Security Cam Shoots Paintballs Like in 'Home Alone'

This Security Camera Shoots Paintballs at Intruders.

The track-and-shoot home security cam promises action, but we spot real-world problems after its hugely successful Kickstarter.*

What happens when you combine a paintball gun with a home security cam and smart tracking? All the potential chaos of the Eve PaintCam, an ambitious crowdsourced security camera equipped with smart detection -- and a paintball firing system to mark and scare away intruders.

From creator OZ-IT on Kickstarter and elsewhere, the Eve PaintCam wants people to live out their fantasies of total property control. It even promises face detection to avoid hitting friends (or specifically to hit friends, depending on your mood). more

* Be aware that some Kickstarter projects never materialize, and its use is probably illegal where you live.

Caught on Spycam: Lawmaker Pours Water into Colleague's Bag

A Republican state legislator in Vermont awkwardly apologized on the House floor on Monday after she was caught on hidden camera repeatedly pouring water into a Democratic colleague’s tote bag. 

State Rep. Mary Morrissey said she was “truly ashamed” of childishly targeting state Rep. Jim Carroll, who dealt with a soaked bag on numerous occasions over the last several months, in what he called “torment.”

“I have given my sincere apology to Jim directly and publicly and will be working towards resolution and restoration through our legislative process,” Morrissey said in front of fellow lawmakers. more

Surveillance News in the Digital World

• AI companies, including Google and OpenAI, are intensifying their screening of new hires due to the threat of Chinese espionage. more

• MICROSOFT ADMITS THAT MAYBE SURVEILING EVERYTHING YOU DO ON YOUR COMPUTER ISN’T A BRILLIANT IDEA... After announcing a new AI feature that records and screenshots everything you do, Microsoft is now delaying its launch after widespread objections. The company broke the news in a blog post detailing its decision not to ship the feature, dubbed Recall, on new computers so that it can continue to "leverage the expertise" of its Windows Insider Program (WIP) beta-testing community. more

• Zoom wants to make sure you’re paying attention. The company filed a patent application for “scrolling motion detection” in video calls.

• Chinese Spy Tech Driving Junta Internet Crackdown: Justice For Myanmar... China supplied the spy technology and technicians that allowed Myanmar’s junta to intensify its internet surveillance and censorship late last month, Justice for Myanmar (JFM) said on Thursday, warning that China’s increased support for the junta will cost more lives. This support will allow the junta – which has imprisoned more than 25,000 people since the 2021 coup – to identify and jail more people who express dissent. more

• Canada - Public servants uneasy as government 'spy' robot prowls federal offices... A device federal public servants call "the little robot" began appearing in Gatineau office buildings in March. It travels through the workplace to collect data using about 20 sensors and a 360-degree camera, according to Yahya Saad, co-founder of GlobalDWS, which created the robot. "Using AI on the robot, the camera takes the picture, analyzes and counts the number of people and then discards the image," he said. more

Policing Minister's Wife in legal row over Claims of Corporate Espionage

A leading businesswoman who is married to the policing minister, Chris Philp, has been reported to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) by a former employer and is being sued in the high court over allegations of corporate espionage.

Elizabeth Philp, 40, whose husband has called for "zero tolerance" to all crime, is accused of data handling offences and unlawfully using "confidential information" from her former employer to set up a rival business.

She denies the allegations and is countersuing her former employer, which she accuses of cyber-attacking the website of the company she subsequently founded. more

Spybusters: Quote of the Week

“Our enemies are ancient cultures fighting for their survival, not just now but for the next thousand years.”

Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir commenting on Chinese spying on U.S. tech companies—“a huge problem.”

Summertime Blues: Pope faces investigation for ‘illegally wiretapping phones’

The Pope faces being investigated after allegedly authorised the unlawful wiretaps of phones in the sale of a London property.

The alleged authorisation is said to have taken place during a Vatican investigation into the “corrupt” sale of a €300 million property in London. 

"I’m gonna take two weeks
I’m gonna have a fine vacation
Gonna take my problems
To the United Nations..."

It comes after the legal team for British financier Raffaele Mincione filed a complaint to the UN. The complaint included details about alleged abuses that were carried out during the trial by Pope Francis.

