Software Protects Computer Displays from Eavesdropping

To minimize amount of displayed information available for eavesdropping, PrivateEye Pro 1.0 uses web camera to determine when user is not looking at display and blurs contents of monitor to point where typical text is illegible. In Boss mode, program displays screen capture of user's choice when they are looking away. Eavesdropper Warnings let user see who is behind them and let eavesdroppers see that they have been caught. (more) (video)

Massachusetts - No Warrantless GPS Spying

Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling insists that police obtain a warrant before using GPS devices to spy on motorists.

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that police officers need to obtain a warrant before using a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) device to track a motorist. The ruling was handed down in the case of Everett H. Connolly who was convicted of cocaine trafficking after police traced his activities using a GPS device five years ago. (more)

Security Director Hero - The Informant!

Steven Soderbergh's movie, The Informant!, opened in movie theaters today. By all reviews, it is a winner. It is based on a true corporate intrigue story.

If it were fiction it would be a corporate espionage thriller. Because it is a true story, it is a comedy, a farce, a fiasco. Such is real life drama. (I know. I was there.)

Soderbergh has an excellent reputation for portraying realistic organizational espionage, intrigue and electronic surveillance. Remember his Valerie Plame affair series "K Street," on HBO?

If you liked "Barbarians at the Gate" (I was there, too). You'll love "The Informant!"

...one review...
A mid-level executive at a corporation called ADM, Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) works to ensure the continued good sales of the company's popular food additives, but when a mishap in the lab begins to cost the company significant amounts of money and threatens Whitacre's job, the mustachioed quasi-Everyman simply invents, out of thin air, a Japanese corporate blackmailer to whom he assigns the blame.

Enter the FBI, who might easily have caught on to Whitacre's deception had he not, in turn, spun yet another series of lies which propelled him into being the government's key witness and undercover informant in a massive corporate conspiracy case. And like all good con-jobs, Whitacre built his lies upon half-truths.

There was, indeed, a price-fixing scheme in place, but the laughable audacity with which Whitacre lead investigators through the ranks, deflecting attention from his own involvement – and subsequent embezzlement – is worthy of a standing ovation. The Informant is a one-man show, carried completely by the strength of Damon's tremendously effective performance.

Whitacre, for all intents and purposes, should be a hugely unlikeable guy, but Damon lends the character a sense of kamikaze bravado and wide-eyed whimsy that makes it impossible not to feel at least slightly sympathetic toward him. From the paunchy mid-section to the ridiculous hairpiece, Whitacre seems like the kind of guy trying desperately to move up and be taken seriously in the corporate world. (more) (the original story, summarized) (wikipedia) (The Informant - book) ('This American Life' audio version)

Although it may not be clear in the movie, or the book, the only person who identified Whitacre as unstable early on, reported it to management (was ignored), discovered Whitacre's 9 million plus dollar theft from ADM, and recovered the money, was ADM's corporate security director, Mark J. Cheviron. He is the true unsung hero of this story and one of the few top ADM executives to emerge untarnished. The old top management is gone today. Mr. Cheviron remains.
~Kevin (you can have the isle seat)

Canada's Nest of Spies

via boing boing...
Canada is apparently a hive of foreign spies and Ottawa is "crawling with them," according to an Ottawa Citizen article about a new book, titled Nest of Spies: The Startling Truth About Foreign Agents at Work Within Canada's Borders.

The book was written by an investigative journalist and a former intelligence officer with the RCMP Security Service and Canadian Security Intelligence Service. If the article is any indication, this book is just laden with intrigue and scandal. For example, it claims that 1970s/1980s Russian hockey star Vladislav Tretiak was also a spy "talent scout," recruiting new secret agents for the Soviet Union.

From the Ottawa Citizen:
Led by the Chinese but including intelligence officers from at least 20 nations including allies, the book says, the infiltrators are stealing an estimated $20 billion to $30 billion annually worth of cutting-edge research in products and technologies, other scientific, business and military know-how and political secrets. (more)

Security Director Alert - China Trip? - One Time Use Electronics

US Government recommends weighing laptop before and after each visit. Senior executives in US IT companies have been advised by the US Government to follow extremely strict policies for visits to China which extend far beyond standard software protection. The policies encourage them to leave their standard IT equipment at home and to buy separate gear only for use in China. (more)

Business Espionage - Blond Bombshells Phone

NY - It's the society scandal of the year. Two power blondes, each accused of harassing the other, in a jealous catfight turned dangerous. Now, as one is charged with a felony and faces up to four years in jail, could this be the end of both their glittering careers?

