Business Espionage: FBI Thwarts Akamai Info Heist

http://www.bottomsupcomic.com/2009/06/trade-secrets/

MA - A former employee of a website content delivery company has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of foreign economic espionage for providing company trade secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Elliot Doxer, 42, will admit to providing trade secrets from Cambridge-based Akamai Technologies Inc. over an 18-month period to the agent, whom he believed was an Israeli spy, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Massachusetts said in a statement. A plea hearing is scheduled for Aug. 29. (more)

"Everybody wants to get in on the act." It's not just phone hacking.

UK - Millionaire Labour donor David Abrahams claims he was a victim of phone hacking.

Mr Abrahams, who was plunged into the epicentre of a media storm in 2007 when he was accused of making thousands of pounds of illegal donations to Labour, has revealed how he believes he was the victim of secret bugging...

Now he claims the current phone hacking scandal is simply “the tip of the iceberg.

And he claims bugs and other recording devices were placed in his home, prompting him to call in experts who discovered the electrics at his property had been tampered with.

Today he warns there could be much more to come from the hacking scandal. He told the Chronicle: “It’s not just News International and it’s not just phone hacking.

“They put little video cameras in car aerials and bugs and devices in people’s houses. There are a lot of other factors as well as phone hacking. I’ve had it in my own life far too many times.” (more)

More Reporters Bugging Out

Korea - Police said Friday they are currently investigating telephone calls made between a reporter and politician related to the alleged bugging of a Democratic Party meeting...

The potentially-explosive scandal was disclosed to the public on June 26 when the main opposition Democratic Party filed a complaint with the police, claiming a KBS reporter had bugged a meeting held to discuss strategies over the state-run broadcaster’s controversial plan to raise TV subscription fees. (more)

Recover a Stolen Laptop with Free Tracking Software

via Rick Broida, PCWorld...
In the last month, two family members and one friend have had laptops stolen right out of their homes. Sadly, none of the systems were equipped with remote-monitoring software, meaning the chances of recovery are just about zero.

To me this serves as a wake-up call; I'm in the process of evaluating various laptop-recovery services to see which one I should deploy on my own machines.

Short-term, I'm equipping my primary, can't-live-without-it laptop with LockItTight. Like similar services, it relies on a small, hidden client program that performs location tracking, Webcam captures, file recovery, and even keylogging. Unlike similar services, LockItTight is free--for one PC, anyway.

After you sign up for and activate your account, you download and run the LockItTight client (which is compatible with Windows XP and later). And that's pretty much the last you see of it; you won't find any evidence of it in the system tray or Programs menu. (Neither will tech-savvy thieves, which is exactly the point.)

To tweak LockItTight's settings and/or find out what your laptop's been up to, you sign into your account via a Web browser. By default, the client will simply report the laptop's position (usually via Wi-Fi, which in my tests was accurate to about 500 meters), but you can also enable screen capture, Webcam capture, key logs, clipboard logs, remote file retrieval, and remote file deletion. (more)

Need something like this for your Mac? Try Adeona, also FREE.

From the Land of Paladin, Have Antidote, Will Travel

Google's search engine is now fighting against a strain of malware that secretly intercepts Web browser activity on Windows PCs. FREE

Infected users will see a big yellow box at the top of search results, directing them to a Google Web page that explains how to remove the malware. That page urges users to download or update their antivirus software, and also provides manual instructions for removing the malware from Windows computers. (To see if you're infected, run any search on Google.com and look for the yellow box.) (more)

Click to enlarge.

How to Protect Your Home While Traveling

Fred Burton, former special agent and STRATFOR’s VP of Intelligence, discusses ways to protect your home before you travel. Basic tips. (video)

Spy Tools: The Evolution of Two Stage Weapons

(1963) Colonel Klebb is a high ranking member of the feared Russian counter-intelligence agency SMERSH, where she serves as the supervisor of Department II (operations and executions)... Klebb attempts to kick Bond with the poison-tipped shoe, but Bond blocks the attack with a chair. (more)

(1975) It wasn’t just Soviet bloc spies who used such techniques, though. In a 1975 US Senate hearing, CIA Director William Colby handed the committee’s chairman a gun developed by his researchers. Equipped with a telescopic sight, it could accurately fire a tiny dart – tipped with shellfish toxin or cobra venom – up to 250 feet. Colby claimed that this and other weapons had never been used, but couldn’t entirely rule out the possibility. (more) (video) BTW, the "dart" is believed to be an icicle. No 'pop gun' jokes, please.