Rodney Dixon KC, a human rights barrister, has claimed that the Pope approved for Mr Mincione’s phone to be wiretapped during the investigation into the alleged wrongdoing at the Vatican. The trial heard that the spiritual leader allowed investigators to tap phones, intercept emails and arrest anyone without approval from a judge. He made the decision based on ancient laws that the Pope had powers over these authorisations. more  sing-a-long

Beware the Spies in Disguise

Unethical hackers are often hired by companies for corporate espionage: to infiltrate the IT systems of rival organizations to steal sensitive information, trade secrets, and strategic plans. The information can provide a competitive advantage or be sold for financial gain.

Although getting in touch with these hackers is comparatively easier, they have now resorted to anonymous modes of messaging through discreet texting applications that do not store metadata. Such apps use encrypted chat rooms, which makes it difficult for authorities to trace communications.

The internet is also filled with tutorials providing step-by-step guides for many kinds of unethical hacking tasks, which are often used by tech-savvy anti-social elements.

On the other hand, hacking into social media accounts threatens the individual privacy of creators and is often used for blackmail and extortion. more

This is a major problem on LinkedIn. 

Here are some of the come-ons I receive...

• It's nice to meet new people. Can we talk?
• Hello, it's a pleasure to contact you. Your resume and skills are excellent. I hope to make friends with you.
• I am Sophia, I checked your profile. I saw that your professional field is the talent we are looking for, which will be of great help to the new project I am about to start. If you are interested. You can leave your phone number and contact information, and I will arrange a time with you for a detailed conversation and make an appointment for a telephone conference. When is it convenient for you?
• After reading your resume and work experience, I found that you are a very talented person! can we talk?
• I think your field of work is great. Can we exchange ideas and learn from each other?

Spy Tip: Remember your Stranger Danger training.

This Week in Wiretapping, Eavesdropping & Spying

• Ex-Pittsburgh police commander gets probation in wiretapping case. A former Pittsburgh police commander on Friday morning agreed to take 24 months of probation on charges that he stashed body-worn cameras in patrol cars last fall to secretly record more than a half-dozen of his own officers. more

• Secret recording of Supreme Court justices raises legal questions. Posing as a "Christian conservative" at the Supreme Court Historical Society's members-only, black-tie gala, liberal journalist and filmmaker Lauren Windsor secretly recorded her conversations with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Alito's wife, Martha-Ann Alito. The event was not open to journalists. more

• The producers of the James Bond movies will receive honorary Oscars at a ceremony this November, the Academy said on Wednesday, as anticipation swells for the announcement of who will next play 007. Half-siblings Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have controlled the beloved espionage franchise since 1995’s Goldeneye, having been passed the reins by Broccoli’s father Albert. more

• Is your employer spying on you? Here’s how to know for sure. For starters, workers are likely more at risk of being spied on when using company technology, such as phones or laptops. However, your device activity can also be monitored if you have company software downloaded to your personal devices, or if your personal tech is connected to the company network. more

• U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich to stand trial in Russia on charges of spying for the CIA.
The Wall Street Journal reporter, 32, has spent more than a year in pretrial detention. more

• People are Spying on Travis Kelce's Missouri Home on Google Earth It's not easy being Kansas City Chief Travis Kelce. Oh, wait. It probably kind of is. Still, it's a little odd that many people seem to be spying on Travis Kelce's Kansas City, Missouri mansion on Google Earth. more

If You Have a Smartphone, Fog Reveal Probably Has Your Number

What is Fog Reveal? A legal scholar explains the app some police forces are using to track people without a warrant...

Government agencies and private security companies in the U.S. have found a cost-effective way to engage in warrantless surveillance of individuals, groups and places: a pay-for-access web tool called Fog Reveal.

The tool enables law enforcement officers to see “patterns of life” – where and when people work and live, with whom they associate and what places they visit. The tool’s maker, Fog Data Science, claims to have billions of data points from over 250 million U.S. mobile devices.

The tool – made possible by smart device technology and that difference between data privacy and electronic surveillance law protections – allows domestic law enforcement and private entities to buy access to compiled data about most U.S. mobile phones, including location data. It enables tracking and monitoring of people on a massive scale without court oversight or public transparency. more

China: ‘Secret’ Military Books Sold for Less Than US$1.

