Today in Eavesdropping History

1964 - American officials have discovered a network of 40 microphones buried for 11 years deep in the walls of four floors of the U.S. embassy in Moscow, the State Department said today [May 19]. ‘‘It must be assumed that at least some of them were in operating condition when discovered,’’ said a State Department statement. State Department officials described the discovery as the ‘‘worst case’’ of ‘‘bugging’’ found so far in U.S. posts behind the Iron Curtain. They said they were found in the ‘‘eighth, ninth and tenth floors and in apartments below.’’ Ambassador Foy D. Kohler’s office is on the ninth floor of the buff-colored, ten-story structure on Tchaikovsky Street. The offices of the U.S. military attachés are on the tenth floor. (more)

Grand jury indicts deputy director at Hudson County jail on wire-tapping charge

The deputy director of the Hudson County jail was indicted by a grand jury today on charges that he illegally wiretapped fellow employees at the jail, authorities said today.

In January Eady, 46, was charged with using a website between March and July 2012 to place telephone calls to four Hudson County jail employees. The website allowed Eady to conceal the telephone numbers from where the calls originated and also call and record two people simultaneously.

The site also made it appear that those people, and not Eady, originated the call. (more)

Flash: US Grand Jury Charges 5 Chinese Hackers with Economic Espionage, Trade Secret Theft

The U.S. accused Chinese military officials of hacking into several U.S. enterprises, including Westinghouse and U.S. Steel, to steal "significant" amounts of trade secrets and intellectual property in an indictment made public Monday. 

It is the first time the U.S. has charged a state actor in a criminal cyber espionage case.

The Chinese hackers, using military and intelligence resources, downloaded massive amounts of industrial information, including strategic plans, from U.S. businesses, the indictment said. In addition to Westinghouse and U.S. Steel, victims included Solar World, United Steel Workers Union and Alcoa...

Attorney General Eric Holder called it a case of "economic espionage."

The case "represents the first ever charges against a state actor for this type of hacking," Holder said. "The range of trade secrets and other sensitive business information stolen in this case is significant and demands an aggressive response." (more)

Flash: 100+ Arrested in Global Malware Crackdown

The FBI and police in several countries have arrested more than 100 people and conducted hundreds of searches in recent days in a global crackdown on hackers linked to the malicious software called Blackshades, two law enforcement officials told CNN. 

The years-long investigation is targeting one of the most popular tools used by cybercriminals. The malware sells for as little as $40 and can be used to hijack computers remotely and turn on webcams, access hard drives and capture keystrokes to steal passwords without the victim's knowledge, CNN Justice Reporter Evan Perez and CNN Justice Producer Shimon Prokupecz report.
People familiar with the investigation say U.S. prosecutors are expected to announce more details today. (more)

Don’t Want the Government Tracking You? Turn Your Phone Off

A federal magistrate judge in New York recently ruled that cell phone location data deserves no protection under the Fourth Amendment and that accordingly, the government can engage in real-time location surveillance without a search warrant. In an opinion straight from the Twilight Zone, magistrate judge Gary Brown ruled two weeks ago that “cell phone users who fail to turn off their cell phones do not exhibit an expectation of privacy.” (more)

Watergate Figure - Deputy Director of CREEP - Magruder Dead at 79

Jeb Stuart Magruder, a former official in the administration of President Richard Nixon jailed for his role in the Watergate scandal, died May 11 from complications from a stroke, according to a funeral notice published by a Connecticut funeral home.

Magruder, 79, joined the Nixon administration in 1969 as special assistant to the president for domestic policy development. He joined Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign and was involved in the campaign's efforts to gather intelligence on its political opponents.

In that job, Magruder helped authorize the unsuccessful June 17, 1972, break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington's Watergate office complex. The arrest of the five burglars that night triggered a coverup by the campaign, which spread to the White House and was enthusiastically embraced by Nixon. Nixon resigned in August 1974 after continued revelations about his role in the scandal and other issues. (more) 

Fun Facts:
Magruder's first major political job was managing the successful 1962 primary campaign of Donald Rumsfeld for the Republican nomination, preparing for the congressional election in the 13th district of Illinois, to the United States House of Representatives.

After his fall from grace, became a Presbyterian minister.

