Malta - Although the new telephone and Internet eavesdropping system commissioned by the Malta Communications Authority on behalf of the Malta Security Service began operating in October 2006, it has been up and running in the absence of a set of technical obligations that undertakings related to the system need to adhere to.
The lack of technical obligations, a situation that had persisted for at least close to a year and a half, leaves a concerning void in the regulation and operation of the State’s practice of tapping the Maltese public’s phone calls and monitoring their Internet communications. (more)
A UK crime survey shows credit and debit card fraud has reached a record high of £535 million...new trend was the use of bugging devices which are fitted near shop tills to record the information stored on the magnetic microchip. (more)
WA - A group of 75-kids, from kindergarten to fifth grade...learned how to become a detective. They built a spy kit, including a homemade listening device.
"It was pretty fun. We made spy ears, pens. We made everything a detective has and stuff," said Brian McMurray, camper. (more) Note to Washington State University - Tri-Cities teachers... (oopsie) It is illegal for private detectives, teachers and students to possess electronic eavesdropping devices. Besides, this is not what most detectives do, and parents may should object on moral grounds. The rest of the curriculum looks very worthwhile, however. No wonder all the classes are sold out!
Brazil - Police have arrested a suspect in the heist of two Pablo Picasso prints from a museum in Sao Paulo and recovered one of the works, police and a museum official said Saturday.
Inspector Cesar Carlos Dias said information obtained through wiretaps of gang members involved in unrelated robberies led police to Ueslei Barros, the suspect in the July robbery. (more) Want your own Picasso? Make it yourself. Click here.
My ex is a Private Investigator, and I believe he is bugging my phone–and possibly my PC. What can I do to stop this and/or prosecute? I have Vonage and my phone goes through a cable connection, as does my pc. Thank you, Patricia (answers)
"No matter which side of the wiretapping issue you stand on it is clear that the only way to conquer terrorism is to address the hopelessness and hatred at the root of it." From a statement is issued by Remo, Inc., Remo D. Belli, CEO and Founder (more)
UK - More than 100 USB memory sticks, some containing secret information,have been lost or stolen from the Ministry of Defence since 2004, it has emerged.
The department also admitted that more than 650 laptops had been stolen over the past four years - nearly double the figure previously claimed. The Mod said it has no ideaon when, where and how the memory sticks were lost. The official total is now 658 laptops stolen, with another 89 lost. Just 32 have been recovered. (more) Solution 1 Solution 2
Any smart phone - including Blackberry, Windows Mobile, iPhone and Symbian phones - can be hacked by a nerd with a little bit of code and some cunning.
And they don't stop at data and identity theft alone. Nor are they content with unleashing viruses on the operating system of your mobile. (Even Bluetooth makes your phone a potential target here.)
New Age mischief makers have learnt how to bug your phone and remote-control it. They can steal your bank information, send out a mischievous SMS to your girlfriend (who might just dump you!), copy your top-secret files or simply spy on every call/SMS you make from your phone. In fact, they can even 'modify' your SMSes before these are sent out to your contacts - and you wouldn't even know it.
That's not all. Hackers can also use your phone to spy on you by switching it on. They can activate the camera and eavesdrop on your discussions during a business meeting, or while you are secretly negotiating a lucrative job offer with a rival company. What's more, they can even do an audio/video recording by sending an SMS command...
So what should a user do? A few simple steps could go a long way. Adopt a multi-layered security approach. Protect mobile devices with antivirus, firewall, anti-SMS spam, and data encryption technologies and install regular security updates to protect phones from viruses and other malware. And yes, don't click blindly on any SMS, for someone may just be spying on you on the sly. (more)
Nearly three-quarters of U.K. businesses have banned the use of instant messaging (IM) citing security concerns, reports IM supplier ProcessOne.
The research noted that 88% of IT directors were concerned about the security risks created by employees using Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and other IM services, with 56% citing the loss of sensitive business information as a primary concern. (more) This ban - also being seen in US companies - is easy to enforce on corporate-owned networks. But, what about IM via personal cellular and laptop devices? Enforcement may seem impossible if the employee can snag a WiFi signal from a nearby coffee shop, hotel or unsecured appearance point.
If controlling unauthorized employee communications is an issue you are trying to solve, call me for the solution.