(1978) The assassination of Georgi Markov in London in 1978 by a man with a poison-tipped umbrella was one of the most infamous incidents of the Cold War. The story reads like it is straight out of a super-spy novel. The forensic autopsy findings and results are as sensational as today's TV crime dramas. There is motive,a possible weapon, the known cause of death, and shadow government workings involved. Still there is no killer, and offically there may well never be. (more)

(2011) This weapon injects a freezing cold ball of compressed gas, approximately the size of a basketball, at 800psi nearly instantly. The effects of this injection will drop many of the world's largest land predators. The effects of the compressed gas not only cause over-inflation during ascent when used underwater, but also freezes all tissues and organs surrounding the point of injection on land or at sea. When used underwater, the injected gas carries the predator to the surface BEFORE blood is released into the water. Thus giving the diver added protection by diverting other potential predators to the surface. (more) (video) No, "Who cut the cheese?" jokes, please.

Project X: Murdock Phone Hacking Scandal Continues to Grow

"Argh, Miss Brooks"

The U.K. police investigation into alleged phone hacking took a dramatic turn on Sunday with the arrest of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief of News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper unit who resigned on Friday.

London's Metropolitan Police, known as Scotland Yard, said they arrested her around noon Sunday (7 a.m. EDT) when she appeared by appointment at a London police station. She remained in custody as of early afternoon Sunday and hadn't been charged.

It's the 10th arrest by police in a dual probe investigating allegations of voicemail interceptions and corrupt payments to police. The allegations focus on the News of the World, News Corp.'s Sunday tabloid that the company recently closed after 168 years amid an escalating scandal. (more)

"Our Miss Brooks"

Our Miss Brooks: Mr. Conklin's "Project X" is a sound system that allows him to eavesdrop on the entire school. (download MP3)

How to Write Like an Educated Spy

Writing a good spy report is not as easy as it looks. You need more than a copy of Strunk & White's manual, The Elements of Style. You need the National Security Agency (NSA) SIGINT Reporter's Style and Usage Manual!
 

Did you know...

• In nautical contexts in SIGINT reports, do not call a ship a boat. As a general guideline, a boat will go on a ship, but not vice versa. Lifeboats go on cruise ships. Submarines are boats. Most of the literate public, however, uses the term boat to refer to any floating contrivance of any size. Such use is standard in general contexts, but not appropriate in SIGINT reports.

• Do not use the terms A-bomb or H-bomb. Spell out the words. Do not capitalize atomic bomb, hydrogen bomb, etc.

• Never include obscenities in a report. If an obscenity is part of a quote, replace it with the phrase ((expletive deleted)).

• PDDG ... (Sorry, that's still classified.)

Military Intelligence: How to make unclassified information classified without classifying it!?!?

The Pentagon is proposing to keep under wraps all unclassified information shared between contractors and the Defense Department except that which is expressly released to the public.

That has sparked an outcry not only from open-government advocates but from contractors who argue they could be forced to pay millions of dollars to install systems to protect that information. Tens of thousands of companies would have to meet the new requirements, according to the Pentagon's own reckoning...

The proposed rule, published June 29 in the Federal Register, would impose new controls for unclassified Defense Department information that is not cleared for public release and that is either provided by DoD to a contractor or else developed by a contractor on the department's behalf. (more)

Military Intelligence: What happens to the real classified information?

The US Pentagon has admitted that a foreign intelligence service stole 24,000 files from a US defense contractor earlier this year.

US deputy defense secretary William J Lynn will not say which contractor was holding the data or which country stole it, but he says over the past few years, information about some of the Pentagon's most sensitive programs has been pilfered from military contractors. 

