Special Agent T-Shirt Contest #2

Contest Closed - We have a winner.

This man invented one of the first electronic eavesdropping devices. It was used extensively by the private detective William J. Burns in the early 20th Century. What was this inventor's full name (He has a 3-word name)?  (Enter here.)

Click to enlarge.

The prize - our Limited Edition Special Agent Black T-Shirt. (Size: Large)

Answer: Kelly Monroe Turner

("How limited," I hear you say.)  

Well, there are only three in the whole world! (one medium, one large, one x-large) And, they will be awarded in that order. So if you're a big Special Agent, wait for the last contest.

We designed this custom t-shirt ourselves! It's easy, go to ooShirts.com. They have a DIY on-line design lab! All types of t's, all colors, all prices. These are the Champion brand with the logo on the left sleeve.

Business Espionage: Corporate Spy Get 6:1 Sentence Reduction

A Canadian engineer who was found guilty of corporate espionage in Indonesia has been released from jail after his three-year sentence was reduced to six months.

Rick van Lee, 63, is now with his wife in Singapore after an Indonesian High Court judge decided on Feb. 2 to reduce a lower court's sentence, according to a website set up by van Lee's friends and associates. (more)

SpyCam Story #654 - Today in Voyeurism News

IN - A man arrested and charged with voyeurism is out on bond after admitting he videotaped women who were undressing at a local tanning salon, court records said.

Stephen M. Fox, 32, of the 1600 block of Patriot Drive, told police he has taken videos of women there previously using his cellphone. Police found multiple videos of various women at what appeared to be the tanning salon. (more)

KY - Officers arrested Gavont Baker, 18, on a felony video voyeurism charge. The alleged incident took place before class one morning in late January. But Baker might not be the only student to face charges. Officers say up to five students, four of them being minors, could face charges in this case.

Authorities say, during the incident, a video was recorded of a minor who was not wearing clothes. That video was then allegedly shared with other students, prompting the school district to get involved. And because the video reportedly contained a minor, without clothes, and then was shared, it falls under the state's child pornography laws. (more)

WA - The third hearing for Hoquiam teacher Wesley A. Phillips is scheduled for today at 1pm in Grays Harbor District Court #1. Phillips was released on bail from Grays Harbor County Jail on January 27th after his second hearing in District Court.

41 year old Phillips is charged with Communicating with a Minor for Immoral Purposes and Voyeurism. Both charges are Class C Felonies and each count carries a maximum sentence of 5 years. (more)

MA - Smartphones are convenient, pocket-sized gadgets that allow users to snap pictures or record videos on the fly, and in the wrong hands they can be dangerously invasive devices—especially on a college campus. That was the case early Friday morning when a woman showering at Warren Towers spotted an iPhone on the floor, apparently recording her. When she tried to squash the device with her foot, she cut it on a jagged tile. As she did, a hand reached into the shower and grabbed the phone. The suspected photographer immediately fled the bathroom. Friday’s peeping incident marks the third time in the past month that women have reported surreptitious shower photographers to the Boston University Police Department. (more)

Security Directors: FREE Security White Paper - "Surreptitious Workplace Recording ...and what you can do about it."   

People Who Snoop on Significant Others - Some Common Sense

via Danielle Pointdujour, clutchmagonline.com...

Personally….I think they’re all nuts. I come from the train of thought that says what’s done in the dark always comes to light. I don’t have to snoop or look for evidence because your foolishness will catch up with you sooner or later. I just live my life and keep my eyes and ears open, but snoop, never, and just like I thought, everything came to life. Any man that has ever cheated and/or lied to me got found out because of his own slackness. Friends slipped up, accidental emails, chick got pregnant, etc. I’ve never had to become a female Sherlock Holmes to find out the truth. Besides, if you feel so strongly in your gut that something is going on then something usually is. Your instincts are usually all the evidence you need that something might not be right. The problem is most of us ignore our guts in favor of finding physical proof to substantiate what we’ve known all along. (more) (more thoughts)

GPS Jammer Crackdown Begins

UK - The illegal use of Global Positioning System (GPS) jammers in the UK has been revealed in a groundbreaking study. 

GPS jammers are believed to be mostly used by people driving vehicles fitted with tracking devices in order to mask their whereabouts. In one location the Sentinel study recorded more than 60 GPS jamming incidents in six months...

