FutureWatch: Visualizing Radio Waves to Detect Eavesdropping Bugs

If you could see radio waves it would make finding your misplaced mobile phone easier. It would also make finding eavesdropping bugs and covert spy cameras easier to find, too.

We are not quite there yet, but progress is being made. A French company, Luxondes, is working on this now. Their focus, however, is not consumer or TSCM oriented. The immediate profit market is product testing. 

In this video, they show a transmitting device being waved in front of a panel with 64 sensors operating between 50 MHz and 3 GHz. 

Being able to visualize radio waves is necessary for many reasons. As TSCM practitioners, we want this technology to evolve.  

• Initially, by developing a hand-held screen which can be moved around a room or vehicle. 
• Eventually, by developing a device—maybe a spatial headset—that displays radio-frequency energy as a 3-D fog, lidar-map the room, and document both for review and as evidence. 
• And, whenever possible, add AI capabilities. Determine the frequency. List what is legally allowed to use that frequency. Analyze and identify the waveform. Display the results, and highlight any anomalies. 

With any luck, REI is also working on this for us.

AI Lip Reading: Eavesdropping Without a Microphone or Laser

 Eavesdropping via lip reading has been around a long time, probably since Og saw Charlie mouth "shhhh" when a bear approached their cave.

My introduction to eavesdropping via lip reading came around 1976. A company president asked for a sweep of his upper floor corner office for bugs. None found. He asked about the possibility of laser eavesdropping. Very unlikely, however, a careful visual scan of nearby buildings directly across on both streets discovered, one floor down, and just off center, there was the glint of a lens, and a darkened room with a desk, and two people. Further investigation established, yes, it was eavesdropping via lip reading.

The concept of AI lip reading actually predated this case. It was 1968, in the movie, 2001, A Space Odyssey. Remember this scene? "Concerned about HAL's behaviour, Bowman and Poole enter an EVA pod so they can talk in private without HAL overhearing. They agree to disconnect HAL if he is proven wrong. HAL follows their conversation by lip reading."

It is now 2024 and real AI lip reading has just arrived from Symphonic Labs. I took advantage of their offer to test the beta app. Of course, it was not 100% accurate, but massively impressive nonetheless.  

For the test, I selected a random YouTube video. (Nate, at the Daily Drop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy2a899yYec) A 10-second video clip was extracted. The clip was processed through Apple's Quicktime to remove the audio track before submitting it to the Symphonic Labs' app. 

This is what Nate is really saying about airport screening: "But if you decide to get Clear and if you do see one of the signs at the airport that has Clear and TSA Precheck then don’t assume that is your fastest option, All right, so hopefully I did a…"

Here is what the AI app reconstructs what Nate is saying:

This is an impressive start, and expected to become much more accurate as the number of training models increases. And, it’s not all for spies. Think about talking to your computer or smartphone without others eavesdropping on you. 

Better start thinking about what you say, where you say it, and establishing a relationship with a technical information security consultant to protect your business.

"My family knew that my father had been tapping the phone lines."

IT WAS PAST CURFEW. My friend cut his headlights and dropped me off in my driveway. From the little peaked window atop the garage, yellow light filtered.

Someone was in the attic.

I walked up the pebble path that bordered the house, opened the side door, and stepped into the garage.

It was hot. It was dark. The ladder to the attic was folded down, and from the ceiling-access square a faint light glowed. I heard my mother's voice. I took a step closer to catch what she was saying.

"Mom?" I said.

I heard a click. She stopped talking.

"Beth Anne?" my dad said from above.

"Dad? What are you doing?" "I'll be in in a little bit." I walked into the house and down the hallway and peeked into my parents' room. My mother was asleep on her side of the bed.

A FEW YEARS LATER, when I was away at college, I learned that my father had been tapping the phone lines. more$

Mistress Recorded Trysts with Italian Minister on ‘Spy Glasses’

Gennaro Sangiuliano’s spurned former lover took to social media to reveal details of their affair.

Gennaro Sangiuliano, the culture minister who is married, met Maria Rosaria Boccia, a former men’s fashion retailer from Pompeii, at a political rally a year ago.