...for FREE! A security friend at [a very large] Corporation contacted me this week about laptop losses. His company experienced "a dramatic increase in the past year" - primarily when employees traveled on business.
He was studying the problem. Was this just street crime, or was his company being targeted for industrial espionage reasons?
Here it is (assuming you have already done encryption and employee awareness training)... Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, have launched a new laptop tracking service, called Adeona that is free and private.
Here's how it works: A user downloads the free client software onto a laptop. That software then starts anonymously sending encrypted notes about the computer's whereabouts to servers on the Internet. If the laptop ever goes missing, the user downloads another program, enters a username and password, and then picks up this information from the servers, specifically a free storage service that has been around for several years, called OpenDHT.
The Mac version of Adeona even uses a freeware program called isightcapture to take a snapshot of whomever is using the computer. (more)
Some security inventions are truly useful and will undoubtedly save lives, whereas others are so bizarre that one wonders how in the world they got patented. This list is about the latter... Behold the Top 10 Strangest Anti-Terrorism Patents! (more)
The New Jersey Ninja Officials in Barnegat briefly locked down five schools in the township Wednesday because... a librarian said a man dressed as a ninja, carrying a large sword, was running through the woods... the man (a camp counselor) wearing a karate gi, was carrying a plastic sword and was attending a party at a local middle school. (more)
"Don't have a karate gi? How about a nice tie?" The Walking Timebomb Tie "This is our first in a series of 'Concealed Weapons' neckties. They are each double printed - a more subtle graphic is on the front only giving a slight clue to a more "loaded" graphic hidden on the back. The second image is concealed on the reverse until the wearer pulls it out for show and tell - or keeps it a secret to his/her self." (more)
Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella Splits Watermelons, Defends Presidents The entourage of the Philippine president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has an unusual secret weapon. Her security team defends the head of the government with umbrellas. Not ordinary umbrellas, but unbreakable fighting umbrellas. Watch the video to see the combat-brolly in action, and marvel as Thomas Kurz ("the world's foremost expert on flexibility training") viciously splits a watermelon in two. (more) (more)
You Could Be An International Spy ...and not know it! J. Reece Roth, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Tennessee, passed along a research paper to Sirous Nourgostar, a graduate student from Iran working under his supervision. It contained details on refined plasma actuator technology, which uses ionized gas to improve aircraft control. Roth was doing research on flight performance for a U.S. Air Force contractor and had relied on the assistance of Nourgostar and of Xin Dai, a Chinese national also studying under him... bad idea.
Roth, who pleaded not guilty, got entangled in a little-known area of export law that is alarming big business and scientific researchers. It covers transfers of controlled technological information to foreigners on U.S. soil. The transfers are considered exports because they are "deemed" to be going to the country where the recipient is a citizen. (more)
Want to Be A Spy ...and know it! Britain's secret spy agency, home to the very white and very male 007, is hunting for women and minorities to tackle global terrorism. More than 20,000 people have applied since MI6 began its open recruiting campaign about a year ago... (more)
Spying Has Its Down Side ...know it! A former Hewlett-Packard Co. vice president faces up to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing trade secrets from his former employer, IBM. (more)
A federal judge sentenced a former Pentagon analyst to 57 months in prison for his role in providing China with classified defense information. (more)
A French journalist was charged with revealing manufacturing secrets after a car magazine published photos of a Renault model three years before it was to be rolled out in dealer showrooms... Renault filed suit for industrial espionage in July last year after photographs of its latest-generation Megane, a small family model and one of Europe's most popular cars, ran in Auto Plus. (more)
Still Wanna Be A Spy? ...no! "Ok, you're free to go." ...yes! Then you will probably want a "Ring of the devil" in your kit. "There has been quite some speculation about this video (YouTube) of a magnetic ring that is used to open some models of Uhlmann & Zacher lock. Now, it is confirmed by the company itself the trick works." (more)
The British Foreign Office confirmed on Friday that Russia has accused the British Embassy's top trade official in Moscow of espionage. On Thursday, Russia's Interfax news agency reported that the head of the British Embassy's trade and investment sector, Christopher Bowers, was believed to be a senior British intelligence officer.
The British Foreign Office has confirmed that the accused diplomat was the acting head of the embassy's trade and investment section. (more)
A Swedish court has remanded a 48-year-old man suspected of industrial espionage against Swedish space and defense company Saab AB.