"Over the past decade terabytes of data have been extracted by foreign intruders from corporate networks of defense companies. Indeed in a single intrusion this past March, 24,000 files were taken," he said.

The admission came as the US defence department announced a new cyber warfare strategy, aimed at securing the military's secrets...

He says it is not the only attack... (more)

Ping! We know where you are, and people who will pay us to tell.

What is pinging?

Mobile phone networks have the ability to locate their customers' handsets (pinging). At a basic level, they can determine which cell the phone is using. In a city, that might narrow-down the location to a few hundred metres. In the countryside it could be several kilometres. It is also possible to triangulate the position of a phone more precisely using its relative position to several masts. Additionally, many modern phones contain GPS technology to help determine their exact longitude and latitude.

Mobile operators are reluctant to discuss exactly what level of detail they are able to provide to law enforcement, although there are examples of police tracking criminals, accident victims and missing persons by their mobile phones.

A former News of the World journalist's allegation the newspaper paid police to track mobile phones raises serious questions about the UK's eavesdropping laws, according to experts. Sean Hoare said it was possible to "ping" a handset's location for £300. (more) (DIY Ping) (How to)

50 Ways to Get in Ethical Trouble with Technology

Originally written for attorneys, but great advice applicable to many of us...

Technology makes everything easier and faster. In fact, it makes it possible to commit malpractice at warp speed. We can fail to represent diligently, lose our clients data, perform incompetently, and violate the rules regarding attorney advertising—all in sixty seconds or less.

There are so many ways to potentially commit malpractice with technology that it is impossible to list them all. Still, let us make a credible stab at some of the more common missteps. (more)

Jersey Girls Spy Hard - Court Approves Cell Phone Bill Request

New Jersey officials who use taxpayer funded cell phones cannot keep information on the destination of outgoing calls secret, a state appellate court ruled earlier this week.

In Livecchia v. Borough of Mount Arlington, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, ruled on Wednesday that the public interest in information on the city and state of the location of cell phone calls outweighed the privacy interests of state officials. It also rejected an effort by the state to absolutely bar such information from becoming public.

The court said “there is no absolute bar to the release of the destination location of telephone calls placed by public employees using publicly funded cell phones and the same would not impinge upon individual privacy interests.”

The case began when resident Gayle Ann Livecchia submitted a public records request for two months’ worth of cell phone records documenting the use of publicly funded phones by all employees in the borough.

Livecchia wanted to use the records to see whether employees exceeded limits placed on the taxpayer-funded phones and also whether individuals were using the phones for personal reasons without reimbursing the borough, according to the court. (more) (ruling)

Your Old Smartphone's Data Can Come Back to Haunt You

Your smartphone probably contains data in places you might not think to look. People--and companies--that sell old phones often do a lousy job of erasing all that info, according to our research with 13 secondhand phones. 

Stands at the flea market were selling stolen phones. The owners had not been able to wipe the phones remotely. Your old cell phone data can reemerge from the past to haunt you. Whether it’s because sellers are lazy or naive, cast-off phones still contain troves of information about their former users. And as phones get smarter, they’re ever more likely to hold bank account passwords, personal email, or private photographs that anyone with the right kind of motivation could exploit. (more)

Tip: Always protect your cell phone with a passcode PIN. Some smartphones allow their passcodes to be longer than the usual four digits and will automatically erase your data if the wrong code is entered too many times. ~Kevin

Smartphone Hacking Becomes News of the World

It's never this obvious.

The “phone hacking” scandal unfolding in the UK has demonstrated how trivial it is to gain unauthorized access to voicemail and other information stored on smartphones. Ignoring basic security steps only makes it easier.

With the help of Kevin Mitnick, CNET reporter Elinor Mills demonstrated just how easy it can be to hack into someone’s voicemail. This was done in the wake of the “phone hacking” scandal that has erupted in the UK in which employees for News of the World hacked into a murdered girl’s phone and materially interfered with the then ongoing police investigation. It’s now grown much larger even than that one terrible incident, and this is, of course, an extreme example of the harm that can be done to people with unsecured mobile phones. (more)

If you own a smartphone you are a viable target,
and you really need to ask yourself, 
"Is my cell phone bugged."

