Obi-Wan Kenobi Jammin' Cloak

Austrian architecture firm Coop-Himmelblau has designed a Snuggie-like piece of clothing that jams the wearer's phone, effectively rendering him invisible. 

The Jammer Coat shields the phone from wireless signals, so the device becomes undetectable to things like search engines or tracking software, and there's no way for anyone to pull credit card information.

Click to enlarge.

The code is basically a Faraday cage, with metals embedded in the fabric that reflect incoming radio waves, protecting the wearer from unwittingly sharing any information on any device beneath it.

Apparently, one of the cloak's most useful features is its lumpy pattern, which acts as a disguise for would-be phone hackers and thieves.

"The Wave Circle pattern of the fabric gives an illusion of strange multiple body parts, which hides and frees the individual physicality," the product's website states. (more)

The Next Thing in TSCM - Drone Detection

Worried about spying? Maybe you need a personal drone detection system.

Privacy in the drone-filled age is going to be more difficult to protect than ever. Competitors, thieves, or even just your neighbors could be spying on your every move using a remote-controlled flying camera.

That’s the kind of paranoia Domestic Drone Countermeasures (DDC) is hoping to tap into with its new personal drone detection system (PDDS) Kickstarter project – a black box that promises to go beep when a drone flies within 15m of its sensors. (more)

Tortured Journalist Reports Wiretap Evidence Missing (We're Shocked)

An inspection by agents from Colombia’s investigation unit discovered that evidence was missing from the National Archive in Bogota regarding the wiretapping scandal of Colombia’s former intelligence agency. 

The disappearance of the evidence in the wiretapping case against Colombia’s now-defunct intelligence agency, DAS, was confirmed by journalist Claudia Julieta Duque, who claims to have been “psychologically tortured” and harassed by the former agency, Colombia’s Caracol Radio reported on Thursday. (more)

Business Espionage: Classic Spying is Back

According to a security and counterintelligence expert, Fortune 500 companies and the world’s media face a crisis. Chinese operatives are gaining control over the crucial nexus through which market intelligence is gathered and cash flows to media companies: ad agencies.

The issue is known to top executives at some of the largest companies in the United States. Five spoke off the record and gave a common answer: they’re aware, but cannot step forward for fear of retribution...
 
After having learned that spies were targeting proprietary information through their ad agencies, a chief executive officer at a Fortune 100 technology firm said, “We had no idea as to the relentlessness and depth the Chinese were willing to go to in obtaining our negotiating and pricing strategies.”...

In the case of the ad agencies, the information is being gathered by spies inside the companies.

The sending of agents, rather than the launching of cyberattacks, shows the strong value placed on the targets. Singer said, “You’re talking about something that’s costly on your side, so what you’re going after has to be of great value to you.” (more)

Knock-off Smartphone Sends Info Back to China

A cheap brand of Chinese-made smartphones carried by major online retailers comes pre-installed with espionage software, a German security firm has said.

G Data Software said it found malicious code hidden deep in the propriety software of the Star N9500 when it ordered the handset from a website late last month. The find is the latest in a series of incidents where smartphones have appeared preloaded with malicious software...
G Data said the spyware it found on the N9500 could allow a hacker to steal personal data, place rogue calls, or turn on the phone's camera and microphone. G Data said the stolen information was sent to a server in China.
Bjoern Rupp, chief executive of the Berlin-based mobile security consultancy firm GSMK, said such cases are more common than people think. Last fall, German cellphone service provider E-Plus found malicious software on some handsets delivered to customers of its Base brand. (more)

Surgeon Cuts Deal to Excise Spying Charges

TX - A pioneer in cancer research, who was facing a second-degree felony charge in an alleged plot to spy on his ex-wife during their divorce, has reached a plea deal to dismiss the charges.

According to prosecutors, Dr. Steven Curley plotted with a computer expert to install a program called eBlaster. Dr. Curley and his ex, a physician’s assistant, once worked together at MD Anderson Hospital. (more)

Die Spy: We hack dead people's computers, so you don't have to!