Business Espionage - Video Report via French Television

BEYOND BUSINESS - Corporate espionage: Spying in the information age

Al Gore Sensed a Change in His Climate

The manager of the King David Hotel, in Jerusalem, said a report by Newsweek’s Jeff Stein, that an Israeli spy was caught in an air conditioner duct while spying on then U.S. Vice President Al Gore in 1998, was “ridiculous,” as the air duct is actually “so small that even a cat cannot walk in it.” (more)

Pondering Anti-Eavesdropping Laws, or Georgia on Your Mind (updated)

The parliament of Georgia has started discussions over the draft law on the protection of the security of private life and on illegal surveillance. The parliamentary majority claims that the draft reflects European Union conventions, while the minority stresses that the draft grants too much power to enforcement bodies.

The development of the draft began nearly one year ago. NGOs intensively demanded the adoption of the law against illegal eavesdropping, especially when thousands of recordings illegally typed under the previous government were destroyed. The NGOs, former officials, and members of the United National Movement (UNM) claim that the Interior Ministry still actively eavesdrops on people. (more)

In other Georgia news...
The Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia has launched an investigation over secret recordings aired by Rustavi 2 on May 10.  

Several days ago the head of Rustavi 2 Nika Gvaramia stated that the company was being eavesdropped upon. He also displayed recordings reflecting the process. Gvaramia stressed that the recordings was delivered to the channel by an informer from the Interior Ministry. According to the TV program Aktsentebi, the audio recordings, which were made in 2013, feature phone conversations between several high ranking officials. This is all during the time that Mikheil Saakashvili was president and Ugulava was Tbilisi’s mayor.

Rustavi 2 TV claims that the offices of its top executives were bugged by the current authorities. However, the prosecutor’s office states that the offices were possibly bugged in December 2012 by a security agency, which at the time was under President Saakashvili’s subordination. The office claimed these devices were used to record private conversations so they could be later used to blackmail or to discredit evidence. (more)

World's Slowest Surveillance Cameras Will Spy on Berlin for the Next 100 Years

The city of Berlin, currently undergoing the biggest real estate boom since German reunification, has been chosen to pilot a global initiative monitoring urban development and decay over the next century. Instigated by experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats in cooperation with the Berlin-based team titanic gallery, the unauthorized surveillance program will use ultra-long-exposure cameras to continuously document 100 years of municipal growth and decay for scrutiny and judgment by future generations.  

Camera in situ. Click to enlarge.

"The first people to see these photos will be children who haven't yet been conceived," says Mr. Keats. "They're impacted by every decision we make, but they're powerless. If anyone has the right to spy on us, it's our descendants."

To facilitate intergenerational surveillance in Berlin and other yet-to-be-disclosed cities, Mr. Keats has invented a new photographic system based on the traditional pinhole camera. "My photographic time capsules are extremely simple, since anything complicated is liable to break," says Mr. Keats. The cameras use sheets of black paper in place of ordinary film. The pinhole focuses light on the black paper sheet, such that the paper fades most where the light is brightest, very slowly creating a unique positive image of the scene in front of the camera. "The photograph not only shows a location, but also shows how the place changes over time," Mr. Keats explains. "For instance an old apartment building torn down after a quarter century will show up only faintly, as if it were a ghost haunting the skyscraper that replaces it." 

CenturyCamera will be released on 16 May 2014 from 7:00 PM until midnight at an opening reception organized by team titanic at Friedelstrasse 29 in Berlin-Neukölln. Jonathon Keats will be on hand to demonstrate the new technology. (more)

Coffee Table Fit for a Spy

via Cup of Zup...

The unique Kai Table is designed by Naoki Hirakoso and Takamitsu Kitahara and features an incredible amount of hidden compartments that allows you to stash away money, possessions and secrets. 

Now you don’t just have a regular coffee table but one heck of a awesome piece of furniture.

600,000 YEN – Ex-warehouse
(more)

Who Says There are No Dumb Questions?

"How does one get involved in company espionage?"

Have I got some books for this person. (more) (more)

Just Tell the Boss You Are on Loan to the CIA... for 10 years.

The EPA’s highest-paid employee and a leading expert on climate change deserves to go to prison for at least 30 months for lying to his bosses and saying he was a CIA spy working in Pakistan so he could avoid doing his real job, say federal prosecutors.

John C. Beale, who pled guilty in September to bilking the government out of nearly $1 million in salary and other benefits over a decade, will be sentenced in a Washington, D.C., federal court on Wednesday. In a newly filed sentencing memo, prosecutors said that his lies were a "crime of massive proportion" and “offensive” to those who actually do dangerous work for the CIA.

Beale’s lawyer, while acknowledging his guilt, has asked for leniency and offered a psychological explanation for the climate expert’s bizarre tales. (more)

Dumb Law + Dumb Statement... What could possibly go wrong?

