Former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales told investigators that he could not recall whether he took home notes regarding the government's most sensitive national security program and that he did not know they contained classified information, despite his own markings that they were "top secret -- eyes only," according to a Justice Department report released yesterday.Gonzales improperly carried notes about the warrantless wiretapping program in an unlocked briefcase and failed to keep them in a safe at his Northern Virginia home three years ago because he "could not remember the combination," the department's inspector general reported.
A National Security Agency official who reviewed the notes said they contained references to operational aspects of the wiretapping initiative, including a top-secret code word for the program, information that had been "zealously protected" by the agency and was "not a close call" in terms of its sensitivity, the report said. (more)
Now, before you snicker...
How well are you safeguarding your company's top secret information?
UPDATE...
One answer I received came with this office photo. Apparently, others have experienced not being able to remember a safe combination.
The answer in this case was, not leaving the door open, but rather writing the combination on a post-it note!
In days gone by, we didn't have as many gadget operational directions to remember and remembering a safe combination was easy and important. Now, there are too many directions, passwords, etc. to remember, and all of them are important. Time for a better way. Send me your ideas, please."
NY - Two Hofstra University students moving into an apartment discovered that the landlord had hidden spy cameras in smoke detectors to wirelessly transmit video of their bedrooms to his personal computer, Nassau police said.The landlord, Michael Muratore, 44, who lives on the first floor of the house, was arrested Monday at the home and charged with unlawful surveillance.Muratore, a married financial adviser, told police he had installed the cameras to protect his property, "to make sure there was no damage being done to the apartments," said Det. Sgt. Anthony Repalone, a police spokesman.The secret installation plan began to unravel when the students asked a friend to check the detectors to make sure they were working properly. The friend tested the devices and realized they were not functioning, police said.The friend brought one of the detectors to a local firehouse, where a volunteer firefighter realized "the guts were removed from that smoke detector and in its place was a digital video camera and some sort of a transmitter," Repalone said. (more)
Most IT staff would steal sensitive company information, including CEO's passwords and customer details, if they were laid off, according to a new survey from Cyber-Ark.• 88 percent of IT administrators admitted they would take corporate secrets, if they were suddenly made redundant. The target information included CEO passwords, customer database, research and development plans, financial reports, M&A plans and the company's list of privileged passwords.• ...a third would take the privilege password list to gain access to valuable documents such as financial reports, accounts, salaries and other privileged information.
• 35 percent admitted to sending highly confidential information via email or couriers.
• ...one third of IT staff admitted to snooping around the network, looking at highly confidential information, such as salary details and people's personal emails.
• A quarter of companies surveyed admitted to suffering from internal sabotage and/or cases of IT security fraud.
• One third of companies believe that industrial espionage and data leakage is rife, with data being leaked out of their companies and going to their competitors or criminals, usually via high gigabyte mobile devices such as USB sticks, iPods, Blackberry's and laptops or even sent over email. (more)
If someone asks to borrow your cell phone, or you leave it unattended, beware!
Unless you actually watch them use it, they may be secretly grabbing every piece of your information on the device, even deleted messages. If you leave your phone sitting on your desk, or in the center console of your car while the valet parks it, then you and everyone in your contacts list may be at risk, to say nothing of confidential e-mails, spread sheets, or other information. And of course, if you do not want your spouse to see who you are chatting with on your phone, you might want to use extra caution.Paraben's CSI Stick can be used to make a copy of all data on a cell phone.
...a new electronic capture device that has been developed primarily for law enforcement, surveillance, and intelligence operations that is also available to the public. It is called the Cellular Seizure Investigation Stick, or CSI Stick as a clever acronym. It is manufactured by a company called Paraben, and is a self-contained module about the size of a BIC lighter. It plugs directly into most Motorola and Samsung cell phones to capture all data that they contain. More phones will be added to the list, including many from Nokia, RIM, LG and others, in the next generation, to be released shortly. (more)
CA - County Sheriff Pat Hedges punished himself for secretly taping a chief deputy in his office and docked his (own) wages for a day... (more)
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania... Linda Majer-Davis, a school board technician who admitted she had secretly recorded a department meeting with the superintendent because she was concerned about waste and mismanagement... could face one to seven years in prison. (more)
OUT-freakin-rageous!!!
There aughtabe a law!
No, wait.