Has a family member recently died leaving you with more stuff than answers? 
Die Spy can help!  

Our teams can find out everything you want to know about your deceased loved one. You may find out so much you will wonder why you ever bothered to get to know the person when he or she was alive!

We have a service package to fit any budget...

Open Sesame
Do you want to make sure there aren't any paperless bills to be paid or recurring payments that should be canceled? Perhaps you want to notify the deceased's social media contacts of the death. With our most basic package a low level hacker will get you logged in to your loved one's computer, tablet, and smart phone to help you find that person's most used accounts... (more)


Someone forensic examiner better buy up DieSpy.com fast.

 Wish I published this on April 1st.

UK Man Restores WWII Surveillance Gear

UK - Spy supremo Peter Sables has tapped into history with his collection of wartime surveillance gear.

The radio buff has lovingly restored a string of listening devices used by the Allies against Nazi Germany during World War Two to create a nostalgic goldmine dating back more than 70 years.

And now his hobby has sparked the interest of a museum which is to take up some of his wireless sets as part of a new exhibition. (more)

Survey: People's Beliefs about Cell Phone Spying

Only a tenth (12 per cent) of people in the UK believe that calls on a mobile phone and texts are private, research from Silent Circle has found following Vodafone revealing secret wires that allow state surveillance.

The research of 1,000 employed Brits found that over half (54 per cent) believe ‘anyone with the right equipment’ has the ability to listen in on their mobile calls and texts.
Respondents named the government as the group most likely to have the ability to listen in on calls and texts (54 per cent), while 44 per cent believe the police can eavesdrop and a third think mobile phone providers could listen in.

Criminals (28 per cent) and jealous spouses (17 per cent) also raise suspicions for eavesdropping. (more)

This Phone Ain't No Stool Pigeon

Local police confiscate a suspected drug dealer's phone—only to find that he has called his mother and no one else. 

Meanwhile a journalist's phone is examined by airport security. But when officials look to see what is on it, they find that she has spent all her time at the beach. The drug dealer and the journalist are free to go. Minutes later the names, numbers and GPS data that the police were looking for reappear.

A new programming technique could bring these scenarios to life. Computer scientist Karl-Johan Karlsson has reprogrammed a phone to lie. By modifying the operating system of an Android-based smartphone, he was able to put decoy data on it—innocent numbers, for example—so that the real data escape forensics. (more)

"A Winemaker, a Spy, and a PI" or "Drunk with IT Power" What could possibly go wrong?

Swiss authorities say they have arrested a Swiss winemaker, a spy and two others on charges of hacking the computers of at least two journalists.

The Geneva public prosecutor says winemaker Dominique Giroud and an unnamed federal intelligence officer, along with a professional hacker and a private investigator, were arrested for hacking while allegedly trying to identify the source of media leaks about a criminal investigation into Giroud in Swiss canton (state) Vaud...

News outlets including broadcaster Radio Television Suisse and Le Temps newspaper reported recently about a probe by Swiss authorities into suspected tax fraud involving Giroud's empire. (more)

Security Directors & Meeting Planners - Off-Site Meeting Counterespionage Tip

Smartphones certainly offer countless advantages for meetings and events. However, they also introduce a unique set of security concerns, creating a window of vulnerability for cyber attackers. Among common scams are phony SMS messages (known as SMiShing attacks) that are indistinguishable to attendees from official blasts, or malicious QR codes that bring attendees to hostile websites. Phone calls, texts and Wi-Fi traffic can be intercepted and leaked, providing hackers access to personal data.

The following precautions can help you protect your attendees.
 

For approximately $3,000, a hacker can set up a miniature cell phone tower that fits in a backpack and is capable of intercepting cellular calls and SMS messages. Attendees would not know if their phones were connecting to the impersonating or legitimate equipment from the hotel and cell phone carriers. For about $200, a hacker can set up a special wireless router that is capable of impersonating those set up by hotels and conferences. People who surf the web or transmit sensitive information would be victims without knowing it.

