First modern spy novel is still one of the best

Book review: Penguin Classics has reissued "The Riddle of the Sands" by Erskine Childers, a 1903 novel thought to be the progenitor of all modern spy novels, and still one of the best.

Childers' story of Britons trying to foil German spies takes place partly on the Baltic Sea, with which he was familiar as a yachtsman. His day job was clerking for the House of Commons, but at night he toiled away at this novel, adding a romantic subplot at the suggestion of his sister Dulcibella, whose mellifluous first name he gave to the yacht in his book.

Childers was superb at depicting action, as in this scene in which the narrator, Carruthers, senses that he is not alone on deck: "I started up involuntarily, bumped against the table, and set the stove jingling. A long step and a grab at the ladder, but just too late! I grasped something damp and greasy, there was tugging and hard breathing, and I was left clasping a big sea-boot, whose owner I heard jump on to the sand and run." (more)

How to Secure Cell Phones in Sensitive Areas

via Vector Technologies...

"The US Government has a requirement to properly secure any Portable Electronic Device (PED) introduced into classified processing areas...

PEDs such as cellular phones, Blackberry devices, laptop computers and PDAs have inherent technical vulnerabilities that are potentially exploitable... without the users’ knowledge. For example, microphones and photographic/video cameras built into many PEDs can be remotely activated... audio and/or visual information near the PED can either be transmitted in real-time or recorded and then transmitted at a later time. PEDs can also... wirelessly probe the surrounding area... in an attempt to connect to or map out any computer network system."

Several companies, including Vector, have come up with some ingenious products. From cell phone box and socks to portable Faraday rooms, there are solutions for every need.

Resources list:

• Vector Technologies

• Faraday-Bags.com

• Parabin 

Tip: Turn your gadget entirely off before storing it. Otherwise the phone will try transmitting signals to the cell site using its highest power level, thus depleting your battery quicker than normal.

Beware: Googling "Cell Phone Shielding" will return hundreds of sites selling quack personal radiation shielding products.

Hackers Retaliate Against Corporate Security Firm

WikiLeaks hackers and a California-based Internet security business has opened a window onto the secretive world of private companies that offer to help corporations investigate and discredit their critics.

This week, hackers said they had penetrated the computers of HBGary Federal, a security company that sells investigative services to corporations, and posted tens of thousands of what appear to be its internal company e-mails on the Internet.

The documents appear to include pitches for unseemly ways to undermine adversaries of Bank of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, like doing background research on their critics and then distributing fake documents to embarrass them. (more)

SpyCam Story #599 - Looking Up Down Under

Australia - Police say a man used a sophisticated system to secretly film up women's skirts in Sydney's CBD.

Sabapathy Chandrahasan, 56, has been granted bail after officers allegedly found more than 1,000 photos on his home computer yesterday.

He was arrested by police at Central Station yesterday, moments after he allegedly filmed a woman who was climbing stairs to a platform. (more)

Update on Camera Man

Remember Camera Man?
 The New York University professor who implanted a camera in the back of his head was prepared for privacy-related objections by the school and his pupils. What he didn’t anticipate was resistance from a more intimate source: his own body.

Last week, Wafaa Bilal removed part of the device, saying his body had rejected it despite antibiotics and steroid treatments, according to a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education. A spokeswoman for Bilal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bilal, an assistant professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, was commissioned to implant the camera in his head for one year by a museum in Qatar, part of a project that broadcasts to the museum and to a website a live stream of images snapped automatically by the device at one-minute intervals.

The 10-megapixel camera was attached to Bilal’s skull during a November procedure at a piercing studio that specializes in body modification. Three titanium plates, each with a post attached, were inserted underneath a large flap of skin on the back of his head. The camera was screwed onto the posts. But his body rejected one of the posts, causing him “constant pain,” he told the Chronicle. He had one post removed, but left the other two, and intends to replace the camera with a lighter model. (more)

CA Court - Car Computer Data Protected by 4th Amendment

The case is State v. Xinos. The question... Can the police swipe your car's black box data, without due process, after an accident and use the findings against you?

