Testimonial - The Photocopier Security Problem

"Regarding photocopier security, I recovered 8,308 files from a high-capacity Xerox copier in the summer of 2008. The copier was several years old, shared by perhaps two dozen employees, and had a 4 gigabyte IDE hard disk. I recovered both scanned and photocopied TIFF images from user activity as well as TXT, HTML, DOC, PDF, and GIF files. I also recovered about 900 email addresses and file names." ~ from a newsgroup posting this week by a professional electronic evidence recovery specialist.

Photocopier security is only one element of an overall counterespionage strategy. If your organization does not have one. (Or, if you are not sure of the effectiveness of your current one.) Please engage the services of an independent counterespionage security consultant. Don't know where to find one? Click here for a jump start.

How Do They Do It - Cracking Your Wi-Fi

In China, they sell full Wi-Fi hacking kits. 
Any teckie can cobble together their own...

"The main piece of the kits, an adapter with a six-inch antenna that plugs into a USB port, comes with a CD-ROM to install its driver and a separate live CD-ROM that boots up an operating system called BackTrack. In BackTrack, the user can run applications that try to obtain keys for two protocols used to secure Wi-Fi networks, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). After a successful attack by the applications, called Spoonwep and Spoonwpa, a user can restart Windows and use the revealed key to access its Wi-Fi network." (more) (videos)

SmartWater - "I've been slimed!"

Here is a theft deterrent idea... 

What if you could spray your valuables with an invisible DNA-like identifier, unique to you. What if this brilliant agua could also be used to link a suspect to the scene of the crime. What if this water could only be seen using ultra-violet light. You would probably say, "That's smart water." (knock, knock) Excuse me. (whisper, whisper)

Right, well then... apparently this has already been done.

"SmartWater delivers proven crime reduction strategies customised to the needs of your business. Widely used within intelligence-led policing operations, and proven to deter criminals on a sustained basis, SmartWater is now available to the commercial sector." (video)

Security Clearance - What you 'need to know'

FREE
Security Clearance Handbook
All you need to know to get cleared or stay cleared!

The shortage of IT professionals holding security clearances grows rapidly. To really accelerate your career you need to maintain or obtain a security clearance. To help you, the University of Fairfax has assembled a comprehensive handbook with 100's of facts and FAQs. The topics covered by this handbook include:
- How to obtain your security clearance.
- How to reactivate your inactive clearance.
- Who may or may not be eligible for a clearance.
- What can prevent you from getting a clearance.
- How long it can take to get a clearance.
- PLUS MUCH MORE! 

(booklet)

Can a Tin Foil Hat Protect Your Crazy Brain?

Mrfixitrick demonstrates the Faraday effect of a tinfoil hat by blocking the EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) from a typical wireless modem. (video)

No word yet on whether the Bowler or Pork Pie style works best. Personally, I would opt for a Sandy Becker Hambone Pith Helmet.

A New Windows Virus (that nothing can stop?!?!)

via zdnet.com...

Are you a Windows user? Do you make sure that your antivirus program is updated regularly? Do you feel safe? You shouldn’t! Read on to find out why …

Security researchers at Matousec.com have come up with an ingenious attack that can bypass every Windows security product tested and allow malicious code to make its way to your system.

Yes, you read that right - every Windows security product tested. And the list is both huge and sobering... (more)

What Does a Spy Look Like?

"In the world of espionage, an umbrella is a pistol, a pen a microphone and that quiet kid at Starbucks a KGB informant. Nothing is what it seems. Inviting the public to look through the eyes of a spy and question the seemingly normal world around them, Red Tettemer created a provocative piece of interactive media. As pedestrians pass the unit, it detects their motion and transforms the clean-cut gentleman into three elaborate disguises: a longhaired drifter, an Indian woman and a well-aged senior citizen." Visit the International Spy Musuem (more)

What it takes to be a TSCM tech for a U.S. government contractor...

