SpyCam Story #532 - "The doctor will see you now."

Philippines - Hayden Kho Jr. already said he was to blame for covertly filming his sexual encounters with women. The controversial doctor said he did not upload the video on the Web, and that someone was out to destroy his reputation by leaking those ‘stolen’ videos. But one of the last basic questions that remain unanswered is, “Why did he have the habit of recording his sex acts?" Unfortunately, the controversial doctor has no answer to this question. He said he has been consulting with a psychologist since last year just to get the answers to this question. (more)

SpyCam Story #531 - Bug in the Bathroom

OH - A Casstown-area man is accused of using a spy camera in the bathroom of his home to videotape a 19-year-old female. On Wednesday morning, 43-year-old John Miller was arraigned on charges of wiretapping, three counts of voyeurism, a charge of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. Miller’s bond was set at $11,000. He remains in jail. (more)

Corrections officer sentenced for attempted eavesdropping

MI - William James Johnson, 34, of 127 Michigan Ave., Gladstone, was sentenced to 90 days in the Menominee County Jail on a charge of attempted eavesdropping/installing a device. He is scheduled to report to the jail by 8 p.m. Friday.

According to court records, Johnson attempted to install in the Delta County Sheriff's Department, without the consent of the sheriff, a device for "observing, recording, transmitting, photographing or eavesdropping." (more)

iPhone SpyWare

from the Web site...
"Mobile Spy is proud to announce the availability of the world's first commercial spy software for the Apple iPhone. Now you can use the powerful monitoring features of Mobile Spy on your iPhone! Works with ALL iPhones!

Mobile Spy will reveal the truth for any company or family using Apple smartphones. You will SILENTLY learn the truth about their calls, text messages and GPS locations by logging into your Mobile Spy account from any web browser." (more)

Why do I mention it?
So you will know what you're up against.

Fight Fire With Fire, Get Fired?

IL - A firefighter in the northern Illinois community of Sycamore has been charged with eavesdropping.

Authorities contend 42-year-old Kurt Mathey recorded a conversation between his fire chief and an assistant chief without their knowledge.

Mathey is out on bond after being indicted on one count of felony eavesdropping. He's on administrative leave from the department.

Mathey is the former president of Sycamore's firefighters union, which has been in heated negotiations with the city for several months. (more)

TSCM Technical Security Officer - Job Opening

Shift: None
Type of Travel: Continental US, Outside Continental US - Hazard, Local
Percent of Travel Required: Up to 75%
Description: The candidate will assist in all aspects of of TSCM management that involves technical security (including TEMPEST) entailing new construction, modification, accreditation, re-accreditation, withdrawal and advice and assistance (SAV). The candidate will help schedule and perform TSCM evaluations and security staff visits of facilities locate CONUS/OCONUS, provide comprehensive, risk-based technical security advice, guidance, and general security support to program offices and contractor facility security offices. The candidate will prepare written correspondence to include facility file reports, cable messages, approvals, status/technical briefs and inspections reports, SAV reports, maintain databases; which includes entering new data and correspondence and quality controlling file records. Conduct analysis of complex technical, surveillance, counter surveillance, surveillance detection or other technical vulnerabilities. Provide technical support to projects in areas such as training, logistics, acquisition and technical counterintelligence investigations. Assists in developing and monitoring project tasks and schedules. Maintain a thorough knowledge of all technical security governing directives. The candidate must be a graduate of the Interagency Training Center for TSCM and an EXPERT in two of the following areas: a) Counterintelligence , b)Automated Information Systems, c) Lock and Key Control Systems, d) Access Control Systems, g) TEMPEST, h) DoD SCIF construction standards. Experience using a variety of ADP systems that include Microsoft Office applications (e.g. Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint). Requires a Bachelors degree and 10-12 years experience. (more)

"Hazard," ok.
PowerPoint?!?... I'm outta here.