Brazil's president is working to contain a wiretapping scandal after a Brazilian news magazine accused the national intelligence service of tapping the phone of the Supreme Court's chief justice and other top officials.Opposition politicians are calling for the president's impeachment over this latest scandal. (more)
UPDATE...
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva suspended the entire leadership of Brazil’s intelligence agency on Monday after it was accused of spying on the Supreme Court chief and members of Congress. Opposition leaders had demanded an investigation when Veja, a news magazine, reported that the agency had spied on the president of the Supreme Court, Gilmar Mendes, and tapped his telephones. (more) (more)
UPDATE...
Low-ranking Brazilian police and security officials are known to tap the phones of politicians and others in attempts to mount extortion schemes, said David Fleischer, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia. But he said such schemes rarely reach someone as powerful as the head of the Supreme Court. He predicted the scandal would die down if top administration officials can show they weren't involved. "If they determine it was done by freelancers, and not as part of a deliberate policy decision, there will be no real repercussions for Lula," Fleischer said. (more)
Macedonia - The Court of Appeal in Skopje judged that journalists involved in the “Big Ear” case have been tapped, Macedonian Vecer newspaper writes. The Court of Appeal decided that the journalists receive MKD 250,000 compensation ($589.85)...
...and, ascertained that the Ministry of Interior and the Telecom disposed of equipment to eavesdrop and tap. (more) (background)
Turkey - A lawsuit has been filed against journalists Gökçer Tahincioğlu and Kemal Göktaş for making a story about Ankara’s 11th High Criminal Court’s giving permission to the Police Department, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the Gendarmerie Head Quarters to monitor others.
Tahincioğlu and Göktaş had received the Media Freedom Award for this story from the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) on the Traditional Journalists Day of July 24. (more)
Kosovo - Post and Telecom of Kosovo (PTK) has helped buy wiretapping equipment for legal needs of the Kosovo Police Service (KPS)...
"This is a major project for the Kosovo Police, and the Kosovar society in general, with the aim of offering a safe legal environment for all our citizens," said Police Colonel Rifat Marmulluku. (more)
Chicago resident and journalist Adrian Holovaty started a site called ChicagoCrime.org in 2005 after persuading city police to share crime data with him... His project is now called Everyblock.com, and covers nine of the largest U.S. cities, including New York, Washington D.C., and Seattle.Holovaty said he will soon offer the software he's developed for free to municipalities around the country. "It's an experiment in journalism," he said.Crimereports.com, based in Utah, uses a different model. The firm charges local police departments $99-$199 per month to publish their data on the CrimeReports' Web site. So, far, says founder Greg Whisenant, 260 cities have signed up since the service launched in May of 2007."I think CrimeReports is the future," said Utah attorney general Mark Shurtleff. "People are really excited about it here." He says about half of Utah cities are already up and running on the site. (more)
More about 'Shame as a Crime Prevention Tool'.
India - Can you build a micro spying gadget that flies and can transmit real time video information?
This challenge was thrown to engineering students Saturday by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Commemorating its 50th anniversary, DRDO has invited engineering students to design and develop the prototype of a lightweight, low cost, electronic aerial surveillance system. (more)
Cloud Computing: Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook, Flickr, Linkedin and similar business-oriented social networking sites. By some definitions, very useful. By other definitions, "using some service that is out of your control, and storing your information there."
Think, before you jump on a cloud. Do you really want all your information out there, under someone else's control? A little here, a little there, combined it may be your dossier.
Did you know...
Facebook's Terms of Use agreement states: "... The Company may, but is not obligated to, review the Site and may delete or remove (without notice) any Site Content or User Content in its sole discretion, for any reason or no reason, including User Content…"
Yes, Personal Cloud Computing is different than Business Cloud Computing. If Flickr flickers you may loose all the personal photos you stored there. No big deal, you have back-ups. You did back-up didn't you?
Linkedin's User's Agreement states: "...you actually grant by concluding the Agreement, a non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, unlimited, assignable, sublicenseable, fully paid up and royalty-free right to us to copy, prepare derivative works of, improve, distribute, publish, remove, retain, add, and use and commercialize, in any way now known or in the future discovered, anything that you submit to us, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or any third parties." Yikes! Read that again! Is this the wording of a benign B2B service, or are these folks thinking way ahead of you?
Business Cloud Computing?
What information are you putting out there: sales, contact, purchasing, email, medical, financial?
Can you afford to have that co-opted, lost or re-sold?
And, what are the legal ramifications?
