Decoding Spy-Speak

Ex-agents bring covert lingo to the world of corporate espionage. (more)

Spies find higher-paying assignments in business

...from a Condé Nast Portfolio article...
They're leaving "the Company" to snoop on your company. How C.I.A. agents are pushing corporate espionage to ominous new extremes. ...corporate espionage is becoming almost as sophisticated as government spying... The best estimate is that several hundred former intelligence agents now work in corporate espionage... ...extreme methods of electronic monitoring... The influx of spies into the corporate sector isn't limited to Americans. ...confidential reports by outside private investigators tell a story of corporate espionage run amok. (more)

Spying Claims Rock British National Party

The British National Party has been engulfed by a bitter internal row with around 50 senior figures resigning the party whip amid claims the leadership has been spying on private emails and telephone calls.

The Labour MP Jon Cruddas has written to the head of the Metropolitan police, Sir Ian Blair, calling for an inquiry into what he claims are "criminal activities involving senior members" of the party.

"They appear to be monitoring phone calls and emails of their members and removing computers from private households. This is not the behaviour of a normal political party and I would like to see the police investigate this." (more)

Card crooks tap into data wires

India - Credit card crooks in Kolkata may be getting more tech savvy, using wire-tapping gadgets to cash in on unsuspecting card users.

It's a new cause of worry for city police and CID. Wire-tapping is a complicated scheme and much more difficult to track down. It's a technical maze that involves telephone wires, receiving-terminals and a cable line parallel with telephone cables to copy the card details when it is swiped for a transaction. (more)

The continuing saga of Anthony Pellicano...

CA - Lawyers for defendants in the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping case argued in federal court here on Monday that evidence seized from the Hollywood private detective’s offices had been improperly obtained and should be tossed out.

Facing a trial date of Feb. 27, lawyers for Mr. Pellicano and his five co-defendants attacked the search warrants used to raid the detective’s offices in November 2002 and to unearth a trove of digital audio recordings in the ensuing months. They also argued that the case should be dismissed because of what they assert was rampant misconduct by government investigators.

But United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer appeared to be having none of it. (more)

Pimp Your Ride - Make it Spy

Make your own remote controlled helicopter spycam.


One-stop shopping list...
• Helicopter
• Wireless Video Camera / Receiver

FREE Telecommuting Security Manuals

Telecommuting covers a lot of territory these days... home desktop and roaming laptop computers, cell phones with computer-like features, and a variety of personal digital assistants (PDAs), used to read and send email, access Web sites, review and edit documents, etc.

"How do I stitch up the security loopholes?"
"Where can I get some help?"

The government buried some good advice under these arcane titles.
• Security for Telecommuting and Broadband Communications (NIST Special Publication 800-46)
and its supplement...
• User’s Guide to Securing External Devices for Telework and Remote Access (NIST Special Publication 800-114)

For more good advice hiding under arcane titles visit The National Institute of Standards and Technology, Special Publications web page. ~Kevin

Instant Education - VoIP: The Top 5 Vulnerabilities

Nothing is hacker-safe these days unfortunately, not even your VoIP service. But knowing that going in, and protecting yourself appropriately, can make a world of difference. The folks at the Sipera VIPER Lab have released what they feel are the Top 5 VoIP Vulnerabilities in 2007.

They are:
• Remote eavesdropping of VoIP phone calls...
• VoIP Hopping, one of the enablers of remote eavesdropping...
• Vishing, enables hackers to spoof caller ID... (q.v.)
• Toll fraud...
• The Skype worm...
(more)

Taiwan Watergate

Taiwan's main opposition on Sunday accused the government of bugging its offices to find out its campaign strategy ahead of next month's legislative elections. (more)

U.S. military psychic spy manual

...from Neurophilosophy...
Remote viewing is a form of "psychoenergetic perception" (i.e. clairvoyance) developed as part of a long-term $20 million research program initiated by U.S. intelligence agencies in the early 1970s. Now known by the codename Stargate, the program was initiated largely in response to the belief that the Soviets were spending large amounts of money on psychic research.

Research into remote viewing began in 1972 at the Stanford Research Institute, "an independent non-profit research institute that conducts contract research and development for government agencies" (actually, a think tank that has nothing to do with Stanford university).