In 2009 Newark Airport in the US found some of its GPS based systems were suffering repeated interference. The problem was eventually traced back to a truck driver using a GPS jammer. (more) 

How easy is it to purchase GPS jammers? (jammers)

FutureWatch: Expect the crackdown to expand.

Animal Abuse Covert Video Activism Leads to Politicians Being Prodded to Outlawing Cameras Instead of the Problem

Undercover investigations of animal abuse and unsanitary farm conditions would be outlawed in eight states... under an expanding effort by legislators who say the exposes malign livestock industries... backed by Monsanto Co. and other agriculture companies, (the new laws) would halt activists from using deceptive practices (covert video) to target producers in the $74 billion-a-year U.S. beef industry, or the $45 billion poultry business, as well as other businesses...

“For politicians, it comes across looking like they’re trying to muzzle these groups,” said Wes Jamison, an associate communications professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida who studies interest-group activism, in an interview. “It’s putting restrictions on citizen ‘gotcha’ journalism.”

Media stories about animal welfare have a “significant, negative” effect on meat demand, especially poultry and pork, according to a 2010 study by economists at Kansas State University and Purdue University in Indiana on covert exposes and news articles. (more) (sample videos)

Enemies: A History of the FBI

In Enemies: A History of the FBI, author Tim Weiner used recently declassified intelligence files to write a comprehensive history of the FBI... 

Weiner said that Hoover disregarded privacy protections mandated by the constitution in order to obstruct the activities of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He ordered the FBI to bug King’s bedroom and repeatedly blackmailed the civil rights leader.

"When it came down to bugging bedrooms, you had to be careful not to get caught, but there wasn't anything to stop him," Weiner said. "He decided up to a point ... where the boundaries of the law [were] when it came to black bag jobs, break-ins, bugging, surveillance, the constitutionality of gathering secret intelligence on America's enemies — both real and imagined." (more)

Hand Grenade Bug Will Blow You Away

a la Wikileaks, but for real-time bugging...

"The lack of Corporate and Governmental transparency has been a topic of much controversy in recent years, yet our only tool for encouraging greater openness is the slow, tedious process of policy reform.

Presented in the form of a Soviet F1 Hand Grenade, the Transparency Grenade is an iconic cure for these frustrations, making the process of leaking information from closed meetings as easy as pulling a pin.

Equipped with a tiny computer, microphone and powerful wireless antenna, the Transparency Grenade captures network traffic and audio at the site and securely and anonymously streams it to a dedicated server where it is mined for information. Email fragments, HTML pages, images and voice extracted from this data are then presented on an online, public map, shown at the location of the detonation.

Whether trusted employee, civil servant or concerned citizen, greater openness was never so close at hand..

Details 

The Transparency Grenade was created in January 2012 by Julian Oliver for the Studio Weise7 exhibition at Labor 8, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, curated by Transmediale 2012 Director, Kristoffer Gansing." (more)

P.S. "Due to legal concerns the author will not provide a server for using this application. However, all code will be published for study and so that others can set up their own service, should they find a worthy need for it."

Let the Drone Wars Begin

A remote-controlled aircraft owned by an animal rights group was reportedly shot down near Broxton Bridge Plantation Sunday near Ehrhardt, S.C.

Steve Hindi, president of SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness), said his group was preparing to launch its Mikrokopter drone to video what he called a live pigeon shoot on Sunday when law enforcement officers and an attorney claiming to represent the privately-owned plantation near Ehrhardt tried to stop the aircraft from flying.

"It didn't work; what SHARK was doing was perfectly legal," Hindi said in a news release. "Once they knew nothing was going to stop us, the shooting stopped and the cars lined up to leave."

He said the animal rights group decided to send the drone up anyway.

"Seconds after it hit the air, numerous shots rang out," Hindi said in the release. "As an act of revenge for us shutting down the pigeon slaughter, they had shot down our copter." (more)

CONTEST ALERT - Wednesday Noon (EST)

The famous Security Scrapbook contest back! 

Next Wednesday (noon EST) we will post a spy question. The first correct answer received wins! 

Click to enlarge.

We post this alert to give everyone an equal chance, as readers of the e-mail version receive these posts the following next day.

The prize - our Limited Edition Special Agent Black T-Shirt. 

("How limited," I hear you say.)  