A Massachusetts woman's arrest has brought the state's strict wiretapping law into the national spotlight.

Karen Dziewit was arrested early Sunday morning outside of a Springfield home, charged with disorderly conduct, carrying an open container of alcohol and an illegal wiretap, according to the Boston Herald.

The last charge came after the 24-year-old allegedly told the police, "I’ve been recording this thing the whole time, my phone is in my purse, see you in court."

A Massachusetts statute states that a private citizen can't record another person without first getting their consent. (more)

Illinois recently overturned a similar law. This may prompt Massachusetts to do the same.

Could this be the end of the flashlight?

New, low-cost chips for sensing thermal energy could lead to a raft of new night-vision products, engineers say, ushering in everything from smarter cars to handheld devices for spelunking (and possibly bug hunting).

A new technology used by Raytheon, “wafer-level packaging,” dramatically reduces the cost of making these thermal sensors. The advances could – for the first time – put a thermal weapons sight in the hands of every soldier in a platoon. But the commercial and law-enforcement uses are endless, too, developers say.

“Once it reaches a certain price point, you’ll see it kind of popping up in a lot of different areas,” said Adam Kennedy, a lead engineer at Raytheon Vision Systems. “That’s just very, very exciting.” (more)

Verizon's 2014 Data Breach Investigations Report

Gain fresh insight into cyber espionage and denial-of-service attacks in the 2014 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR). 

This year’s report features nine common incident patterns, bringing together insights from 50 global organizations, from around the globe, and more than 63,000 confirmed security incidents. 

Discover how attackers can affect your business, and learn the steps you need to take to counter threats and protect your reputation. (download)

PI Alert: Low Cost Spy Photo/Movie Gadget for Your Smartphone

Peek-I – it’s a tiny spy gadget that helps you take pictures discreetly. 

Peek-I - Easily attaches’ magnetically to the camera of your mobile device. It works as a periscope, reflecting the image at a 90 degree angle. 

Is so tiny, that it’s hard to notice it is on your device at all. And no one will ever know you were the ONE who took THAT picture or film THAT video!!! So do you feel like James Bond yet? 

Make awesome shots of your friends, completely unaware that they were on camera!!! You don’t need to point camera directly on the object! Don’t scare your astonishing award winning picture away! Peek-I is there for you! 

Only a few of us have the courage to openly take pictures of other people or objects, at times it’s merely impossible. But the outer lens for devices Peek-I opens completely new prospective for all sorts of pictures, without being afraid to draw attention. Thanks to Peek-I, you can take a picture from around a corner without being noticed. You can also get great shots of weirdos walking down the street right next to you, without them realizing what you are doing. 

The cute design makes it look like another accessory for your device; moreover it can be easily removed, like it was never there! (more)

Murray Security Tip #631 - Text 911 - Coming Soon

Starting May 15, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint will let you text police in case of an emergency. Here's how it works...

Text-to-911 is a free program for sending a text message addressed to "911" instead of placing a phone call. To use it, you address the message to 911 and enter the emergency in the body of the text, making sure that you also add your exact location -- or else emergency services won't be able to dispatch help your way. (Dumb. It should attach GPS coordinates.) 

Since it's all SMS-based, you will hear a response for more follow-up questions, or when help is on the way.

Who is Text-to-911 for?
Text-to-911 is useful for any situation in which it is dangerous or impossible to speak. Texting is also a useful way to help the younger demographic that feels more comfortable texting than calling.

Although the carriers have committed to supporting 911 texting in their service areas, that doesn't mean that text-to-911 will be available everywhere. Emergency call centers, called PSAPs (Public Safety Answering Points), are the bodies in charge of implementing text messaging in their areas. These PSAPs are under the jurisdiction of their local states and counties, not the FCC, which governs the carriers. In other words, it's up to the call centers to receive and dispatch your texts. Until the PSAP in your county first requests Text-to-911 support, implements the technology, and trains its staff, you won't be able to use texting in an emergency. (Dumb. Should be seamless.) (more)

Spy vs Guy (short movie)

A retired Russian spy hunts down sensitive technology after it falls into unsuspecting hands. Well done, cute, improbable, with humorous moments.

New Spy Game: Tag Your IT

Foreign intelligence agencies are trying to recruit tech staff in big businesses in an attempt to gain access to vital IT systems, MI5 has warned British business chiefs.

In recent months, the UK security service has had a series of "high-level conversations with executives" to warn of the risk, according to the Financial Times. Targeting IT staff — who often have unfettered access to the most important systems — is seen as one of the quickest ways to gain access.