Led by Harold Puthoff, who had worked for the National Security Agency and was at the time a Scientologist, the research involved training people who were believed to be gifted psychics to use their alleged abilities for psychic warfare. Among these individuals were the New York artist Ingo Swann, who claimed to have remotely viewed the planet Mercury, and Uri Geller, the psychic spoon-bending fraudster. (more) (the manual)

For those long, lonely surveillances...

Just in time for holiday gift-giving. "You gotta slop, bop, flip flop, hip hop, never stop." Be a 21st Century Dovell Electronic Bubble-Wrap'er!

...from the website...
One of the single greatest gifts (and curses) to anyone who is a little anal retentive is bubble wrap. Sure it's good for protecting packages, but the real joy is popping each and every bubble. You can't let even one survive or your mission as bubble popper has failed. But what happens when you desire the joy of popping bubble wrap but don't have the time to invest in popping a full 60' roll? Welcome to the future, my friends; electronic bubble wrap is here.

Each keychain device has 8 rubbery little "bubble" buttons. They have a pretty close tactile feel to actual bubble wrap. Guess what happens when you push one? That's right, you hear a little pop. In a nutshell, that is the simple beauty of the electronic bubble wrap keychain. But there is one bonus, and here's where the OCD can kick in a little. Every 100th "pop" is not a pop at all, but a silly sound: a boing, a bark, a rude noise, etc. And since you can easily pop (pun intended) the keychain in your pocket, you'll always have bubble wrap when you need it most (you know, like when your boss starts talking). (more) (movie)

Top 10 Sports Spying Stories

...peeking into closed practices or electronically eavesdropping on coach/player meetings (as China allegedly did to Denmark during the Women's World Cup of soccer), that is cloak and dagger stuff.

Now, with the teams facing off this Sunday, here are 10 glaring examples of sports spying... (more)

Industrial Spying Threatens Local Firms

S. Korea - Concerns have re-emerged over the illegal transfer of high technology abroad, which has been worsening in recent years, in the wake of the latest leak case in which industrial spies handed over key automobile building technology of Hyundai Motor to Chinese firms.

Prosecutors Friday arrested two Hyundai Motor employees, who stole core technology for the automatic transmission of a sports utility vehicle (SUV) that the carmaker has developed with an investment of 300 billion won ($323 million) for two years, to a Chinese carmaker.

Experts estimate the leaked information could cause trillions of won in damages...

Samsung Electronics, for example, has already adopted an advanced security system in its Digital Media Research Center, where each researcher’s location can be traced through satellite-recognized identification cards, in addition to anti-eavesdropping devices. (more)

Sri Lanka 'Bigwigs' Tap & Tell

Sri Lanka - A Government bigwig has commenced a dirty programme of eavesdropping and recording the personal telephone dialogues of the opposition politicians and making them available to listen for a few handpicked media persons.

As a part of this programme, an editor-in-chief of a weekend English newspaper was summoned to the Presidential Secretariat and he was made to listen to a telephone dialogue between a UNP leader and another politician. (more)

SpyCam Story #416 - Ming's Bling Cam

CA - A man was arrested on suspicion of computer crimes and invasion of privacy for allegedly hacking into his Gardena employer's computer system and using video equipment to spy on the company's restrooms, police said on Wednesday.

Ryan Castillo, 29, was arrested last night and booked for "unauthorized access to a computer network," a felony, and for "looking into and observing a person in a restroom," a misdemeanor, said Gardena police Lt. Ed Burnett. The restrooms can be used by men or women, Burnett said.

"After further investigation, they discovered that an employee of the business had a small receiver with several video clips of a female employee using the restroom," Burnett said.

"It was also discovered that the suspected employee had hacked into the company's computer network and e-mail system," Burnett said. (more)(video)

Another GSM Bug Alert

The new GSM bugs are coming; lots of them. GSM bugs are very simple cell phones which auto-answer and do not ring when called - from any phone in the world.
• Inexpensive.
• Easy to operate.
• Easy to hide.
• Untraceable when used with a pre-paid SIM card.