Interesting Smartphone Hack & Spy Links

Thanks to our West Coast secret agent for compiling and sharing these interesting smartphone-related links...

http://www.cellspynow.com
Read text messages and view call logs

http://www.trackwary.com
For BlackBerries: GPS tracker

http://www.cellspynow.com
Read text messages, listen in, view call logs.

http://www.webwatchernow.com/mobile
Reviewed on ABC news.

http://www.spyoncellphone24.com
Monitory cellphones and SMS.

Phone apps let users outsmart the law.

Think there isn’t a danger? Look at Britain’s newspaper scandal. (and more)

And Groupon’s private policy change.

The Vodafone Femtocell Hack

Femtocells are "small cellular base stations, typically designed for use in a home or small business. It connects to the service provider’s network via broadband (such as DSL or cable); current designs typically support 2 to 4 active mobile phones in a residential setting, and 8 to 16 active mobile phones in enterprise settings. A femtocell allows service providers to extend service coverage indoors, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable."

Though esoteric at first glance, most people will get the gist of this cell phone intercept hack.

Summary:

• Can be used worldwide via VPN tunneling.

• Allows eavesdropping, calling, text messaging... via someone else's SIM card.

• Inexpensive.

The GSM Association says...

"In addition to attacks against deployed femtocell access points, it is important to remember how the equipment itself could potentially be used for illegal purposes. It is important that femtocell equipment is only supplied to reputable buyers as failure to do so opens up the possibility of femtocell access points being used to support illegal call selling and traffic routing activities, avoidance of lawful interception, use as a false base station to launch man in-the-middle attacks, etc. Of particular concern is the potential for femtocell access points to facilitate the placement of fraudulent calls on 3G networks." (more)

Accused SpyCam'er Aquitted - Non-HD SpyCam Saved Her Butt... and His

Australia - An army corporal accused of secretly filming a woman while she showered at an Adelaide Hills barracks has been acquitted in the Adelaide Magistrates Court...

Magistrate Kym Boxall rejected claims by the defence that the card may have been stolen and worn to disguise the identity of the perpetrator.

"I find that rather the actual perpetrator inadvertently filmed himself, including the identification card, and thereby almost gave himself away," he said...

"There is no doubt that a crime of indecently filming a female person was committed at Woodside Army Base using a small filming device that looked like a vehicle remote control unit," he said.

However, he said he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Freeman was the person who planted the device. Freeman was found not guilty and the charge was dismissed. (more)

Etienne Labuschagne on Business Spying and Eavesdropping

“Many people think that this sort of thing isn’t happening — that corporate espionage is just something you see in movies,” says Etienne Labuschagne. “But that’s just not the case. As more people use these kinds of methods, more of them are getting caught. We live in an era where you can buy bugging gear for a few dollars … and where people will move mountains to get information first.”

Labuschagne says News of the World was simply “one of the unlucky ones that got caught doing it”. He suggests the newspaper got complacent after having gotten away with the practice for so long.

“It used to be easy to say people were just paranoid,” says Labuschagne. “I’m dealing with more and more clients every day who have these problems.”

The only way to ensure one’s phone calls, SMS messages and voice mails are entirely secure is to encrypt conversations, he adds. “The only way to be 100% sure is by using point-to-point encryption, where your unit and mine are both encrypted.”

With corporate espionage on the rise, he says that many companies are opting for counter surveillance strategies to protect their information, particularly because prevention is always easier than prosecution. “I recently dealt with a company that knew it had been bugged by competitors. But the problem is that in order to prosecute, the company would have to produce extensive evidence. Even then, that doesn’t stop it in the interim.”  (more)

Could Your Hard Drives (and other electronics) be Time-Bombed?

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official acknowledged the persistent threat of pre-existent malware on imported electronic and computer devices sold within the United States, sparking renewed interest in a problem the federal government has been trying to mitigate for some time.