What laws have you broken (HIPPA, SOX, etc.)?
What lawsuits might rain on you?
Think, before you jump on a cloud. (more)
~ Kevin
Private investigator Anthony Pellicano and attorney Terry Christensen were convicted today of conspiring to illegally wiretap the ex-wife of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.
Christensen, who was an attorney for investor and casino mogul Kerkorian, was accused of hiring Pellicano to listen in on the phone conversations of Lisa Bonder Kerkorian during a bitterly fought child support case. The lawyer and investigator were each charged with two felony counts relating to the alleged wiretap. The federal jury verdicts give a green light to a slew of pending civil lawsuits. (more)
...before you sell it!
Check out Reset Codes and Procedures for your phone's neuralyzer.
More small companies are allowing employees to use their personal smart phones for work. But that move could lead to big trouble, thanks to a new breed of hackers who are starting to target mobile phones.
Hackers can use spyware to keep an eye on what you type and what messages you receive, possibly gleaning company secrets. They can even can track your device's location, potentially allowing them to figure out your clients or plans by looking at where you go...
Mobile spyware, according to experts, is readily available. Many point to FlexiSPY, a program sold by Thai software company Vervata Co. The company promotes the product as a way for husbands and wives to catch their cheating spouses. Once installed on a person's phone, FlexiSPY tracks the device's whereabouts and monitors incoming and outgoing calls, text messages and emails. The information is then uploaded to a central server and can be viewed by the person who originally installed the software.
Nobody is accusing Vervata of stealing information, but some security experts argue that the software is ripe for abuse. It can be used by anyone to steal personal information and company secrets, they argue. A business might install the software on a rival's phone, for instance, to steal a contact list or monitor email traffic.Phones that use the Symbian operating system, meanwhile, are vulnerable to a program that can capture the keystrokes of the device...
BlackBerrys may also be vulnerable to attack. ...Research In Motion Ltd. says that security policies built into the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software can guard against such spyware. Many small businesses, however, can't afford the BlackBerry server.
Even Apple Inc.'s iPhone may be vulnerable... While the iPhone offers password protection, it lacks other capabilities such as data encryption... The iPhone does offer the ability to create a secure virtual-private-network connection to company headquarters... But small businesses often lack VPN capabilities. (more)
One Solution for You...
Secure Mobile Systems (SMobile), designs security applications for mobile devices. They offer a comprehensive product suite that protects users of mobile devices from viruses, data compromise, the effects of device theft, and unauthorized data access.
from the seller's web site...
"RADAR safeguards your child while using cell phones and immediately alerts you if he or she receives unapproved email, text messages or phone calls.RADAR provides you complete text messages (sent and received from your child's phone) along with corresponding phone numbers and records them on the website where you can review them at home and print reports for authorities.
RADAR is not spyware...
RADAR notifies the user that they are being monitored, making it impossible to track their usage secretly." (more)
So... how soon will this come with company-supplied cell phones, or be made a requirement of parole?
reprinted from CRYPTO-GRAM by Bruce Schneier
Homeland Security Cost-Benefit Analysis"In an excellent paper by Ohio State political science professor John Mueller, "The Quixotic Quest for Invulnerability: Assessing the Costs, Benefits, and Probabilities of Protecting the Homeland," there are some common sense premises and policy implications."The premises:
1. The number of potential terrorist targets is essentially infinite.
2. The probability that any individual target will be attacked is essentially zero.
3. If one potential target happens to enjoy a degree of protection, the agile terrorist usually can readily move on to another one. 
4. Most targets are 'vulnerable' in that it is not very difficult to damage them, but invulnerable in that they can be rebuilt in fairly short order and at tolerable expense.
5. It is essentially impossible to make a very wide variety of potential terrorist targets invulnerable except by completely closing them down."
The policy implications:
1. Any protective policy should be compared to a "null case": do nothing, and use the money saved to rebuild and to compensate any victims.
2. Abandon any effort to imagine a terrorist target list.
3. Consider negative effects of protection measures: not only direct cost, but inconvenience, enhancement of fear, negative economic impacts, reduction of liberties.
4. Consider the opportunity costs, the tradeoffs, of protection measures."
Meanwhile... "The nation's terrorist watch list has hit one million names, according to a tally maintained by the American Civil Liberties Union based upon the government's own reported numbers for the size of the list." (more)
CA - Undersheriff Steve Bolts told County Human Resources officials that he and Sheriff Pat Hedges eavesdropped on former Chief Deputy Gary Hoving because of concerns Hoving was “making fun of” Hedges behind his back and was disloyal, not because of any ongoing criminal investigation.