"The candidate will assist in all aspects of of TSCM management that involves technical security (including TEMPEST) entailing new construction, modification, accreditation, re-accreditation, withdrawal and advice and assistance (SAV). The candidate will help schedule and perform TSCM evaluations and security staff visits of facilities locate CONUS/OCONUS, provide comprehensive, risk-based technical security advice, guidance, and general security support to program offices and contractor facility security offices. The candidate will prepare written correspondence to include facility file reports, cable messages, approvals, status/technical briefs and inspections reports, SAV reports, maintain databases; which includes entering new data and correspondence and quality controlling file records. Conduct analysis of complex technical, surveillance, counter surveillance, surveillance detection or other technical vulnerabilities. Provide technical support to projects in areas such as training, logistics, acquisition and technical counterintelligence investigations. Assists in developing and monitoring project tasks and schedules. Maintain a thorough knowledge of all technical security governing directives.

The candidate must be a graduate of the Interagency Training Center for TSCM and an EXPERT in two of the following areas: a) Counterintelligence , b) Automated Information Systems, c) Lock and Key Control Systems, d) Access Control Systems, g) TEMPEST, h) DoD SCIF construction standards.

Experience using a variety of ADP systems that include Microsoft Office applications (e.g. Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint). Requires a Bachelors degree and 10-12 years experience." (more)

I believe subjecting people to PowerPoint goes against the Geneva Convention. P.S. The job requires 75% travel.

It Didn't Start With Nixon

UK - MI5 used hidden electronic surveillance equipment to secretly monitor 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet and at least five Prime Ministers...

The extraordinary disclosure comes despite a succession of parliamentary statements that no such bugging ever took place.

...top-secret files held by the Security Service show it installed electronic listening devices in three highly sensitive areas of No10 – the Cabinet Room, the Waiting Room and the Prime Minister’s study.

It means that for nearly 15 years, all Cabinet meetings, the offices of senior officials and all visitors to the Prime Minister – including foreign leaders – were being bugged... 

[Harold] Wilson hired private security firms to sweep his office for listening devices and was said to have pointed out electric light fittings to Downing Street visitors, indicating that they might be bugged. (more)

SpyCam Story #578 - The Case of the Silent H

UK - A university lecturer planted a camera in a bathroom air freshener so he could spy on students as they showered.

Paul Hwang, who has taught and studied at Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard, hid the digital camera in the house he was renting out to six women.

Yesterday the 33-year-old's illustrious teaching career was in ruins after he pleaded guilty to voyeurism. (more)

Police Chief Sentenced for Bugging

MN - The former police chief of Gaylord was sentenced Monday on one charge of misconduct of a public official, for an alleged "bugging" scheme. 
 
Dale Lee Roiger, 60, was sentenced to a stay of imposition for one year and was placed on probation. As part of his probation, Roiger must complete 15 days of electronic home monitoring, 15 days of community service and pay a fine of $835, among other conditions.

Roiger was accused of having one of his officers secretly plant a digital recorder to see if City Council members were meeting illegally at the Chamber of Commerce office. (more)

SpyCam Story #577 - Turkish Delights

Mission Impossible? 

You decide.

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party has resigned after the release of grainy video footage purporting to show him having an affair with one of his MPs.

The nine minutes and 23 seconds of silent footage, seemingly shot with a hidden camera, allegedly shows Deniz Baykal, 71, veteran leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nesrin Baytok, 50, his former private secretary and now a CHP deputy, speaking in the presence of another man in one clip, and getting dressed alone in a bedroom in another.

Mr Baykal claimed he was a victim of a government-orchestrated plot...

"This is not a sex tape, this is a conspiracy," he said. "If this has a price, and that price is the resignation from CHP leadership, I am ready to pay it. My resignation does not mean running away, or giving in. On the contrary, it means that I'm fighting it." (huh?) (more) (more)

Trend: Executive and high profile clients are requesting us to inspect hotel rooms and private aircraft more often these days. Calls from politicians might be next.

Encryption Can't Stop The Wiretapping Boom

As encryption technologies have outpaced the mathematical methods of breaking crypto schemes, law enforcement has feared for years that scrambled messages between evildoers (or law-breaking activists) would thwart their snooping. But it seems that either lawbreakers aren't using encryption, or those privacy tools simply don't work...the number of cases in which law enforcement encountered encryption as a barrier: one.

According to the courts, only one wiretapping case in the entire country encountered encryption last year, and in that single case, whatever privacy tools were used don't seemed to have posed much of a hurdle to eavedroppers. "In 2009, encryption was encountered during one state wiretap, but did not prevent officials from obtaining the plain text of the communications," reads the report. (more) (annual wiretap report)


The information security consultant's delimena: How to convince business executives to use encryption when even the criminals can't be bothered with it?