The security service is warning that IT workers have been recruited to help overseas spies gain sensitive personnel information, steal corporate or national secrets and even upload malware to compromise the network. (more)

FutureWatch: Smartphones Always Snitch (Care to guess how this will be used?)

Sensors in smartphones collect data which can be used to identify you and pinpoint your location, regardless of your privacy settings, study finds...
Data gathered by smartphone sensors can be used to identify you, pinpoint your location and monitor your phone, irrespective of your privacy settings, new research has found.

Accelerometers, sensors used to track movement of smartphones, are used in countless apps, including pedometers, playing games and monitoring sleep. Research from the University of Illinois' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering found that minuscule imperfections during the manufacturing process create a unique 'fingerprint' on the generated data.

The gathered data can be used to identify you as it is sent to the cloud for processing, bypassing privacy settings concerning the withholding of location data and with no need to discern your phone number or SIM card number, leaving you potentially vulnerable to cyber attack...

Graduate student Sanorita Dey said you can best protect yourself and your device by not sharing your accelerometer data without thinking about how legitimate or how secure that application is. (more)

Security Alert: Yet Another Creepy Peeper Baby Cam Hack Story

OH - According to FOX19, Heather and Adam Schreck were woken up in the middle of the night recently to hear a man screaming “wake up baby.”
The man had hacked the monitor, which streams video to the Schreck’s cell phone, and was watching the baby sleep.

When Heather and Adam ran to her room, they saw the camera moving, and it eventually pointed away from the baby to Adam.

The man then started swearing and screaming at Adam from the monitor.

They quickly unplugged the camera. (more with video report) (more)

An almost identical incident occurred last August in Texas.

Murray Security Tip #823 - Hackers search for and post the URLs of unsecured cameras. Once your camera is tagged, you can expect any number of outsiders peering through your electronic window. If you remotely view your baby camera (or other home surveillance products) do the following:
• Replace the default password with your own (decent) password.
• Use a non-standard port. Hackers generally target camera default ports. (8100 or highter)
• Periodically check the manufacturer's web site for software and firmware updates. Often these updates are released to specifically fix security loopholes. Example.
• Foscam cameras were mentioned in both of these hacks. If you have a Foscam product, read their security alert.
• Don't forget to secure your home wireless network as well. Top 10 Tips.

Example of someone who didn't take security seriously.

Related Security Scrapbook items: here & here.

Voyeurgler Caught - Check Your Vents

CA - On March 18, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a report of a burglary at a home in the area of Bonita Place and Verde Place in San Miguel. A suspect was identified at that time.

During the course of the investigation, deputies discovered the suspect had gained access to three homes in that area and installed a camera in the ventilation system. In each case, a camera was positioned behind a vent in the master bedroom of the house.

The suspect was able to record images by use of a wireless camera and receiver. The suspect has been identified as Eutimio Contreras Anguiano, 34 of San Miguel. Anguiano was arrested on April 13 and faces charges of burglary, eavesdropping, and making criminal threats. (more)

Security Alert: iPhones, iPads, iMacs, etc.

Apple has patched versions of its iOS and OS X operating systems to fix yet another extremely critical cryptography vulnerability that leaves some users open to surreptitious eavesdropping. Readers are urged to install the updates immediately. (more)

An Extraordinary Collection of Spy Cameras

'Willie Feinberg was not a spy as far as we know," says Charles Leski of Mossgreen Auctions, "but he certainly understood their tradecraft."

Click to enlarge.

Evidence of this is his extraordinary collection of 225 miniature cameras, many designed especially for spying and espionage. These went on sale through Mossgreen in Melbourne on April 13, and sold well, fetching a total of $75,847 (including buyer's premiums, IBP). The average result was 10 per cent above estimates.

Click to enlarge.

Leski says there were about 50 people in the rooms and another 150 participating by phone, on the web and through prior bids. Foreign interest came from Germany, China and the United States.

There was strong interest in Feinberg's spy cameras, with some having the joke-shop quality of Get Smart. (more)

Click to enlarge.

Conversnitch Brings New Meaning to... "A little bird told me."

As former NSA director Michael Hayden learned on an Amtrak train last year, anyone with a smartphone instantly can become a livetweeting snoop. Now a whole crowd of amateur eavesdroppers could be as close as the nearest light fixture.



Two artists have revealed Conversnitch, a device they built for less than $100 that resembles a lightbulb or lamp and surreptitiously listens in on nearby conversations and posts snippets of transcribed audio to Twitter. Kyle McDonald and Brian House say they hope to raise questions about the nature of public and private spaces in an era when anything can be broadcast by ubiquitous, Internet-connected listening devices...