Swedish news agency TT says the suspect is being detained on suspicion of industrial espionage, unauthorized trade with secret information, and attempted extortion. (more)
About 1000 feet into the white-walled chalk caves is a 40-foot diameter meeting room. Notables who have held their secret meetings here included Benjamin Franklin, Sir Francis Dashwood and their celebrity friends from the 1700's.
Located just outside of London, the caves are available for corporate functions and parties. Capacity... Receptions: 120 people Buffet: 100 people Dinner: 50 people
Whiterock Defence, an international provider of information security services located near The Hellfire Caves, can help you secure this facility for a most memorable meeting. Contact Crispin Sturrock at +44 (0) 1494 538 222, or via email contact@whiterockdefence.com for complete details. This past week, I visited The Caves for the second time. You won't be disappointed. ~ Kevin
All of the contents on a laptop can now be searched without wrongdoing or suspicion from U.S. Customs agents according to a recent federal appeals court ruling (PDF). Expect the same level of privacy when visiting other countries as well. (more)
Now, what are you going to do about it? Here are some ideas and products to help you... • Have a travel laptop. No data on the hard drive. • Keep only necessary data on a secure USB stick. • If you must keep sensitive data on your drive, encrypt it... -- TrueCrypt 6.0 - The latest version of the free drive-encryption tool can shield sensitive data from prying eyes at home and abroad. Bonus - There is no way to prove that a hidden encrypted volume even exists on your drive unless you volunteer that information. TrueCrypt 6.0a is available now for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems, including Windows Vista. (review)
Need to know if "they" can legally... bug, tap, or sap your text messages and email? Check out this new guide to interception laws worldwide. 30+ countries covered. THE READY GUIDE TO INTERCEPT LEGISLATION 2
from Forbes Magazine... When traveling to China for the Olympics this summer, leave any expectation of privacy at the border. Instead, prepare for possible eavesdropping and surveillance--from listening devices in hotel rooms to bugged laptops and personal digital assistants to informers posing as friendly strangers.
Those who laugh at the seeming paranoia would be wise to remember that the U.S. recently accused Chinese authorities of allegedly copying data from the laptop of a visiting trade official last year and attempting to hack into the Commerce Department. The Chinese denied the allegations.
The U.S. Department of State advises tourists not to expect privacy in public or private locations, particularly in hotels, but a spokesman declined to comment further.
Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., was almost as tight-lipped. He declined to address specific allegations of spying on foreigners at the Olympics.
"No special security measures will be arranged beyond universally adopted international practice at public venues, hotels and offices in China," he says. "Privacy in China will be guaranteed according to the law."
But security experts say that Chinese law has few protections for individual privacy...
Bruce McIndoe, president of the security consulting company iJet, routinely warns his corporate clients about threats to their electronic security.
"What business people need to be aware of," he says, "is that the Chinese are very clear about who is coming into the country. You could be a senior level executive or a scientist and they will target you for surveillance." (more) How To Safeguard Your Privacy In Beijing - the short list.
If you have anything to do with credit cards, you need to know this...
"Credit card companies want you to charge it and they know that concerns about identity theft might possibly slow down your card use — so it is in their best interests to make sure that a solid security standard is in place to protect you. The standard has turned into a requirement for everyone who takes a credit card and that turns out to be literally millions of grocers, retailers, online retail outlets, government agencies, convenience stores, utilities — almost everyone. So the PCI-DSS standard may be the most widely applied information (data) security standard in the world.
With such a widespread and critical standard, there is confusion about how to meet the standard because just doing a self-assessment isn’t enough — you are also required to do penetration tests on your systems that handle and transmit this electronic customer information and ATTEST that you use the standard in your information systems.
This includes having strong firewalls that protect cardholder data and making sure to remove the generic vendor-supplied passwords; using good storage devices for sensitive customer information and encrypting data that flows over your network. In addition, the card manager has to use anti-virus software, and also build secure systems. Once proper controls are in place, these controls need to be monitored and tested..." Which leads us to the author of this piece. Get to know her. Caroline R. Hamilton is the Founder of RiskWatch, Inc. She offers twelve specialized risk assessment software programs which are used by thousands of her clients all over the world and in virtually every type of security assessment, gap analysis, and compliance assessment.