Well, there are only three in the whole world! (one medium, one large, one x-large) And, they will be awarded in that order. So if you're a big Special Agent, wait for the last contest.

Did you know you could design custom t-shirts yourself? It's easy. I made these myself at ooShirts.com. They have a DIY on-line design lab! All types of t's, all colors, all prices. These are the Champion brand with the logo on the left sleeve.

ooShirts also provides design help, if needed. They suggested I use brighter colors to have the logo stand out better. They were 100% correct, but I went with muted gray and red for a subtle look (Special Agents don't have to shout it.) The shirt shows the colors correctly. The enlargement is brightened to show the fine detail of the printing, just look at the dots! This was a test run for us. We're thrilled.

SpyCam Story #653 - Neighbors Nail Spy Guy with SpyCam

Australia - A Geelong man has admitted to spying on his female neighbours for years...

Bruce Guy, 51, was caught in October last year after neighbours set up a night vision digital security camera...

Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Geoff Lamb said Guy, who is identified wearing underwear and work boots in the surveillance footage, had harassed neighbours around his Highpoint home for eight years. (more)

BUG FIND: Political Eavesdropping in Sudan

Sudan's Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, who is seeking a "popular revolution" in the country, on Sunday accused government intelligence agents of bugging his offices.

At a news conference the veteran politician produced three short sets of wire, each connected to a tiny metal or plastic box. He said they were bugging devices found in the electrical sockets of two meeting rooms at his Popular Congress Party headquarters on Wednesday. (more)

Hey, look! New Jersey mosquitos. No, wait. They're robots. Run!!!

Experiments performed with a team of nano quadrotors at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania. Vehicles developed by KMel Robotics. Special thanks to Professor Daniel Lee for his support.

Meanwhile,
back in the
Counterespionage Compound lab,
work begins on...

A Texacan Bugging Standoff

TX - A search warrant affidavit says a Texas constable admitted to the FBI that he had the offices of other officials secretly bugged after they were accused of illegally forcing motorists to forfeit cash. The federal affidavit quotes Shelby County Constable Fred Walker as saying he authorized the installation of hidden surveillance cameras and digital recorders. The document also includes a statement from a witness who claims Walker sold drugs seized from suspects.
 

An attorney for Walker, who hasn't been charged, says the constable never told the FBI that he authorized installation of listening devices and never sold drugs. Walker, at the time of the alleged bugging, was city marshal in Tenaha. (more)

Hacked: How China is stealing America's business secrets

...condensed version via theweek.com...
What's going on?
American companies are the victim of an "onslaught of computer network intrusions that have originated in China," according to a report by the U.S. government's National Counterintelligence Executive (NCE).

How is the technology stolen?
In the case of cyber-attacks, Chinese hackers may leave malware inside the computer systems of American firms, where the nefarious programs can go undetected for years, slowly bleeding companies of information.

What impact does the theft have on U.S. companies?
It can be devastating. Some say China is stealing $400 billion worth of sensitive information a year. The NCE report cited the case of paint company Valspar, which lost $20 million, or one-eighth of its annual profit, after its proprietary information was stolen by a Chinese rival. 

Are there national security concerns?
Definitely... For nearly a decade, hackers had access to the computer network of telecommunications company Nortel Networks. If, as suspected, China was behind the breach, it likely gained valuable insight into the internet and telephone systems that government agencies, banks, and other businesses rely on.

What has the U.S. done about this?
Surprisingly little so far. (more)

When foreign countries knocked-off our products, and sucked up our jobs with cheap labor, we had our technology to fall back on. Once they have our technology, we'll be their cheap labor. American Business, please stop the espionage before it's too late. We can help you.

SpyCam Story #652 - Today in Video Voyeurism

Canada - The husband of a home daycare operator has admitted he produced and distributed thousands of pornographic images of children. Kim Moskalewski pleaded guilty Thursday to three pornography related charges and one count of voyeurism. Moskalewski told Quebec Superior Court he used his wife's daycare to produce thousands of pictures and videos of boys and girls in sexual positions. Moskalewski worked as a computer analyst at CN rail. Police seized at least five computers from his home and office last August. Crown prosecutor Carolyne Paquin says police have found 5,000 pornographic pictures so far and are still weeding through another 200,000 images. (more)