The surveillance gadget they unveiled Wednesday is constructed from little more than a Raspberry Pi miniature computer, a microphone, an LED and a plastic flower pot. It screws into and draws power from any standard bulb socket. Then it uploads captured audio via the nearest open Wi-Fi network to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform, which McDonald and House pay small fees to transcribe the audio and post lines of conversation to Conversnitch’s Twitter account. “This is stuff you can buy and have running in a few hours,” says McDonald, a 28-year-old adjunct professor at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at the Tisch School of the Arts. (more)

Business Espionage: A Victim Business Speaks

Zimbabwe - Savanna Tobacco says industrial espionage by its tobacco industry arch rivals is suffocating its potential and capacity to increase exports by a factor of at least 50 percent.

Executive chairman Mr Adam Molai said in an interview last week that customers were being haunted and their products confiscated in what could throw the victims out of business.

Mr Molai said Savanna, one of Zimbabwe's biggest cigarette makers, could instantly increase exports by 50 percent if the issue of the alleged industrial espionage is resolved. (more)

FutureWatch: How Police Can Spy on a Whole City

CA - In a secret test of mass surveillance technology, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department sent a civilian aircraft over Compton, California, capturing high-resolution video of everything that happened inside that 10-square-mile municipality.

Compton residents weren't told about the spying, which happened in 2012. 

"We literally watched all of Compton during the times that we were flying, so we could zoom in anywhere within the city of Compton and follow cars and see people," Ross McNutt of Persistent Surveillance Systems told the Center for Investigative Reporting. 

The technology he's trying to sell to police departments all over America can stay aloft for up to six hours. Like Google Earth, it enables police to zoom in on certain areas. And like TiVo, it permits them to rewind, so that they can look back and see what happened anywhere they weren't watching in real time.  (more) (video)

Weird Science: Bugging Plants & Reading Minds

Spying on plant communication with tiny bugs...
Internal communications in plants share striking similarities with those in animals, new research reveals. With the help of tiny insects, scientists were able to tap into this communication system. Their results reveal the importance of these communications in enabling plants to protect themselves from attack by insect pests. (more)

Scientists explore possibilities of mind reading...
At Yale University, researchers recently used a brain scanner to identify which face someone was looking at — just from their brain activity. At the University of California-Berkeley, scientists are moving beyond "reading" simple thoughts to predicting what someone will think next. 

And at Carnegie Mellon, in Pittsburgh, cognitive neuroscientist Marcel Just has a vision that will make Google Glass seem very last century. Instead of using your eye to direct a cursor — finding a phone number for a car repair shop, for instance — he fantasizes about a device that will dial the shop by interpreting your thoughts about the car (minus the expletives).

Mind reading technology isn't yet where the sci-fi thrillers predict it will go, but researchers aren't ruling out such a future.

"In principle, our thoughts could someday be readable," said Just, who directs the school's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging. (more)

Business Espionage: 2-Day Seminar in Australia

Today, in many countries, espionage has become a paramount threat to business corporations. Asia Pacific is no exception to economic espionage where the act of information theft, misappropriation, acquisition of sensitive financial, business or trade data, stealing proprietary and technology information, receiving, purchasing, or possessing a trade secret is becoming rampant. Many think it is fine to do this... 

Today espionage committed across the corporate landscape accounts for up to 100 billion US$ per year. This figure is a reflection of the premise: We know what we know but the total losses per annum are probably unknown. 

The vast majority of espionage activities are conducted by employees of those companies or by contractors employed by them. Statistically, 75 percent of proprietary information is lost from physical actions (bugging and traditional tactics), rather than hacking...

This course is a comprehensive and practical workshop on Economic Espionage... designed for security and business professionals who recognize the critical importance of protecting their intellectual property and sensitive data to predators.

Today espionage is the most lethal bug that spreads faster than diseases and cripples businesses. If it is not the decision of the Senior Management than who else to plug the gaps and do the wrong right. 

This specialized training will be held on 18-19 Jun 2014 in Australia, Sydney. (more)

SpyWarn™ 2.0 Anti-spyware App for Smartphones

According to The New York Times, anti-spyware apps don't work very well.

The reason...
Most "spyware detection" apps only scan for known spyware. New and well hidden spyware goes unnoticed, and detecting baseband eavesdropping (very serious) isn't even considered. 