Eavesdropping is considered illegal except in limited circumstances, such as a police officer conducting an investigation. That’s how Hedges has publicly described what he was doing, saying that he was investigating allegations evidence was mishandled in a narcotics division. The transcripts, however, give a different account. (more)
Private contractors account for more than one-quarter of the core workforce at U.S. intelligence agencies, according to newly released government figures that underscore how much of the nation's spying work has been outsourced since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The CIA and other spy agencies employ about 36,000 contractors in espionage-related jobs, in addition to approximately 100,000 full-time government workers, said Ronald Sanders, head of personnel for the U.S. intelligence community...
The total budget for the nation's spy agencies is roughly $43 billion. (more)
PA - Five months ago, Linda Majer-Davis portrayed herself as a crusading public employee to the Bethlehem Area School Board. She told directors she had secretly recorded a department meeting with the superintendent because she was concerned about waste and mismanagement.On Wednesday, police called her a criminal.
Pennsylvania's wiretap law prohibits recording a meeting or interview without the permission of all parties. The charge, intercept communications, is a third-degree felony. If convicted, Majer-Davis could face one to seven years in prison. (more)
Interesting...
"she used her laptop to record the meeting"
"...Majer-Davis is still employed by the district as a computer technician"
Observation...
People use the electronic surveillance tools they have handy and know best.
Two security researchers have demonstrated a new technique to stealthily intercept internet traffic on a scale previously presumed to be unavailable to anyone outside of intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency.
The tactic exploits the internet routing protocol BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) to let an attacker surreptitiously monitor unencrypted internet traffic anywhere in the world, and even modify it before it reaches its destination.
"It's a huge issue. It's at least as big an issue as the DNS issue, if not bigger," said Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, noted computer security expert and former member of the L0pht hacking group, who testified to Congress in 1998 that he could bring down the internet in 30 minutes using a similar BGP attack, and disclosed privately to government agents how BGP could also be exploited to eavesdrop. "I went around screaming my head about this about ten or twelve years ago.... We described this to intelligence agencies and to the National Security Council, in detail." (more)
Comeon, Shout, Shout, knock yourself out
Comeon, yell, yell, loud and swell
You gotta Scream, scream, you know what I mean,
Put another dime in the spying machine... (sing-a-long)
UK - RAF top brass have secretly bought two spy-in-the-sky planes to snoop on terrorists worldwide — from three miles up. Security officials said the Twin Star aircraft will be a global asset as they can fly for 18 hours a time.
An RAF source said: “With the right sensor array, they can see if a suspected terrorist is at home, listen in to and record his mobile calls and tell you if his car engine is hot, warm or cold. “They can also help others put a surprise package through his window.” (more)
...from their website...
The SpyMessage is easy-to-use, reliable and powerful tool for protecting important information that you don't want others to see.
With SpyMessage you can encrypt and hide your text message into image without any changes in its resolution or size.
• You can view the image with any conventional image viewer program
• Exchange messages without any fear from others spying on you.
• No one can know if your image contain messages or not.
• SpyMessage uses two encryption algorithms to protect your data.
• No un-encrypted temporary files are ever created.
• No password saved within your file
• Set a special Password to retrieve your encrypted data.
Just remember, "there is no free lunch."
You don't know what else this "free" software might do.
Download at your own risk.
900,000 Australians have admitted to checking their partner's phones according to new research conducted by Virgin Mobile. The research has revealed that Australia is a nation of paranoid text checkers with over one in three young Australians admitting to checking their partner's text messages, and more than 280,000 having been being involved in a text-checking related break-up.
The research reveals:
• 10% of young Australians have been involved in a breakup as a result of text-checking
• 59% of text checkers check their partner's phone when they shower
• Women (38%) are more likely than men (28%) to check their partner's texts• 76% of text checkers do so in secret
• 73% of text checkers found out things they later wished they hadn't
• 44% of sneaky text checkers have discovered flirtatious or sexual texts, ranging from harmless flirtation (32%) to full blown sexual texts from someone else (19%)
• The most common places text checkers operate is while their partner is showering (59%), in the same room (41%) or on the toilet (35%)
With the aim of squashing the nation's obsession with text checking, Virgin Mobile introduces a new service for those customers concerned about their partner's snoopy tendencies. Customers can simply text the word 'snoop' to 1978 99 99 to have a text from 'SEXY' sent to their phone. When the text message is opened by a paranoid partner, the message will remind the checker to have trust in their loved one.