Murray Associates can assist you with the technical end of Wireless LAN compliance for PCI-DSS and... • Sarbanes-Oxley Act – U.S. Public Companies • HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act • GLBA – Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act • PCI-DSS – Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard • FISMA – Federal Information Security Management Act • DoD 8100.2 – Use of Commercial Wireless Devices, Services, and Technologies in the Department of Defense Global Information Grid • ISO 27001 – Information Security Management • Basel II Accord – Banking • EU - CRD (Cad 3) – EU - Capital Requirements Directive - Banking
IL - A Chinese spy was caught "red-handed," according to federal authorities, as she was about to board a plane at O'Hare bound for Beijing.Hanjuan Jin says she worked as a computer engineer for Schaumburg-based Motorola, a global leader in communications technology.
Federal agents say Jin was also working as a spy for a Chinese company, and she has been charged in a corporate espionage case that reflects a growing national security problem.
Clues... • She downloaded hundreds of confidential documents from the company's supposedly secure internal network. Value = $600 million (Motorola estimate.) • Arrived at O'Hare Airport with a one-way ticket to Beijing. • Declared $10,000.00 cash. She was really carrying $30,000.00. (more, with video) (red-handed spy catch in Illinois - not the first time)
Kicker... It was only a routine check of passengers by customs agents that revealed she was carrying the cash and a laptop computer with more than 30 compact data storage devices containing stolen Motorola files.
Imagine the counterespionage successes you can accomplish in your company with routine checks. (Mr. Moto is a fictional Japanese spy played by Peter Lorre, a Polish Jew.)
One unintended consequence of India and Pakistan establishing better relations in the last year, is a bunch of lawsuits by former Indian spies against the Indian government.
Theformer spies are suing to obtain pay for the years they have spent in Pakistani jails. That's because both countries have freed hundreds of men who had been imprisoned for spying, but the agencies that hired these men, often will still not admit it. (more)
Another employee vs. boss illegal bugging story. But the case gets weirder... Key West, FL - ...suspended Key West police officer Thomas Neary was fired Wednesday for telling people he was an undercover federal agent investigating corruption in the Police Department and looking into possible terrorist attacks...
The Neary investigation even involved bugging Lt. Kathleen Ream's office to record conversations she had with him. Transcripts from the bugging show some statements that indicate Neary told Ream he and his wife are federal agents...
In a casual conversation before the investigation began, "Officer Neary told [detective Bradley Lariz] that he had [City Commissioner Mark Rossi's] plane and house bugged and that they were watching him. He also told Lariz that he was watching and doing an investigation on Sgt. Robert Allen."
It's not clear what he was inferring with Rossi, but with Allen, he allegedly accused the sergeant of transporting drugs to Cuba in a police boat. (more)
IN - A Carmel man who claimed he set up a voice recorder to capture conversations with his wife before their divorce action has been acquitted of criminal wiretapping.
A Hamilton Circuit Court jury found the mannot guilty of the Class C felony offense of interception of telephonic communications. (more) Indiana is a one-party consent state, meaning only one person who is being recorded needs to agree to the recording. Some states require all parties to consent. Want to know the law for your state? Check here.
Unified Communications refers to an umbrella of technologies that are likely already familiar to corporate users: Instant messaging, that lets users chat with others in real-time using a simple client interface; presence, which allows users to see who is available on IM, but also what is active on the network; and unified messaging, the combination of e-mail, voice, and fax in a single in-box that offers users access at any time from any device.
The products come as hardware and software combinations, stand-alone software, software suites, or as a hosted service. When working together, these tools aim to simplify the lives of professionals... (more) (more)
However... • UC is a bigger, juicer, easier target for spies and hackers than each system individually. • Court-ordered electronic surveillance of UC systems is easier and more productive. • UC system breakdowns / sabotage will mean more $$$ lost than with current devices.
Executives who often work on the move or in public places had better be more discreet about their business conversations and documents.
A survey in Britain and the United States, released last week, found that eavesdropping in public places was common.
Information exchanged during supposedly private business conversations were also used by others for their own advantage, according to survey findings.
Conducted by flexible work solutions provider Regus, the survey found that 67 per cent of Britons had listened in on someone else's business conversation while they were in public places.
Americans were also guilty of this act - 59 per cent of those polled did just that.
Besides eavesdropping, the habit of sneaking a peek at other people's business documents in public places, such as while on the train, was also not unheard of.