In January 2008, interior decorator Nina Freudenberger's phone started ringing off the hook.

Freudenberger, a Kirsten Dunst–lookalike with porcelain skin and long blonde hair, was used to being in high demand. Working with the famed architectural firm Costas Kondylis and Partners, she counted A-list designer Zac Posen as a friend and supporter of her work. At the time, she was even plotting to open her own Manhattan furniture boutique.

But the sudden barrage of calls that winter wasn't from friends or interested clients. Six or seven times a day, Freudenberger's phone would ring, and no one would be on the other end. Later, her voicemails would mysteriously disappear.

What's more, Freudenberger's billing statement showed that the anonymous caller was dialing from her own phone number. Confused and scared, she reported the prank calls to the police, who discovered an unlikely stalker: power publicist and social fixture Ali Wise.

Between January 2, 2008, and March 15, 2008, Wise allegedly used a device known as a SpoofCard about 54 times to hack into Freudenberger's voicemail, according to a complaint filed with the Manhattan district attorney's office.

On July 8, 2009, Wise, the head of entertainment PR at Dolce & Gabbana since 2005, was arrested and charged with computer trespass and eavesdropping. (more)

Senate Candidate Accused Of Spying

FL - It's been a short campaign, but one full of negative attack ads on the airwaves. Now, with just days to go in the race to replace the late Jim King in the Florida Senate, one candidate's family is accusing another campaign of videotaping the family house. Dan Quiggle and John Thrasher are two of the Republicans are on the ballot in the race for Florida Senate District 8... (more)

Business Espionage - The Boss Wiretapped

TX - The former general manager for the Bexar Metropolitan Water District pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of wiretapping — admissions that could send him to prison for up to 20 years and force him to testify against the utility's previous public relations consultant.

As a condition of the plea agreements, prosecutors aren't challenging Gil Olivares' request for probation. (more)

SpyCam Story #553 - The IP Guy

UK - A primary school computer consultant who set up a camera in the girls' toilets has been jailed for five years. Timothy Walters was found to have more than 26,000 indecent images of children stored on his computer, Leeds Crown Court heard.

The alarm was raised when two pupils at St Peter's School, Birstall, alerted the caretaker that they had seen something flash from the ceiling of the toilets at 12.20pm on March 4 this year. An investigation uncovered a video camera concealed behind a ceiling tile in the toilets, which was connected to a wireless router. There was also a laptop and a hard disk drive. (more)

A Short History of Wiretapping and Ramifications

Communications Surveillance: Privacy and Security at Risk
AS THE SOPHISTICATION OF WIRETAPPING TECHNOLOGY GROWS, SO TOO DO THE RISKS IT POSES TO OUR PRIVACY AND SECURITY.

We all know the scene: It is the basement of an apartment building and the lights are dim. The man is wearing a trench coat and a fedora pulled down low to hide his face. Between the hat and the coat we see headphones, and he appears to be listening intently to the output of a set of alligator clips attached to a phone line. He is a detective eavesdropping on a suspect's phone calls. This is wiretapping—as it was in the film noir era of 1930s Hollywood. It doesn't have much to do with modern electronic eavesdropping, which is about bits, packets, switches, and routers.
We start with an overview of the convoluted history of wiretapping, focusing on the United States, and then turn to issues of privacy and security. (more)

iPhone Encryption

SecurStar GmbH of Germany has added PhoneCrypt encryption for the iPhone to their line of voice security products. (more)

US Wiretapping Law - No Equal Justice for All

The News...
Police arrested a man they say caused a disturbance at a Honda dealership and who, it was later discovered, had been recording the exchange with a voice recorder in his pocket. Chi Quang Truong, 46, of 63 Flanders Road, Westborough, was arrested at 2:05 p.m. Friday at Bernardi Honda on Worcester Street... Truong has been charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, trespassing, unlawful wiretapping and possessing a device for wiretapping. (more)

The Views (#1)...
Silliest 'wiretapping' charges ever recorded
In my view it's the federal law and 38 "one-party consent" states that have this one called correctly, and the 12 others that have some explaining to do. The justification for criminalizing self-authorized self-recording has never been made clear to me; best I get from friends and colleagues is that being recorded without one's knowledge "is creepy." Yes it is, or at least in can be in some cases. But so is charging a guy with "wiretapping" just because he tossed a nutty at a car dealership. (more)

