The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) inadvertently spied on its own employees,
in one of a series of surveillance breaches in the past 12 months compiled by Australia’s intelligence watchdog.
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (Igis) annual report was tabled in parliament on Thursday, and identified a series of breaches of Asio’s spying powers at a time when the federal government is granting the agency unprecedented new powers. (more)
Security researchers have warned of a serious security flaw in Android which could potentially leave every device open to attack.
The vulnerability is in the operating system’s ubiquitous inter-process communication (IPC) tool known as Binder, according to a Black Hat Europe presentation on Thursday by Check Point researchers Nitay Artenstein and Idan Revivo...
“Subverting this component allows an attacker to see and control almost all important data being transferred within the system,” the two say in their research paper. (more)
When the Hong Kong protests were at their height, activists using WhatsApp received messages advertising a program that promised to help them coordinate protests.
When the demonstrators downloaded the program through a link in the message, it turned out to be malicious software—most likely created by the Chinese government—that hacked their smartphones.
Lacoon Mobile Security, based in San Francisco, began to analyze the phony app after spotting unusual communication on the networks of its corporate clients, some of whose employees had downloaded it. In tracing the spyware’s path to the websites where it sent data, Lacoon’s researchers found a much rarer species of malware: a version that can steal information from iPhones. (more) (video)
The FBI is asking Congress to give it new powers to force technology companies to turn over private information on their customers.
FBI Director James Comey warned Thursday that new technologies are making it easy for criminals to hide incriminating information from police...
For several years, the FBI has been warning about the problem of new technologies allowing criminals to "go dark." But Comey explained that his new push was prompted by the decisions by Apple and Google to provide default encryption on their phones that will make it impossible to unlock them for police, even when faced with a court order. (more)
...companies make when securing sensitive data.
FACTS
• All pre-computer era information theft tactics still work, and are still used.
• Most “computerized” information is available long before it is put into a computer.
• Data theft is the low hanging fruit of the business espionage world. The real pros use ladders.
Murray's Holistic Approach to Information Security
1. Protect information while it is being generated (discussions, audio and video communications, strategy development). Conduct Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) inspections of offices and conference rooms on a scheduled basis. Example: Ford Motors found voice recorders hidden in seven of their conference rooms this summer.
2. Protect information while it is in transit (phone, teleconference, Board meetings, off-site conferences). Wiretapping and Wi-Fi are still very effective spy tools. Check for wiretaps on a scheduled basis, and/or encrypt the transmissions. Conduct pre-meeting TSCM inspections. Tip: Never let presenters use old technology FM wireless microphones. The signal travels further than you think, and is easily intercepted.
3. Protect how information is stored. Unlocked offices, desk and file cabinets are a treasure trove of the freshest information. Print centers store a copy of all print jobs. Limit written distribution of sensitive information. Crosscut shred sensitive waste paper. All these vulnerabilities and more should be covered during the security survey portion of your TSCM inspection.
4. Educate the people to whom sensitive information is entrusted. Security briefings don’t have to be long and tedious. Establish basic rules and procedures. Explain the importance of information security in terms they can understand, e.g. “Information is business blood. If it stays healthy and in the system, your job, and chances for advancement, stay healthy.”
Effective
information security requires a holistic protection plan. IT security is
an important part of this plan, but it is only one door to your house
of information.
There is more you need to know. Contact a TSCM specialist for further assistance. (counterespionage.com)
Scientists have invented a new method to encrypt telephone conversations that makes it very difficult to 'eavesdrop'.
Professor Lars Ramkilde Knudsen from Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has invented a new method called dynamic encryption to ensure that all telephone calls are encrypted and eavesdroppers are unable to decrypt information in order to obtain secrets...
The new method expands the AES algorithm with several layers which are never the same... The new system can prove hugely effective in combating industrial espionage, said Knudsen.
Industrial espionage occurs when different players discover and steal trade secrets such as business plans from companies, technical know-how and research results, budgets and secret plans using phone tapping. (more)
Concerned about potential security risks, the U.S. government is taking a close look at last week's sale of New York's iconic Waldorf Astoria hotel to a Chinese insurance company.
U.S. officials said Monday they are reviewing the Oct. 6 purchase of the Waldorf by the Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group, which bought the hotel from Hilton Worldwide for $1.95 billion. Terms of the sale allow Hilton to run the hotel for the next 100 years and call for "a major renovation" that officials say has raised eyebrows in Washington, where fears of Chinese eavesdropping and cyber espionage run high. (more)
The accusations read like a pulp thriller: Citigroup employees in Mexico are suspected of pocketing millions of dollars in kickbacks from vendors. And bodyguards for bank executives bought audio recordings of personal phone calls and created shell companies to disguise their fraud...