Florida -  A new bill just passed in the state Senate increases criminal charges related to 'video voyeurism.' In a 40-0 vote, Senators approved the bill after adding an amendment saying people under 19 cannot face felony charges. (more)

Philippines - Neil Mark Romero, who was charged with violation of Republic Act 9995 otherwise known as Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009, denied the charges filed against him during his arraignment... Romero was accused of taking a video footage of Roliza Patenia, a category development executive of Nestle Philippines Inc. and a resident of Taguig City, inside a hotel's restroom. She claimed she was inside the first cubicle of the hotel's restroom at 11:20 a.m. of June 21 when she noticed that the rattan garbage bin was moving. Upon checking, she claimed she saw a cellular phone with its camera focused on her. (more)

Electronic Frontier Foundation Recommends Stopping Mass Spy Gear Sales to Authoritarian Regimes

Last week, EFF gave its recommendations to EU parliament on what steps to take to combat a growing and dangerous civil liberties concern: Western companies marketing and selling mass surveillance technology to authoritarian regimes. This technology has been linked to harassment, arrests, and even torture of journalists, human rights advocates, and democratic activists in many Middle East countries over the past year...

Privacy International recently released a mapping of companies and countries that have attended the notorious I.S.S. World trade shows, where this technology is bought and sold...

Example: Gamma International and its subsidiary FinFisher first made headlines after the fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt last year, when activists found the company’s records in an abandoned state security building, along with troves of surveillance files. The documents on Gamma and FinFisher showed how they provided Mubarak with a five-month trial of their sophisticated spying technology, most notably FinSpy, which can wiretap encrypted Skype phone calls and instant messages—a service once mistakenly trusted by activists for secure communications. (more)

Bugged Charlie Chaplin Put Through Intelligence Wringer

UK -  MI5 opened a file on Charlie Chaplin while he was being hounded by J Edgar Hoover's FBI for alleged communist sympathies.
 
The FBI, which described the star of Modern Times and The Great Dictator as one of "Hollywood's parlour Bolsheviks", asked MI5 for information to help get him banned from the US. The results, including information gathered through eavesdropping, are contained in an extensive personal MI5 file released on Friday at the National Archives. (more)

Adele, and Projectile Privacy

From a recent 60 Minutes Anderson Cooper interview with singer, Adele... 

Cooper: Have you ever thrown up?

Adele: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. A few times.

Cooper: Really?

Adele: Yeah. Projectile. Yeah. 'Cause it just comes (makes noise) it just comes out. It does.

That kind of candid talk is typical Adele. She is naturally generous with the details of her life, but her success is changing that. Fed up with paparazzi staking out her home in London, she's just rented this very large, but very private home in the English countryside.

Adele: This here, this is just safety, this house. Come on Louie!

Anderson: That's why you're out here? Just because...for privacy?

Adele: Yeah.

She's learned about fame, the hard way. In the past, too many personal details of her life ended up in the tabloid press. So she set traps to catch the sources...

Adele: I plant stories and see who leaks them and then I get rid of 'em, yeah.

Cooper: Really? So you would tell them something that--

Adele: I'd tell, like, a group of people who I was suspicious of, I'd tell them a different story with different details in it, but all roughly the same story so I could keep my eye on it. And then when I knew it would come out, yeah, I knew who it was. (more)

When it comes to snoops, electronic eavesdropping and information leaks, Adele is on the right track; keep a low profile, tie the criminal to the crime by testing for leaks, then stomp on their toes (usually with a law suit). There is more to this privacy protection technique, of course. In fact, a whole chapter ("Test for Leaks") is devoted to a privacy protocol I developed for our corporate clients in, "Is My Cell Phone Bugged?" (chapter preview here)

SpyCam Story #652 - Power, Lawyer, Judged

Australia - Prosecutors have asked the Adelaide District Court to jail a former lawyer and judge's associate who indecently filmed teenagers.

Anthony Kurt Power, 28, was a lawyer in 2010 when he set up hidden cameras in his home bathroom, at his church at Golden Grove, where he was a youth leader, and at a church camp. He filmed young people without their knowledge. Police also found thousands of child pornography files on his computer. (more)

Your Cell Can Tell Burglars When You Are Away... and More

Cellular networks leak the locations of cell phone users, allowing a third party to easily track the location of the cell phone user without the user's knowledge, according to new research by computer scientists in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering.