The Views (#2)...
Don't you need a wire to get charged with wiretapping?
I thought so too, and the theory here is that since Truong didn't have explicit permission to record the conversation (memories of Linda Tripp), he was slapped with the additional charges. In 12 states (California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington) you're required to get the permission of all parties on the line before making any kind of recording. In the rest of the country, any single member that's part of the conversation can legally record it without consent from the other parties. And as Network World notes, wiretapping laws largely extend to in-person communications now, so no wire is required. Still, does the punishment really fit the crime? Wiretapping is a class D felony, and that can mean (based on my admittedly limited understanding of criminal statutes) up to 12 years in prison. (more)

What's your view?
Take our new poll (top right side)

Poll Results - SpyCam'ers

The ratio of discovered spycam'ers to undiscovered is...
Nobody really knows. However, given the number of spycams we see being sold vs. the court cases being reported, your feel for it was...
1:5 -- 15%
1:10 -- 10%
1:100 -- 25%
1:500 -- 10%
1:1000 -- 45%!

Science of Spying Lecture Series

With Dave D’Auria, Acquisition Committee chairman of the National Cryptologic Museum Foundation; retired executive at the National Security Agency. “Solving the German Enigma: The Allied Code-Breaking That Helped Shorten and Win World War II.” (series information)
5:30 p.m. – Doors open, providing attendees a chance to examine the Enigma machine
7 p.m. – Lecture and Q&A
Thursday, Sept. 17, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Museum of Nature & Science, 3535 Grand Avenue, Dallas, TX
Admission: $7 - $10 Age limit: 18+

Little Buggers Spy on Neighbors and Spread Misinformation

via The Wall Street Journal...
Bacteria are the oldest living things on earth, and researchers have long felt that they must lead dull, unfussy lives. New discoveries are starting to show just how wrong that notion is. For a simple, single-cell creature, a bacterium is surprisingly social.

It can communicate in two languages. It can tell self from nonself, friend from foe. It thrives in the company of others. It spies on neighbors, spreads misinformation and even commits fratricide.

"Really, they're just stripped-down versions of us," says Bonnie Bassler, microbial geneticist at Princeton University, who has spent two decades peeking at the inner lives of bacteria. Dr. Bassler and other scientists are using this information to devise new ways to fight infections and reduce antibiotic resistance. (more) (video)

Where is our Surveillance Society headed?

via The Guardian (UK)...
Main Points
• A toxic culture of suspicion is souring our children's lives.
• Adults will find it hard to interact with young people if hysterical paranoia means they are all viewed as potential abusers.
(more)

via Atlantic Free Press...
Main Points
• New surveillance technologies increasingly threaten Americans’ civil liberties yet the public seems not to mind the ominous signs of an emerging police state, a law school professor warns.
• “If we acquiesce in technology’s wonders being utilized to track our every movement, every action, every purchase, every message — because there is benefit to us, as there is, in each of these — who is to blame when the state goes knocking on the neighbor’s door?” asks Larry Starkey, an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover. “Who is to blame when the state comes knocking on our own doors?” (more)

via The Telegraph (UK)...
Main Points
• Britain has become a ‘Big Brother’ surveillance society with “CCTV on every corner”
• Organisations have been accused of misusing the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, originally intended to tackle terrorism and organised crime, by applying the legislation to trivial matters such as littering and dog fouling.

"Teach your children well" ~Crosby Stills Nash Young

Quote of the Day - iPod Nano... spycam?

"...don't be surprised if this thing triggers a whole social wave of spy-filming.
It's totally easy to conceal... * Voice recorder. More spy fun. Each recorded audio chunk can be two hours long, although the iPod automatically begins a new chunk if your session rolls on longer."
David Pogue - The New York Times - Personal Tech Guru (more) (iPod nano)

Horny Eavesdropping Devices

Early eavesdropping was not always electronic...
Click on thumbnails to enlarge.






























Courtesy The Museum of Retro Technology.

On a smaller scale, eavesdropping could often be accomplished by using the Speaking Tube. Yes, many homes, offices and 'fine automobiles' used to have speaking tubes. You can still find them on some ships, too. (history) Of course, this should not be confused with a Whispering Tube; a story for another day.

Want one? Click here!

Rare News Item - 3 Arrested for Selling Bugs

Taiwan - The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) turned over three suspects to prosecutors yesterday for their allegedly marketing illegal bug devices.