SPYWARN™ IS DIFFERENT
(patent pending)
SpyWarn™ 2.0 is a new and unique forensic methodology. It provides the functionality to detect all active spyware by monitoring what the infection is doing, and... ALL spyware is doing something.  

Plus, SpyWarn™ 2.0 detects both spyware and baseband eavesdropping in real-time.

Not just spyware detection... 
This forensic app also contains an eBook version of, "Is My Cell Phone Bugged?" at no extra charge. This informative eBook is about regaining your overall communications privacy, and keeping snoops out of your life.

A forensic examination by a specialist generally costs between $200.00 - $300.00 per inspection, and the end result is not as informative as SpyWarn™.

SpyWarn™ 2.0 is priced to help everyone, only $2.99. 

Don't wait until you have a spyware problem. Get SpyWarn™ on your phone now. Start conducting benchmark tests and saving them to SpyWarn's History file. When you do get a spyware infection it will be very apparent.

Privacy Policy - We are serious about privacy. Only you get to see the data SpyWarn™ collects; it never leaves your phone.

100% Satisfaction Guarantee
Try SpyWarn™ for 7 days. If you are not satisfied with its performance, tell me why so I can improve it, and I will refund the full purchase price to you. You keep the app and eBook.

If SpyWarn™ helps you, help others regain their privacy by writing a positive review on Google Play.

Thank you,
Kevin D. Murray CPP, CISM, CFE, MPSC
and The SpyWarn™ Team

Bugging Fears Force a Conference to Switch Hotels.

Turkey - AK Party officials decided not to hold their biannual meeting at the Asya Termal, a hotel run by a Gülen Movement affiliate, over concerns that the venue may be bugged.

The hotel in Ankara's Kızılcahamam district was the traditional venue for the biannual consultation meetings of AK Party members until after private conversations in the previous meeting were secretly recorded and leaked.
Gülenists are also accused of secretly recording private meetings at hotel rooms via hidden cameras. (more)

Abandoned Spy Stations & Tunnels

Germany - A Cold War relic lies abandoned on top of a mountain made of rubble, built over a Nazi college that couldn't be destroyed after the end of World War II. 

Click to enlarge.

The gates of the former US spy station are locked and secure; its perimeter sealed by an uncompromising high fence, an angry crisscross mesh of wires that clearly imply: “Eintritt Verboten!”
Welcome to Teufelsberg, literally “Devil's Mountain,” a hill reaching 114.7 meters above sea-level, made from an estimated 12 million cubic meters of war rubble (apparently about 400,000 bombed houses) pushed together in the north of the Grunewald forest in West Berlin. (more) (video)
 
Canada - Driving aimlessly along country roads you never know what you will come across, and earlier this week while looking for visiting snowy owls, we came across something that seemed worthy of investigation. A lone government sign in a farmer’s field north of Richmond, simply labeled “Area 9” with a locked gate to a long abandoned road...

“The site was part of a Cold War Project for over the horizon radio detection finding, likely used to listen to embassy communications. It consisted of a very large array of receiver antennas laid out in a NS and EW axis. The array was almost a mile long and antennae wiring fed back to a building south along the lane-way.” (more)

...and David W. Brown chronicles... 
5 Spy Tunnels From Around the World

FutureWatch: Belkin Secure Web Camera Adapter

The Belkin Secure Web Camera Adapter is designed to securely connect USB web cameras to computers in a secure environment. It is the perfect security solution where classified or sensitive information is presented in an environment where computers are present.

A time-limited activation button disconnects the web camera’s USB connection when it is not actively used, making it impossible to keep the web camera active when a video call is not in progress. The user must periodically press the button to extend the video call if needed.

The Belkin Secure Web Camera Adapter is easy and intuitive to operate, and should be used whenever web cameras are used in boardrooms, offices, and other areas where sensitive conversations take place. (more)

Note: This product was announced March 5th, but does not appear in any on-line stores as of today.

The Süleyman Shah Tomb Bugging Case - Solved

Turkey - Investigations carried out by the MİT concluded how the recordings were made and exposed, and who was responsible for them. It appears that a lower-level official working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and affiliated with the Gülen Movement placed a bugging device in a phone located in Davutoğlu's office and removed it immediately after the meeting concluded.  

The issue will reportedly be taken to the courts once all the details are finalized by the MİT's investigation. (more)

Sports Espionage aka Business Espionage but All About the Money

UK - A spying scandal has rocked the English Premier League, with Cardiff City demanding its defeat against Crystal Palace earlier this month be wiped from the record.