...from the SingaSPY Tonga website...
GSM Room / Office Transmitter
TKS-171.AAA
Key Specifications:
• GSM room / office transmitter.
• This is an amazing listening device.
• With a powerful internal and external mic.
• It is not only works as a standard dial and listen mode but also works as a voice activated unit which you could set up remotely.
• It is very reliable remote monitoring device ideal for long term activity. (more)


(their TKS-171aa model)
Need to know if there is one in your office?
Call us.

Real-Time Cell Phone Eavesdropping

New spy phone allows real-time eavesdropping on calls. (video)
Countermeasure: Don't accept candy from strangers. (duh)

Engineer Indicted on Spying

A former U.S. defense contractor spent more than two years working with China's military to design and test a radar-evading component for a new Chinese cruise missile as part of an espionage conspiracy, according to a federal indictment.

The indictment of Noshir S. Gowadia, an Indian-born engineer, was submitted to U.S. District Court in Hawaii in October and states he worked closely with a Chinese government agent and missile technicians to illegally supply the stealth-missile technology during six visits to China between 2003 and 2005. (more)

Firefighter Spies

The image of the friendly firefighter helping rescue a wayward kitten from a tree might need updating. If the federal Department of Homeland Security has its way, firefighters across the country will be armed not only with firefighting equipment, but also issued training materials on how to recognize suspect behavior on the part of citizens and what to look for in peoples' homes that might be "suspicious." In other words, firefighters would become domestic spies. In fact, such training already has begun. (more)

Never Believe Your Caller ID Again

...from the website...
SPOOFEM.COM offers you the ability to change what someone sees on their call display when they receive a phone call. This is typically referred to as "Caller ID Spoofing" or "Call Display Spoofing".

You can show any phone number you wish on their call display. You can change your voice to male / female, record the conversation, SMS text message and be able to protect your privacy by not showing your number on their caller ID. (more)

There are other spoof options, too.
• Prepaid virtual calling card (free test call)
• SpoofCard Widget (free test call download for Mac OS X)
• Telespoof (free test call)
• Spooftel

While spoofing is currently legal, it may not be in the near future. Laws against it are in the works.
• H.R. 5304 [109th]: Preventing Harassment through Outbound Number Enforcement Act
• H.R. 251: Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007

If spoofing becomes illegal should you believe your Caller ID again?
No.

Sunday isn't only Jets vs. Patriots.
It could be Spy vs. Spy.

According to league sources familiar with the situation, the Jets were caught using a videotaping device during a game in Foxborough last season that resulted in the removal of a Jets employee. After Gillette Stadium officials saw him using the recorder early in the game, he was told to stop and leave the area. He had been filming from the mezzanine level between the scoreboard and a decorative lighthouse in an end zone. The camera was not confiscated by the Patriots or stadium security.

Tuesday night the Jets admitted that they did videotape the game and their employee was confronted, but said they had permission from the Patriots to film from that location. (more)

Police Chief Bugging Trial (update)

A former Lafayette Police Chief's trial will not head to court until March... Former chief Randy Hundley was slated for trial Dec 10th. He along with three other officers are facing eavesdropping charges. The four were indicted last year for allegedly hiding a microphone near the desk of Hundley's secretary in 2004. (more)

MD under fire from colleagues for hiring spy

Canada - Three of the largest professional organizations representing plastic surgeons in Canada are filing formal complaints against a Toronto physician who hired a private investigator to spy on a colleague whom she suspected was causing a drop in her business.

The Ontario Society of Plastic Surgery, the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgery and the Canadian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery plan to ask Ontario's medical watchdog to investigate Dr. Behnaz Yazdanfar's decision to send an undercover female investigator to consult with plastic surgeon Dr. Sean Rice and secretly record the conversation. (more)

I beg your pardon, how about in your rose garden?

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is dropping his appeal in the CIA leak case, his attorney said Monday. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction for lying about his conversations with reporters about outed CIA operative Valerie Plame. (more)

Profile: Dr. David Southall

He is viewed as an expert in Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, a condition which means parents deliberately induce or fabricate illnesses in their children to get attention for themselves.

He pioneered the use of covert video surveillance in the late eighties and early nineties, which led to a number of parents and step parents being prosecuted for abuse.

More recently...
He was banned from child protection work for three years. (more)