The bureau arrested the three men surnamed Lee, Lin, and Chen after confiscating 197 sets of cutting-edge bugging instruments imported mostly from China.

The three admitted that they had been selling the instruments in their high-tech gadget stores located in Taipei City and adjacent Taipei County as well as through auction stores on the Internet.

The highly sensitive devices were in various forms like wristwatches, cigarette lighters, ballpoint pens, or buttons. (more)

Posted code enables VoIP spying

Along with keyloggers that track what you type, now we have to worry about malicious software that listens in on our voice over Internet Protocol conversations. A Symantec security blog disclosed a new Trojan horse, Tojan.Peskyspy "that records VoIP communications, specifically targeting Skype."... Eavesdropping is a risk, when it comes to industrial espionage, prying spouses or significant others, and political campaigns, as well as political dissidents. (more)

Quote of the Day

"In essence, unless the company premises have been swept for bugs, there’s no guarantee that somebody hasn’t been listening in to your conversations regarding sensitive issues. This could of course result in information regarding the company’s products or services being leaked to competitors in the field. Of course not many corporate managers like to acknowledge the fact that this could happen but the truth is; it can and does happen." - Jacques Amaya, The Tech Edition

SpyCam Story #552 - The Neighbor

FL - The Smith family was under surveillance. Every day. Every time they stepped outside their house. "We feel very violated and afraid," said Carol Smith, speaking for her husband, Terry, and their children.

The source of their fear is Timothy Dederick, with whom they had a long-running dispute over a fence on the boundary between their two properties on Evergreen Drive.

Dederick installed a sophisticated video and audio surveillance system with at least six cameras pointed right at the Smiths' home, authorities said in an affidavit. He was also listening to and recording their conversations.

When Dederick did that, authorities say, he committed a felony... (more)

FutureWatch - SenseCam, your auto diary

SenseCam is a wearable digital camera that is designed to take photographs passively, without user intervention, while it is being worn.

Unlike a regular digital camera or a cameraphone, SenseCam does not have a viewfinder or a display that can be used to frame photos. Instead, it is fitted with a wide-angle (fish-eye) lens that maximizes its field-of-view. This ensures that nearly everything in the wearer’s view is captured by the camera, which is important because a regular wearable camera would likely produce many uninteresting images.

SenseCam also contains a number of different electronic sensors. These include light-intensity and light-color sensors, a passive infrared (body heat) detector, a temperature sensor, and a multiple-axis accelerometer. These sensors are monitored by the camera’s microprocessor, and certain changes in sensor readings can be used to automatically trigger a photograph to be taken.
(more) (video)Don't laugh. Things go from geek to chic very quickly these days. Think about it. How often do you refer to your calendar program to remember what you did, when? Surveillance devices like this one will eventually become standard gear. ~Kevin

Double Agent Spyware

Parents who install a leading brand of software to monitor their kids' online activities may be unwittingly allowing the company to read their children's chat messages — and sell the marketing data gathered.

Software sold under the Sentry and FamilySafe brands can read private chats conducted through Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other services, and send back data on what kids are saying about such things as movies, music or video games. The information is then offered to businesses seeking ways to tailor their marketing messages to kids. (more)

Joseph Finder - Fiction is just his cover

This book review is so good, let's reprint it...

Is it paranoia if they’re really out to get you?
by katknit
"Corporate espionage is not one of my areas of interest, but this audio book was a gift, so I listened. I have to say, right off, that Finder knows how to write suspense. Adam is a likable protagonist, a young guy entrapped by his own naivete into an untenable predicament. What he finds himself doing, however, is sleazy. As a self-professed slacker, Adam at first feels no compunction about spying, the apparent rewards of his secret mission fueling his need to impress his hypercritical father. But in a matter of days, he finds himself drawn to the CEO of the company he’s meant to undermine, and suddenly, he’s caught in the jaws of a dilemma. For the first time in his life, Adam is forced to grapple with very real and difficult questions of morality. Falling in love only complicates the situation. Ruthless and arrogant CEO’s, high tech spy gadgets, ethical conundra, and gradually escalating danger make for a compelling story, whatever the setting. Finder’s characters are well drawn, although on occasion he goes overboard with types (i.e. Adam’s father and CEO Wyatt.) This thriller came as a pleasant surprise, gripping in spite of its business background." (source)

If this anonymous reviewer only knew...
Paranoia (published 12/04) is gripping because of its business background. You may find Finder in the fiction isle, but he has his roots digging into reality... especially the high tech spy gadgets. (He has professionals researching and fact checking.)