She subsequently attended ministerial meetings, gained access to the Palazzo Montecitorio, home to one of Italy’s two parliamentary houses, and accompanied Sangiuliano, 62, at official events around the country, from Taormina in Sicily to Riva Ligure in Liguria.

Boccia has accused her former lover of misusing public funds to pay for her trips, providing access to confidential information and appointing her as an adviser despite a conflict of interest.

She has supported her assertions with audio recordings of phone calls with ministerial officials, screenshots of emails and flight tickets, and photos of confidential programmes for official events.

Throughout their affair she recorded an unknown number of private conversations, using her phone and a pair of Ray-Ban Stories sunglasses, which have a built-in camera and microphone. Footage taken also shows the corridors of the Palazzo Montecitorio, where it is forbidden to film. more

She used an AirTag to bait thieves. It worked!

Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies were called for a report of mail theft. This was not the first time the woman's box was hit.

She decided to take matters into her own hands and mailed herself a package containing an Apple AirTag, a tracking device that can be used to help people find their personal items through a Bluetooth signal. 

Her mail was stolen Aug. 19, according to the Sheriff’s Office, including the package with the tracking device. The woman showed deputies that she was able to track the package to the 600 block of East Sunrise Drive in Santa Maria. Deputies found the woman’s mail, including the package with the AirTag along with items that were probably stolen from more than a dozen additional victims, according to the Sheriff’s Office. more

Trump Aides Evacuated Offices - Bugging Fears

The Trump campaign and Republican National Committee offices in West Palm Beach, Fla., were abuzz with talk of listening devices and espionage, possibly by a foreign government. The police were called and the offices were closed for a forensic search. The reality was more Charlie Chaplin than John le Carré.

A plastic prank device that can be purchased on Amazon for $13.97 was the cause of the problem.

A police report from the West Palm Beach police department, obtained by The New York Times, detailed the incident. Devices were found on Thursday after people heard beeping under a staff member’s desk at the Trump campaign offices. When Trump officials searched, they found additional devices, for a total of three. more

Weird items that people think are bugs is an issue more common than you might think. 

Read, "Is This a Bug?"

Hvaldimir, a Celebrated ‘Spy’ Whale, Is Found Dead in Norway

The beluga whale, who was first spotted in 2019 wearing what looked like a camera harness, was seen floating in Norwegian waters on Saturday. 

Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.

Sebastian Strand, the founder of the nonprofit, Marine Mind, said that he saw the dead whale floating near Risavika in southwestern Norway on Saturday afternoon. Its cause of death was not immediately clear, he said. more Previous posts.

PrivacyLens Can Turn You into a Stick Figure

A new camera could prevent companies from collecting embarrassing and identifiable photos and videos from devices like smart home cameras and robotic vacuums. It’s called PrivacyLens and was made by University of Michigan engineers.

PrivacyLens uses both a standard video camera and a heat-sensing camera to spot people in images from their body temperature. The person’s likeness is then completely replaced by a generic stick figure, whose movements mirror those of the person it stands in for. The accurately animated stick figure allows a device relying on the camera to continue to function without revealing the identity of the person in view of the camera.

That extra anonymity could prevent private moments from leaking onto the internet, which is increasingly common in today’s world. more

FutureWatch: Electronic Dog Noses are Evolving

Generative AI has proven it can spit out a sound, an image, and written thoughts in mere seconds. But what about smells?

Osmo — a startup founded by a former Google researcher and backed by Google Ventures — thinks that scent is the next frontier for our computers. more

Wait… What do we need this for, other than the obvious applications in the fragrance industry, and medical uses, like detecting cancer. Perhaps the technology could also have electronic eavesdropping detection uses, like sniffing our covert surveillance devices.

Kevin's analysis...
Specially trained dogs have been used to sniff out covert electronic items, like cell phones in prisons, for quite a while now. The secret to detection is the device's electronic circuit boards. They contain these compounds: triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO) and hydroxycyclohexyl phenyl ketone (HPK). This second compound is also found on CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, the old tech floppy disks.

FutureWatch: Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) professionals have many types of technologies at their disposal for detecting illegal electronic surveillance devices. To name a few... Non-Linear Junction Detection, Infrared Thermography, and Radio-frequency Spectrum Analysis. We are now well on our way to adding EDN to our kit.