To prevent these devices from being deployed at your facility, arrange for qualified people from your staff or a vendor to provide real-time scans of the airwaves. This task requires specialized security training and equipment that is not usually part of a physical security team. Including this feature during the planning stages and throughout your event can provide valuable security for your attendees. (more)

FutureWatch: Bug Your Life with a Butterfleye (It aint' your dad's surveillance CCTV)

Surveillance cameras aren’t what they used to be. Butterfleye aims to be not just a surveillance camera, but a home monitoring camera – and that means more than just security concerns. Butterfleye wants to record your life, too.

In the same vein as Dropcam, Butterfleye is a camera you can set up to monitor your home, allowing you to check on the stream as long as you have an Internet connection. The camera itself takes 1920 x 1080 resolution video using a wide-angle 3 MP lens. 


Interestingly, Butterfleye can also operate wirelessly – it pulls off this trick by having a smart camera system that shuts down when no activity is detected. Using sensors, video analysis software, and learning algorithms, the camera will know to start recording if someone comes into a room, which will save some battery life. 

Butterfleye will also be able to pick up audio, and use that as a cue to start recording. There’s actually two-way audio here, so you can use Butterfleye in a pinch as a speakerphone to talk to someone at home while you’re away. 

That’s just the surveillance part, though... (more)

SpyCam Nabs Care Worker Stealing from 82-year-old

An 82-year-old Winnipeg woman who used a hidden camera to catch her home-care worker stealing money from her says she hopes her story will empower other seniors to stand up for their rights.

"My dad taught us morals, and all of a sudden I'm in my home and somebody rips me off.
It made me mad."

Viola Dufresne said she noticed money vanishing from her wallet starting last January, totalling nearly $1,100 over six months...

Winnipeg police told Dufresne there wasn't much they could do without evidence, so she went online and bought a spy camera.

The camera, which resembles a clock radio, showed the home-care aide taking $25 from Dufresne's wallet...

The 54-year-old aide pleaded guilty to theft, alleging that she took the money to buy cigarettes. She has since been fired. (more)

A Drone Was Caught 'Spying' on Team France at the World Cup

French national team coach Didier Deschamps is reportedly calling for an investigation into a quadcoptor drone that was spotted spying over his team’s closed training session on Tuesday...

The culprit? A hobbyist and fan, flying his unlicensed drone in Brazilian airspace, according to BFMTV. 

Local police are investigating and are promising a quick resolution. (more)

Spy Trivia - When was the term "Spook" first used to describe a spy?

The earliest known reference of "spook" used as a term for spy is from 1942. (more)

alt.eMail - Send Spyproof Messages

Beepip uses your own computer's power to scramble messages. It then blasts these encrypted messages out over a peer-to-peer network and only descrambles them when they arrive at the right beepip address. Because no central server is involved, there is no chance of snooping.
Encrypted email isn't secure.
Unlike traditional email and instant messaging which leave data trails that companies and governments can access, the security and anonymity built into Beepip means that no outside force—not even the team that built Beepip—can see your messages or track down senders or receivers of messages.

Simply Beepip.
Beepip’s easy-to-use interface brings cryptography and secure communication to non-expert users, but also achieving military-grade security against hackers.
Whisper or shout Beepips.
A beepip can be sent to an individual or a whole group of subscribers. Broadcasts are messages that are sent out to any group of Beepip users that are listening. In this way, organisations or individuals can get information out to their subscribers anonymously if they choose. (more)

Israeli ‘Eavesdropper’ Hears You 1,000 Feet Away

A device developed by an Israeli scientist can pick up conversations from hundreds of feet away without a microphone. “Using a laser beam with a camera, we can detect the voice wave patterns of the sounds that a person makes when they are talking,” says Bar-Ilan University Professor Zev Zalevsky, who helped design the system. “We take these wave patterns and translate them back into voice, and thus can interpret what was said from even a long distance away.”

 The system is the latest use for a technology and device Zalevsky designed in 2011 together with Javier Garcia of the University of Valencia in Spain. Called the Opto-Phone, the device was designed to gather medical data about an individual, allowing doctors to read heartbeat, blood pressure or blood glucose levels from 100 meters away. With the latest tweaks to the Opto-Phone, Zalevsky told Channel 2 Tuesday night, the device can now detect voice wave patterns from up to 400 meters (about 1,200 feet) away. This makes it the perfect tool not only for “long-distance” medical diagnosis, but for long-distance eavesdropping, as well. 