Calling the threat "one of the most complicated and difficult challenges we have," Greg Schaffer, acting deputy undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate for the DHS, said that he is "aware that there are instances where that has happened," although he did not go into specifics about those instances. (more)

In an effort to better live up to their name, Yahoo! now reads your email before you do.

Houyhnhnms - Yahoo! has recently changed certain settings in its email policy which will allow the company to eavesdrop on customer mail.

With the new service, the search engine uses a spam blocking technology to learn about its users so they can be targeted by display advertisements.

However, this is not where it ends – Yahoo! will also hold the right to scan emails from people using other email accounts if they send emails to Yahoo! users.

In addition to this, users hold the responsibility to warn others about the changes made to their accounts. (more)


Extra Credit: How to Encrypt Your Email

Jersey Girls Spy Hard - Court Approves their Private GPS Spying

NJ - Appellate court in New Jersey sees no issue with private use of GPS devices to secretly track motorists. 

Police are not alone in the ability to secretly use GPS devices to track someone without his knowledge, the New Jersey Superior Court's Appellate Division ruled Thursday. 

A three-judge panel made this decision in the context of a privacy invasion suit brought by Kenneth R. Villanova against Innovative Investigations Inc after his now ex-wife hired the private-eye company to spy on him. She intended to document alleged infidelities prior to filing for divorce in May 2008. At the firm's suggestion, Villanova's wife installed the tracking device on her husband's GMC Yukon-Denali which followed the vehicle's every move for forty days. (more) Villanova v. Innovative Investigations (New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division, 7/7/2011)

Psst... Wanna buy some spy HQ blueprints?

Germany is investigating reports that a set of blueprints its future BND spy headquarters under construction in Berlin may have been missing for up to a year.

Several media were citing a German-language report in Focus magazine which, if confirmed, would likely pose a serious security risk — and be a huge embarrassment for the spy agency.

According to the Telegraph: The plans for the new building included details on alarms, emergency exits, wall thickness and the locking systems designed to protect the 4,000 personnel who will work there. Focus also said the blueprints could have been missing for a year before anyone noticed their absence. (more)

Oh, like this has never happened before... 
UK - DETAILED top-secret plans of MI5's fortress HQ have been sensationally handed to News of the World.

The lost 66-page dossier of floor layouts—once used by trusted CONTRACTORS at the high-security Central London base—would be gold dust to terrorists.

The plans were given to us by a worried member of the public, who got them from a friend who worked at the building and never handed them back. (more)

Keep the Guards Awake - Make them Wear Point & Shoot BulletCams

12 Megapixel 1/2.5 HD CMOS Sensor

• HD Video Resolution 720p (1280x720 Pixel)
• 170° Wide angle
• 10 m water proof
• With Photo Capture Mode:Camera takes a photo every 3 seconds
• Aluminum housing

Top-Details

• High Definition Camcorder 1,280 x 720, 30 fps
• Up to 2 h battery power
• Incl. 4 GB Micro-SD Card
• Incl. splash-proof camera head for improved sound recordings
• Incl. adapter for helmet, goggles, handle bar, 360° universal mount, case, USB cable, power adapter, sealants, lithium-ion battery

Technical features

• Image sensor 12 Megapixel 1/2.5 HD CMOS Sensor
• Objective 170° Wide Angle | Aperture: f = 2.8
• Memory Slot for Micro-SD Card up to 32 GB
• Data format Movie: MPEG codec , AVI file format
• System requierements PC: MS Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7 | Mac 10.6.6
• Connectors Mini USB 2.0
• Battery Life Video up to 2 hours with Micro-SD card 32 GB/Class 6
• Power rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
• Dimensions approx. 90 x 30 x 10 mm
• Weight approx. 83 g (without battery)

Alert: ZeuS Trojan Runs on Android Phones - Steals Bank Passcodes

via Krebs on Security...

Criminals have developed a component of the ZeuS Trojan designed to run on Google Android phones. The new strain of malware comes as security experts are warning about the threat from mobile malware that may use tainted ads and drive-by downloads.

