Friday, October 11, 2024
Private Investigator Answers PI Questions
Amazing AI - Imagine Alternate Espionage Uses
Want to see hear what the future sounds like? Check out these 10 examples: |
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New Use for Old Spy Plane - Discovering Secret of Lightning
The new papers, which were published in the journal Nature this month, describe in great detail the data that the researchers gathered while observing the atmosphere during tropical thunderstorms. According to that data, the lightning within those storms could very well be caused by long-duration gamma-ray emissions that sweep across parts of the atmosphere throughout the storm’s duration. more
Monday, October 7, 2024
Harvard Hackers Turned Meta's Smart Glasses into Creepy Stalker Specs
A few weeks ago, Meta announced the ability to use its new Ray-Ban Meta glasses to get information about your surroundings. Innocent things, like identifying flowers.
Well, two Harvard students just revealed how easy it is to turn these new smart glasses into a privacy nightmare.
Here’s what happened: students Anhphu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio cooked up an app called I-XRAY that turns these Ray-Bans into a doxxing machine. We're talking name, address, phone number—all from looking at someone with the glasses.
Here's how it works:
The Ray-Bans can record up to three minutes of video, with a privacy light that's about as noticeable as a firefly in broad daylight.
This video is streamed to Instagram, where an AI monitors the feed.
I-XRAY uses PimEyes (a facial recognition tool) to match these faces to public images, then unleashes AI to dig up personal details from public databases.
Their demo had strangers freaking out when they realized how easily identifiable they were from public online info.
How to Remove Your Information
Fortunately, it is possible to erase yourself from data sources like Pimeyes and FastPeopleSearch, so this technology immediately becomes ineffective. We are outlining the steps below so that you and those you care about can protect themselves.
Removal from Reverse Face Search Engines:
The major, most accurate reverse face search engines, Pimeyes and Facecheck.id, offer free services to remove yourself.
Removal from People Search Engines
Most people don’t realize that from just a name, one can often identify the person’s home address, phone number, and relatives’ names. We collected the opt out links to major people search engines below:
Preventing Identity Theft from SSN data dump leaks
Most of the damage that can be done with an SSN are financial. The main way to protect yourself is adding 2FA to important logins and freezing your credit below:
Extensive list of data broker removal services
Chinese Hackers Breached US Court Wiretap Systems
Jay J. Armes, Private Eye, Dies at 92
Jay J. Armes, a flamboyant private investigator who lived on an estate with miniature Tibetan horses, traveled in a bulletproof Cadillac limousine with rotating license plates and had steel hooks for hands, including one fitted to fire a .22 caliber revolver, died on Sept. 18 in El Paso. He was 92.
His death, at a hospital, was caused by respiratory failure, his son Jay J. Armes III said.
Described by People magazine as “armless but deadly,” Mr. Armes appeared to live the life of a superhero. In the 1970s, the Ideal Toy Corporation even reproduced him as a plastic action figure, with hooks like those he began wearing in adolescence after an accident in which railroad dynamite exploded in his hands. more
Thursday, October 3, 2024
FutureWatch: Visualizing Radio Waves to Detect Eavesdropping Bugs
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
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."
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…"
"My family knew that my father had been tapping the phone lines."
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, 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!
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.
Trump Aides Evacuated Offices - Bugging Fears
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
Sunday, September 1, 2024
Hvaldimir, a Celebrated ‘Spy’ Whale, Is Found Dead in Norway
Thursday, August 29, 2024
PrivacyLens Can Turn You into a Stick Figure
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
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.
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?
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Thousands of Corporate Secrets Were Left Exposed
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.
Increase Your Spy Resistance - Dumb Down Your Mobile Phone
Pakistan's Former Spy Chief Arrested
FutureWatch: The AI Polygraph, or Who's Zoomin' You
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.
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History: How to Build a Bugging Device in 1917
Want to build a bug; known as a Detectograph back in 1917?
Just write to a magazine, like The Electrical Experimenter, and they would tell you. Things were pretty simple back then, but the parts were not cheap. The average full-time worker's wage was $13.21 per week.
Security Camera Catch: Checking Her Mate... with poison
Amina Abakarova, a 40-year-old chess coach from Makhachkala in the Russian Republic of Dagestan, is accused of trying to poison her rival, 30-year-old Umayganat Osmanova...