...and you thought volcanic ash was wild.

From the FutureWatch department...

In the 1990s, a researcher named Kris Pister dreamed up a wild future in which people would sprinkle the Earth with countless tiny sensors, no larger than grains of rice.

These "smart dust" particles, as he called them, would monitor everything, acting like electronic nerve endings for the planet. Fitted with computing power, sensing equipment, wireless radios and long battery life, the smart dust would make observations and relay mountains of real-time data about people, cities and the natural environment.

Now, a version of Pister's smart dust fantasy is starting to become reality... (not rice-sized yet, however)

The latest news comes from the computer and printing company Hewlett-Packard, which recently announced it's working on a project it calls the "Central Nervous System for the Earth." In coming years, the company plans to deploy a trillion sensors all over the planet. (more)

From our "never give a sucker an even break" files.

A businessman who supplied the Botswana Police Service (BPS) with spying equipment to eavesdrop on the cell phone and electronic mail conversations of all citizens without a search warrant, intends suing the government after the Police failed to pay him.

...it appeared that the transaction went sour when the equipment did not perform as the Police expected. The system was to detect all cell phone conversations without being detected by the service providers. It emerged that the system could only detect calls from only one of the three mobile operators and was unable to detect calls from the other two, thus failing the test. (more)

Moral: "You can't cheat an honest man."

Michelin Spy Re-tired

Marwan Arbache, a former Michelin executive, has been found guilty of trying to sell industrial secrets to the company’s main competitor Bridgestone. 

What particularly seems to have grieved Michelin, which already has a well-deserved reputation for stringent security surrounding its industrial secrets, is the fact that their former employee was trying to sell secrets relating to what the AFP news agency called “new tyre manufacturing techniques for heavy transport designed to improve durability.” (more)

How Do They Do It - Codebreaking

Seattle startup Pico Computing squeezes a cryptographic supercomputer into a breadbox...

...Not every customer has the know-how or the motivation to coax FPGAs into those cryptographical feats. But the three-letter agencies that buy Pico's code-breaking systems have both, and Pico offers them versions aimed at breaking everything from the Wireless Protected Access protocol used in Wi-Fi signals to the Filevault encryption found on Mac computers. (more)

Spyware Comes to the iPad

Retina-X Studios, LLC, announced today the immediate availability of Mobile Spy for the Apple iPad. ...users can silently view all email messages, web site visits and other information... even if histories are deleted. Mobile Spy runs in total stealth mode and no mentions of the program are shown inside the iPad. After the software is set up on the device, it silently records the contents of all emails sent or received. The software also records web addresses visited in Safari and any contact added to the iPad's contacts list. (more)

Spybusters Tip #732 - Copy Center Warning

Many office photocopiers - especially the larger and networked models - store the data they copy on an internal hard-drive memory. While this is helpful, it also poses a very serious espionage vulnerability. Old copy jobs remain on the disk and may be easily reprinted by other people who have access to the machine. Even when the job is deleted the data remains on the drive waiting to be over-written. When the lease is up or the machine is sold anyone could get your information.

Recommendations...
1. Photocopy confidential information without using the memory feature. If this is not possible...

2. Use the delete feature immediately after photocopying sensitive documents. If the risk is extreme...

3. Photocopy using a simpler machine; one without an internal memory.

"If you don't wipe, they will swipe." ~Kevin

Some photocopiers have easily removable hard drives which may be placed in a safe at the end of the day. Others have disk wipe options available. Keep these options in mind when purchasing a high-end photocopier.

Manufacturer’s security solutions:
• Canon - imageRUNNER Security Kit   
• Sharp - Data Security Kit
• Xerox - Image Overwrite Option
• Konica Minolta - Security Strengthen Mode
• Lanier - DataOverwrite Security System (DOSS)
• Savin - DataOverwrite Security System (DOSS)
• Ricoh - DataOverwriteSecurity System (DOSS)
• HP - Security Documents (1) (2)

Still don't believe?

Watch this...

Combine it with e-ink and never recycle newspapers again!

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have successfully coated paper with a solar cell, part of a suite of research projects aimed at energy breakthroughs. (more) (e-ink)

The Security Scrapbook Mobile Phone App

Kevin's Security Scrapbook has a mobile phone app. 