Author, relationship expert and text-checking guru, Samantha Brett says that text checking is rampant in relationships across the world... (press release)
...and for the very, very paranoid...
TextSpy (the deleted text message reader)
CA - A federal prosecutor claimed Tuesday that taped phone calls between Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano and a high-powered lawyer showed they were conducting illegal wiretaps, even though the alleged wiretapped recordings have never been found.
In his closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Saunders played a phone conversation for jurors in which Pellicano told attorney Terry Christensen that all the information he would be gathering would be kept between them. Christensen agreed...
While old-fashioned private eyes pounded the pavement for information, Pellicano "sat in his office and listened to wiretaps," Saunders said. (more)
Spooks: Code 9 a 'Spy Babies' Spin-off for BBC (more) (preview)
Fifty Dead Men Walking - Film about British spy brings controversy to TIFF (more)
Traitor is unusually thoughtful spy thriller (more) (trailer)
Terrence Howard tells the New York Times that a song on his debut album, "Shine Through It," is about the ways in which he stalked his ex-wife immediately following their split. "I wrote that song ("No. 1 Fan") as a stalker," said the actor. (more)
A Soviet spy codenamed "Zephyr" who worked undercover with his wife in Europe and the United States for more than a quarter of a century has died aged 101, Russia's foreign intelligence agency (SVR) said... The agency issued a glowing tribute to spy Mikhail Mukasei... (more)
Former Israeli spy chief Binyamin Gibli dies... A former Israeli intelligence chief who tried to stop Britain abandoning its military presence on the Suez canal by staging bomb attacks there has died aged 89. (more)
Wolfgang Vogel, East German spy swapper, dies at 82 (more)
Soviet dissident author Alexander Solzhenitsyn dies at 89 - a former prisoner of war caught by the Germans during World War II, then returned home only to face charges of being a spy... (more)
Grayston L. Lynch, a hero of the anti-Castro movement for his leadership in the Bay of Pigs invasion, where fired the first shot of the battle, died at 85... (more)
Television and stage actor Terence Rigby has died at his home aged 71 - featured in shows including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. (more)
Mobile phones, BlackBerrys, emails, social networking... Never before has it been so easy to cheat on a partner.
And admit that the waters, Around you have grown
But has technology made it simply too difficult for philanderers to cover their tracks?
And accept it that soon, You'll be drenched to the bone.
Day-to-day actions, such as taking the bus to work and buying a magazine on the way, used to be ephemeral. But today, every journey, every communication, every penny spent, is logged and stored.
If your time to you, Is worth savin'
As we move through life, we leave millions of specks of electronic evidence. Stored on hard drives and mainframes, this data acts like specks of DNA sprayed across the bedsheet of cyberspace. It's all there waiting to incriminate us.
Then you better start swimmin', Or you'll sink like a stone
As science drags us forward, it's a safe prediction that within the next decade, traditional affairs – the ones with longevity, the ones that take planning, scheming and logistics – will have vanished altogether. (more)
For the times they are a-changin'.
Before she mastered the secrets of French cooking, Julia Child was enrolled in the school of espionage.
The famous chef let slip the story of her war-era spying in a 2002 autobiography, but the release of thousands of documents from the U.S. national archives on Thursday confirms her participation in a secret organization formed by President Franklin Roosevelt during the Second World War.
Hidden among the 750,000 classified pages released Thursday is a picture of the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives called the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). (more) (more) (audio) (OSS Society)
Trivia...
She helped develop shark repellent, critical in protecting explosives used to sink German U-boats during World War II. It kept sharks out of the way of the torpedoes. Later, she put people in the way of Tournedos and other epicurean delights.
German electronics company Siemens has gone a step further, developing a complete “surveillance in a box” system called the Intelligence Platform, designed for security services in Europe and Asia. It has already sold the system to 60 countries.
The system integrates tasks typically done by separate surveillance teams or machines, pooling data from sources such as telephone calls, email and Internet activity, bank transactions and insurance records. It then sorts through this mountain of information using software that Siemens dubs “intelligence modules”. (more) (more)
Cindy Sheehan, American activist, running for Congress.
