Angry Birdmen of Malta v Scientists in Eavesdropping Spat

Malta - The FKNK Federation for Hunting and Conservation – Malta, said on Friday said that BirdLife Malta was...

“possibly desperately resorting to illegal and corrupt methods to abolish the traditional socio-cultural practice of live-finch capturing from the Maltese islands,” claiming that BirdLife had been using electronic devices to eavesdrop on private mobile phone conversations.

“Possibly, a false GSM base station known as ‘IMSI catcher’ or similar was used to intercept the trappers’ mobile traffic in the immediate area,” the hunting federation said.

But MaltaToday has learnt that the would-be “eavesdropping equipment” are actually antennae set up for 15 to 20 minutes in different locations to establish accurate GPS positioning data as part of a research study on coastal land-sliding being carried out by an Italian team of experts on behalf of the University of Malta and with the full cooperation of local authorities. more

Telephone Eavesdropper Learns The Beatles Were Right

UK - A multi-millionaire property developer strangled a burlesque dancer after bugging her home
and learning that she was planning to “fleece him”, a court heard yesterday.

Peter Morgan, 54, had been paying Georgina Symonds, a 25-year-old single mother, up to £10,000 a month to stop seeing other men after meeting her while she was working as an escort.

He decided to murder her after listening in to a telephone conversation in which she told a male friend that she was planning to leave Mr Morgan, a jury was told. more sing-a-long

Personal Security: Your Internet Vanishing Act May Begin Here

Just FYI...
I have not tested this. Use at your own risk.
Remember... If it's "free" you're not the consumer, you're the product.
~Kevin
 
via Dan Misener, for CBC New
With all the fake news, toxic speech, and online scams out there, you might be feeling like now is a good time to scale back your online footprint. 

There's a new tool that promises to help you do just that — by essentially deleting yourself from the internet.

It's called Deseat.me, and it does one thing and one thing only — it displays a list of all the online services you've ever signed up for.

So if you had a MySpace account in the early 2000s, it'll probably show up in Deseat. If you created an avatar in Second Life, it's likely to show up as well. And of course, so will things like your Facebook or Twitter accounts...

To use Deseat.me, you first log in using a Google account. Then, once it knows your email address, it can find any accounts that have been linked in any way to that Google account.

Now, it will ask for some things which may sound creepy — it will not only ask to view your email address, but also to view your email messages and settings. Based on my experience, Deseat.me scans through your email archives to find sign-up confirmation messages from various services. more

Business Espionage: The Darknet - Where Industrial Trade Secrets are Sold

Ludwig Sandell, Dignato AS general manager, expressed his concern over how the darknet is a place where sensitive industrial trade secrets can be exchanged without repercussions.

To be more precise, he feels there are multiple local companies affected by espionage, which could significantly hurt their business if these details fall into the wrong hands...

...industrial trade secrets of a Norwegian wind power project run by Statoil are up for grabs on the darknet as we speak. The data itself was found on a memory stick – which was either lost or stolen – and includes vital measurement information. For the company itself, having that information leak to the public could spell the end of their business rather quickly. more

Are your company secrets for sale on the darknet?
Hire a service to find out. ~Kevin

Japanese Singer Calls Police to Report Spycam... gets arrested.

Fallen Japanese pop star Aska has been arrested on drugs charges after calling police to tell them he was being spied on at home by a hidden camera, police and reports said Tuesday.

The singer -- one half of folk rockers Chage and Aska -- was slurring on the call when he insisted he was being watched, Jiji Press and other media said.

Police who visited his Tokyo home on Monday arrested the 58-year-old on suspicion of using stimulants and MDMA, a force spokesman told AFP. more

Brooklyn Prosecutor Allegedly Wiretapped Cop Love Interest's Cell Phone

NY - A Brooklyn assistant district attorney was arrested this week for allegedly wiretapping two cell phones so she could hear conversations between a cop love interest and another woman.