Researchers at Fortinet said the malicious file is a new version of "Zitmo," a family of mobile malware first spotted last year that stands for "ZeuS in the mobile." The Zitmo variant, disguised as a security application, is designed to intercept the one-time passcodes that banks send to mobile users as an added security feature. It masquerades as a component of Rapport, a banking activation application from Trusteer. Once installed, the malware lies in wait for incoming text messages, and forwards them to a remote Web server. (more)

When Computer Spy Art is Not Smart

Artist Kyle McDonald put a strange art project into practice when he installed what amounts to surveillance software on the public computers at an Apple store and used the images collected to create a presentation that he hoped would give us, by the facial expressions captured, insight into our relationship with the computers we use...

McDonald figured that Apple had decided the program wasn't a big deal. That was until four Secret Service men in suits woke him up on Thursday morning with a search warrant for computer fraud. They confiscated two computers, an iPod and two flash drives, and told McDonald that Apple would contact him separately. (more)

People Staring at Computers from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo. 

Dude, next time just Christo the store.

Need Expert Police & Security Advice? Check Police-Writers.com

Police-Writers.com was founded by Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.).  An educator and prolific writer himself, Lt. Foster observed that many of the best people in law enforcement were sharing their expertise by writing books. He also recognized that their works needed a headquarters to be easily found. Hence, Police-Writers.com.

The book isles include diverse topic sections, such as:

Academic

Advancement and Promotion

African American Law Enforcement Writers

Biographical

Becoming a Police Officer

Children's Books

Community Policing

Corruption and Misconduct

Crime Analysis

Crime Prevention

Criminal Investigations

Ethics

Fiction

Firearms

Forensic Science and Crime Scenes

Juveniles (Prevention, Crime and Investigations)

Law Enforcement History

Law Enforcement Jobs

Law Enforcement Stress

Law Enforcement Technology

Leadership, Management and Supervision

Legal Resources

Other

Police Humor

Police Officer Survival

Police Spirituality and Religion

Private Security

Report Writing

Spanish Language Resources

Tactical

Terrorism

Traffic Collision Investigations

True Crime

Women Police Officers

Historically, a listing in Police-Writers.com was only granted to "anyone person who completed their probationary period in a state or local police or law enforcement organization." This has recently been expanded to include Other Law Enforcement Writers including Security Professionals, thus making the site an even more valuable repository of expertise.

As Mr. Peabody might say, "This is a site you should ...bookmark!"

Hacked Off - SuperSized - 9 Becomes Almost 4000

UK - Scotland Yard on Thursday night admitted that almost 4,000 people may have had their phones hacked by the News of the World's private investigator, placing further strain on the testimony of senior officers to Parliament that there were only a handful of victims.

In a statement, deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers, indicated that the new investigation into the illegal eavesdropping of mobile phone messages was struggling to deal with the mass of evidence of wrongdoing contained in Glenn Mulcaire's notebooks. 

The Yard's latest statement sharply contrasts with the evidence given by Andy Hayman, the officer who led the original investigation into Mulcaire's activities in 2006-07, which led to prosecutions regarding nine victims, including three Royal aides. (more)

Hacked Off - Is Your Cell Phone Next?

If the cellphone hacking scandal that caused the downfall of Britain's best-selling tabloid, News of the World, made you wonder about your own vulnerability, consider these statistics.

Globally, telecommunications-fraud losses, which includes cases of mobile-phone fraud, were estimated to hit $72 billion to $80 billion in 2009, up 34 percent from 2005, according to a 2009 survey of security experts from the Roseland, N.J.,-based Communications Fraud Control Association. Hacking alone accounted for $3.2 billion in losses for the telecom industry, says CFCA. What's more, the problems have likely only expanded as smartphone use has escalated. (more)

Goodbye Cricket. Hello, Whack-A-Hack-A-Phone

UK - The news keeps getting worse for News Corp. The phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed the company has now spread to The Sunday Times, the British broadsheet that has long been one of Rupert Murdoch's “quality” newspapers.

News Corp.'s daily tabloid The Sun has also been implicated, according to the Guardian, which reported Monday that both newspapers targeted the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. (more)

Not one to be one-upped by British hack(ing) journalists...