"So I walked into my room and bigger than life, there was a man standing by my desk holding the room phone with a screwdriver in his hand!I immediately said; "What the hell are you doing? Are you putting a bug on my phone?" He looked like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and stammered out: "N--no, we are having problems with the phone." I told him to get out of my room because my phone was fine and I called the front desk and the person at the front desk stammered something out about "problems" with some of the phones." (more)
Obviously, this was not handled well. No follow through, no credibility. Next time, get to the bottom of it. Call hotel security. Demand proof of identity. Not satisfied? Think a crime is being committed? Call the police. Press charges.
If you think you have found a bug, wiretap, spycam or other form of electronic surveillance, follow this advice.
The growth of shared Wi-Fi and other wireless computer networks has increased the risk of eavesdropping on Internet communications, but researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science and College of Engineering have devised a low-cost system that can thwart these "Man-in-the-Middle" (MitM) attacks.The system, called Perspectives, also can protect against attacks related to a recently disclosed software flaw in the Domain Name System (DNS), the Internet phone book used to route messages between computers. (more)
When was your last Wi-Fi Security Audit conducted?
Did it include a Compliance Report?
Did you know which laws require you to be Wi-Fi compliant?
Find out... here.
In the meantime...
Download a FREE copy of Perspectives for Foxfire v3.
15 new GSM bugs - eavesdropping devices which can be listened to from anywhere in the world by simply dialing their cell phone number - are featured here, and on ebay here.
Why do we mention it?
So you know your vulnerabilities.
P.S. Murray Associates developed a unique inspection method to find them.
"Oh, there’s also a poster in a window across the street that reads: If you can see this, you’re spying on me. It makes me think about how many people could be spying on me right now, what with my blinds open and desk light on, while I awkwardly blow my nose and type this entry. Then again, I’m sure I’d be watching my neighbors if I were staring out my window and someone’s light happened to be on. Voyeurism: every New Yorker’s favorite pastime - it’s like live reality TV!" ~ Nina Yiamsamatha (August 24, 2008)
Altered with the proper steganography algorithm, this innocuous picture of a cat could be a carrier for corporate espionage.
Earlier this year, someone at the United States Department of Justice smuggled sensitive financial data out of the agency by embedding the data in several image files. Defeating this exfiltration method, called steganography, has proved particularly tricky, but one engineering student has come up with a way to make espionage work against itself.Keith Bertolino, founder of digital forensics start-up E.R. Forensics, based in West Nyack, N.Y., developed a new way of disrupting steganography last year while finishing his electrical engineering degree at Northeastern University, in Boston.
FutureWatch...
Steganography is a moving target. Now exfiltrators are beginning to make use of streaming data technologies like voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Disrupting or even detecting hidden transmissions inside real-time phone calls is the next hurdle for digital forensics companies, and Hosmer says it poses a significantly more challenging problem.
(more)
Tom Keegan writes...
"I know a guy who knows a guy who got his start in the college football coaching business as a spy. This is how the spy didn’t do his job: He didn’t wear a big red “S” on his forehead. He didn’t wear a Groucho Marx nose, glasses and mustache set. He didn’t carry a briefcase.This is how the spy did his job: He peeled back a few bills from the huge wad of cash one of the coaches paid him, purchased a round-trip airline ticket, and arrived in town mid-week, late enough that if he were spotted, the enemy couldn’t redo its entire game plan. He immediately stopped at the bookstore to load up on gear, so that he could wear it around campus and blend in...
Spies don’t announce their arrivals and departures." (more)
NY - An airport employee, Jeremy Martin, apparently put a hidden camera in the women's bathroom. His female co-workers at Mattituck Airport are upset, not just about the camera, but how the company reacted when it was discovered.Police say the airport employee confessed to setting up a camera in the bathroom, and he says he realizes he has issues to deal with...Police say Martin hid the camera from July to mid August in a potted plant in the bathroom of the facility. They say anyone who used the bathroom could have been caught on camera.Authorities discovered the bathroom spying when one of 32 employees at the airport saw a device sticking out of a plant. (more)
Spy Micro Camera Watch Product Code: GGSPY004100US$236.00Features: Built-in Camera, Rechargeable Battery and 2GB Memory Resolutions: 352 x 288 pixels Video Format: AVI Battery Capacity: 270mhA Charging Interface: USB cable with adaptor
The lens is in the two.