Time to Review and Clean Up Your On Line Act

via Tamara Thompson, PI Magazine...
Intelius is the ubiquitous Internet provider of background reports — serving the consumer hungry for criminal records and other dirt on potential dates, family members and service providers — but more expensive and not as comprehensive as professional databases...

Spock is a fee-based search engine — with a free teaser — for finding social networking profiles. Spock crawls websites, matching the personal information you provide, then returns the links. You’ll probably get more results from snitch.name, Wink or Pipl, and more refined returns from an advanced query at the top search engines. (more)

Time to run your name and delete those old college party photos before you hand in that resume. ~Kevin

Nuke Web Page Nuked

The federal government mistakenly made public a 266-page report, its pages marked “highly confidential,” that gives detailed information about hundreds of the nation’s civilian nuclear sites and programs, including maps showing the precise locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons...

On Tuesday evening, after inquiries from The New York Times, the document was withdrawn from a Government Printing Office Web site. (more)

Finished feeling smug? Now, go check your corporate web site, marketing department, Boardroom and secretarial desks to see what confidential materials you have out for the taking. ~Kevin

First Economic Espionage Trial in California

CA - Dongfan "Greg" Chung developed a reputation as an innovator during his three decades as an engineer for Boeing Co. and Rockwell International.

Federal prosecutors say he was also a hardworking spy.

On Tuesday, Chung is scheduled to become the first person to stand trial under the Economic Espionage Act, which was passed more than a decade ago.

Prosecutors say the Chinese-born Chung, 73, stole hundreds of thousands of pages of highly sensitive documents on the U.S. space shuttle, Delta IV rockets and the C-17 military troop transport, then relayed the secrets to contacts in China. (more)

Ever Wonder How-to...

...eavesdrop with a cell phone
...hack a cell phone into a spy device
...make a spy listening bug for $20
...build a laser microphone
...build a spy microphone
...hack a Mr. Microphone into a high tech spy device
...make a high-tech spy stethoscope
...make a portable spy scope cellphone camera
...make your own spy sunglasses
...build a $40 USB spy telescope
...spy on friends with a hidden camera
...spy on your partner
...build a wireless finger phone
Ok, I'll stop.
You get the point.
There is no shortage of creative minds out there.

By the way, there has never been a time in history when spying has been easier or cheaper for the average person. ~Kevin

SpyCam Story #530 - "Shrimps in the barbie."

An Antwerp man was indicted Wednesday by a Jefferson County grand jury on a charge that he used a spycam to watch people in his bathroom.

Dennis J. Koerick Jr., 44, of 35558 Pulpit Rock Road, faces two counts of second-degree unlawful surveillance and one count each of tampering with physical evidence and making a punishable false written statement.

Mr. Koerick is accused of using the tiny camera between Dec. 10 and 15 and then burning it and a computer in an outdoor wood-burning boiler before police could question him. He is further accused of telling police Dec. 18 that he was unaware that a camera was installed in his bathroom. (more)

"Do you or do you not have tattooed on your bottom the words 'Jesus is coming, look busy'? "

via Wired...
Yet another breach of sensitive, unencrypted data is making news in the United Kingdom. This time the breach puts Royal Air Force staff at serious risk of being targeted for blackmail by foreign intelligence services or others.

The breach involves audio recordings with high-ranking air force officers who were being interviewed in-depth for a security clearance. In the interviews, the officers disclosed information about extra-marital affairs, drug abuse, visits to prostitutes, medical conditions, criminal convictions and debt histories — information the military needed to determine their security risk.

The recordings were stored on three unencrypted hard drives that disappeared last year. (more) (more) (heading quote)

Can't Touch This! ~MIB

DC - This part happens all the time: A construction crew putting up an office building in the heart of Tysons Corner a few years ago hit a fiber optic cable no one knew was there.

This part doesn't: Within moments, three black sport-utility vehicles drove up, a half-dozen men in suits jumped out and one said, "You just hit our line."