Wednesday, August 7, 2024
How to Fight a Corporate Espionage Accusation
What Constitutes Corporate Espionage Fraud?
Corporate espionage fraud involves illegally obtaining confidential business information from a competitor to gain an unfair advantage. This can include:
- Stealing trade secrets or proprietary technology
- Hacking into computer systems to access sensitive data
- Using deception to obtain confidential documents
- Bribing or blackmailing employees to reveal inside information
- Industrial sabotage to damage a competitor’s operations
1. Lack of Intent
2. Information Was Not Actually a Trade Secret
4. Public Availability
5. Whistleblower Protections
6. Statute of Limitations
Key Legal Precedents in Corporate Espionage Cases
- United States v. Hsu (1999): Established that attempted corporate espionage is prosecutable, even if no actual trade secrets were obtained.
- United States v. Chung (2011): Clarified that the government must prove the defendant knew the information was a trade secret, not just confidential.
- United States v. Aleynikov (2012): Found that software source code did not qualify as a trade secret under the Economic Espionage Act (later overturned).
- United States v. Nosal (2016): Ruled that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act applies to theft of trade secrets by former employees.
- Challenging the evidence:
- Scrutinize how the evidence against you was obtained and push to suppress any improperly gathered information.
- Negotiating with prosecutors
- Presenting alternative explanations:
- Demonstrating lack of economic benefit
- Highlighting inadequate security measures
- Leveraging expert witnesses
- Pursuing civil resolutions
Russian Spy Parents Reveal Identity to Their Children
Among those swapped were Anna Dultseva and Artyom Dultsev, Russian spies who had been posing as an Argentinian couple in Slovenia. Not even their school-age children, who spoke Spanish with their parents, knew their true origins — until the parents revealed their identities after their release on the plane to Russia. more
How to Boost an Auction - Mention the Word Spy
Doc Boners: Recording Patients with Hidden Cameras
Doc Boner II: MA - The owner of a Peabody chiropractic business is facing charges that he recorded nude visitors in his clinic after a hidden spy camera was found in a bathroom last week. more
FutureWatch: Eavesdropping on YOU, by Looking at Your Face
Though Kosinski says his research should be seen as a warning, his work can feel more like a Pandora Box. Many of the use cases for his research seems pretty bad (like AI security scanners and robcops), and simply publishing about them may inspire new tools for discrimination. (Oops, forget what I just said.)
There's also the issue that the models aren't 100 percent accurate (yet), which could lead to people getting wrongly targeted. (e.g. Being a treehugger is not a sexual preference.) more
Clickbait of the Week: How to Build a (Code Cracking) Photonic Quantum Computer
- No. This is not an https://www.instructables.com/ article.
- Yes, the title is a lie.
Friday, August 2, 2024
Greenbrier Hotel Up for Public Auction
So, why is this news?
One of the great vestiges of the Cold War is the Greenbrier bunker, a facility built to house all 535 members of Congress in the event of a nuclear attack.
Greenbrier was chosen because of its location—relatively close and accessible to Washington, but far enough away to be safe from an atomic bomb—and because of its prior relationship with the United States government. During World War II, Greenbrier had served as an internment facility for Japanese, Italian, and German diplomats and then as a military hospital, where Eisenhower himself was at one time a patient. Although it returned to its original function as a hotel after the war, government officials occasionally held conferences at Greenbrier. more
Free TSCM AI Knowledge Wiki
The website, counterespionage.net, provides a comprehensive range of resources related to Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM), which can be considered as a knowledge wiki for several reasons:
- Informative Articles: It features detailed articles explaining what TSCM is and its importance in protecting corporate privacy and intellectual property. For example, the article on What Is TSCM? outlines the holistic approach needed for effective TSCM evaluations.
Free Resources: The site offers free TSCM security reports, publications, and videos that educate users about various aspects of surveillance and counter-surveillance techniques. You can find these resources in the TSCM Information section.
Guides and Tips: It includes practical guides such as the Security Director’s Guide to Discussing TSCM with Management and tips for businesses on counterespionage, which serve as valuable educational tools.
Case Studies and Testimonials: The website also shares case studies and client testimonials that provide real-world examples of TSCM applications, enhancing the learning experience for users.
FAQs and Expert Insights: The presence of a FAQ section allows users to get quick answers to common questions about TSCM, further contributing to its role as a knowledge base.






