FREE download at getjar.com.

Compatible with: Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola, LG and dozens more. Search: "Spybusters"

Special thanks to the crew at SachManya, app-smiths.

Security Director Alert: Cell Phone Warning

The Bad News...

Two researchers say they have found a way to exploit weaknesses in the mobile telecom system to legally spy on people by figuring out the private cell phone number of anyone they want, tracking their whereabouts, and listening to their voice mail. — Independent security researcher Nick DePetrillo and Don Bailey, a security consultant with iSec Partners.

The Really Bad News...

"These attack scenarios are applicable to corporations and individual users alike," DePetrillo said. "Corporations specifically should start to take a look at their security policies for executives as this can impact a business very hard, with insider trading, tracking of executives, etc." (more)

The Really Really Bad News...

It doesn't look like the phone companies will (or can) fix this situation.

Spycam Story #576 - Weird Want Ad

Spycam Videographer Needed
Description I am looking for an experienced videographer to videotape using a spy cam video camera for Thursday, May 6. If interested, please provide link to some spy cam footage as well as what equipment you'll be using and your rates. (more)

How Your Competitors May Be Tracking You

ChangeDetection.com

KeywordSpy.com

Compete.com

Of course, you can use these tools, too. ~Kevin

Wise PR Ali

NYC - Disgraced publicity princess Ali Wise tip-tapped into a Manhattan courtroom in beige patent leather stilettos this morning, 'fessing up to a wacky voicemail snooping rampage in a deal that will keep her out of jail.

The beautiful former publicity director for Dolce & Gabbana took a felony plea to eavesdropping and computer trespassing. The feisty fashionista admitted she repeatedly hacked into the cell phone voicemails of two women she wanted to spy on last year -- including interior designer Nina Freudenberger.

Freudenberger and Wise have an ex-boyfriend in common -- Josh Deutsch, the CEO and founder of Downtown Records. (more)

New: Cybercrime Investigations without Tapping

Qatar - An official at the Cyber Crime Unit at the Interior Ministry denied that Qatar was tapping phones, any other telecommunication devices or blocking political websites attacking the country.
  

Captain Ali al-Kobeisi, an officer at Cyber Crime Unit said that the Interior Ministry did not establish the Anti-Cyber Crimes Unit for eavesdropping on people, but to protect them.

“We do not tap phones, Blackberry devices or discussion forum websites. We do not eavesdrop on anyone. This unit is not for tapping. (more)

SpyCam Story #575 - Not Feeling Lucky Anymore

India - The Swedish model Lucky Farmhouse, who used a spycam to expose her boyfriend Yaniv Benaim's links with Goa police, says she has enough to establish a clear nexus between the police and Goa's notorious drug mafia.

"I have not put out all the (spycam) recordings because I need to save those in case they will be coming after me. If they make any problem for me in the future, I will put it out," Lucky said in an email interview from Sweden on Monday.

The 33-year-old model, who was living-in with Atala, had shocked the Goa police after she posted her boyfriend's clippings on social networking website youtube.com. (more) (more)

Protect Your Social Notworking Privacy

The Paradox of Exposing Without Exposing...

• Facebook Safety: A Primer 
• Facebook: 5 Privacy Settings You Must Tweak Now
• New Threat: Undetectable Facebook Scams
• Your Facebook Profile May Be Sold by Russian Hacker
• Facebook Hopes to Discuss Privacy With Sen. Schumer

Facebook Books...
Facebook For Dummies 
The Truth About Facebook - Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know, and Much More - The Facts You Should Know
Facebook for Parents: Answers to the Top 25 Questions

SpyCam Story #574 - Bath Man

MI - A Pellston man facing multiple felony charges for allegedly using a hidden camera and computer in his home to obtain sexually explicit images... Jaimie Emanuel McDonald, 36, was arrested March 2 by the Emmet County Sheriff’s Department, after two individuals in his home discovered a hidden camera shooting through a two-way mirror in the bathroom they had been using.

An affidavit in district court states that McDonald’s video camera was attached to a nearby computer, which captured the images of three victims — one of whom is under the age of 18 — taking showers and using the toilet... McDonald had allegedly been capturing video for five months — September 2009 to February 2010.