Nearly two out of five British professionals (35 per cent) and 34 per cent of Americans surveyed said they had caught sight of other people's sensitive company documents.
And the shocking thing was that 13 per cent of Britons and 19 per cent of Americans said they were able to use the information overheard for their own business purposes. (more)
Security Directors, CEOs, Chief Legal Counsels: Immediately after you read this, make sure you have a clear, concise written policy in place detailing allowable IT behavior.
One in three IT administrators say they or one of their colleagues have used top-level admin passwords to pry into confidential or sensitive information at their workplace, according to a survey by a password-management vendor.
Nearly half also confessed that they have poked around systems for information not relevant to their jobs.
"We asked these questions last year, too," said Adam Bosnian, vice president of product strategy and sales for Cyber-Ark, a Newton, Mass.-based maker of password file security management software. "And we got similar results. So on one hand, the results weren't surprising. What was surprising initially -- and this time around, too -- is that people admit to it." (more)
One in five U.S. workers regularly attends after-work drinks with co-workers, where the most common mishaps range from bad-mouthing another worker to kissing a colleague and drinking too much, according to a study... (survey conducted for CareerBuilder.com)
As to what happens when the after-work drinks flow... Five percent said they had shared a secret about the company, and 4 percent confessed to singing karaoke.
Overall, 21 percent of workers attend happy hours with co-workers and, of those, nearly a quarter go at least once a month. (more)
UK - Intelligent CCTV cameras are being developed in Britain that not only see trouble but are able to hear it, scientists said.
The technology allows the sounds of breaking glass, someone shouting, or the noise of a crowd gathering to be 'learned' by artificial intelligence software in the cameras.
The technology could slash the speed with which crimes are caught on camera and responded to by police but will again raise a debate about the extent of "surveillance Britain" and the use of such technology.
The three-year project by the University of Portsmouth aims to adapt artificial intelligence software already being developed to identify visual patterns. (more)
Naked Cowboy drives to work each day between 11 and noon, in costume, with his female companion. 'Naked' parks in the same 43rd Street garage we use, jumps out and gets right to work. Doesn't matter whether it is 95 degrees and sunny, or 20 degree with snow. He is there. He makes millions smile. Want a photo with him; just stuff a buck in his boot and click away.
Whattaguy! Hard working. A real Robert Lampf 'dare to be different' original.
Here is the outrage... "A judge said a Times Square entertainer who wears just enough to justify the name the "Naked Cowboy" can continue a lawsuit he brought against a blue M&M.
Federal Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan on Monday stripped Robert Burck of some of his claims that a blue M&M wearing a white cowboy hat, cowboy boots and underpants violates his trademarks.
But the judge left intact one strand of that lawsuit. Mr. Chin said Mr. Burck might be able to prove that Mars Inc., which makes M&Ms, unfairly gave the impression that he had endorsed its advertising campaign.
For its part, Mars says the ad campaign was a parody and is protected by the First Amendment." (source)
I wonder how M&M would take it if Naked Cowboy took Big Blue, x'ed out his eyes, cracked his shell, and propped him up in a 42nd St. doorway with an empty whiskey bottle??? Parody? Art, perhaps?
Naked Cowboy will survive – and ride off into the sunset in a big black Cadillac SUV. Go Naked.
Family law can sometimes involve “good people, behaving badly.”
That’s according to Laura W. Morgan, of Family Law Consulting in Charlottesville, Va., who offers the tale of a hypothetical client named Mary, who thinks her husband, John, is cheating on her and using marital funds to pay for his trysts. Among other tactics, Mary purchased surveillance software, popularly known as “spyware,” and installed it on a shared computer, so she could read John’s password-protected e-mails and see the Web sites he visits. She additionally took the computer to a forensic computer specialist, who made a copy of the hard drive and then found scads of evidence that could be damaging to John in a divorce.
Mary is what Morgan calls a “self-help” spouse, because she has forgone formal electronic discovery — and it was easy and fairly inexpensive for her to do that. The problem is she may have broken a few laws in the process. (more)
A Swedish man has been given a suspended sentence for converting a cell phone to a bugging device to confirm his suspicions about his ex-girlfriend. A court in Hasselholm in southern Sweden also imposed a fine.