University of Minnesota computer science Ph.D. student Denis Foo Kune, working with associate professors Nick Hopper and Yongdae Kim, and undergraduate student John Koelndorfer, described their work in a recently released paper "Location Leaks on the GSM Air Interface" which was presented at the 19th Annual Network & Distributed System Security Symposium in San Diego, California...

"It has a low entry barrier," Foo Kune said. "Being attainable through open source projects running on commodity software."

Using an inexpensive phone and open source software, the researchers were able to track the location of cell phone users without their knowledge on the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network, the predominant worldwide network. (more)

Special Agent T-Shirt Contest #1

Contest Closed - We have a winner.

According to a Life Magazine article from 1966, what piece of "eavesdropping equipment" could a person buy for five hundred dollars? (Enter here.)

(Hint: the answer can be found on spybusters.com)

ANSWER: A martini olive bug.

Click to enlarge.

The prize - our Limited Edition Special Agent Black T-Shirt. (Size: Medium)

("How limited," I hear you say.)  

Well, there are only three in the whole world! (one medium, one large, one x-large) And, they will be awarded in that order. So if you're a big Special Agent, wait for the last contest.

We designed this custom t-shirt ourselves! It's easy, go to ooShirts.com. They have a DIY on-line design lab! All types of t's, all colors, all prices. These are the Champion brand with the logo on the left sleeve.

SpyCam Story #651 - "FL, pass that law quickly!"

FL - A Pensacola man is facing charges accused of taking photos of a woman in a public bathroom. Security video shows the suspect, Johnathan Smith going into the bathroom at Books-a-Million on Davis Highway.

A few minutes later the victim runs out, screaming for help.

Escambia deputies say, Smith took off running with witnesses in pursuit. Smith later told deputies that he knew what he did was wrong. (more)

---
 
FL - Two women who were spied on and videotaped by a former Gainesville police officer have sued the city, the officer and former Chief Norman Botsford, claiming that the city failed to maintain policies and procedures that could have prevented the voyeurism.

The two were among the victims for which officer Brett Robison was charged with seven counts of video voyeurism in 2010. He pleaded no contest last year to a charge of official misconduct in a plea agreement that dropped the seven charges. (more)

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FL -  A man faces child pornography and double-digit video voyeurism charges after a female victim witnessed him filming her at a Publix grocery store, according to a police report.

Police first arrested the man, 41-year-old Charles Korst. Police say that Korst placed a camera in a hand held basked and used it to film the undergarments of a woman shopping at the Publix located on 1700 North Monroe Street.

Police obtained a search warrant for Korst's home, which was in walking distance from the store, based on the belief that the camera and digital media used in the crime were inside.

On the same day, police executed the warrant. During a search, they found an external hard drive hidden behind a dresser drawer.

After reviewing the files of the hard drive, police say they found evidence that Korst filmed under the skirts of multiple women at many different locations. Some of the locations appear to be Target, Wal-mart, Home Depot and Publix. (more)

SpyCam Story #650 - The Down Under Bus'ted

Australia - Detectives on Sydney’s north shore have arrested and charged a bus driver with voyeurism offences. 

It’s alleged the 48-year-old man installed an upward-facing camera in the floor of a State Transit Authority bus near the front ticket machine last Thursday (9 February 2012) filming unsuspecting passengers.

Police allegedly seized a number of computers and electronic storage devices containing thousands of indecent images of females – taken in public places, including onboard STA buses – dating back to 2009. The victims, which include many schoolchildren, are seemingly unaware they are being filmed. (more)

SpyCam Story #649 - Florida's SpyCam (almost) Law

FL - The Florida Senate has unanimously approved a bill that increases the charges related to the crime known as "video voyeurism."

Senators approved the bill (SB 436) on Tuesday by a 40-0 vote after adding an amendment clarifying that people under 19 can't be charged with a felony.

This bill increases video voyeurism offenses that are now first-degree misdemeanors to third-degree felonies. It also increases current third-degree felony video voyeurism offenses to second-degree felonies. And it makes clear that people have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" inside a home. (more)

CONTEST ALERT - Wednesday Noon (EST) - Next 3 Weeks

The famous Security Scrapbook contest back! 

Every Wednesday (noon EST) for the next three weeks we will post a spy question. The first correct answer received wins! 

Click to enlarge.