Whose line, you may ask? The guys in suits didn't say, recalled Aaron Georgelas, whose company, the Georgelas Group, was developing the Greensboro Corporate Center on Spring Hill Road. But Georgelas assumed that he was dealing with the federal government and that the cable in question was "black" wire -- a secure communications line used for some of the nation's most secretive intelligence-gathering operations.

"The construction manager was shocked," Georgelas recalled. "He had never seen a line get cut and people show up within seconds. Usually you've got to figure out whose line it is. To garner that kind of response that quickly was amazing." (more) (sing-a-long)
...and then he forgot all about it.

Everything You Need to Know about Electronic Eavesdropping Detection for Business

“Should we be checking check for bugs and wiretaps, or am I just being paranoid?”

This thought would not have occurred to you if everything were fine. Trust your instincts. Something is wrong. Eavesdropping is a common practice; so are regular inspections to detect it.

You never hear about successful eavesdropping or espionage attacks. You’re not supposed to. It’s a covert act. Eavesdropping and espionage is invisible. Discovery relies heavily on the victim’s intuition and preparedness to handle the problem. Prevention—via regular inspections—is the logical and cost-effective solution.

Spying Is a Common Activity
Due to the covert nature of spying, the exact... (Full Article)

How do you sell end to end data encryption?

With the world's coolest data breach map!
Guaranteed to scare the dollars out of any tight-fisted CFO. ~Kevin

Round of applause to the curators of
The Museum of Bitten Bytes...
DataLossDB is a research project aimed at documenting known and reported data loss incidents world-wide. The effort is now a community one, and with the move to Open Security Foundation's DataLossDB.org, asks for contributions of new incidents and new data for existing incidents.

Police bugging incident claims another cop

MN - Another member of the Gaylord Police Department is on paid administrative leave in an alleged "bugging" scheme.

The Gaylord City Council has voted unanimously to place Officer Tom Webster on leave until further notice. The move stems from charges filed against Gaylord Police Chief Dale Roiger over allegations that he had Webster plant a recording device in the Gaylord Chamber of Commerce office two years ago. (more) (background)

Napoleon Returns to Face Eavesdropping Charge

IL - A man who ran from a sentencing hearing and spent 10 years in Missouri returned to a Illinois courtroom on Friday to face the same judge. The judge gave him three years in prison and a scolding...

Authorities say Napoleon Williams, now 54 years old, made audio tapes of two people and broadcast their words without their consent on an independent radio station.

In 1998, a jury found him guilty of felony eavesdropping. (more)

The rest of the story...
The "broadcasts" Napoleon made were over his pirate FM radio station, "BLR" Black Liberation Radio. It only covered about a 10 block area of town. While I was there, I heard several of these broadcasts. The story of Napoleon's station and his dealings with the FCC and local law enforcement are the real story.

In 1999, just before he was about to be sentenced, Napoleon vanished. He wrote letters explaining his case. You can find them posted on the Net. He remained underground until now.

People may disagree with his views and tactics, but all should agree that he has a place in history. He is one of the founders of the U.S. microradio movement. Low-power FM radio is legal today. (more) (more) (more)

FutureWatch - ChipCam

A MICROCHIP-sized digital camera patented by the California Institute of Technology could provide vision for the US military's insect-sized aircraft. It is light enough to be carried by these tiny surveillance drones and also uses very little power.

Caltech's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena has squeezed all the components of a camera onto one low-power chip, revealed in a US patent filed last week.

The gadget can be radio-controlled via a secure frequency-hopping link from up to a kilometre away, say its inventors. (more)

Spy Needs New Home

MT - A Cold War spy plane with three tail fins and a hump on the fuselage needs a new home after being parked in Helena since 1981.

The retired EC-121, a version of which transported President Eisenhower from 1954-61, flew here 28 years ago for use in aviation maintenance classes. The military adaptation of the Lockheed Constellation taxied now and then, but mostly it has stood idle next to a hangar at the University of Montana's Helena College of Technology.