Originally, McDonald faced seven felonies... however, three more charges were added against him in a separate case, relating to the same incident, when another victim came forward. (more)

New BlackBerry SpyWare

US software firm Retina-X Studios on Tuesday released a more vigilant version of its Mobile Spy program that captures every email and picture from BlackBerry smartphones...

The previous version of Mobile Spy software kept track of text messaging and telephone calls, providing online access to data by employers, parents or whoever else is paying for smartphone accounts.

New Mobile Spy 4.0 software also provides employers or parents with smartphone contacts, calendar events, memos and records of which mobile phone towers a device was within range range of, according to Retina-X...

Versions of Mobile Spy are available for iPhone devices as well as for smartphones running on Android, Symbian, or Windows Mobile software, according to the Retina-X website.

Monitoring by Mobile Spy software is designed to go unnoticed after the software is installed on smartphones, the company said. The monitoring service is available for an annual subscription of 100 dollars. (more)

When bugs, taps and spies just aren't enough...

China to Enforce New Encryption Rules
China is set to implement new rules that would require makers of certain electronic equipment to disclose key encryption information to be eligible for government procurement sales, creating a possible showdown with foreign companies that are unlikely to comply. 

Beginning Saturday, makers of six categories of technology products, including smart cards, firewall technology and Internet routers, will have to disclose encryption codes to authorities for certification to participate in bidding for government purchases. Such encryption information is closely guarded by companies, and industry officials say foreign companies that fall under the new rules are unlikely to comply, which could mean they are cut off from government contracts for those products...

 

Disclosing encryption information is "something companies cannot and will not do," said Jorg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China at a briefing last week, because such codes are often kept secret by companies for both competitive and security reasons. 

Two companies that are likely to be affected by the rules are Gemalto NV, a maker of smart cards and other digital security products, and Cisco Systems Inc., the U.S. network-equipment giant. Cisco declined to comment on the new rules. Gemalto didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. (more)

Gordon Brown - Hot Miked

UK - Eight days before the U.K.'s hotly contested election, Prime Minister Gordon Brown committed the campaign's biggest gaffe on Wednesday when a live microphone caught him calling a voter "bigoted" after she confronted him over government policies including immigration... In an interview later with the British Broadcasting Corp., a visibly distressed Mr. Brown apologized to the voter over the incident... (more)

"But I didn't break a law." "No problem. We fix."

A month after the conviction of Australian citizen Stern Hu for taking kickbacks and stealing trade secrets, China has issued definitions of what constitutes commercial secrets...

They were published late on Monday. China's lack of clarification of state or commercial secrets, highlighted by the Rio employees' trials, has alarmed both Chinese and foreign investors. (more)

The Tale of the Trojan Kid

NY - A Granville man was charged with eavesdropping Saturday after his ex-girlfriend discovered a recording device hidden in a child's backpack, police said.

Donald A. Connolly, 34, of Route 22, was charged with felony eavesdropping after someone in the ex-girlfriend's home spotted a red light on a 4-year-old's backpack, Glens Falls Police Sgt. Keith Knoop said.

Knoop described the incident as follows:
Connolly and the ex-girlfriend have a 4-year-old child in common. Connolly had dropped the child off at the woman's Glens Falls home Saturday, and a short time later the light was spotted on the backpack. They found what appeared to be a recording device sewn into the backpack, and brought it to the Police Department. Police confirmed it was an audiorecorder. (more)

Electronic surveillance: Report of the National Commission for the Review of Federal and State Laws Relating to Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance (Paperback)

"The book provides a background briefing on surveillance technology as it existed in 1976 - although classified devices of the period are not covered. There is a comprehensive description of telephone tapping techniques, wireless transmitters and how their transmissions are concealed, non-audio eavesdropping and tape-recording technology. Coverage is thorough and includes numerous block diagrams but no circuits or schematics. There is a section on counter measures (TSCM) which mostly emphasises how difficult this task is and another on the falsification of recordings." reviewed by John A. Faulkner "signalsnatcher" (Sydney, NSW, Australia)

Smith & Jones - Back in Black

Forget you ever read this...

Men In Black director Barry Sonnenfeld has confirmed Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones's involvement in the new sequel. The filmmaker added that the movie will also be made in 3D and could be the big blockbuster release for May 2011's Memorial Day weekend. (more)

Bollygate I

India - ...a wiretap scandal is set to capture the attention of Parliament next week after media reports alleged that advanced tapping technology acquired by the government had been used to listen in on the conversations of opposition leaders as well as some Congress politicians.