Using a laser beam, an advanced camera and sensors, the Opto-Phone uses nano-photonics to detect movement on the surface of the body. This movement creates a “speckle pattern,” which can be read by the Opto-Phone. By analyzing this pattern, the system can “hear” the number of heartbeats in a person’s body, the rush of blood in the bloodstream and voice wave patterns as they bounce off two people engaged in a conversation. The technology is so precise, Zalevsky said, “we can differentiate between different people based on their position,” listening in on whatever they are involved in, Zalevsky told the Times of Israel. (more)

Conference Call Eavesdropping: The Secretary Will Disavow Any Knowledge...

CO - Kelly Cronin, former vice chancellor for institutional advancement for the Texas Tech System, is leaving her fundraising post at the University of Colorado after her assistant was found to have eavesdropped on a private meeting of the CU Foundation’s Board of Directors.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a $40,000 outside investigation found Cronin’s assistant listened in on a closed-session conference call of the board, but found no evidence Cronin told the assistant to do so. (more)

SpyWare Stalking Apps Stalked By Congress

The U.S. Congress must pass legislation to ban mobile spying apps in order to protect victims of domestic violence, a senator said Wednesday.

Groups aiding victims of domestic violence report growing numbers of clients being stalked through mobile apps secretly installed on their phones by abusers, said Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat. Tens of thousands of U.S. residents are stalked each year through spy apps, he said...

The bill would also require companies to get permission from smartphone, tablet and car navigation device owners before collecting location information, except in emergencies. It would require companies collecting the location data from more than 1,000 devices to post information online about the kind of data they collect, how they share it and how people can stop the collection. (more)

How to Deck Out Your Next Secure Conference Room

Click to enlarge.

A clear plastic table and chairs are seen in a soundproof vault built into the heart of Kiev’s tax ministry. Officials say the vault is equipped with thick walls and a white noise generator to prevent eavesdropping; they add that the transparent furniture was intended to reassure the vault’s users that their conversations weren’t being bugged. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov) (more) (shop one) (shop two)

Town Officials Accused of Eavesdropping

NH - The Cheshire County Attorney’s Office is now looking into allegations of wiretapping and eavesdropping that prompted a state police search of the Nelson town offices in late March.

According to documents filed in the 8th Circuit Court District Division in Keene, the state police investigation was triggered when several residents reported audio and visual equipment were being used in the main entry way and just outside the front doors of the town hall on Nelson Common Road.

In the recently unsealed supporting affidavit requesting the search warrant, state police Troop C Sgt. Shawn M. Skahan wrote, that on March 13, “I received an e-mail from T. Faulkner outlining his concerns that the town of Nelson has been illegally recording conversations within the town hall building.”...

Skahan concluded that based upon the evidence, there is probable cause for the crimes of wiretapping and eavesdropping. (more) (video)

Artist's Countersurveillance Masks Make You Look Like Him

Artist Leo Selvaggio launched a project called URME on Indiegogo to fund the creation of countersurveillance masks with his face on them. The campaign will conclude June 13 but has already raised more than twice its $1,000 goal.

"We don't believe you should be tracked just because you want to walk outside, and you shouldn't have to hide, either," the project's website states. "Instead, use one of our products to present an alternative identity when in public." (more)

"So, why sweep the court for bugs if you post it on the Internet?"

The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals took a judicial mulligan Monday after staff failed last week to follow standard practice and record what was supposed to be the only such hearing in a terrorist case touching on surveillance issues broached by Edward Snowden.

The rare do-over of oral arguments at a U.S. appellate court started slowly with one judge even saying she would try and carefully recreate as best she could the questions she asked the parties in the unrecorded hearing...