Joe's latest novel, Vanished (published 8/09) is another thrilling reality fiction corporate thriller. (video) ~Kevin
More novels by Joe Finder

How Team of Geeks Cracked Spy Trade

From a Silicon Valley office strewn with bean-bag chairs, a group of twenty-something software engineers is building an unlikely following of terrorist hunters at U.S. spy agencies.

One of the latest entrants into the government spy-services marketplace, Palantir Technologies has designed what many intelligence analysts say is the most effective tool to date to investigate terrorist networks. The software's main advance is a user-friendly search tool that can scan multiple data sources at once, something previous search tools couldn't do. That means an analyst who is following a tip about a planned terror attack, for example, ... (more)

To my security colleagues...
Need a job?
They are looking for an
Information Security Officer.

Wannabeanextra Tip: Crusie + Diaz = Spy Flick

MA - Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and other Hollywood names are heading to Massachusetts for two and a half weeks of filming for an upcoming untitled blockbuster. Filming begins Sept. 15 at Worcester Regional Airport, but crews are already preparing two locations, the airport and a field in Bridgewater, for their roles in the movie. The action comedy, with the working title "Untitled Wichita Project," is about a secret agent, Cruise, who periodically runs into the same young single woman, Diaz. (more)

Counterintelligence Agent - Essential Knowledge

15 of History’s Most Notable Spies
A career in espionage is easily one of the most coveted of all childhood fantasies, due largely to the unending stream of spy movies, comics, books, and real-life stories we’re inundated with growing up. While James Bond is at the top of everyone’s list, in reality things can be a bit different; spies come in all shapes and sizes, and range from honorable to just plain criminal. Some are remembered for their daring and others for their half-witted desperation and lust for money, but one thing rides certain throughout the disparate stories they tell: It takes guts to be a spy. While the greatest spies will, by virtue of their success, never be known to us (like electronic surveillance, only the failures make the news), these are the 15 most notable spies in our recent history.

Who should be on a top 15 spies list?
The question is open to debate. If your favorite didn't make the list, send me their name. I will add them below...

Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy. He is celebrated as a hero in Israel because he has been credited with being a deciding factor in the outcome of the Six-Day War. Caught when his radio transmissions - from Syria to Israel - were detected. (more) (more)

Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids

For those of you in the US...
Enjoy the holiday weekend and the last few days of summer.

Here to play off the Security Scrapbook - Summer Edition
is The Onion's news team.
Spoof or brilliant idea?
You decide.
(Alternate play off ending.)

"Yes We Can”

via PCWorld.com...
The chorus of folks singing "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" just got a little bigger and louder yesterday, after the Obama Administration issued "new" rules for border laptop searches that bear an uncanny resemblance to the old rules. (more)

q.v. "Obama's cookies may not go down so easy"

PCWorld's point...
"If you care about your data, leave your laptop at home."

FutureWatch...

ET, Spy Phome

The Motion Detecting Telephone.
This is the telephone that detects motion and silently calls whatever number you desire, allowing you to monitor the sound in the room.

It's microphone allows you to listen in on sounds and conversations, enabling you to verify if it's just your cleaning service, a neighbor watering your prized orchids, or a more nefarious plot. Ideal for use in vacation homes or any time you are away, the phone looks like a typical corded telephone and plugs into a standard telephone outlet, requiring no service fees.

It has a sensitive motion detector; when you position it to face a doorway or window and someone triggers the detector, the phone will automatically call any number your enter and let you listen. It also functions as a normal telephone. 8" L x 3" W x 3" D. (11/2 lbs.) Item 77276 $59.95 (more)

Spy Pen May Kill $27 Billion Lawsuit

The oil giant Chevron said Monday that it had obtained video recordings of meetings in Ecuador this year that appear to reveal a bribery scheme connected to a $27 billion lawsuit the company faces over environmental damage at oil fields it operated in remote areas of the Amazon forest in Ecuador, The New York Times’s Simon Romero and Clifford Krauss reported.

The videos, together with audio recordings obtained by businessmen using watches and pens implanted with bugging devices, appear to implicate Ecuadoran officials and political operatives, including possibly Juan Núñez, the judge overseeing the lawsuit, and Pierina Correa, the sister of Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa...

The recordings, which Chevron placed on its Web site, are the latest twist in a 16-year legal battle over oil contamination of jungle areas in northern Ecuador. (more)

No kidding! Two hours of covert surveillance video (in Spanish with English sub-titles), with .pdf transcripts, are on Chevron's Web site. A real-life corporate sting. Fascinating.