The college no longer wants the old Air Force plane... equipped to snoop on enemy aircraft during the Cold War that followed World War II. The surveillance planes carried radar in domes atop and below the fuselage. (more)

Cool SpyCam... Except, you don't smoke!

Lighter Spy Camcorder with built-in 2GB memory, recharegable Li-ion battery, light weight and easy to carry design. $66.00 (more)

Soooo, if you don't smoke, how about a nice key chain camera? (more)

Why do we mention it?
So you will know what you're up against.

Simple Clues May Indicate Cell Phone Bugging

Watch out for:
• Unexplained drops in battery power.
• Random screen flashes.
• Unusual billing activity.
• Text messages with random numbers and symbols.
Of course, lock your phone with a password and pop out the battery (if you can) for added security. (more)

Background Check Goes Undercover

Croatia - The manager of a Croatian subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Telekom has said she will sue the parent company after a report that it spied on her sex life, Croatian media reported on Tuesday...

Deutsche Telekom said last week it did not routinely commission reports on the private lives of potential staff, although the allegations are the latest in a series of scandals to have rocked the company. (more)

Last year, authorities informed Schroeder that Deutsche Telekom had secretly combed through his cellphone records, apparently to root out the source of leaks to the news media. Schroeder, a union representative on the company's board of supervisors, was stunned. (more)

"While you're down there, check on the Constitution."

The National Archives lost a computer hard drive containing Clinton administration records, including personal data of staffers and visitors, officials said.
Archives officials say they don't know how many confidential records -- including Social Security numbers -- are on the external hard drive, CNN reported.

Congressional aides briefed on the matter said the drive had "more than 100,000" Social Security numbers, including one for a daughter of then-Vice President Al Gore, as well as Secret Service and White House operating procedures. (more)

Acting National Archives director Adrienne Thomas is being pilloried for Tuesday's revelation that the library has misplaced a hard drive containing enough Clinton administration data—including Social Security numbers, addresses, and Secret Service operating procedures—to fill literally millions of books. But important government documents have walked out of the storied library before—and not just in a Nicolas Cage movie. Despite a security system worthy of an adventure flick, the National Archives and Records Administration has long been a prime target for pilfering. (more)

Hobbiest Spies

In the propaganda blitz that followed North Korea's missile launch last month, the country's state media released photos of leader Kim Jong Il visiting a hydroelectric dam and power station.

Images from the report showed two large pipes descending a hillside. That was enough to allow Curtis Melvin, a doctoral candidate at George Mason University in suburban Virginia, to pinpoint the installation on his online map of North Korea.

Mr. Melvin is at the center of a dozen or so citizen snoops who have spent the past two years filling in the blanks on the map of one of the world's most secretive countries. Seeking clues in photos, news reports and eyewitness accounts, they affix labels to North Korean structures and landscapes captured by Google Earth, an online service that stitches satellite pictures into a virtual globe. The result is an annotated North Korea of rocket-launch sites, prison camps and elite palaces on white-sand beaches.

"It's democratized intelligence," says Mr. Melvin. (more)

FutureWatch - 100% Vehicle Tracking

UK - A national network of cameras and computers automatically logging car number plates will be in place within months...

Thousands of Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras are already operating on Britain's roads. Police forces across England, Wales and Scotland will soon be able to share the information on one central computer. Officers say it is a useful tool in fighting crime, but critics say the network is secretive and unregulated.

Kent's Chief Constable, Michael Fuller, commented: "We've seen an increase of some 40% of arrests since we've been using this technology. "I'm very confident that we're using it properly and responsibly, and that innocent people have nothing to fear from the way we use it." (more)

Remember the uproar over how RFID toll tags (E-ZPass, FasTrak, I-Pass, etc.) were a threat to privacy? No? Oh well, that was back near the top of the slope. Slippery, isn't it? Hey, what's that down there? Wow, a remote DNA reader!