The Indian version of the Watergate scandal surfaced in a report on Friday, claiming that sophisticated equipment meant to eavesdrop on and track terrorists and terror suspects had been used to spy on the conversations of the Congress's Digvijay Singh, NCP leader Sharad Pawar and CPM general secretary Prakash Karat. (more)

Bollygate II

India - Even as ... the alleged tapping of the phones of political leaders and senior bureaucrats is creating ripples in political circles, the fact remains that ordinary citizens are vulnerable to eavesdropping what with the advanced equipment used for the purpose. The new off-the-air GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) monitoring device, which has been used to track calls in the present case as claimed by the magazine, can be deployed anywhere. The device needs no authorisation as the phone is not being tapped at the exchange; it is only the signals that are intercepted between the phone and the cellphone tower and recorded on a hard disk.

The equipment can track and tap into any cellphone conversation within a two-km radius.

If this is not impressive enough, there are technologies available in the market that can convert your cellphone into an intelligence system by activating special software, to spy on you... a leading provider of analysis and surveillance solutions, has a technology that allows one to listen in to all phone calls made or received by the target handset, and also forwards all incoming and outgoing messages (SMS) on the target handset to a pre-defined number...

Interestingly, the application allows one to listen to a room conversation from anywhere in the world. It enables the user from the pre-defined number to call the phone when it is switched off and listen to the conversations taking place around the phone. (more)

Bollygate III

India - Even as various political leaders expressed outrage at reports that the government was eavesdropping on their telephone conversations, the UPA Government appeared gearing up to face the heat... Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said, “We are getting this examined. We have taken note of it and it is being looked into.” (more)

SpyCam Story #573 - Bollygate IV

India - An office-boy of a call centre was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly installing a spy-camera in the ladies' lavatory in the office, police said.

Sanjay was apprehended following investigations into a complaint filed by a call centre in north-west Delhi's Peetampura and its women employees after they found a spy-camera in a packet of freshener. (more)

Spybusters Tip # 823 - Two Wiretaps You Can Find Yourself

Imagine this...

• Partners in a business have a falling out, but one of them seems to know everything.

• The founder of a growing company is forced out, but still seems to know everything.

• A divorce is pending. The husband moves out, but still seems to know everything.

Q. "How could this be?"

A. The other person may have purchased a legal wiretap... from the phone company!
(The act of eavesdropping is still illegal, however.)

Q. "What can I do?"

A. Pick up a different phone and search for it.

Call your local phone company business office. Review your account. Specifically, look for an OPX or an FX, which your "partner" may have added.

An OPX is an Off Premise Extension. It is just what it sounds like; an extension phone, located in the same area served by your exchange, but somewhere else.

An FX is a Foreign Exchange. Same as an OPX, but located in some other exchange or area code.

Bonus Spybusters Tip...

Q. Not receiving all you calls? 

Are people leaving voice mail messages, but you never hear them, or they show up late? Check your account for Remote Access to Call Forwarding. This feature allows the other person to redirect your calls, at will, from anywhere, to anywhere. 

Once engaged, they can answer your customer's calls - using your company name, or send them to their own voice mail (using a recording of your voice mail greeting). They may even selectively transfer these intercepted messages back to your voice mail - possibly edited. (Think Mission Impossible).

Double Bonus Spybusters Tip...

Double check the number of phone lines listed as coming to your address. This should exactly match the number of lines you think you have. Any extras? Call a qualified TSCM specialist for a sweep. 

Triple Bonus Spybusters Tip...

Once you have sorted all this out with your local phone company business office, ask them to "flag" your account. This means they will only discuss your account, and make changes, if they are given the correct password. Pick a good password. Don't use "Afganistan Banana Stand," that's mine. Don't tell anyone what your password is.

"Is that a snooper in your pocket, or are you just glad to hear me?"

...via the seller's web site...

Works on wooden walls, doors, windows, steel plates, etc. 

Highly Sensitive, carefully adjust audio slowly, as not to cause discomfort to your ear-buds.

This product is being sold as an investigative tools for law enforcement or licensed investigators. Anyone else ordering this device should only be ordering it as a simple toy since MANY COUNTRIES STRICTLY PROHIBIT OWNERSHIP OF SPY DEVICES. (more)

Why do I mention it?