The man hid the phone behind the headboard of his girlfriend's bed, hooking up the charger to a bedside lamp. He set the phone up so, when he called it, the phone allowed him to hear what was being said in her room -- and he learned his ex- had indeed met someone else.
The court found the man's violation of his former girlfriend's privacy was so serious that a fine alone was not enough. (more)
The Geek Chorus welcomes Alan Reiter, President of Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing as he echos our warnings, in his well-written piece 'Open Season on Bugging Cellphones'... "Silently, but with increasing frequency, government agencies and private individuals around the world are bugging cellular phones. Some of those phones are surreptitiously transmitting copies of their SMS, emails, call histories, and locations to Websites where the data may be viewed by those who have installed the clandestine software.
Most cellular subscribers don't have to worry about this happening to them, at least not yet. But anyone -- suspected criminals, spies, corporate executives, spouses, and even ex-lovers -- could be targeted. Thanks to software you can purchase over the Web, you don't have to be a secret agent to listen to cellular conversations or retrieve data transmissions.
Sweden - "Earlier this week the Swedish stasi-government decided -- against the peoples wishes -- to wiretap all internet and telephone traffic in order to protect Sweden against threats. As you all know, being a neutral country makes Sweden a target for all the terrorists of the world, apparently," blogs one of The Pirate Bay's admins, Peter Sunde. "Many people have asked me what we're planning to do -- and the answer is 'A lot!'. This week we're going to add SSL to The Pirate Bay. We're also going to help out making a website about easy encryption -- both for your hard drives and your net traffic." (more)
Germany - German incumbent Deutsche Telekom is going to get yet another scolding. German public television channel ZDF reported the former operator turned self-spying agency wire tapped a few customers. Apparently 120 calls were illegally tapped by the company, without any court order or involvement of the police. (more)
UK - Every council in England will today be instructed to stop using tough laws to spy on people over "trivial matters" such as dog-fouling and litter offences. (more) New Zealand - A 21-year-old peeping tom has been caught spying on his female neighbour in Dunedin. The Otago University student was nabbed peering through a flat window just before 9pm yesterday. (more)
India - This year the Delhi University saw many of the "spy students" hired by private detective agencies being roped in by parents to keep an eye on their wards. However... a growing number of students are visiting detective agencies and are offering handsome amounts to them to know whether their parents have hired any "spy students", mainly girls, to keep a watch on their activities. (more) United States - Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, 44, who was raised in China and holds Canadian citizenship, was sentenced on the rare charge of committing economic espionage against the U.S. It's the most serious crime under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 and involves stealing trade secrets to benefit a foreign government. (more)
South Africa - The bugging devices of the former dispensation, which were used in foreign embassies in South Africa and had been planted by an espionage front company, are still being used. (more)
Switzerland - A left-wing campaign group asked Swiss authorities on Friday to investigate Swiss food and drinks giant Nestle SA for allegedly hiring a spy to infiltrate the group. A Swiss chapter of anti-globalization group Attac filed the legal complaint in Vaud canton (state), after learning that an employee of Securitas AG security company took part in its private meetings between late 2003 and June 2004... (more)
United States - US information security company Cyber-Ark surveyed 300 senior IT professionals, and found that one-third admitted to secretly snooping, while 47 per cent said they had accessed information that was not relevant to their role. (more)
Bulgaria - A man applied for a job as an industrial spy. Together with several other applicants, he was given a sealed envelope and told to take it to the fourth floor. As soon as the man was alone, he stepped into an empty hallway and opened the envelope. Inside, a message read: "You're our kind of person. Report to the fifth floor Personnel Office." (source)
A 52-year-old Long Island man has been arrested on charges of videotaping women's private body parts as they shopped at a dollar store. Nassau County police say the man followed unsuspecting women around the store in Baldwin and placed a camcorder under their clothing. (more) Perhaps he was also shopping for DSPM parts?
In the 1990s, a Maryland-based private detective agency composed of former CIA agents and law enforcement officers spied...
The agency,Beckett Brown International, had an operative at meetings of a group in Rockville that accused a nursing home of substandard care. In Louisiana, it kept tabs on environmental activists after a chemical spill. In Washington, it spied on food safety activists who had found taco shells made with genetically modified corn not approved for human consumption.
BBI, which was founded in 1995, disbanded in 2000, and the activists might never have learned they were spied on. But a disgruntled BBI investor began digging through company records two years ago and has been contacting the former targets. He also gave The Washington Post access to the records, which provide an unusually detailed look into the secretive world of corporate spying.