The answer... No, "We do not accept the Attorney General’s argument that defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the data contained in his vehicle’s SDM (Sensing and Diagnostic Module). The precision data recorded by the SDM was generated by his own vehicle for its systems operations. While a person’s driving on public roads is observable, that highly precise, digital data is not being exposed to public view or being conveyed to anyone else. . . . We conclude that a motorist’s subjective and reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to her or his own vehicle encompasses the digital data held in the vehicle’s SDM."

Another interesting point the court made... The SDM is located inside the vehicle, not outside, so... "Thus, a warrantless search of a vehicle, or the containers within it, under the automobile exception continues to be circumscribed by probable cause." (more)

Five out of Seven Hacker Types also Bug & Tap

infoworld.com has identified seven types of hackers. Five of them (in bold) will also use standard electronic surveillance techniques to achieve their goals. 

Why? Because that information is fresher, it is available long before it becomes computer data... and some of it will never become computer data.

If you are only watching your computer networks, you are a day late and a dollar short. Traditional bugs and wiretaps remain spy staples. Two more overlooked attack points include Wi-Fi security (and compliance) and Internet telephony (VoIP).

Malicious hacker No. 1: Cyber criminals
Professional criminals comprise the biggest group of malicious hackers, using malware and exploits to steal money. It doesn't matter how they do it... (Eavesdropping is just another profit center.)

Malicious hacker No. 2: Spammers and adware spreaders
Purveyors of spam and adware make their money through illegal advertising.

Malicious hacker No. 3: Advanced persistent threat (APT) agents
Intruders engaging in APT-style attacks represent well-organized, well-funded groups -- often located in a "safe harbor" country -- and they're out to steal a company's intellectual property. They aren't out for quick financial gain like cyber criminals; they're in it for the long haul. Their dream assignment is to essentially duplicate their victim's best ideas and products in their own homeland, or to sell the information they've purloined to the highest bidder.

Malicious hacker No. 4: Corporate spies
Corporate spying is not new; it's just significantly easier to do, thanks to today's pervasive Internet connectivity. Corporate spies are usually interested in a particular piece of intellectual property or competitive information. They differ from APT agents in that they don't have to be located in a safe-harbor country. Corporate espionage groups aren't usually as organized as APT groups, and they are more focused on short- to midterm financial gains.

Malicious hacker No. 5: Hacktivists
Lots of hackers are motivated by political, religious, environmental, or other personal beliefs. They are usually content with embarrassing their opponents or defacing their websites, although they can slip into corporate-espionage mode if it means they can weaken the opponent. 

Malicious hacker No. 6: Cyber warriors
Cyber warfare is a city-state against city-state exploitation with an endgame objective of disabling an opponent's military capability. Participants may operate as APT or corporate spies at times...

Malicious hacker No. 7: Rogue hackers
There are hundreds of thousands of hackers who simply want to prove their skills, brag to friends, and are thrilled to engage in unauthorized activities.

Visit the New CIA Website

The CIA has launched a revamped website with links to YouTube and Flickr to help the public better understand the spy agency's often clandestine work, officials said.

"The idea behind these improvements is to make more information about the Agency available to more people, more easily," CIA Director Leon Panetta said in a statement on Monday.

"The CIA wants the American people and the world to understand its mission and its vital role in keeping our country safe," he said.

Although the Central Intelligence Agency's mission has always hinged on secrecy, the spy service is conscious of its public image -- partly for recruiting reasons -- and in recent years has added games and links for children on its website. (more)

Are you the right kind of person for a career at the CIA? Take this fun quiz and find out. You might be surprised by the type of people we actually hire. (QUIZ)

My quiz result... "According to your responses, you are a: Thoughtful Observer."

Dental Data Extraction

Dentist hacked into fiancee’s laptop to show she was a fantasist
A dentist loaded spyware onto his fiancee’s laptop to gather evidence against her as their relationship collapsed, a court has heard...