According to a criminal complaint, Tara Lenich, 41, forged judges' signatures to authorize the wiretapping of the aforementioned unidentified cop's cell phone, as well as a phone belonging to an unidentified woman. Lenich, who was in charge of the Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau at the DA's office, may have been romantically attached to the cop, and tabloid reports speculate the wiretapped woman was his new love interest.

The complaint says Lenich forged warrants related to the wiretapping at least 20 times, using different judges' names, between August 20, 2015 and November 25, 2016. Lenich allegedly called the wiretapping a "secret outside investigation" when discussing it with colleagues. more

Spybuster Tip #715: How to Prevent Hacker Wi-Fi Attacks

If your Wi-Fi name (SSID) is on this list, you're at risk. 
If you ever used a Wi-Fi whose name (SSID) is on this list, you're at risk.

The list consists of approximately the 5000 most common SSIDs.

If a hacker uses this list to broadcast SSIDs, your laptop or phone may automatically connect to them. At that point, they see everything you do; user names, passwords, etc.

In a nutshell, program your device so that it does not automatically connect to a Wi-Fi SSID to which it has previously connected. Purge your previous connections list just to be sure.

Basic Spy Tradecraft: "Beware of pretty faces that you find..."

A German spy's romantic time in Latvia has ended up in a Munich court. The love-struck agent has lost his job, and a court case. 

A German spy fell in love with a Latvian woman in Riga and lost his job for violating policy. He has lost a legal battle against the BND intelligence agency.

The unnamed spy dated a Latvian woman while station chief in Riga, despite being instructed against having romantic relations with locals. Instead of informing the BND, he asked Latvia's intelligence agency to run a background check on his girlfriend, who came up clean.

Only after the Latvian woman had moved in with him did the station chief inform his superiors. That landed him in hot water, leading the BND to recall the spy and find him unfit for duty.

The man then sought compensation from the BND for lost earnings and other losses to the tune of 400,000 euros ($421,920). more sing-a-long

Spycam News: Multi-Millionaire Landlord Pleads Guilty to Secretly Filming his Tenants

Australia - A multi-millionaire Sydney landlord will face sentencing next month after pleading guilty to charges relating to secretly filming his tenants without consent to obtain sexual arousal.

Masaaki Imaeda, 66, installed hidden cameras into his rental properties so he could spy on tenants having sex or undressing...

After finding a warning about Imaeda and his spy cameras on a Japanese website, a husband and wife who rented a bedroom from him found a camera in their bedroom light fitting.

The young couple called police, who found multiple other hidden cameras inside the house...

He faces up to two years in prison. more

UK - A Starbucks customer in London was left “shocked and disgusted”* after finding a hidden camera above a toilet in a branch of the coffee shop. 

Ricci Arcari, 33, was at the Starbucks in Vauxhall when he spotted the device hidden in an air vent directly above the unisex toilet.

He told The Independent: “I go in [to the store] regularly. I ordered my drink and while I was waiting I popped in to use the toilet.

“I was standing using the toilet when I noticed a little glint Iike the way glass reflects.

“I stood on top of the toilet seat to get a better look and realised it was a webcam or some other kind of recording device.”

Mr Arcari, who used to work for Starbucks himself, said he ran out of the toilet, asked to speak to the store manager and showed him the camera.

The manager seemed “pretty shocked” and reportedly said “Oh God, that’s not good".

The device was immediately taken down and placed in a bag to be passed to police. more

 * May also be applied to the dirty air vent grill.
Protect yourself.

Business Espionage Today: Sling TV Launches Cloud DVR Hours Before DirecTV

Sling TV users will soon be able to record some TV shows and store them online for later viewing.

The feature, which will initially be available as an invite-only beta to users of Dish's online streaming video service, is being announced on the same day that a major rival is appearing on the scene. Details of AT&T's DirecTV Now will be unveiled at a press event in New York later today. more

Just coincidence? You decide. 
How secret is your marketing strategy? 
When was the last time you checked? ~Kevin

3 Ways Corporate Spies Might Be Watching Your Business and How to Stop Them

Business is a game of constant competition, but the widespread emergence of covert surveillance and tracking tools has expanded the playbook. Now, industrial espionage has a new dimension.

