A number of stolen prototypes of Sony Ericsson mobile phones were found at the home of a company employee, Swedish police said on Wednesday.Sony Ericsson is keeping quiet about the situation. A spokesman at the company confirmed that a number of prototypes were involved, but wouldn't elaborate on any of the details, Computer Sweden reported...What the person was planning to do with the phones -- which are worth about 750,000 Swedish kronor (US$90,000), according to the police -- and what kind of devices were stolen remains unclear.Prototypes can be very valuable to the competition, because they show where a company is heading in the long term, according to Chris Hazelton, research director for mobile and wireless at The 451 Group. (more)Think of all the similar competing cell phones which debut at the same time. Just coincidence? Example: iPhone vs. LG KE850 (photos courtesy engadget.co
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Did the British Secret Service, MI-5, send specially packaged versions of the popular board game "Monopoly" to prisoners of war in Germany during World War II?
Did these games have escape maps hidden inside the playing pieces?
Check your answers here.
As Nortel files for bankruptcy... a less-discussed factor may have scuttled the struggling networking company's last hope for a savior: concerns over Chinese cyberspying...The most interested potential acquirer of the Ethernet division may have been Chinese company Huawei... The Shenzhen-based networking giant has a murky history of cooperation with its homeland's authoritarian regime, and concerns over Huawei's government ties, according to some industry-watchers and security analysts, may have spooked Nortel's customers that carried sensitive U.S. government data and scuttled the Chinese company's offer...
The Chinese company has long been searching for an opportunity to expand to North America... Given Huawei's history, a tie-up with the company would raise the specter of a hidden back door in a router or switch, siphoning that data to foreign spies. (more)
Los Angeles - Patrick McGoohan, an Emmy-winning actor who created and starred in the cult classic television shows "Secret Agent" ("Danger Man") and "The Prisoner" has died. He was 80.
McGoohan died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness, his son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg, said Wednesday.
McGoohan won two Emmys for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama "Columbo," and more recently appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film "Braveheart." But he was best known as the title character Number Six in "The Prisoner," a surreal 1960s British series in which a former spy is held captive in a small village and constantly tries to escape. (more) (The Prisoner tribute) (Amazon - Secret Agent, The Prisoner
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These might be harsh times in the jobs market, but it seems there is still plenty of work for people who can provide their own dark suits and sunglasses. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States's famed law enforcement agency, is seeking to fill thousands of posts as it embarks on the biggest recruitment drive in its 101-year history.
The vacancies include 850 special agents... There are a further 2,100 "professional staff positions" available behind the scenes: jobs include intelligence analysts, fingerprint experts, language specialists and electronics technicians, presumably for help with wire-tapping and other hi-tech eavesdropping. (more)
by Christopher Arnott, Arts & Literature, New Haven Advocate
...the least-remembered star of the lot, Robert Vaughn. His timing is good — the successful 40-DVD complete "U.N.C.L.E." box set was released a year ago. But after U.N.C.L.E. was cancelled... history got in his way. While the reminiscences of his cool-hero counterparts are little more than fleshed-out filmographies, Vaughn's adventures take place in the real world...Vaughn cured Martin Luther King's hiccups. He rode the funeral train of his assassinated friend Bobby Kennedy from New York to Washington following the ceremony at St. Patrick's Cathedral, events he describes in compelling detail. As the first major Hollywood celebrity to speak out openly against the Vietnam War, Vaughn went on "Firing Line," William F. Buckley's TV show, to debate him; Buckley was unprepared for Vaughn's clear grasp of the issues. The show's in-house referee declared the debate a draw......he had to be hustled out of his hotel into the sanctity of the International Hotel, Vaughn nearly lost all the interviews he'd compiled with survivors of the McCarthy-era Hollywood blacklist, data he was compiling for his master's thesis (later published as Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting
)...Robert Vaughn emerges, with all the derring-do of his immortal Napoleon Solo character, as the most authoritative voice of a time when overlooking major social issues in favor of more warmed-over Hollywood lore seems like heresy.
Referring to his book, A Fortunate Life
by Robert Vaughn...Vaughn doesn't shy away from sensationalism and candor — he drops names as avidly as the professional hanger-on George Hamilton. But his mix of honesty, integrity, loyalty, political passions, cultural context and open-eyed excitement at the world around him lifts his book above the tired nostalgia of his blue-eyed buff-boy brethren — it fits the present-day Obama era. "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."'s old enough to be a great-grandfather, but man, he's still hip. (more) (Amazon - The Man from U.N.C.L.E.)