Officials said last week that workers responsible for turning on a court recorder at the initial hearing were startled by U.S. agents who swept the room for bugging devices and so assumed — wrongly — that all recordings were prohibited. A recording of Monday's hearing was successfully made and promptly posted on the court website later in the afternoon. (more)

Think Tank Thinks Economic Espionage Costs World Economy About $445b

The likely annual cost of cybercrime and economic espionage to the world economy is more than $445 billion — or almost 1 percent of global income, according to estimates from a Washington think tank.

That figure is lower than the eye-popping $1 trillion figure cited by President Obama, but it nonetheless puts cybercrime in the ranks of drug trafficking in terms of worldwide economic harm.

‘‘This is a global problem and we aren’t doing enough to manage risk,’’ said James Lewis, a senior fellow at the think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and co-writer of the report. (more)

NSA News Prompts Dance Rap Music Video

An anti-mass-surveillance music video by Shahid Buttar, director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Download the extended dance floor mix. The lyrics (annotated with hyperlinks). (more)

Banksy Confesses: He Made the Eavesdropping Mural

In a rare exchange with the public, the elusive graffiti artist Banksy has acknowledged painting a mural depicting secret agents eavesdropping on a telephone booth, which appeared in April in the city of Cheltenham, where one of Britain’s intelligence agencies has its headquarters.

The mural had not been claimed by the artist until Tuesday, when he posted the admission on his official website. In a question and answer session he was asked: “Did you paint the spies in Cheltenham?” “Yes,” he replied. He is known to communicate with the public only via email. (more)

REPORT: Vodafone Reveals Existence of Secret Wires that allow State Surveillance

Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile phone groups, has revealed the existence of secret wires that allow government agencies to listen to all conversations on its networks, saying they are widely used in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe and beyond.

The company has broken its silence on government surveillance in order to push back against the increasingly widespread use of phone and broadband networks to spy on citizens, and will publish its first Law Enforcement Disclosure Report on Friday. At 40,000 words, it is the most comprehensive survey yet of how governments monitor the conversations and whereabouts of their people.

The company said wires had been connected directly to its network and those of other telecoms groups, allowing agencies to listen to or record live conversations and, in certain cases, track the whereabouts of a customer. Privacy campaigners said the revelations were a "nightmare scenario" that confirmed their worst fears on the extent of snooping.

In Albania, Egypt, Hungary, India, Malta, Qatar, Romania, South Africa and Turkey, it is unlawful to disclose any information related to wiretapping or interception of the content of phone calls and messages including whether such capabilities exist. (more)

How to Find a Perp? Just Ask Their Cell Phone.

...the cops deployed a secretive device called a stingray, which operates as a fake cell phone tower used to track targeted phones.  

Though law enforcement typically fights attempts to learn how stingrays work or how often they are used, a court victory by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has just unsealed Tallahassee police testimony of exactly how the 2008 cell phone hunt happened.

This newly released transcript (PDF) provides what is likely the first-ever verbatim account of how stingrays are used in actual police operations. And it shows that stingrays are so accurate, they can pinpoint the very room in which a phone is located. (more)

How Your iPhone Could Eavesdrop on You Even When Switched-Off

...Like any magic trick, the most plausible method of eavesdropping through a switched-off phone starts with an illusion. Security researchers posit that if an attacker has a chance to install malware before you shut down your phone, that software could make the phone look like it’s shutting down—complete with a fake “slide to power off” screen. Instead of powering down, it enters a low-power mode that leaves its baseband chip—which controls communication with the carrier—on.

This “playing dead” state would allow the phone to receive commands, including one to activate its microphone, says Eric McDonald, a hardware engineer in Los Angeles. McDonald is also a member of the Evad3rs, a team of iPhone hackers who created jailbreaks for the two previous iPhone operating systems. If the NSA used an exploit like those McDonald’s worked on to infect phone with malware that fakes a shutdown, “the screen would look black and nothing would happen if you pressed buttons,” he says. “But it’s conceivable that the baseband is still on, or turns on periodically. And it would be very difficult to know whether the phone has been compromised.”