In the corporate world, the practice is nothing new. In fact, it's been a marketing tactic for decades... But the digital age has given corporate spying a new face. And with the modern proliferation of web-based spying options, corporate surveillance is more sophisticated and covert than ever.

Today, corporate spies for hire carry titles like "Competitive Intelligence Analyst" and "Competitive Market Strategist." There are many lucrative opportunities for these workers. And they might be watching your business right now. Here are three of the ways they do it—and also how to dodge their efforts. more

Turn Any Computer Into an Eavesdropping Device

Researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have devised a way to turn any computer into an eavesdropping device by surreptitiously getting connected headphones or earphones to function like microphones.

In a paper titled "SPEAKE(a)R: Turn Speakers to Microphones for Fun and Profit," the researchers this week described malware they have developed for re-configuring a headphone jack from a line-out configuration to a line-in jack, thereby enabling connected headphones to work as microphones.

The exploit works with most off-the-shelf headphones and even when the computer doesn’t have a connected microphone or has a microphone that has been disabled, according to the researchers. more

 Spoiler Alert: It ain't easy to do, or likely to happen to you. ~Kevin

Business Espionage: GSM Bugs Are Mini Cell Phones in Disguise

(from a seller's website in the UK)
GSM bugs are also known as mobile phone bugs and infinity bugs. Based around mobile technology, these devices provide a discreet listening facility with an unlimited distance.

Click to enlarge.

Up until a few years ago radio frequency transmitters were relied upon to provide an eavesdropping solution, albeit over only relatively short distances, generally up to about 800 metres line of sight. These devices are still available, but have been outlawed by OFCOM legislation and are therefore not legal to sell into the UK or operate in the UK without a radio broadcast licence. GSM Bugs use the existing GSM network as a transmission tool.

When they fist became available, the GSM bugs were literally modified mobile phones that auto-answered silently to open up the microphone and listen into the surrounding environment. These devices are still available today and some dedicated (dead phone) units have had enhanced microphone adjustments to make them more attuned to pick up sounds in a wider area, turning them into dedicated listening devices.

As the technology has moved on, these eavesdropping devices have become smaller and more sophisticated. They are really only restricted in size at present by the battery size, however, some of the latest units are built into mains powered devices such as multi-plug adapters and mains sockets, thereby making them invisible to the naked eye and with no power consumption restrictions.

Some of these eavesdropping devices are obviously for the UK market.
Bugs for other electrical standards are also available. 

Do you have electrical extension strips in your office?
Have they been inspected and sealed by a TSCM specialist? 
~Kevin

Hot Tech History: The "iPod" of 1938

via Matt Novak 
 Today we take it for granted that we can bring music with us wherever we go.

But that obviously wasn’t always the case. As just one example of how cumbersome portable music could sometimes be, take a look at this portable radio receiver from 1938. It was all the rage in France.

The May 1938 issue of Short Wave and Television magazine included a photo-filled spread of new radio sets that had recently been featured at an electronics exhibit in Paris. As you can see in the photo on the far left, the latest “portable radio” included a strap so that you could lug it around with you.

Radio miniaturization was happening at a quick pace in the 1920s, and this was far from the only portable radio of the 1930s. But it’s a decent reminder that portability is and always has been relative... more

3D Industrial Espionage

Your 3-D printer is leaking, but not in ways you can see.

It leaks sounds and energy. That's not a problem — unless you want to keep your creation a secret. In that case, it's time to get serious about security. Computer scientists have now shown that hackers can eavesdrop on 3-D printers — and then copy what they made. All it takes is your average smartphone.

As 3-D printing becomes more widespread, thieves will find new ways to steal original designs, worries Wenyao Xu. This computer scientist at the State University of New York in Buffalo led the new work...

To hack these printers, a spy needs to merely “listen” to the noise and energy the machine emits, including the magnetic fields that vary as it works. Both sound and electromagnetic energy travel as waves. By tapping into these waves, Xu says, a spy could identify the shape of what was being printed. This would allow someone to steal a design without ever seeing the original.

“We need to prevent these attacks,” Xu says. more