From a Silicon Valley office strewn with bean-bag chairs, a group of twenty-something software engineers is building an unlikely following of terrorist hunters at U.S. spy agencies.
One of the latest entrants into the government spy-services marketplace, Palantir Technologies has designed what many intelligence analysts say is the most effective tool to date to investigate terrorist networks. The software's main advance is a user-friendly search tool that can scan multiple data sources at once, something previous search tools couldn't do. That means an analyst who is following a tip about a planned terror attack, for example, ... (more)
MA - Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and other Hollywood names are heading to Massachusetts for two and a half weeks of filming for an upcoming untitled blockbuster. Filming begins Sept. 15 at Worcester Regional Airport, but crews are already preparing two locations, the airport and a field in Bridgewater, for their roles in the movie. The action comedy, with the working title "Untitled Wichita Project," is about a secret agent, Cruise, who periodically runs into the same young single woman, Diaz. (more)
15 of History’s Most Notable Spies A career in espionage is easily one of the most coveted of all childhood fantasies, due largely to the unending stream of spy movies, comics, books, and real-life stories we’re inundated with growing up. While James Bond is at the top of everyone’s list, in reality things can be a bit different; spies come in all shapes and sizes, and range from honorable to just plain criminal. Some are remembered for their daring and others for their half-witted desperation and lust for money, but one thing rides certain throughout the disparate stories they tell: It takes guts to be a spy. While the greatest spies will, by virtue of their success, never be known to us (like electronic surveillance, only the failures make the news), these are the 15 most notable spies in our recent history.
Who should be on a top 15 spies list? The question is open to debate. If your favorite didn't make the list, send me their name. I will add them below...
Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy. He is celebrated as a hero in Israel because he has been credited with being a deciding factor in the outcome of the Six-Day War. Caught when his radio transmissions - from Syria to Israel - were detected. (more) (more)
via PCWorld.com... The chorus of folks singing "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" just got a little bigger and louder yesterday, after the Obama Administration issued"new" rules for border laptop searches that bear an uncanny resemblance to the old rules. (more)
The Motion Detecting Telephone. This is the telephone that detects motion and silently calls whatever number you desire, allowing you to monitor the sound in the room.
It's microphone allows you to listen in on sounds and conversations, enabling you to verify if it's just your cleaning service, a neighbor watering your prized orchids, or a more nefarious plot. Ideal for use in vacation homes or any time you are away, the phone looks like a typical corded telephone and plugs into a standard telephone outlet, requiring no service fees.
It has a sensitive motion detector; when you position it to face a doorway or window and someone triggers the detector, the phone will automatically call any number your enter and let you listen. It also functions as a normal telephone. 8" L x 3" W x 3" D. (11/2 lbs.)Item 77276 $59.95(more)
The oil giant Chevron said Monday that it had obtained video recordings of meetings in Ecuador this year that appear to reveal a bribery scheme connected to a $27 billion lawsuit the company faces over environmental damage at oil fields it operated in remote areas of the Amazon forest in Ecuador, The New York Times’s Simon Romero and Clifford Krauss reported.
The videos, together with audio recordings obtained by businessmen using watches and pens implanted with bugging devices, appear to implicate Ecuadoran officials and political operatives, including possibly Juan Núñez, the judge overseeing the lawsuit, and Pierina Correa, the sister of Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa...
The recordings, which Chevron placed on its Web site, are the latest twist in a 16-year legal battle over oil contamination of jungle areas in northern Ecuador. (more)
No kidding! Two hours of covert surveillance video (in Spanish with English sub-titles), with .pdf transcripts, are on Chevron's Web site. A real-life corporate sting. Fascinating.
Watch: $149.95 Pen: $149.99 Look on Judge's face: Priceless
Why is this important to you? Cheap, effective, surveillance gadgets can easily be turned against you and your company.
In this case, a $3 million dollar bribery scheme is revealed, and a $27 billion lawsuit may be lost.
Imagine the damage electronic eavesdropping could do in your business.
Bugs, taps, video and voice recorders provide extreme leverage. For less than the cost of a good dinner out with friends, fortunes can be moved and careers wrecked.
Mystery 1 Could world-changing series of events in the last century have been influenced by an American president's mistress?
That's one question posed in Cleveland attorney and writer Jim Robenalt's book "The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage during the Great War."The book deals with (Warren G.) Harding's 15-year affair with Carrie Phillips, the wife of a prominent Marion businessman, and suggests that Phillips may have become a German spy.
The author also questions whether Phillips convinced Harding not to run for the presidency in 1916, which could have affected the United States' involvement in World War I as well as events that later influenced Nazi leader Adolph Hitler's rise to power. (more)
Mystery 2 Was this beekeeper a spy for Stalin?
Dorothy Constance Galton, a university secretary and bee keeper, was investigated by security services who believed she was acting as a go-between for Stalin, secret files disclose.