The Welsh club has delivered a five-page letter to Premier League officials claiming that Palace manager Tony Pullis was given the exact starting line-up Cardiff would play several days before the teams met on April 5.

And Cardiff didn’t pull any punches in the letter, pointing the finger squarely at Palace sporting director Iain Moody as the man that obtained the team sheet...
 
How was it all uncovered? The BBC reports that Moody “accidentally” texted the line-up to Crystal Palace legend Dougie Freedman, who happens to be a friend of Cardiff manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He called him to let him know that the opposition had received inside information. (more)

Walter Mitty Alert - Spy Based Team Building in the UK

Our mission (should you choose to accept it) is to provide your group with some competitive outdoor fun!

Espionage is a game designed for companies and groups looking for an exciting event to inspire and engage. It is particularly effective as a team-building platform. The event is a hi-tech and fast paced treasure hunt around the City-Centre, that involves various gadgets, tasks and challenges. All of the action is tracked online so the teams can follow their progress using our special mapping scoreboard. Strong teamwork and tactics are essential in order to win the challenge. Both the half day mission and full day mission events are available. (more)

Special ed student records proof of bullying, threatened with charges of wiretapping - RESOLVED

The Allegheny County district attorney will drop a disorderly conduct conviction being appealed by a high school student who recorded others who bullied him. 

The prosecutor's decision Wednesday comes a day after South Fayette High School student, Christian Stanfield, publicly criticized the charge.

Township police charged Stanfield with violating the state's wiretapping law for using his iPad to record the taunts of other students in February. (more) (original post) (more coverage)

PM Bugs Out Over Tap

Romania's prime minister has moved out of his office because he believes the country's president has bugged his phone.

Victor Ponta cleared his desk in an office in the defense ministry to escape the alleged surveillance
by President Traian Basescu.

It is the latest development in a bitter feud between the two politicians. (more)

Putin on the Taps

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that his country is not conducting mass wiretapping of its citizens... 

Click to enlarge.

"Certainly, we do not take liberty of such a vast scale, an uncontrolled scale. Hopefully, we will never take this liberty," Putin said in his four-hour live chat with Russian citizens. "Besides, we do not have the hardware and funds the United States currently possesses..." (more)

BlackBerry Q10 $349.99 + Spyware $2.99 = Live Eavesdropping, and more...

via BlackBerry World...
"This app allows users to remotely control their BlackBerry 10 device using commands sent via email messages. 

For example if the user has to lend their device to a friend or family for a period of time. In the meantime, the user would still like to know if there are any messages that came for them, or would still like to access some files that are stored in the device file system but since they do not have their device, they are currently out of reach. With this app, the user can simply send commands to the device to fetch this information even while they do not physically have access to the device. 

Another example of a use case is if the user loses their phone, or misplaces it somewhere but they are in urgent need of their messages and some files stored in the file system. They might also want to actually track down where their phone is by using additional means outside of BlackBerry? Protect. For example, they might want to hear the background noise around where the phone is currently to help narrow down where the phone may have been placed..." (rolls eyes)

Two of the many features:
-Spy tools: Remotely turn on/off microphone and get live feed.
-Commands can be sent from anywhere as long as the device has access to the mailbox. This means no additional installation of any other software or plugins is necessary!

Permissions Explanation:
1) Calendar: App uses this to process the 'calendar' commands to let you access your calendar events remotely.
2) Camera: App uses this to process the 'flash' command to access the camera and turn on the flashlight.
3) Contacts: App uses this to process the 'contact' query commands to let you access your contact details remotely.
4) Email/PIN Messages: App uses this to monitor your target inbox to actually listen for command messages and reply to them with the requested data.
5) GPS Location/Location: App uses this to process the 'location' commands to let you access your device's location remotely.
6) Microphone: App uses this to process the 'mic' commands to let you access your device's microphone to record audio remotely.
7) Shared Files: App uses this to process the 'get' commands to let you access your files and media remotely.
8) Text Messages: App uses this to process the 'unread sms' commands to let you access your unread SMS messages remotely.
(more) (video)

Why do I mention this?
So you will know what you're up against.

You probably don't even own a BlackBerry, but if you are in a meeting and somebody else does, beware. 
• Don't talk behind their back when they go to the restroom and leave their BlackBerry behind. They may have a second phone in their other pocket.
• Be aware they may have an accomplice remotely recording the meeting. 
• Be skeptical if you hear, "Oh, I left my phone in your office/car by mistake."

Don't Be a Pawn: A Warning to Students Abroad

Former American college student Glenn Duffie Shriver studied abroad in Shanghai, People's Republic of China.