...and Men Gone Lazy, too!
A growing number of employers are hiring private investigators to spy on employees suspected of taking leave dishonestly under the Family Medical Leave Act.Management-side attorneys claim that FMLA abuses have gotten out of hand, and employers need a tool -- in this case surveillance -- to catch malingerers using FMLA improperly. And it's been pretty successful, they said, noting that private investigators in recent years have helped catch employees bowling, doing yard work or holding second jobs when they're supposed to be out on sick leave.Employee-rights attorneys, meanwhile, view surveillance as harassment, intimidation and an interference with a worker's right to take FMLA leave. It also has a chilling effect on other employees who may not take the leave for fear of being spied on.Both sides, however, note that the courts appear to be siding with employers. (more)
New Zealand - A 25-year-old man has been charged with covertly filming unsuspecting Starbucks' customers with their pants down.
Two weeks ago a staff member of Rotorua's Starbucks cafe discovered an elaborate hidden camera operation in a toilet brush holder in a unisex toilet.
Detective Warwick Webber of Rotorua police said a 25-year-old Rotorua man had been arrested on Friday. He was facing five charges of making inappropriate visual recordings.
Police also seized the man's computer and storage devices during a search of his home on Friday. They did not believe any other toilets were involved.
Webber emphasised Starbucks was the victim and hoped people would not boycott the cafe franchise giant. (more)
UPDATE - 10/9/08 - Fei Yu Zhou, 25, has been sentenced to 200 hours community service and nine months supervision at the Rotorua District Court. (more)
As telephone conversations have moved to the Internet, so have those who want to listen in...
• The advent of computer-based telephone switches and the Internet has made it more difficult for the government to monitor the communications of criminals, spies and terrorists.
• Federal agencies want Internet companies to comply with the same wiretapping requirements that apply to telecommunications carriers. This proposal, though, may stifle Internet innovation.
• Furthermore, the new surveillance facilities might be misused by overzealous government officials or hijacked by terrorists or spies interested in monitoring U.S. communications.
A Brief History of WiretappingTo understand the current controversy over wiretapping, one must understand the history of communications technology. (more) (more) (more) (more)
The Australian Council for Civil Liberties has accused Gold Coast pubs and nightclubs of going too far by fingerprinting patrons. (more)
...in Scientific American...
Looking back at the surveillance all around us – from wiretapped phones to security cameras... over 30 articles with photos and slideshows. (more)
If you go out in the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise.
sing-a-longA carer suspected of stealing money from a terminally ill great-grandmother was caught by a secret camera hidden in a teddy bear.Mrs Sampson’s family became suspicious after they noticed £40 had gone missing from her handbag after Allen visited her Walton home in July.At the suggestion of his daughter Emma, a forensic science graduate, Mrs Sampson’s son Robert bought a small camera and hid it inside a teddy bear in his mother’s bedroom. (more) (video)Beneath the trees, where nobody sees
They'll hide and seek as long as they please
Today's the day the teddy bears catch cleptomaaan-iac!
The Defense Intelligence Agency's newly created Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center is going to have an office authorized for the first time to carry out "strategic offensive counterintelligence operations," according to Mike Pick, who will direct the program.
Such covert offensive operations are carried out at home and abroad against people known or suspected to be foreign intelligence officers or connected to foreign intelligence or international terrorist activities...
These sensitive, clandestine operations are "tightly controlled departmental activities run by a small group of specially selected people"...
In strategic offensive counterintelligence operations, a foreign intelligence officer is the target, and the main goals most often are "to gather information, to make something happen... (more)
Britain's most senior police officer of Asian origin was illegally bugged and put under surveillance on the orders of the Metropolitan police chief, leaked Scotland Yard documents have revealed.According to the papers, over 300 telephone calls of Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur were tapped in an elaborate operation overseen directly by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair. (more)
...from the seller's web site...
"Here’s a new undercover color camera designed to fit into the proliferation of personal devices (PDA’s, cell phones, MP3s, etc.) that seem to be everywhere these days.
The camera’s pinhole lens aims out of your ear, perpendicular (90°) to your target, allowing for high angle above the neck mobility. The camera has 350 lines of resolution and a super low 0.6 Lux for evening observations.
The 3.6mm lens gives you a sharp 78° field of view. Includes a hardened case, rechargeable battery pack and charger." (more)
One answer I received came with this office photo. Apparently, others have experienced not being able to remember a safe combination.