The High Court heard that in a desperate attempt to hang on to his assets, Mr Singh, described as a “canny businessman”, tried to exploit the spyware he placed on her pink laptop "for improper advantage". He had also "lost no opportunity to belittle and discredit" his ex-lover in court when they came face to face. (more)

"Nei, we are just Odin-ary students, ja."

Who's the spy?

Norway - A leading foreign policy analyst says it should come as no surprise that Norway maintained a secret spying unit that operated in nine countries for 10 years. Two Oslo newspapers reported its existence over the weekend, and key government officials claim they didn’t know about it...

Agents posed as students
It operated separately from the Defense Ministry and its own intelligence gathering units, although many of its staff were defense personnel. VG reported that it operated in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and its agents often posed as Norwegian students. (more)

Here Come the Cell Phone Anti-Spyware Laws

WV - A type of stalking that relies on the victim's mobile phone could soon become a crime in West Virginia.

The state Senate unanimously passed a bill to the House on Monday that targets anyone who secretly puts spying software on someone else's mobile phone or device.

These programs allow the spy to eavesdrop on phone calls, monitor text and e-mail, and track the victim's location.

The bill exempts parents, service and global positioning system providers, and employers when they supplied the mobile device.

Those guilty of this new misdemeanor would face up to six months in jail, a fine of up to $500 or both.

Sen. Clark Barnes sponsored the bill after learning of a woman who was stalked and harassed through her mobile phone for three years. (more)

Sin? I Phone it in.

Selling for $1.99, "Confession: A Roman Catholic App" was developed as an aid "for those who frequent the sacrament and those who wish to return," according to Little iApps, the firm behind the idea. Its makers insist it is not a replacement for confessing in person with a priest, but instead helps to keep track of all the evil things you have done since the last time you confessed by ticking off some of the most common failings. Deviants get the opportunity to add their own, bespoke, sins as they go. (more)

"First to mind is the potential law enforcement bonanza whenever searching for Catholic criminals, especially in states like California where the California Supreme Court has recently granted authorities access to smartphones and other devices' contents without even needing a search warrant." – Lauren Weinstein

Business Espionage - Et tu, IT guy?

In a recent instance, one German engineering company found it was frequently beaten on price by a competitor. The group discovered an employee in its information technology department was related to its archrival’s CEO. The IT specialist had wiretapped his own CEO’s office and phone and put a tracking device on his car, enabling him to follow his movements and identify the customers to whom he was talking. (more)

Little US action as industrial spying surges

In the year since Google revealed that some of its prize intellectual property had been stolen by hackers it associated with the Chinese government, the private sector and the FBI have increased their efforts on cybersecurity. But it isn’t nearly enough, according to outside experts including an influential panel of advisers. (more)

Survey: 32% admit mooching neighbor's Wi-Fi

Some 32% of respondents to a recent national survey admitted borrowing a neighbor's unencrypted Wi-Fi connection. That's nearly double the 18% who said they borrowed Wi-Fi in a 2008 poll...

Sharing an open Wi-Fi hookup might seem neighborly. But a nosy neighbor could use eavesdropping software to monitor your online haunts. A free, easy-to-use eavesdropping tool called Firesheep has been downloaded more than 1 million times since last year...

You can repel moochers and snoopers by taking a few simple steps while configuring your wireless network. (more) (video)

Sneaky Sneaker SpyCam

"The World's the most powerful audio video 2.4 GHz wireless with Hidden Shoes camera, super crisp real time audio video recording with date/time  stamping. Specially designed for Law enforcement agencies for their hidden investigation. This amazing device is ideal for covert or spy operations. Please tell us the size of your shoe when you pay." (more)

Why do I mention it?

So you will know what you are up against.

Visit this one-stop-shop to become familiar with almost all the different types of covert spycams that could be watching you.