The security unit’s primary purpose was to protect the Banamex leadership, but at some point, the unit started operating beyond its approved duties, according to the person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly because of the criminal investigation. The security unit was also providing protection and security consulting services for people outside the bank, sometimes as a courtesy and at other times for money, the internal investigation found. The conduct spanned more than a decade, the investigation found, extending into last year...
Citigroup’s outside lawyers have turned over information to law enforcement officials in Mexico and the United States, but there are many things the bank doesn’t know about the rogue security unit. For example, the security team had purchased audio surveillance files from “third parties” that included cellphone and landline conversations of dozens of people — some of a highly personal nature, the person said. The Banamex unit then transcribed many of these files. It was unclear why the security team was amassing records of the personal conversations. The bank’s investigators are still working to determine why the security unit gathered the conversations, involving dozens of people, many of whom had nothing to do with the bank. (more)
Aaron's Inc., the nation's second-largest chain of rent-to-own appliance and furniture stores,
agreed to pay $28.4 million to settle allegations that it violated California consumer privacy and protection laws by allowing software that secretly monitored consumers to be installed on rental computers, according to regulators.
The Atlanta-based retailer allegedly overcharged customers, left out important contract disclosures and installed software that could track the keystrokes of people who rented computers and even activate webcams or microphones to record users. (more)
...from an anonymous blog entry...
I am a regular renter from Hertz (President's Circle)... I got into a rental car at O'Hare airport.
I immediately noticed the new NeverLost and I was completely shocked to see a camera built into the device looking at me. The system can't be turned off from what could tell...
I know rental car companies have been tracking the speed and movements of their vehicles for years but putting a camera inside the cabin of the vehicle is taking their need for information a little TOO FAR. I find this to be completely UNACCEPTABLE. In fact, if I get another car from Hertz with a camera in it, I will move our business from Hertz completely.
I influence car rentals of many others and I don't think anyone would want to be on camera while they are driving around or sitting at a red light.
Given what Hertz has invested in this system, I wonder how much consumer pressure will make them to pull the plug on this. Business is built one customer at a time and they will no longer have me as a customer. What are your thoughts? (more)
Further investigations revealed...
...the Hertz NeverLost 6 platform will include an ARM Cortex-A9 architecture with quad cores running at 1GHz, a high-res TFT display, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity and a GPS module that engineers built around SiRFstarIV architecture. Also included are a keypad, camera module, accelerometers and a Gyros sensor board...
If a person accidentally calls someone from their cell phone, do they have a right to privacy protecting any conversation heard on the other end? The courts don’t think so.
Jim Huff, then chairman of the Kenton County (Kentucky) Airport Board, which manages Cincinnati’s international airport, was at a conference in Italy on October 24, 2013, when he unintentionally dialed airport offices while his phone was in his pocket and reached Carol Spaw. Spaw listened to Huff’s conversation for 90 minutes, even writing down some of his remarks and passing them along to a third party.
Huff claimed Spaw’s actions violated his right to privacy, since he never intended to “pocket dial” her in the first place.
But a federal judge didn’t agree, ruling individuals don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy due to the common problem of pocket dialing and “butt calls.” (more) (sing-a-long)
The disclosure that Nixon offered to wiretap Lindsay comes via the detailed diaries of Dr. W. Kenneth Riland, who was Rockefeller’s osteopath and confidante.
He also treated Nixon and gained his confidence, too. (more)
As relations improve between Beijing and Taipei, military morale still continues to fall as fewer Taiwan military officers see a future in an ever-shrinking armed forces. Many are beginning to cash in on their intimate knowledge of military secrets, including classified information on US military equipment.
Over the past several years, Taiwan military officers have sold China information on the E-2K Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 and PAC-2 anti-ballistic missile systems, Hawk air defense missile system, and the Raytheon Palm IR-500 radiometric infrared camera.
China uses retired Taiwan military officers to help recruit spies in the
armed forces. Retired officers receive all-expense paid trips to China
by the United Front Work Department, said a Taiwan security specialist.
While there, they are lionized for returning to the “homeland” and given
tours of their ancestral homes. Before they return, money is offered to
help the “motherland” in the future, and “unfortunately many take it,”
he said. (more)
General Motors may have to take the sting out of its new Stingray.
The 2015 Corvette offers a personal video recording option that lets owners surreptitiously record video and audio when the car is in the hands of other drivers — like parking attendants. But now the automaker is concerned that the so-called valet mode may run afoul of eavesdropping laws in some states.
The laws in question involve audio recording only, and require that both parties give consent to be recorded. The Corvette’s recorder not only stores video shot through the windshield, but also data on speed and acceleration as well as audio recordings from inside the car. (more)