The Solution
McDonald suggests users turn off their iPhones by putting them into device firmware upgrade (DFU) mode, a kind of “panic” state designed to let the phone reinstall its firmware or recover from repeated operating system crashes. In DFU mode, says McDonald, all elements of the phone are entirely shut down except its USB port, which is designed to wait for a signal from iTunes to install new firmware. (more)


P.S. If you do this, be sure to watch the tutorial about getting your iPhone out of DFU mode.

SpyCam Stalker (11,000 covert images) Receives Suspended Sentence and Fine

UK - A cyber stalker who bugged computers to spy on women has walked free from court with a 12-month suspended sentence and a fine.

Andrew Meldrum, 30, secretly installed spying software on his victims' computers, allowing him to access private, nude pictures taken covertly. 

 
Andrew Meldrum's 11,000 covert images included some of one victim naked, in her underwear, on the toilet and "in positions of intimacy". Credit: Police handout 

Meldrum admitted three counts of unauthorized access to computer material and was found guilty of two counts of voyeurism after a trial at Woolwich Crown Court.

One of his victims wept in court and held her head in her hands at the sentence. (more)

Sealed Court Files Obscure Rise in Electronic Surveillance

Law-Enforcement Requests to Monitor Cellphones Are Routinely Sealed—And Stay That Way

In eight years as a federal magistrate judge in Texas, Brian Owsley approved scores of government requests for electronic surveillance in connection with criminal investigations—then sealed them at the government's request. The secrecy nagged at him.

So before he left the bench last year, the judge decided to unseal more than 100 of his own orders, along with the government's legal justification for the surveillance. The investigations, he says, involved ordinary crimes such as bank robbery and drug trafficking, not "state secrets." Most had long since ended.

A senior judge halted the effort with a one-paragraph order that offered no explanation for the decision and that itself was sealed. Mr. Owsley's orders remain buried in folders in a federal courthouse overlooking Corpus Christi Bay. "It's like something out of Kafka," says Mr. Owsley, recently a visiting law professor at Texas Tech University. (more)

"Spy this!" or A Public Taste of One's Own Medicine

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono allowed journalists to listen in to a conversation with Australia's leader Tony Abbott, the BBC reported.

Australia's ABC quoted top-level Indonesian sources as saying the eavesdropping was a "mistake."

Reporters were apparently in the same room as Mr Yudhoyono during the call and one of them recorded the exchange.

The two leaders are due to meet this week, with tension still high over claims of Australian spying. (more)

Claims Of N.S.A. Bugging ‘Will Not Affect Tourism’ (Wait? What?!?!)

The Bahamas - A top hotel executive doesn’t believe the Bahamas’ tourism industry will be affected by revelations that the US’ National Security Agency (NSA) may be recording all cell phone calls in the country.

Baha Mar’s Senior Vice President Robert Sands said yesterday that the allegations of cell phone spying probably happens to many other countries around the world.

We all live in different communities from different parts of the world where the government makes the best decision that’s in the best interest of the sovereignty of its nation,” Mr Sands said, when asked to comment on the allegations and the repercussions they may have on the millions of visitors who visit the country each year. 

“It will have no impact on our tourism industry.” (more)

Don't you just love the optimism and élan of Bahamians. No stress. No worries. "It's better in The Bahamas!" (sing-a-long)

The Strange Case of the Chinese Academics

Japanese police were Thursday probing the death of a man believed to be a Chinese academic who told his wife he was in danger shortly before he disappeared. 

Chi Rui, a lecturer at China's Northeast Normal University, has been missing since May 16, a few days after arriving in Japan.

The 37-year-old telephoned his wife to say he believed someone was eavesdropping on him and following him, and that he was in danger, an official with Kansai International Airport police told AFP.

The academic asked his wife to contact the Chinese embassy in Japan, the official said.

On Wednesday the body of a man was found by a construction worker in the sea near a pier at the airport in western Japan...

"We are investigating to determine whether this death is the result of an accident or a crime," the official added.