We post this alert to give everyone an equal chance, as readers of the e-mail version receive these posts the following next day.

The prize - our Limited Edition Special Agent Black T-Shirt. 

("How limited," I hear you say.)  

Well, there are only three in the whole world! (one medium, one large, one x-large) And, they will be awarded in that order. So if you're a big Special Agent, wait for the last contest.

Did you know you could design custom t-shirts yourself? It's easy. I made these myself at ooShirts.com. They have a DIY on-line design lab! All types of t's, all colors, all prices. These are the Champion brand with the logo on the left sleeve.

ooShirts also provides design help, if needed. They suggested I use brighter colors to have the logo stand out better. They were 100% correct, but I went with muted gray and red for a subtle look (Special Agents don't have to shout it.) The shirt shows the colors correctly. The enlargement is brightened to show the fine detail of the printing, just look at the dots! This was a test run for us. We're thrilled. 

As with all printing, the more you do the cheaper it gets, but even just doing three is affordable enough for special one-time occasions, like showing up with, "Will you marry me?" Happy Valentine's Day! ~Kevin

Deshredding Reveals Massive Cold War Identity Theft

The reconstructed contents of 500 trash bags offer new insights into the extent of spying activities by the East German secret police, or Stasi, in West Germany.

As the German regional public broadcaster RBB recently reported, the Stasi ran an extensive program of stealing identities of tens of thousands of West German citizens to enable their spies to operate freely in the West...

This massive fraud came to light when the agency of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi records completed the reconstruction of about a million torn-up documents, or the contents of about 500 trash bags. The reconstruction was accomplished, for the most part, through meticulous work by hand. (more)

Spybusters Security Tip: Never use a stripcut shredder. Always crosscut, particle, or pulp shred your sensitive wastepaper. Computerized document reconstruction (de-shredding programs) are available.

Weekend Movie Review - Safe House

by Erin Biglow...
It probably isn’t much of a spoiler to mention that the titular location featured in Safe House, a CIA action thriller starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds as an unlikely mentor-protégé dynamic duo, turns out to be anything but secure.

Despite being designed as an off-the-grid shelter in which to discreetly perform harrowing interrogation techniques or hide a suspect, the “safe house” in Safe House ends up seeing enough blazing gunfire and breaches of national security to give rookie agent Matt Weston (Reynolds) reason to reassess his stalled climb up the company ladder. (...company ladder, get it? Very funny, Biglow.) (more)

Video: Multi-Billion Dollar Industrial Espionage Explained

Real Life Example: Titanium dioxide is a commonly used substance. It is in paint, but also shows up in sunscreen and food coloring. Hundreds of thousands of tons are shipped around the world every year.

Decades ago, DuPont developed secret processes to make high-quality titanium dioxide in a manner that is less toxic than the traditional production method. The process, which made it the most efficient maker in the world, is a closely held trade secret. Global sales of the product, which is dominated by DuPont, are $12 billion annually.

Titanium oxide makers in China use an older, more toxic, less efficient manufacturing process. But in 2010, Jinzhou Titanium Industry announced that it had achieved high-quality status production like DuPont. That claim may be tied to the apparent theft of DuPont trade secrets. (more)

"Can cell and satellite phones really be intercepted and decrypted?"

I often get this question. The quick answer is, yes. But it is hard to fathom without seeing some proof.
 

There are dozens of companies selling equipment to do this. Their customers are mainly governments. The products are pricy. ABILITY is one supplier...

"ABILITY was founded in 1993 by a team of experts in military intelligence and communications who were joined by specialists in electronics and mathematics. Their goal was simple but extraordinarily complex – to devise state of the art interception and decryption solutions that would serve the needs and ever-increasing challenges of security and intelligence agencies, military forces, police and homeland security services around the world.

The ability to deliver both interception and decryption. 

Our uniqueness is in our complete capabilities in both interception of communications as well as their clear decryption. ABILITY has nearly two decades of proven ability in the service of leading security agencies, law enforcement and armed forces around the globe!

We specialize in off-air interception of cellular and satellite communication networks and deciphering solutions for cellular and satellite communications." 