An undercover operative not identified in the documents was named to the governing board of CLEAN. "I will be in the 'inner circle' and included in all the planning meetings," he wrote in an e-mail.
The operative reported on meetings held at the law office after business hours and on private conversations about lawsuits, one of which took place in a parking lot because of concern that meeting rooms were bugged. (more) Now you know why eavesdropping and espionage detection is part of every good corporate security program.
U.S. - The House yesterday easily approved a compromise bill setting new electronic surveillance rules that effectively shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits arising from the government's terrorism-era warrantless eavesdropping on phone and computer lines in this country.
The bill, which was passed on a 293-129 vote, does more than just protect the telecoms. The update to the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is an attempt to balance privacy rights with the government's responsibility to protect the country against attack, taking into account changes in telecommunications technologies.
The House's passage of the FISA Amendment bill marks the beginning of the end to a months long standoff between Democrats and Republicans about the rules for government wiretapping inside the United States. The Senate was expected to pass the bill with a large margin, perhaps as soon as next week, before Congress takes a break during the week of the Fourth of July. (more)
Sweden - Sweden's parliament has approved controversial new laws allowing authorities to spy on cross-border e-mail and telephone traffic. The country's intelligence bureau will be able to scan international calls, faxes and e-mails. ...The bill will become law in January. (more)
The days of sitting in a basement, monitoring a line, using your Audiotechnics pocket 'buttset' with alligator clips is over. G-people now sit at computers in their air-conditioned offices. The process was simply explained, by arlene, in this post... "CALEA requires that communications providers allow law enforcement officials to be able to listen in on phone conversations and get information about those phone calls, but only when the law enforcement agency has gotten approval for the tap.
The law enforcement agency goes before a judge and presents reasons a wiretap is needed. If the judge approves, a legal document or order is delivered to the communications provider.
A specially authorized person at the communications provider logs in to a system specifically set up for CALEA-approved wiretaps. A number of systems are sold by various manufacturers, but all of them tap into the routers and switches that make up telecommunications networks. All calls on the communications network are routed digitally over switches and routers. The system used for taps connects to a central point in the network, over which all communications travel.
The tapping system captures two primary pieces of information about the call—the actual voice transmission itself (often referred to as call content information [CCC]) and data associated with each call, such as the phone numbers at both ends of the call (often referred to as call associated data [CDC]).
The CCC and the CDC information are sent over special secure routers to the law enforcement agency.
The Federal Communications Commission has ruled that PC-to-PC calls, when a call is made directly from one computer to another over the Internet using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software such as Skype, is subject to CALEA. But as of this writing, no technical way has been devised to tap in to those calls." (source)
"GET SMART" is a film mistaken about its own identity. As a reworking of one of the great 1960s TV comedies, you'd think being funny would be its main goal. But you would be wrong. Very, very wrong.Like its protagonist, in-over-his-head secret agent Maxwell Smart, "Get Smart" yearns to be something it's not. Unaccountably eager to walk in the footsteps of James Bond, "Get Smart" neglects the laughs and amps up the action, resulting in a not very funny comedy joined at the hip to a not very exciting spy movie. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. (more) However, in the back of the DVD bin... Peter Segal’s top five 'Get Smart' episodes Would you believe we asked Peter Segal, the director of the spy comedy "Get Smart," starring Steve Carell as Agent 86 Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, to name his top 50 episodes of the classic TV series on which the film is based? Would you believe we asked him his top 25? How about his top 10? All right, we settled for his top five. (more) Get Smart - The Complete Original TV Series
The Phone Car is a modified by a 1975 Volkswagen Beetle. Created by Howard Davis as a way to promote his telephone biz, Datel Communications. Check out the video of this phone car on the road. The horn, of course, rings. (more) More Art Cars...
It is always heartwarming to see our eavesdropping and wiretap detection instrumentation winning international awards...
"The TALAN Telephone and Line Analyzer (manufactured by REI) has been awarded the 2008 Canadian Technical Security Conference (CTSC) Award for significant industry contribution, research and engineering design.