Spies in the News this Week

Australia and the United States have begun a partnership to share top-secret intelligence from spy satellites as Australia moves to acquire its own satellite to boost surveillance of Asia and the Pacific. (more)

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Two Americans held in Iran for the last 18 months on suspicion of espionage pleaded not guilty in court on Sunday on the first day of their closed-door trial, state television reported. (more)

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Israeli journlist Anat Kam was found guilty Sunday by a court after a plea-bargain deal in which she admitted to having leaked secret military documents to a leading newspaper. (more)

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American citizen Alan Gross, who is accused of spying, is facing a 20-year prison sentence in Cuba for spying. Prosecutors in Havana have claimed Gross plotted against the state by importing satellite communications equipment and using it to gather secret information within the country. (more)

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The Taliban have killed four people in northwest Pakistan after accusing them of spying for the United States, local officials have said. (more)


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Ex-Taliban spy raking in aid money... With his fondness for American rap music and Beyoncé, Fareed Hidayati, sporting cropped hair, a clean-shaven face and speaking in a thick British accent does not seem like a typical Taliban spy. (more)

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A Chinese internet spy ring has penetrated Britain's government computer networks with malicious software, the Guardian reported. British foreign secretary William Hague told a security conference in Munich that his office repelled an attack last month by 'a hostile state intelligence agency'. (more)

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On August 20, 1940, Mercader plunged an ice axe into Trotsky's head. He died a day later.

The Russian spy behind Leon Trotsky's assassination was a James Bond-style agent who plotted the attack from a US pharmacy, according to a new book.

Josef Grigulevich, the KGB agent who planned the Bolshevik revolutionary's 1940 assassination first established a safe house in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the book by EB Held claims.

The book 'A Spy's Guide to Albuquerque and Santa Fe', by Mr Held, who is now director of intelligence at the US Department of Energy, appears to confirm years of speculation about a spy hideaway there.  (more) 

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This Spy Robot Will Always Find You—Unless You Stop Breathing

 

This little fellow is the TiaLinx Cougar20-H, a surveillance robot. He is capable of detecting any sneaky human presence—even through thick concrete walls—by using a ultra-wideband radio frequency sensor array and focusing on biorhythmic patterns—such as breathing. (more) (much more)

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Egypt - An amateur video showing the arrest in Egypt of an alleged spy belonging to the Israeli General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, the Sayeret Matkal, indicates how worried Tel Aviv is by the turmoil engulfing the Mubarak regime and suggests that attempts are underway by outside forces to destabilize the popular revolution. (more)

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An Israeli court sentenced an Israeli-Arab human rights activist to nine years in prison on Sunday after convicting him last year of spying for the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. (more)

NSA Wiretap Reveals Subject May Be Paying Too Much For Long-Distance

FORT MEADE, MD—The director of the National Security Agency announced at a press conference Tuesday that the ongoing phone surveillance of Cincinnati resident Greg Wyckham has yielded "overwhelming and incontrovertible" evidence that the 37-year-old high-school teacher and married father of three is wasting money on a long-distance plan that does not suit his calling needs. (more)

Quote of the Week

Not the actual eavesdropper.

The eavesdropper who overheard Jim Kirk of Kelley Drye & Warren (adjacent post), in the first-class car on the Acela heading back to his office in New York offers some advice to fellow travelers: "Just because the person in front of or beside you has ear buds in, doesn't mean they're listening to music."

When it is Not Electronic Eavesdropping, it's...

Keep Your Friggin' Mouth Shut on the Acela!

When talking on their cellphones, business travelers sometimes assume they're surrounded by an invisible, sound-proof phone booth that keeps their conversations private. They are not. In fact, they are much more likely surrounded by an army of eavesdropping gossips, eager to upload any juicy nuggets. In particular, the high-speed Acela train between Washington, D.C., and New York has become one of the most dangerous forms of transportation for the garrulous traveler.