The Fake Spy Who Dazzled D.C.

Gaurav Srivastava dreamed of being a player in the murky world of clandestine operations.

His goal was to build a private military and intelligence operation, funded by natural resources, he told business partners. It would be akin to the notorious Wagner Group, only with the blessing of the U.S. instead of Russia. Leaving associates with the impression he had high-level contacts in the intelligence community, he said he wanted to do business in difficult places and muscle bad guys out of strategic markets... In reality, Srivastava wanted to use some of the money to pay for a villa in swanky Pacific Palisades... more

Spy History: Did Lucille Ball's Fillings Help Capture Japanese Spies?

Here is the comedienne relating this anecdote to talk show host Dick Cavett in 1974:

But is this story true? 

That assessment hinges on two elements: Did Lucille Ball really pick up some type of radio transmission through her dental fillings, and did that event lead to the discovery and capture of Japanese spies operating an underground radio station? Fact checked by Snopes

Thousands of Corporate Secrets Were Left Exposed

This Guy Found Them All...

If you know where to look, plenty of secrets can be found online. Since the fall of 2021, independent security researcher Bill Demirkapi has been building ways to tap into huge data sources, which are often overlooked by researchers, to find masses of security problems. This includes automatically finding developer secrets—such as passwords, API keys, and authentication tokens—that could give cybercriminals access to company systems and the ability to steal data.

In total, Demirkapi has found more than 15,000 active secrets of all kinds.

Within the vast number of exposed keys were those that could give an attacker access to the digital assets of companies and organizations, including the potential to obtain sensitive data. For instance, a member of Nebraska’s Supreme Court had uploaded details of usernames and passwords linked to its IT systems, and Stanford University Slack channels could be accessed using API keys. more

Increase Your Spy Resistance - Dumb Down Your Mobile Phone

The MP02 4G phone from Punkt .... It's a 'dumbphone' in the true sense of the word – it can make calls and send messages (though SMS or Pigeon), and offers a calendar too. 

But the Punk MP02's secret weapon is its 4G hotspot. This means when I want to switch off, I can stick my sim card in the Punkt phone and 'disconnect'. But if I'm carrying, say, my iPad mini in my bag, I can tether the 4G connection to it at the press of a button, giving my access to the likes of music and maps when needed.

But perhaps the best thing about the Punkt MP02 is the aesthetic. Conceived by industrial designer Jasper Morrison, the phone has a delightful retro and somewhat brutalist 1970s-inspired look. I've been asked whether it's a calculator, which just about sums it up. In a world of 'Y2K' dumbphone designs, it's refreshing to see something that stands out. more

Bonus: The MP02 is the first voicephone to offer a downloadable privacy feature that uses the Signal protocol to provide free, encrypted Internet-based calls and texts worldwide via Wi Fi or mobile data (subject to data charges).

Pakistan's Former Spy Chief Arrested

Pakistan's former spymaster - who was once tipped for the army's top job - has been taken into military custody. 

Lt Gen Faiz Hameed has been accused of abusing his power and raiding a private property development business during his time as head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. 

It is incredibly rare for someone of Gen Hameed's rank to be arrested in Pakistan, and has sparked widespread speculation, with many linking the move to his close ties with former prime minister Imran Khan...Gen Hameed could not be reached for comment. more

FutureWatch: The AI Polygraph, or Who's Zoomin' You

PolygrAI - A Technology That Provides Real-Time Risk Assessment And Sentiment Analysis

How it Works
PolygrAI is a fusion of advanced computer vision algorithms and extensive psychological research designed to discern the validity of human expressions. The software meticulously analyzes a spectrum of physiological and behavioral indicators correlated with deceit. For instance, when a person tells a lie, they might unconsciously exhibit decreased blinking or an erratic gaze—these are the tell-tale signs that PolygrAI detects.

The system vigilantly computes a ‘trustfulness score’ by monitoring and interpreting subtle changes in facial expressions, heart rate variability, and eye movement patterns. This score is adjusted in real-time, offering a dynamic gauge of credibility.

Furthermore, PolygrAI assesses the voice for sudden shifts in tone and pitch—parameters that could betray an individual’s composure or reveal underlying stress. more Lifetime access ($100) for beta testers.

Click to enlarge.