FutureWatch

Price drop. "Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum, in Germany, think they have managed to crack two popular encryption protocols, known as A5-GMR-1 and A5-GMR-2. These are commonly used in the Thuraya satellite phones used across swathes of Africa, the Middle East and North Asia. (Thuraya has yet to respond to the revelations.) The researchers hope that their paper, published on their website, will help interested parties fix the flaw. More importantly, perhaps, it might prompt phone-makers to act. "We can assume that this has probably been known about since the beginning of this century," says Benedikt Driessen, one of the authors of the new paper. He and his colleagues say that it takes about $2,000 worth of gear and half an hour to decipher a satellite phone call." (more)

14 Counterespionage Tips for Your Next China Trip

via The New York Times...

When Kenneth G. Lieberthal, a China expert at the Brookings Institution, travels to that country, he follows a routine that seems straight from a spy film.

He leaves his cellphone(1) and laptop(2) at home and instead brings “loaner” devices(3), which he erases(4) before he leaves the United States and wipes clean the minute he returns(5). In China, he disables Bluetooth(6) and Wi-Fi(7), never lets his phone out of his sight(8) and, in meetings, not only turns off his phone(9) but also removes the battery(10), for fear his microphone could be turned on remotely. 

He connects to the Internet only through an encrypted(11), password-protected(12) channel, and copies and pastes his password from a USB thumb drive(13). He never types in a password directly(14), because, he said, “the Chinese are very good at installing key-logging software on your laptop.” 

What might have once sounded like the behavior of a paranoid is now standard operating procedure for officials at American government agencies, research groups and companies that do business in China and Russia... (more)

Draw Cubby and Become a Police Sketch Artist... for FREE

"Cubby" is the guy who just mugged you.

Now, you can draw him for the police!

SketchFace, created by Ali Daneshmandi, is an incredible free web application for creating a photo-realistic facial composite pictures. 

Be warned. You will probably blow the rest of your weekend playing with this. ~Kevin

Ali's amazing story...

Cubby

I started to learn using computer when I was 18 by learning Photoshop! Yes, I didn’t know how to use computers but I’d wanted to learn Photoshop :D . There was no one around me to help me on that. So I started by myself by trial and error besides reading Photoshop Help. This made me a self learner later on... I am a continue learner who is always anxious to create great and cool user experiences.

$250 million “Bluetooth Jacking” Scam Ring Busted

The video above is a scam known as the “Bluetooth Jacking” scam, where the criminal takes your cellphone’s ID via a bluetooth device, and they force your phone to call a high premium phone line where you get charged by the minute. The criminal may get away with $20 – $50 before you realize what happened.

The crime is not just for low level criminals, an even more sophisticated type of scam actually clones your entire phone and allows the criminals to make calls to International numbers and could possibly take your identity. The Secret Service just busted a ring of people pulling off this kind of crime.

On February 1, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced charges against 12 defendants for participating in a $250 million cell phone cloning scheme. (more)

Spybusters Tip #416: Keep your Bluetooth turned off when you are not using it.

SpyCam Story #648 - SpyCam Stops Animal Cruelty

Australia - A Sydney abattoir has stopped slaughtering and faces closure and prosecution after hidden-camera footage of chilling animal cruelty emerged.

The NSW Food Authority ordered the immediate halt yesterday to slaughter at the Hawkesbury Valley Meat Processors at Wilberforce, in Sydney's west, after seeing undercover footage apparently taken by a worker at the abattoir. (more - with disturbing video)

Weekend Movie Tip - Safe House

Supposedly Matt Weston is a spy for the CIA, stationed in South Africa. But in reality, he’s little more than a glorified housekeeper.

His job is to oversee a “safe house,” a secure, off-the-grid installation where other agents — the real agents — can hide a friend or brutally interrogate an enemy. Every day, Matt turns the key, turns on the lights and waits for the doorbell to ring.

Then one day it does, and all hell breaks loose. (more)

Today in Spy History - 50 Years Ago - Francis Gary Powers

On a bridge outside Berlin one gloomy morning 50 years ago Friday stood Francis Gary Powers, the pilot of a CIA spy plane that was shot down over the Russian Ural mountains. He had waited 21 months for this moment. He had survived a plane crash, weeks of harsh interrogation and the brutal conditions of a Soviet prison. He was on the threshold of freedom, and his heart was thumping heavily.

On the opposite end of the steel-trussed Glienecke Bridge was Col. Rudolph Abel, the highest-ranking Russian intelligence officer to be caught spying in the United States.