In March, a Japan-based Chinese academic went missing on a visit to China. That came after the release by Chinese authorities of another academic who disappeared while visiting his home country in July last year amid espionage claims. (more)

SpyCam Prank (humor)

Popular Wiretapping Tool Used By Law Enforcement Includes Backdoor With Hardcoded Password

Software used by law enforcement organizations to intercept the communications of suspected criminals contains a litany of critical weaknesses, including an undocumented backdoor secured with a hardcoded password, security researchers said today.

In a scathing advisory published Wednesday, the researchers recommended people stop using the Nice Recording eXpress voice-recording package. It is one of several software offerings provided by Ra’anana, Israel-based Nice Systems, a company that markets itself as providing "mission-critical lawful interception solutions to support the fight against organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorist activities." The advisory warned that critical weaknesses in the software expose users to attacks that compromise investigations and the security of the agency networks.

"Attackers are able to completely compromise the voice recording/surveillance solution as they can gain access to the system and database level and listen to recorded calls without prior authentication," the researchers from security consultancy SEC Consult wrote. "Furthermore, attackers would be able to use the voice recording server as a jumphost for further attacks of the internal voice VLAN [virtual local area network], depending on the network setup." (more)

iPhone Security Alert: The 1 Security Measure Owners Need To Take

Early Tuesday, a number of Australian iPhone and iPad owners awoke to find their devices locked, with an alert asking for $50 to $100 to give access back. The lesson: It's easier than you think for someone to get into your Apple products -- even if a thief doesn't have the actual iPhone in his or her hands.

One way to make yourself that much safer? Start using two-step verification for your Apple ID.

When you enable two-step verification, Apple will make you prove you're actually you whenever you buy anything on iTunes, the App Store or the iBooks Store. It works like this: Apple will text you a code anytime you try to sign into your Apple account to make a purchase. You will then have to input that number to verify your identity. That way, nobody else can access your account unless they have both your password and your device, making it far more difficult to steal your identity and credit card information.

Here's how you do it... (more)

WikiLeaks Threatens To Reveal Bugging Information Glenn Greenwald Says Could Lead To People Getting Killed

On Monday The Intercept reported, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, that the NSA is able “to vacuum up and store the actual content of every conversation” in the Bahamas and an unnamed country.

Editor Glenn Greenwald said The Intercept didn’t reveal the country because they were “very convinced” that doing so would lead to “deaths.”

After a heated discussion between WikiLeaks, Greenwald, Intercept Editor-In-Chief John Cook, and American WikiLeaks hacker-turned-Der Spiegal contributor Jacob Appelbaum, WikiLeaks tweeted that it will reveal the name of the second country being spied on by the NSA. (more)

Firstcall Chair - The New Cone of Silence

‘Firstcall’ chair is designed to keep your personal conversation from escaping out while its doughnut like backrest is inclined in such a way so as to hide your face.


Developed by Dutch designer Ruud van Wier in collaboration with manufacturer Easy NoiseControl, the ‘Firstcall’ chair is made in a recognizable shape of a classic old phone. It has sound-absorbing upholstery to block surrounding noise ensuring you can concentrate despite being surrounded by people.


The design of the First Call phone chair is directed to short calls. It is therefore not chosen an easy chair where you can doze or not to stand out. Suitable locations include offices, waiting rooms, showrooms, shops, and public places such as airports or scholarships.


The chair is available in 32 colors across the Firstcall retails at Easy NoiseControl for €2,900 (or around $3,970). (more) (more)

China is not the Only Country Picking Our Economic Pockets

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday that China is far from the only country that uses its intelligence services to steal trade secrets and technologies from U.S. businesses.

“What we have accused the Chinese of doing, stealing American companies’ secrets and technology is not new, nor is it done only by the Chinese. There are probably a dozen or 15 countries that steal our technology” in this manner, Gates said during a moderated conversation with Fareed Zakaria on Wednesday hosted by the Council of Foreign Relations in New York City. 

In fact, according to Gates—who has also served as the director of the CIA—the U.S. is nearly “alone in the world in not using our intelligence services for competitive advantage of our businesses.” (more)

We've been wrestling with this moral dilemma for too long. Even Henry L. Stimson got off his high horse eventually.