Galton also came to the attention of the notorious double agent Kim Philby at MI6 who wanted to know what Security Service knew about her.
Her file shows she visited Leningrad on the SS Sibier in August 1934, and by January 1935 was working at London University and had been elected as a delegate from the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries. (more)
Life is strange. Take a moment to listen to a Roy Rodgers / Rolling Stones mash-up “Hey! You! Get off of my cow!” The artist is Buck Howdy, a singing cowboy, specializing in kid-friendly tunes. He’s also a genuine, tractor-driving, turkey farmer.
Ok, now that you have stopped laughing...
Buck Howdy: “I inherited my geek DNA from my dad [Jim Vaus Jr.]. As a kid my dad helped me build a ham radio and then I got my broadcast license WN2FEZ was my call sign.
He was a HUGE geek - he invented wiretapping and tracing phone calls - and then employed his skills at the same time for the L.A. Syndicate (mob), the police and Hollywood movie stars all at the same time!
He also invented the machine that they patterned the big sting in the movie “The Sting” after - where they were supposedly intercepting horse race results on the wire service - and then delaying those results just long enough to place bets on the horses.”
This is the scariest thing I saw during our bug sweeps this past week. It was sitting on top of a corporate president's desk.
Anyone can have custom printing put on USB sticks. (Not knowing if the printing on this one was legitimate or fake, I blurred the top two lines.) They can also load the stick with a megaton blast of spyware, destructive malware or a fast spreading virus that hits your corporate nervous system like Tourette's Syndrome.
Put the trick-stick into a pretty package. Mass mail it to company employees. Good chance one of them will open their Pandora's Box.
My new corporate client was not completely naive. They had a USB lock-out policy in place. The USB ports were turned off on all employee computers... except top executives, who were exempt from the policy.
Worried about your USB ports? Good, here is a plan... • Try USB lock-out software. You can get a Free 30-day trial from Lumension. • Identify employees who have a real need to have their ports unlocked. • Give them a clear education about the USB vulnerability. • Let them know they will be responsible for their security lapses. • Ask them if they are really sure they want their ports left open. ~Kevin
If your gadget can connect to the Internet, it can probably call you when it is lost or stolen...
A while back, I discussed a FREE way to get you laptop back using a combination of Adeona and isightcapture. If you are willing to spend a few bucks, and also need to protect: Mac or PC laptops, BlackBerrys, Smart mobile phones, cameras, GPS devices, external hard drives and even USB thumb drives, GadgetTrak can help. Not electronic? No problem. GadgetTrak also offers "Trak Tags" so honest people have a way of returning lost, non-electronic items.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa announced Saturday he is seeking to definitively shut down a private television station that he accused of "espionage" on his office.
The station Teleamazonas, a private broadcaster that has been critical of Correa and his government, has already been fined multiple times for breaking broadcasting law, notably for reporting opposition charges of voter fraud during April's general elections.
This week the station broadcast a secretly recorded conversation between Correa and a Quito lawmaker...
"They have spied on a meeting in the office of the president -- that's an attack on national security.... We will not accept these things," said Correa. (more)
Update: (computer translation) The Policy Coordinating Minister Ricardo Patino and Legal Secretary of the Presidency, Alexis Mera, presented today at the Attorney General, two complaints against Fernando Balda, Patriotic Society member. Patino said the allegations against Balda are for having disseminated a clandestine recording of a meeting in the Presidency and unjustifiable introduction at police and insulting the President. The secretary of the Prosecutor indicated that he immediately informed the minister will Fiscal Washington heaviness, to arrange for further investigation on this case.
via examiner.com Julia McWilliams’ post was with the Office of Strategic Services, or the OSS, which was the predecessor to the CIA. She held several positions, and at one point she and co-workers solved a unique problem for the U.S. Navy: Sharks bumping into underwater explosives were setting them off and warning the German U-boats they were intended to sink. According to Linda McCarthy, curator of the Clandestine Women: The Untold Stories of Women in Espionage exhibit at the National Women's History Museum, “Julia Child and a few of her male compatriots got together and literally cooked up a shark repellent," to coat the explosives. (more)
MI - The former technology manager for Citizens Gas Fuel Co. is facing criminal charges for allegedly spying on women inside bathrooms at the company office at 127 N. Main St.
Richard Neal Gramling Jr., 54, was arraigned Wednesday in Lenawee County District Court on seven felony counts involving a hidden camera offense and use of a computer to commit a crime. He remains free on personal recognizance pending a Sept. 3 preliminary examination...
“Detroit Edison has done a complete sweep of the building and is confident there are no recording devices left,” said Detective Greg Lanford of the Adrian Police Department. (more)
Recommendation: Add bathroom inspections to your pro-active sweep schedule. If you don't have a pro-active sweep schedule (you should) stop by and see us. We will help you reduce the chances of embarrassing incidents and employer negligence lawsuits.
To my security colleagues...
,” the basis of the 1955 movie 
