Be careful what you say over that mobile phone or VoIP system."
The most widely used mobile phone standard, GSM, is so insecure that it is easy to track peoples' whereabouts and with some effort even listen in on calls, a security expert said late on Saturday at the LayerOne security conference.

"GSM security should become more secure or at least people should know they shouldn't be talking about (sensitive) things over GSM," said David Hulton, who has cracked the encryption algorithm the phones use. "Somebody could possibly be listening over the line."

For as little as $900, someone can buy equipment and use free software to create a fake network device to see traffic going across the network...

VoIP systems based on open standards are not encrypting the traffic, which leaves them at risk for eavesdropping, forged or intercepted calls and bogus voice messages, he said, adding that there are numerous tools for doing that, with names like "Vomit" and "Cain and Abel." (more)

Wiretapping PI Pellicano Convicted

A Hollywood private investigator was convicted Thursday of federal racketeering and other charges for digging up dirt for his well-heeled clients to use in lawsuits, divorces and business disputes against the rich and famous.

Anthony Pellicano, 64, was accused of wiretapping stars such as Sylvester Stallone and running the names of others, such as Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon, through law enforcement databases to help clients in legal and other disputes.

Pellicano was found guilty of all but one of the 77 counts against him. He looked at the judge with his arms crossed and didn't react when verdicts were read. (more)

Comverse - Smells like Sneakers

"Martin Bishop is the head of a group of experts who specialise in testing security systems. When he is blackmailed by Government agents into stealing a top secret black box, the team find themselves embroiled in a game of danger and intrigue. After they recover the box, they discover that it has the capability to decode all existing encryption systems around the world, and that the agents who hired them didn't work for the Government after all..."
...and now the news...