Take Robert Robbins, a D.C.-based corporate securities partner at law firm Pillsbury Winthrop. In February 2009, on a morning train to New York, he used his BlackBerry bluetooth to talk to a colleague about plans to lay off up to 20 lawyers at his firm; he was not shy about naming names. A law student sitting in the seat ahead of him overheard and reported the news to legal blog Above the Law (where I was an editor at the time). Soon the embarrassing story and news of the coming layoffs had migrated to gossip blog Gawker and a slew of legal newspapers. The firm later issued a statement apologizing for the "unfortunate manner in which our deliberations about reductions have become public."

The cautionary tale apparently did not reverberate in law firm circles, though. Last month another law firm partner... (more)

The "Hole in the Floor Gang" - Busted, or... Something Smells Rotten in the State of New Jersey

NJ - State Police have taken over security at New Jersey's largest sewerage authority after a small hole was found drilled into the executive director's office.

Officials say the hole would allow anyone to eavesdrop on Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission director Wayne Forrest from a storeroom below.

The embattled agency's chief financial officer Kenneth Pengitore abruptly resigned from his $163,869-a-year job Wednesday. Forrest also fired five other employees, including the wife and brother of a former commissioner. (more)

The Rising Star of Industrial Espionage

It goes out the door in many ways.

via ft.com...

Industrial espionage is being catapulted to a position of great relevance to many of the world’s top companies as technological change becomes of growing importance to business performance. Companies across the world are increasingly interested in gaining access to their competitors’ secrets as early as possible in the development cycle for new products and services.

“There is ... more globalisation and the players are more ... in competition. The more competition, the more crime,” says Olivier Buquen, head of the Economic Intelligence Office in Paris, a bureau of 12 experts created in 2009 to co-ordinate French corporate intelligence efforts.

According to Dane Chamarro, managing director for North Asia at Control Risks, a security group, industrial espionage affects many more sectors than high-profile activities such as computers, cars and telecoms. “Virtually any company with high levels of research and development and where technology has an impact on the product faces some kind of threat,” he says.

The chief executive of one of the world’s biggest aerospace and defence groups says that in his industry, “industrial espionage is a problem now and it will be even more in the future”. (more)

Editors would know if journos were hacking phones

New allegations have emerged on just how insidious phone tapping was at London tabloid News of the World, as one of News Limited’s senior Australian lieutenants suggests editors should have known the practice was going on. (more)

Court Told Eavesdropping on Cell Phone Calls is Easy

India - Mobile phone users, be they politicians, sensitive post holders or the moneyed, face a serious problem with latest technology allowing rivals and criminals to eavesdrop and record their private conversations, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

A PIL by one Ravindra Kumar had alleged that the government and probe agencies indiscriminately intercepted telephones without following procedure.

The government denied the charge but clarified, "With the advancement of wireless networks worldwide, many eavesdropping techniques have also been developed." (more)

The Google Bing Sting

Un-Photoshopped autocomplete.

Suspect espionage? 

Set up a sting! 

"I'm Feeling Lucky" did.

...last May, when Google noticed that Bing was returning results similar to its own (even when users entered a misspelled word), it stared to get curious. Last October, Bing was showing even greater overlap with Google's top ten results than ever before... they set up a sting operation to catch their search engine predator.

For the first time in its history, Google crafted one-time code that would allow it to manually rank a page for a certain term (code that will soon be removed, as described further below). It then created about 100 of what it calls “synthetic” searches, queries that few people, if anyone, would ever enter into Google... (more)

This excellent piece of counterespionage strategy worked. Bing pinged the same results. When Google outed Bing at a search engine conference, the Microsoft response was something like, "So what."

The point... Business espionage is becoming more brazen. Your opponent does not even to pretend to care about morals, ethics and legalities. You need to make friends with a counterespionage specialist or your pockets will be picked. 

The Anna Chapman Spy Contest

Russian spy Anna Chapman has registered her name as a trademark to cash in on her growing popularity since she was deported in a Cold War-style swap last year, Russia's state patent agency told Reuters on Tuesday.

"Maybe she wants to open the 'Anna Chapman' dry-cleaner or make cookies," Nikolai Kravtsov, an official at the agency told Reuters... (more)

Some people become celebrities just from being named after a hotel, some for being a failed spy.