Think they were using high-tech, expensive surveillance devices?
Think again...
Watch the recordings made with aSpyder Agent Watch purchased out of the SkyMall catalog, and a SkyMall Pen 1: "Sky Mall, Spyer Agent Watch" (Recordings and watch no longer on site.)
Recording 2: "Sky Mall, Spyer Agent Watch" and "Sky Mall, Spy Pen"
Recording 3: "Sky Mall, Spyer Agent Watch" and "Sky Mall, Spy Pen"Recording 4: "Sky Mall, Spyer Agent Watch"

Watch: $149.95
Pen: $149.99
Look on Judge's face: Priceless

Why is this important to you?
Cheap, effective, surveillance gadgets can easily be turned against you and your company.

In this case, a $3 million dollar bribery scheme is revealed, and a $27 billion lawsuit may be lost.

Imagine the damage electronic eavesdropping could do in your business.

Bugs, taps, video and voice recorders provide extreme leverage. For less than the cost of a good dinner out with friends, fortunes can be moved and careers wrecked.

Recommendation: Get a good counterespionage specialist on your team, today.

Two History Spy Mysteries

Mystery 1
Could world-changing series of events in the last century have been influenced by an American president's mistress?

That's one question posed in Cleveland attorney and writer Jim Robenalt's book "The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage during the Great War." The book deals with (Warren G.) Harding's 15-year affair with Carrie Phillips, the wife of a prominent Marion businessman, and suggests that Phillips may have become a German spy.

The author also questions whether Phillips convinced Harding not to run for the presidency in 1916, which could have affected the United States' involvement in World War I as well as events that later influenced Nazi leader Adolph Hitler's rise to power. (more)

Mystery 2
Was this beekeeper a spy for Stalin?

Dorothy Constance Galton, a university secretary and bee keeper, was investigated by security services who believed she was acting as a go-between for Stalin, secret files disclose.

Galton also came to the attention of the notorious double agent Kim Philby at MI6 who wanted to know what Security Service knew about her.

Her file shows she visited Leningrad on the SS Sibier in August 1934, and by January 1935 was working at London University and had been elected as a delegate from the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries. (more)

Buck Howdy - Wiretapper DNA Gone Good

Life is strange. Take a moment to listen to a Roy Rodgers / Rolling Stones mash-up “Hey! You! Get off of my cow!” The artist is Buck Howdy, a singing cowboy, specializing in kid-friendly tunes. He’s also a genuine, tractor-driving, turkey farmer.

Ok, now that you have stopped laughing...

Buck Howdy: “I inherited my geek DNA from my dad [Jim Vaus Jr.]. As a kid my dad helped me build a ham radio and then I got my broadcast license WN2FEZ was my call sign.

He was a HUGE geek - he invented wiretapping and tracing phone calls - and then employed his skills at the same time for the L.A. Syndicate (mob), the police and Hollywood movie stars all at the same time!

He also invented the machine that they patterned the big sting in the movie “The Sting” after - where they were supposedly intercepting horse race results on the wire service - and then delaying those results just long enough to place bets on the horses.”

(Jim Vaus cleaned up his act, by the way. You can find out more in his book, “Why I Quit Syndicated Crime,” the basis of the 1955 movie Wiretapper.) (more)

I know a few folks from the Vaus clan.
They are really wonderful people. ~Kevin

The Unsolicited "Gift" USB Stick

This is the scariest thing I saw during our bug sweeps this past week. It was sitting on top of a corporate president's desk.

Anyone can have custom printing put on USB sticks. (Not knowing if the printing on this one was legitimate or fake, I blurred the top two lines.) They can also load the stick with a megaton blast of spyware, destructive malware or a fast spreading virus that hits your corporate nervous system like Tourette's Syndrome.

Put the trick-stick into a pretty package. Mass mail it to company employees. Good chance one of them will open their Pandora's Box.

My new corporate client was not completely naive. They had a USB lock-out policy in place. The USB ports were turned off on all employee computers... except top executives, who were exempt from the policy.

Worried about your USB ports?
Good, here is a plan...
• Try USB lock-out software. You can get a Free 30-day trial from Lumension.
• Identify employees who have a real need to have their ports unlocked.
• Give them a clear education about the USB vulnerability.
• Let them know they will be responsible for their security lapses.
• Ask them if they are really sure they want their ports left open.
~Kevin