This credit card size digital voice recorder measures in at just 6.5 millimeters in thickness and features 1GB of built-in storage, a flip-out USB connector, and flush-mounted controls. It can also be used as a MP3 player and USB flash drive. It records in high quality WAV file format and files can be easily copied or deleted just as with a standard USB storage device.With only 36g weight the Ultra-thin Digital Voice Recorder offers a 69-hour recording time and built-in Li-Ion battery that is rechargeable via USB connection. (more)Why do we mention it?So you know what you are up against.
via the manufacturer's web site...
The Hardware KeyLogger Keyboard Edition looks and behaves exactly like a normal keyboard, but it keeps a record of all keystrokes typed on it. The recording process is totally transparent to the end user. The keystrokes can be retrieved by an administrator with a password.We buy all the keyboards from keyboard manufacturers, and then convert them... The keyboards are not marked in any way, so you will have a "stealthy" keyboard that can be slipped unnoticed into your corporate and/or home environment...
We also offer "slightly-used" keyboards for our corporate customers upon request (the Hardware KeyLogger chip inside is new). These keyboards look just like your everyday keyboard that has been on your desk for a while, so they can be placed into your corporate environment with ease. You may also send in your own keyboard, which we will convert to the Hardware KeyLogger Keyboard Edition. (source)
Portugal - An inspector of the PolÃcia Judiciária (PJ) was suspended for 18 months, the hardest penalty before the compulsory retirement, for involvement in illegal listening and monitoring... discovered a net of illegal espionage that eavesdropped, monitored and followed people. (more)
via the manufacturer...
Num8 is the world’s first GPS locator device that has been specifically designed with children in mind. It tells you exactly where your child is, anytime — at home or even abroad. All you need is a mobile phone or a computer to find their precise location.
And unlike similar locator products, num8 has been cleverly concealed in a child’s digital watch that is securely fastened to your child and cannot be removed or deactivated without your knowledge. (more)
24-hour time?!?! Don't most kids have it hard enough comprehending the concept of 12-hour digital time?
From the reality is stranger than fiction file: Concerns about spying may have killed, or at least stalled, a plan for Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to buy some Nortel (NT) assets.According to a Forbes piece published today, Nortel’s plans to hand off its Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) division to Huawei for $400 million were scuttled over concerns about Chinese cyber-spying.“The Shenzhen, China-based networking giant has a murky history of cooperation with its homeland's authoritarian regime,” the Forbes piece reads. “And concerns over Huawei's government ties, according to some industry watchers and security analysts, may have spooked Nortel's customers that carry sensitive U.S. government data and scuttled the Chinese company's offer.” (source) (more)
Remember Bexar Metropolitan Water District General Manager, Gilbert Olivares? (background) His indictment last August included 12 counts of Illegally Intercepting Oral Communications. He was accused of wiretapping his employees. The organization was knocked off its pins... and still hasn't recovered.Texas - The Bexar Metropolitan Water District's board asked Gov. Rick Perry to appoint a lone conservator to guide and advise the agency as it tries to emerge from years of troubled management. (more)
Security Director's Budget Booster
Bexar is an excellent example of illegal bug and wiretap fallout.
Aside from the immediate damage, colateral damage often includes:
• defending wrongful termination suits,
• hiring replacement employee costs,
• crippled employee morale,
• PR nightmares,
• stockholder suits,
• and general public embarrassment.
Budget for Eavesdropping Detection Audits with all this in mind. Proactive audits are an essential element of a complete security program.
The DECT Forum, the worldwide association of the home communication industry, has taken note of reports about possible security issues of DECT wireless telephony systems. The DECT Forum assures that it takes such reports seriously and will consider these investigations...The DECT Forum also states that it is a criminal act to eavesdrop telephone conversations. It is impossible to accidentally eavesdrop on telephone conversations and therefore the risk for users is very low. Only those with a clear criminal energy and intent and a sophisticated knowledge would be capable of eavesdropping. (more)I feel better now, don't you?
Canada - A B.C. Mountie has been docked eight days’ pay by an RCMP disciplinary board after skipping 35 days of work because he got bored during a one-year secondment to Canada’s spy agency. (more)
A long, interesting story which details several incidents, laws and general concerns about spycams in India, Australia and Southeast Asia... Take care before you change clothes, before you take a shower. You could be on camera. That cute little bug inside the bathroom cabinet, behind the dressing table mirror, could make you an actor very soon...The spycam can be concealed in many innocent looking objects, like toys, radios, clocks, speakers, smoke alarms, even Ganeshas. Some of them come with night vision and are powered by mains adaptor or battery. An audio facility is available on most covert cameras, which picks up speech up to 20 feet away. (more)
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