Anna's interesting time-line, July 2010 until now...

• U.S. sleeper spy who never awoke, was arrested and deported.

• Posed in lingerie for photo shoot.

• Attended a Russian space launch.

• Had a sing-along with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

• Nicknamed Agent "90-60-90" by the Russian press, referring to her alleged measurements.

• Attended a political youth rally.

• Attended a meeting of the commission on economic modernization and technological development of the Russian economy.

• Launched a weekly television show called "Mysteries of the World with Anna Chapman."

• Trademarks her name to pimp eight lines of merchandise, including vodka, clothing and watches.

So, what have you done since July?

 

FutureWatch: Anna Chapman has book signing at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC?

The first five corporate security directors (or similar, like Anna) to decipher the 5 AnnaGrams wins one of our "doesn't really work" (like Anna) break-a-way (like Anna) stainless steel (like Anna) lock pick sets. Place answers here.

You Don't Have to be NASA to Throw Up a Spy Satellite

Upstart startup rocket company SpaceX, helmed and bankrolled by renowned internet nerdwealth tycoon Elon Musk, is already taking NASA business away from the established American rocketry industry. Musk now appears to be targeting the potentially much bigger market for launching secret US spy satellites. (more)

Just Coincidence?
Russians Lose Spy Satellite Hours After Launch

Russia has reportedly lost contact with its newest military satellite just hours after launching it into space today, according to Russian reports. The satellite, called Geo-IK-2, blasted off atop a three-stage Rockot booster from Russia's northern Plesetsk Cosmodrome at about 5 p.m. Moscow Time (9 a.m. EST, 1400 GMT). But just two hours after liftoff, the satellite went missing, according to Russia's Itar-Tass and Interfax news agencies. (more)

India Squeezes BlackBerry for Emails

The Indian government, only weeks after reaching an agreement with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, now insists on intercepting corporate communications along with the BlackBerry Messenger service.

India cites its reasons to intercept BlackBerrys secure communication systems to combat terrorism, a problem it continues to suffer from with tensions with its neighbours Pakistan and the southern Arabian peninsula.

Research in Motion continues to state that it cannot provide a solution to intercept corporate emails, as the keys to its encryption is held by the entity which owns the server, outside of Research in Motion’s reach.  The company states that it does not possess a ‘master key’ which would allow unrestricted interceptions into corporate email accounts. (more)

Brooklyn state Sen. Eric Adams' YouTube video gives parents advice on how to spy on their kids

A Brooklyn pol wants to teach parents how to spy on their kids, scour their backpacks for guns - and strip-search their dollies for drugs.

State Sen. Eric Adams, who served 22 years in the NYPD before running for office, stars in a new online video (worth watching in entirety) that shows parents how to sniff out hidden contraband in a little suspect's bedroom.

"A small-caliber weapon could be hiding inside a jewelry box," the senator warns in the five-minute video. "Run your hands over the pillows and see if you feel anything that's unusual."...

"It's not spying on your children. It's protecting your home," he said. "If the police come inside a household and those items are in there, the whole house gets arrested. They arrest everybody and sort it out later in the courtroom." (more, with video)

Interesting poll results...

The country is up in arms...

...and this sounded like a good idea? 

Egypt - Mubarak yesterday installed Omar Suleiman, his longtime intelligence chief, as vice president; and former air force commander Ahmed Shafik as prime minister. But the move has won him little popular support...about 25 demonstrators who surrounded a tank outside the Egyptian museum and chanted slogans about the Egyptian intelligence chief. “Suleiman, Suleiman, get on a plane tonight,” was one refrain. (more)

Business Espionage - Rival Tire Company Accused of Spying

PA - The tire salesman in Cleona, Lebanon County, felt a bit uneasy.

He'd been given lists — of consignments, of wholesale tire prices, of customers. Problem was, none of the information had anything to do with the Cleona business, Henise Tire. Instead, it appeared to come from a rival — K&W Tire, based in Lancaster.