At 8:52 a.m., the two men began walking forward. They passed each other and made eye contact. Neither said a word.

It was a dramatic — and surprisingly peaceful — end to a political crisis at a time of extreme tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. (more)

Government Security Conference and Expo - April 2-4

GovSec returns to Washington, DC for its 11th year with a Conference and a free* admission Expo!

This year the Government Security Conference and Expo, is joining forces with the Contingency Planning & Management, Network-Centric Security, and U.S. Law Enforcement Conferences. By combining these events attendees can make integrated buying decisions at one event.

Topics include:
*Critical Infrastructure Protection
*Counter Terrorism: Domestic & International
*Cyber Terrorism and Cybercrime
*Contingency Planning & Management
*Network-Centric Security

Expo includes:
*Agency Briefings
*Mobile Apps Experience
*Keynote Presentations
*Security Clearance Mini Workshop
*CISSP Exam Prep Clinic
*Force & Firearms Championship
*K-9 Explosive Detection Team Demo
*Bomb Squad Response and Robots Demo
*2011 Espionage Debrief
....and much more!

Opening Keynotes
Ralph S. Boelter, Assistant Director, FBI Counterterrorism Division
Gordon M. Snow, Assistant Director, FBI Cyber Division.

Wednesday Keynote
Senator George J. Mitchell, Former U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace.
 
*$50 fee for non-government attendees registering after February 27.

Wiretapping, Murder and a $30 Million Lottery Jackpot = A Shakespearean Tragedy

FL - A judge this morning rescheduled the trial for Dorice Donegan "Dee Dee" Moore, who is charged in the death of lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare.

Moore is charged with first-degree murder and illegal wiretapping in the slaying of Shakespeare, a Lakeland man who won a $30 million lottery jackpot in November 2006. (more)

Baltasar the Judge... Hear Here

Spain's Supreme Court has found the country's best-known judge, Baltasar Garzon, guilty of authorising illegal recordings of lawyers' conversations.

He has been banned from the legal profession for 11 years. The court said he could not appeal aginst the ruling. (more)

SpyCam Story #648 - Today in Video Voyeurism

Russia - A 71-year-old Moscow man has been charged with two felony counts of video voyeurism stemming from a police investigation that determined he allegedly secretly videotaped sexual encounters with a former girlfriend and then left graphic print-out images from those videos in her current boyfriend's vehicle. (more)

DC - In the last decade of the 1800s, a new word appeared in the lexicon: voyeurism. It was first used to describe a service offered at certain Paris brothels equipped with a peephole cut in a bedroom wall, but it might just as easily been invented to described the awesome new power of the first portable Kodak cameras that appeared on the market at the same time. Sepia-toned images from those early Instamatics are part of a fascinating new exhibition at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., titled "Snapshots: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard." Some of the most famous Post-Impressionists painters were also Kodak fans, and pointed the lens at the same subjects that fill their paintings—their wives, mistresses, and female models. "Snapshots: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard" is on view at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., until May 6. (more)

UK - A man has appeared before Carlisle magistrates to face two charges of voyeurism by recording “a private act” and two counts of sexual assault. (more)

FL - A Marion County Sheriff's Office corrections officer placed on unpaid leave after being arrested on charges of video voyeurism and unlawful use of a computer has resigned. (more)

AZ - Owen Dix pled guilty Feb. 6 to one count of photographing someone without their consent and one count of videotaping someone without their consent. He will be sentenced on March 12, 2012. Owen Dix, 35, took pictures of a child inside the boy's bathroom at Banks Elementary School on Dec. 12, 2011. (more)

Business Espionage: DuPont & Dow & Motorola v. China

US authorities Wednesday unveiled charges against five people and five companies in an espionage scheme aimed at stealing trade secrets for Chinese-controlled firms from US chemical giant DuPont. 

A grand jury indictment unsealed in San Francisco contains charges in a "long-running effort to obtain US trade secrets for the benefit of companies controlled by the government of the People's Republic of China," the Justice Department said...

In a separate industrial espionage case, a Chinese scientist was sentenced in December to more than seven years in prison for stealing secrets on organic insecticides from Dow AgroSciences, where he worked from 2003-2008. (more)

Separately, a former engineer for Motorola Inc was found guilty on Wednesday of stealing trade secrets from the company but cleared of economic espionage for China. (more)