Chinese spy agency issues warning after ‘secret’ military books sold for less than US$1. 

China’s top spy agency has warned against the mishandling of confidential information as it tries to educate the public about its anti-espionage law, citing a case in which military-related materials were found to have been sold by a recycling station. 

On its official WeChat account on Thursday, the Ministry of State Security recounted the case of a man with the surname Zhang who bought four books from a waste recycling station. more

Book: Dark Wire - "Secure Cell Phone" courtesy FBI

The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever...

...in which the FBI made its own tech start-up to wiretap the world, shows how cunning both the authorities and drug traffickers have become, with privacy implications for everyone.

In 2018, a powerful app for secure communications called Anom took root among organized criminals. They believed Anom allowed them to conduct business in the shadows. Except for one thing: it was secretly run by the FBI. (Tip of the hat to N.C.)

Backdoor access to Anom and a series of related investigations granted American, Australian, and European authorities a front-row seat to the underworld. Tens of thousands of criminals worldwide appeared in full view of the same agents they were trying to evade. International smugglers. Money launderers. Hitmen. A sprawling global economy as efficient and interconnected as the legal one. Officers watched drug shipments and murder plots unfold, making arrests without blowing their cover. more

New Wireless Eavesdropping Vulnerability - Beam Deflection

A research team led by Rice University’s, Edward Knightly, has uncovered an eavesdropping security vulnerability in high-frequency and high-speed wireless backhaul links, widely employed in critical applications such as 5G wireless cell phone signals and low-latency financial trading on Wall Street.

Contrary to the common belief that these links are inherently secure due to their elevated positioning and highly directive millimeter-wave and sub-terahertz “pencil-beams,” the team exposed a novel method of interception using a metasurface-equipped drone dubbed MetaFly. Their findings were published by the world’s premier security conference, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, in May 2024.

“The implications of our research are far-reaching, potentially affecting a broad spectrum of companies, government agencies and individuals relying on these links,” said Knightly, the Sheafor-Lindsay Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of computer science. more

Wiretap Published: A spy from Kosovo calls BIA official. They make plans...

The wiretapping is published: The spy from Kosovo calls the BIA official, they make plans to ignite tensions in the North.

An audio recording is published in which Srdjan Rosic and Bedri Shabani are heard speaking, the latter arrested in Kosovo as a collaborator of the Serbian secret services.

Although the audio is censored in places, it is clear that Bedri Shabani, who is suspected of collaborating with Serbian intelligence, asks the BIA to help him and his men do a job. more & audio of the wiretap

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In Other Spy Wiretap News...
Recently, an intelligence service in Russia intercepted a Webex call involving four high-ranking officers from the Air Force. The audio was made public, revealing discussions on potential deployment scenarios for the Taurus missile in Ukraine if it were to be transferred there. This incident sparked discussions in Germany and beyond back in March. It was also revealed that a Bundeswehr general committed a blunder in Singapore...

The Inspector General of the Air Force, Ingo Gerhartz, will face a disciplinary action over a recorded conversation about the Taurus missile with Russia. The General Lieutenant will have to pay a fine as a consequence, wrapping up the issue, confirms the German Press Agency. more

Sky Spy: Out of This World Espionage

Russian satellite is caught spying on another satellite... The French company Aldoria Space, which tracks objects in orbit using a network of ground-based telescopes, has published a very revealing record. It demonstrates how the Russian Luch-2 inspection satellite approaches other spacecraft.

The rendezvous took place on April 12, 2024, in geostationary orbit. After that, Aldoria Space gave a warning to satellite operators about the sudden maneuvers of the Russian spacecraft.

Aldoria Space didn’t report which satellite was spied on by Luch-2. 

Such maneuvers are not uncommon for Russian and Chinese spacecraft, which have been repeatedly caught spying on other satellites.  more

The rendezvous of the Russian spy satellite Luch-2 with another spacecraft. 

AirTag Goes to Court

The District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, United States of America says a native of Tajikistan, Ibodullo Muhiddinov, is charged with the intent to injure, harass, intimidate, and place under surveillance another person, that is, S.K.

Ibodullo Muhiddinov, reportedly linked to a Russian human smuggling network, has tracked his ex-wife in the United States using the AirTag. more