The salesman called the police. And earlier this month, three former K&W employees were charged with third-degree felonies after police said they obtained the information illegally, by logging into an e-mail account assigned to a current K&W employee.

The men — Robert E. Biggs, of Lancaster, Jeffrey G. Shultz, of Strasburg, and Edward Roeder, of Bethlehem — were charged Jan. 4 by Lancaster Detective Lt. Clark Bearinger with "unlawful use of computer and other computer crimes." In addition, Biggs was charged with computer theft because the information he obtained via the e-mail account "can be used to deprive KW of sales throughout their area and therefore cost them business and money." (more)

Spy Chasing Jobs Attract Whack Jobs

New Zealand's spy agency failed to follow basic procedures when it gave top secret security clearance to a scientist who turned out to live in a fantasy world, Prime Minister John Key said Friday.

Stephen Wilce resigned as head of New Zealand's defence science agency in September after it was revealed he had made a series of false claims about his past, including serving as a helicopter pilot with Prince Andrew... 

Wilce served as chief of the Defence Technology Agency for five years, heading 80 staff and enjoying access to highly classified intelligence as he advised the military on science and technology issues. 

"...and stay off the Internet!"

The British-born scientist quit after a television programme revealed he falsely claimed to be an ex-Marine combat veteran and an Olympic bobsledder who raced against the Jamaican team depicted in the 1993 film "Cool Runnings".

Further inquiries by military investigators found he had told colleagues he was once a helicopter pilot who served with Prince Andrew, a spy with British intelligence and a special forces soldier who was on an IRA death list.

Among numerous other fabrications, he also said he designed the guidance system for the Polaris missile system, was a member of the Welsh rugby union team and once had a career as a guitarist on the British folk music circuit. (more)

Next on The Daily Show... The Funniest Man in Moscow

(...Just, because. So laugh.)

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who famously launched his career as a spy, used an old secret service joke to demonstrate the levels of bureaucracy plaguing his country.

The joke in which none of the officials want to assume responsibility for arresting a US agent, came days after a bomb blast killed 35 people in a Moscow airport that critics blamed on lapses in security and bureaucratic corruption

"So an American spy comes to Lubyanka," Putin told a government meeting in remarks broadcast on Russian television late Thursday, referring to the headquarters of the Soviet-era KGB.

"I am a spy and I want to turn myself in," Putin continued with a small smirk on his face.

"Are you armed?" the US spy is asked, to which he responds yes.

"Then you have to go to room number seven," a Russian official tells him, according to Putin.

There the US spy is asked if he is carrying communication equipment -- another affirmative answer sends the US agent to yet another official's office.

In the end, the exasperated spy is asked by yet another official if he has an actual assignment to work on.

"Yes," says the spy.

"Then go carry it out and stop bothering people at work," he is told. (more)

Spying Kickboxing Instructor Kicked Out (and similar)

 WA - A 24-year-old martial arts instructor has been arrested after he was caught spying on one of his female students.

According to Bellingham Police, a 26-year-old woman told the owner of Shayne Simpson's Pacific Northwest Karate Center that she found a video cell phone in her dressing room. The instructor was fired after it was found that the cell phone was placed in position to capture video of the student undressing.

According to Simpson, the instructor asked the student to weigh herself in a private room prior to a kickboxing competition. (more)

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NC - A man used his cell phone to take pictures of women trying on clothes at a Goodwill store on South Boulevard, police said. The 29-year-old victim told police the suspect placed his cell phone under the dressing room door to take the pictures. (more)

 Police are looking for a camera-wielding peeping Tom near Duluth.

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MN - A female resident of the Breckinridge Station community told police a voyeur has been spying in her windows and popping flash photographs since October. She told police she received a call Saturday afternoon and was asked: “What do you propose we do with the 40-plus pictures I have of you?” (more)

...like, "Why does your kid fart so much?"

WI - Investigators believe a woman bugged a child's car seat to keep tabs on her ex-boyfriend.