There, he became a target of Chinese intelligence services and crossed the line when he agreed to participate in espionage-type activity.

He pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit espionage for a foreign government and was sentenced to a four-year term in federal prison.

This video contains excerpts from a prison cell interview where Shriver tells his own story, and warns U.S. students about the foreign intelligence threat. (more)

“There are friendly countries, but there are no friendly intelligence services."

TX - Students and visitors caught a glimpse of the complex and deadly world of counterintelligence Monday evening at “Spy Games: The Art of Counterintelligence” as two espionage experts discussed security issues the U.S. faces at home and abroad.

James Olson, former chief of counterintelligence at the CIA and senior lecturer at Texas A&M’s Bush School, and Michael Waguespack, former senior counterintelligence executive with the FBI, described how the U.S. faces a threat rarely seen or heard of by the public — spying.

“There are friendly countries, but there are no friendly intelligence services,” Olson said. 

Olson and Waguespack described a world hidden from the public, where countries use sophisticated spy networks to steal U.S. political and technological secrets and to compromise U.S. spy networks abroad.

Olson named China, Russia and Cuba as the primary threats in U.S. counterintelligence.

“Never in my memory has our country been more in peril at home and abroad than it is right now,” Olson said. (more)

Banksy on Government Spying

UK - It looks as though mysterious street artist Banksy may have been in Cheltenham, after a mural pocking fun at government surveillance resembling the Bristol artist’s style have appeared on the side of a house on the corner of Fairview Road and Hewlett Road overnight.

They depict 1950s-style spies, clad in trench coat and trilby hats, carrying listening devices.

They provide a perfect foil to Cheltenham’s role as the home for listening post, GCHQ.

The painted figures, on a wall surrounding a BT telephone box appeared overnight on Sunday morning. (more)

FutureWatch: Infrared Night Scope in a Contact Lens

Thermal imaging has already found its way onto smartphones, but a team of researchers from the University of Michigan (U-M) have gone even further with the creation of an ultrathin graphene-based light detector. 

Being only slightly thicker than two sheets of graphene, the approach has the potential to put infrared heat detecting technology into a contact lens...

“We can make the entire design super-thin,” states Zhaohui Zhong, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at U-M, "It can be stacked on a contact lens or integrated with a cell phone." (more)

UK Universities to Offer Spy Degrees - "Take your seat, Mr. Bond."

Britain's cyber spy agency - the GCHQ is working on the country's first ever certified degrees for spies.

GCHQ is supposedly working on approving MSc in cyber security or spying according to the briefing note the surveillance agency has sent out to universities that offer MSc courses in cyber security.

These universities have been asked to apply for certification of their course by June 20.  

This means graduates will soon be able to boast about having passed a GCHQ-certified degree. (more)

Why Your TSCM Team Avoids Checking for Government Surveillance... or should.

Baltimore - A Pasadena man faces up to five years in prison for tipping off a drug trafficker about a federal wiretap last year.

Joshua Taylor Ferguson, 34, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Tuesday to unlawfully providing notice of electronic surveillance. His sentencing is scheduled for June. (more)

Perch App - spy on your competitors … and steal a few moves

Closely helps small businesses keep track of the competition with Perch, a social monitoring app for iOS and Android... 

In addition to enabling companies to see their competitors’ social chatter — posts, reviews, promotions, etc. — Perch also recommends technology products to business owners based on the data it collects about its competitors’ operations. (more)

The Spy’s Toolkit: Espionage Gadgets Throughout the Ages [Infographic]

Everyone loves a good spy gadget. 

From the childhood days of wearing mirrored sunglasses and writing in invisible ink to watching Q’s ridiculous gadgets in James Bond movies, there is a fondness I have for all things ‘spy’. Here in this infographic we go back in history to some of the best real-life spy gadgets. I stress the ‘real life’ aspect because although you won’t find anything quite like James Bond’s underwater-car or wristwatch grapple-guns (though camera pigeons come close to that level of awesome), there are however some pretty incredible stories behind some of these gadgets... (more) (original)

Click to enlarge.

Second Eavesdropping Bug is Found in Google Chrome

A security blogger has discovered a flaw in Google Chrome that allows attackers to turn any victim's machine into a listening post.

A blogger named Guya explained that a deprecated speech API known as "x-webkit-speech" can be harnessed to run in the background without any indication to the end user that their microphone is on. His blog post includes a video that demonstrates the flaw, which you can view below.

A developer simply needs to add a single line of code to a website to exploit the bug and gain access to an audio feed of the victim's environment. (more)