Telephone technology has advanced over the past several years, and so have the methods and possibilities for surveillance devices on telephone lines, making traditional eavesdropping tap detection methods outdated and ineffective. Additionally, multiple pieces of test equipment were required to conducted time consuming tests that provided limited results. The TALAN is a breakthrough in telephone and line testing, combining multiple tests into a single piece of equipment as well as introducing NEW technology providing effective tap detection tests for both digital and analog telephone lines.
The Canadian Technical Security Conference (CTSC) is an annual conference composed of Technical Security Specialists and members of the Canadian Technical Security Professional Association (CTSPA). Delegates and speakers of the conference include technical security professionals representing private companies, law enforcement, military and government organizations from Canada and around the world..." (more)
In the first prosecution of its kind in the nation, a man who is well known to members of the “botnet underground” pleaded guilty today to federal charges related to his use of “botnets” – armies of compromised computers – to steal the identities of victims throughout the country by extracting information from their personal computers and wiretapping their communications. John Schiefer, 26, of Los Angeles (90011), appeared today before United States District Judge A. Howard Matz and pleaded guilty to accessing protected computers to conduct fraud, disclosing illegally intercepted electronic communications, wire fraud and bank fraud...
Schiefer’s “spybot” malware allowed him to intercept communications sent between victims’ computers and financial institutions, such as PayPal. Schiefer sifted through those intercepted communications and mined usernames and passwords to accounts. Using the stolen usernames and passwords, Schiefer made purchases and transferred funds without the consent of the victims. Schiefer also gave the stolen usernames and passwords, as well as the wiretapped communications, to others. (more)
"DIY Wiretapping: The Ultimate Guide (And How to Fight Back)" via ITsecurity.com Even if you aren't involved in a criminal case or illegal operation, it's incredibly easy to set up a wiretap or surveillance system on any type of phone. Don't be surprised to learn that virtually anyone could be spying on you for any reason.
How to Wiretap Did you think wiretapping was just for the FBI and mobsters? It's actually so easy that we can show you how to install and manage different wiretapping systems yourself... (11 "tips" revealed)
Fighting Back Defend yourself against wiretappers and spies by following these tips. You'll be able to determine if someone is eavesdropping on your home phone, cell phone or VoIP calls. (13 "tips" revealed... including this one.)
• Check for any suspicious wires running from your phone: Spybusters LLC, a company that performs eavesdropping-detection audits, explains on its Web site the different types of wires your phone should have and which ones indicate wiretapping. (more)
Once a back-room government parlor trick, computer automated document reconstruction is now available to the general public!
Recommendations...
Ditch every stripcut (and partial stripcut) shredder in your company. They do not provide adequate business-level information security. Use crosscut, particle-cut or pulping shredders. Alert your Purchasing Department... "No more crummy stripcut shredders!"
NY - A Long Island doctor is accused of installing a hidden camera in the bathroom of his medical office.
Nassau County police say 54-year-old Vincent Pacienza was arrested Friday and charged with unlawful surveillance.
The doctor's staff discovered the camera, which had been concealed inside an air purifier.
Police believe the camera was placed in the restroom of the Manhasset medical office within the last two weeks. (more)
The kicker... The purifier, listed for $699, features a "built-in color camera and carrier current video transmitter is completely undetectable," according to the Web site.
The doctor's office staff discovered the device after receiving a bill from thespystore.com, said Det. Lt. Kevin Smith.
The staff looked at the Web site and recognized the air purifier listed there as similar to the one recently installed in the 8-by-8 office restroom, Smith said.
UK - A peeper used a mirror to spy on swimmers undressing in the cubicles of a Teesside pool, a court heard.
Paul Stoddart was spared a prison sentence as Teesside Crown Court ruled yesterday his crime was a “singular aberration”. The 46-year-old voyeur was seen holding a small mirror under the partitions of cubicles at Stockton’s Splash centre. He was caught as a mum saw two hands holding a mirror tilted upwards under the wall of her cubicle as she crouched to take off her jeans.
She was at Splash with her husband and their two-year-old daughter on November 29 last year. The woman saw Stoddart emerge from the adjoining cubicle.
Her husband went looking for Stoddart, saw him holding the mirror under other changing rooms and alerted pool staff. (more)
Malta - Although the new telephone and Internet eavesdropping system commissioned by the Malta Communications Authority on behalf of the Malta Security Service began operating in October 2006, it has been up and running in the absence of a set of technical obligations that undertakings related to the system need to adhere to. 