So you will know what you're up against.

Lost Tracking Device Found Moonlighting

The Orange County district attorney’s office filed charges Thursday against a former Costa Mesa police officer suspected of hiding a tracking device inside a woman’s vehicle, then showing up at places she would frequent, according to a news release.

Aaron Paul Parsons, 30, was charged with one misdemeanor count of unlawful use of an electronic tracking device. If convicted, he faces a maximum of six months in jail...

After several encounters, the woman became suspicious and checked her car, finding the device apparently belonging to the Costa Mesa Police Department. She immediately reported it to police. (more)

Espionage Bumble, Brilliant Marketing or...

 Drunken idiot employee? You decide.

"You are looking at Apple's next iPhone. It was found lost in a bar in Redwood City, camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS." (more, with video)

Cell Phone Spyware - Beware

The Internet ad claims... for $99.95 and 5 minutes of your time, you too can spy on any cell phone in the world! 

Sound too good to be true? Read the hype. You decide.

• Unleash the very latest technology that allows you to spy on any Cell Phone, Laptop or Bluetooth enabled device...

• Not just one program but an entire suite of programs designed to work with old phones, new phones, smart phones, java phones -There is a solution for any phone out there...

• INSTANT DOWNLOAD - PURCHASE RIGHT NOW!

• That means that in as little as 5 minutes you can be checking any phone you want.  

• ...instantly you will be reading your wife's SMS/text messages, listening to your kid's phone conversation, even knowing what your boss or your neighbor is saying. All of this is done in stealth mode. This means they will never know that you are doing this. And this works on ALL phones. Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, Blackberry, absolutely all of them. This will work in all countries, on all networks.

• "Will I have to install any software on the phone(s) I wish to spy on?"
No. This product only needs to be installed on your phone. (more)

You may also want to read the fine print before pressing that "Download" button. 
Legal Info - Refund Policy

"There is no guarantee that this product will do what it claims to do;" 
"The product, service or membership referenced herein is sold with a no refund policy allowed. All sales are final!" (more)

You've been warned.
Learn more about Cell Phone Privacy here.  ~Kevin

CSI your USB

"We're going to show you how to mimic Microsoft's offering (Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor) using open-source software to unlock Windows accounts, investigate suspicious activity, see any file on a Windows disk and even peruse files that others believe have been permanently deleted." (more) 

Quick Take...

• Grab an old USB stick. (2GB or more)

• Read the directions. (here)

• Load BackTrack 4 onto your stick. (BackTrack 4 download)

(ta-daaaa!) 

• Now pretend you are William Petersen

Employee Spies on Boss (Oh, both are cops.)

The Botswana Police Service has suspended a senior police officer barely four months after he returned to work following his suspension arising from charges that he was allegedly involved in irregularities relating to tender procedures for the purchase of high-tech equipment to eavesdrop on cell phone and electronic mail conversations. This time around the officer was suspended for allegedly hacking his boss’s computer, thereby accessing privileged information. (more)

"Just one of my old CDs, officer."

There's a potential new form of steganography -- the sending of messages in ways that leave no hint the messages even exists -- that could lead to corporate data loss via CDs. (more)

Report... Espionage Goes Commercial

via securityinfowatch.com...

"Today, I've been perusing a new report from the Defense Security Service (DSS), and if you've been thinking espionage ended with the Cold War and exists today only in James Bond movies, think again! This report looks at how espionage -- either through human contact or through technology infiltrations -- is targeting U.S. Defense Department contractors, especially in regards to new technology related to UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)...

So, the point is that the espionage is being pushed out into the commercial arena, rather than from traditional government spies. But how involved are the governments, really? Are they facilitating commercial contact for espionage purposes? It's a question that we'll likely never have answered, and if they are doing that, it gives them plausible deniability."

(more) (download the report) 

"Juz following up on complaint, newzboy."

Russia - Moscow's Tverskoi District Court has authorized the seizure of documents and computers from the New Times magazine after it published a story on police corruption...

The New Times said it had received a court notice about the impending confiscation and would appeal... The independent magazine also said it has complained to the Federal Security Service that an eavesdropping device had been found in the car of its editor-in-chief, Yevgenia Albats. (more)