ZombiePhone

Korea - The police and public broadcaster KBS are in a bitter tug-of-war over a reporter’s suspected bugging of the opposition Democratic Party.

Last Friday, police officers searched the journalist’s home and seized his laptop, mobile phone and portable recorder. The broadcaster angrily responded, saying the act ``insulted” KBS and ``infringed on” press freedom.

In a duel between a powerful state organ and a media outlet, one tends to side with the latter. Not in this case. In all likelihood, the public broadcaster is hiding something.

Instead of flatly denying the suspicions of eavesdropping by its employee ― and proving it ― KBS said he did not bug the office of DP Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu in the way the DP and the police allege (by, for instance, using a wireless microphone). DP officials testified the KBS reporter retrieved his cell phone that he (deliberately) left in Sohn’s room. (more)

Business Espionage - Biting the Apple Can Get You Expelled

A technology executive charged with leaking sensitive information about Apple products to hedge fund traders pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Manhattan, the latest guilty plea in the government’s crackdown on insider trading facilitated by so-called expert networks...

Walter Shimoon, a former employee at electronic manufacturer Flextronics, is the 12th person to plead guilty in the government’s investigation of expert network firms...

In addition to sales figures, prosecutors said Mr. Shimoon also tipped a cooperating witness to Apple’s plans to develop a new iPhone. But later in the call, according to a transcript from prosecutors, Mr. Shimoon leaked word of an even more secret product in development, the iPad, which at the time was referred to as K48.

“So, you can get, at Apple you can get fired for saying K48…outside of a, you know, outside of a meeting that doesn’t have K48 people in it,” he told a cooperating witness, according to taped calls. “That’s how crazy they are about it.” (more)

Take a tip from Apple. Buy yourself a business counterespionage program. Shop here.

Phone Hacking Kills a Multi-Million Dollar Business

News Corp.’s News International unit announced that it will shut down its News of the World tabloid, and that this Sunday’s edition will be the last one, amid a deepening phone-hacking scandal... The News of the World is the U.K.'s best-selling Sunday paper, with an average circulation of 3.7 million people, according to analysis firm TGI. (more)

The alternative... Being sued out of business? FutureWatch - News of the Universe 

Why this is important to you... You are responsible for your employee's actions. Ethics, like security is a top-down corporate culture. A strong corporate counterespionage program sends two messages: spying is not tolerated (in either direction), and employees are obligated to pro-actively protect corporate intellectual assets. One visible reminder of this are the corporation's quarterly audits for electronic eavesdropping devices. (more)

Apple Cedes to Patch

Apple Inc. said Thursday it is working to resolve a security hole in its iPhone and other mobile products that German authorities warned could allow cyber criminals to access confidential information or intercept phone conversations.

Users are particularly vulnerable when they view Portable Document Format, or PDF, files, which give attackers an opportunity to infect the devices with malicious software, giving them administrative rights to the device, the German Federal Office for Information Security said Wednesday.

Once the device is infected, cyber criminals could read confident information such as passwords, online-banking data, calendars, e-mails and other information, as well as intercept telephone conversations and the location of the user. The security hole is present in several versions of Apple's iOS software on its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch products, the agency added. (more)

It Was 1984 When 'Runaway' Predicted Our Robotic Future

This beer can-sized gadget is one of the most surprising military inventions ever. Launched from a cannon, it allows to infiltrate any pirate’s ship with ease. Jack Sparrow, beware! 

Recon-Bot by American manufacturer Recon Robotics is truly amazing. It’s durable enough to be fired from a cannon. 

When it gets to the ship it was aimed at (pirate, most likely) it sticks magnetically to the ship’s side and climbs it all the way up. Being so tiny, it’s perhaps hardly noticeable. Recon Robotics describes it “marsupial”, because there’s another bot, equipped with an infrared camera, nesting inside the bigger one.

When the smaller robot is deployed on the board, it wanders around looking for pirates, hostages, illegal cargo, etc. and sends the footage to the operator. The Recon-Bot is most likely launched from a remote controlled unmanned vessel, allowing very quiet operations. (more)

And, other uses...

Runaway