Jamie Mesang is accused of duct taping a digital recorder underneath a car seat that belongs to her ex. Police say he became suspicious when Mesang started texting him about things she shouldn't have known about.

Eventually, he took apart his son's car seat and found the recorder. She's been charged with a felony and will be in court in March. (more)

More UK Wiretaps and Voicemail Hacks

UK - Nick Brown, the former chief whip and key political ally of former prime minister Gordon Brown, became the latest public figure yesterday to say that he believes his private calls and messages were eavesdropped.

The Newcastle MP revealed that he believes his landline was the subject of an "amateurish" bugging operation around the time his homosexuality was made public in 1998.

Five years later, he was also approached by police investigating voicemail hacking claims and warned that his mobile phone may have been illegally accessed. The former Cabinet minister is the latest senior Labour figure to come forward with claims that his phone calls and messages were hacked. Tessa Jowell, the former culture secretary, revealed that her phone may have been accessed as recently as this week and she has hired lawyers to discover who hacked into her messages on 29 separate occasions in 2006. (more)

The Don of Wiretaps... Mr. Austin "I had the powers."

Barbados - The man who knows more about police and other wiretapping of phones, emails and text messages at Cable & Wireless Caribbean has been gently sacked with a large severance and a “consulting” contract designed to keep him loyal and silent.

Donald Austin, Executive Vice President for Legal and Regulatory Matters, and a C&W employee for over two decades, probably knows more about the interception of private communications in Barbados than any other person.

Barbados Police can legally wiretap without a court order or supervision.

Barbados has no laws governing wiretapping by the police. Our Barbados police can legally wiretap your phone or look at your email and internet data for just about any reason they choose – without a warrant, without any judicial oversight and without ever informing you that they have listened to or read everything.

When our police needed technical assistance from Cable & Wireless / LIME, Mr. Austin was the go-to-guy with the authority to dedicate C&W resources to the police. (more)

Toy Fair Spy Ware

via pocket-lint.com...

With a new age group demographic comes the opportunity to “gadget up” and with that Playmobil has launched a wireless digital video camera and remote control car to appeal to the masses keen on their tech.

The idea is that using the camera to give you a point of view from within the car, with the signal from the video automatically relayed back to a display you’ve bolted on to the remote control and Pocket-lint were at the Toy Fair to have a go. (more)

via toyxplosion.com...

 Here’s a fun, new and exciting toy to tell you about from Playmobil. It’s the Playmobil Spying Camera Set. According to the PlaymobilUSA website, the camera will be launched in the US in August. Or, you can pay a heftier amount to purchase it now on Amazon.

The Spy Camera Set includes a camera with USB port and a color monitor. The images shot from the camera are displayed on the monitor via wireless transmission.

News of The World Phone Hacking Case Re-Opened

UK - Scotland Yard said Wednesday it has reopened its investigation into illegal phone-hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s News of The World.

The Metropolitan Police said it had received “significant new information” from executives on the paper relating to events going back more than five years. The news comes as News International said it had fired the newspaper’s assistant news editor Ian Edmondson, after spending days trawling through his notebooks and emails in an attempt to establish the extent of phone hacking on the paper. (more)

PA - The former Pennsylvania state constable awaiting trial for allegedly threatening the lives of two law enforcement officers is now facing felony wiretapping and weapons charges.

An arrest warrant was issued Monday for William David Denny, 31, the elected Republican constable for Chester’s 11th Ward. Denny remains a constable, although he has not been working as such since criminal charges were lodged against him last year...

Denny went so far as to record himself filing the citizen’s complaint with the police chief’s office, investigators allege.

Denny secretly also recorded a May 28, 2008, meeting in Seaton’s district court office. The meeting between Seaton and Denny was allegedly videotaped with audio in violation of state law. In an interview with investigators, Seaton said he was unaware the recording was being made. He recalled the meeting as having been a “closed-door” meeting and gave no one permission for it to be recorded, the affidavit states. (more)