Blackphone gets $30 Million in Funding

The smartphone encryption startup Silent Circle announced 
a boost in funding Wednesday, grabbing $30 million in investment capital ahead of the June shipping of its signature Blackphone, which the company says can deflect cybersnooping.

The announcement came a day before the House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill that would end mass spying by the National Security Agency (NSA)...

Silent Circle’s founder, however, warned that Blackphone still wouldn’t deter the most determined efforts of the National Security Agency to monitor mobile phones. (more)

P.S.

Town Hall Eavesdropping Probe Continues

NH - An investigation into whether town officials illegally wiretapped conversations at the Nelson Town Hall is now with the Cheshire County Attorney’s Office, police said...

...State Police executed a search warrant at the town hall on Nelson Common Road, and, afterward, interviewed residents and town officials about allegations that conversations in and/or around the building were being recorded, said State Police Sgt. Shawn M. Skahan in an interview Thursday.
“There was an investigation into members of the town of Nelson,” he said. “The original complaint was about the possibility of someone recording or eavesdropping on conversations in the town office using an electronic device.”

The alleged eavesdropping could have begun as far back as early 2013, according to police. (more)

Facebook Grows Ears

A new feature in Facebook's mobile app is a timely reminder of the eavesdropping potential of smartphones.

The feature uses the built-in microphones in mobile devices to determine what music a user is listening to or what television show or movie they are watching. The company unveiled the feature Wednesday and said it would be available for Android and iOS users in the United States in coming weeks.

The feature doesn't operate automatically, and the user must turn it on for it to work, said Facebook product manager Aryeh Selekman. But if a user leaves the feature turned on, it will listen as they use the Facebook app to write status updates, upload photos or respond to messages from friends.

However, "no sound is stored and you’ll always get to choose whether you post to your friends," Selekman said in a blog post. (more)

Friends, maybe. But what about hackers, law enforcement and determined enemies? 
I can't imagine how this feature could work without the sound being stored for some amount of time. FutureWatch: You'll be hearing more about this.

What Your Competitors are Being Told to Use... to Spy on You

Knowledge is power and in the internet age, knowledge is easily accessible. There are many tools available to scope out the competition in order to make your business or service the most successful it can be. Below are the top ten websites you can use “spy” on the competition and see what they’re up to.

The quick list...
1. Google Alerts
2. Similar Web
3. SpyFu
4. Moat
5. Compete
6. Flippa
7. Social Searcher
8. SeoBook
9. InfiniGraph
10. iSpionage
 (more)

Judge Dismisses Angelina Jolie Stunt Double's Wiretapping Lawsuit

Eunice Huthart, who worked as a stunt double for Angelina Jolie and claims to have had her voicemails intercepted, won't be able to pursue a wiretapping lawsuit against News Corp. in America.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald ruled that England would provide an adequate alternative forum to adjudicate her claims. (more)

Fun Fact: Taiwan Out-taps USA

Taiwanese courts permitted 504,788 cases of eavesdropping from late 2007 to late 2013, while the United States has had only about 1,000 to 2,000 cases per year in the last decade, according to the investigation report. (more)

Taiwan is just a little larger than Maryland.

Woman Wins $1.3M Judgment Against Guard Company in Voyeur Case

FL - A Coral Gables woman has won $1.3 million in damages from the giant security company G4S, formerly known as Wackenhut, after a Miami jury found that one of its guards psychologically harmed her when he videotaped her while she was undressing.

The woman, who was 17 at the time of the incident in her family's Old Cutler Bay home, claims she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The former Wackenhut security guard, who was accused of using an iPhone to take videos of her naked on an August night in 2010, had been convicted of a similar voyeur crime in California. But in its security check of Eric Michael Owens, then 28, Wackenhut failed to catch his criminal record as a convicted Peeping Tom.

The Miami-Dade Circuit Court jury on Thursday found the prominent security company, now owned by London-based G4S, negligent for hiring and retaining Owens, holding the firm responsible for her injuries. (more)

Security Points
• Conduct thorough employee background checks.
• Periodically check expectation of privacy areas in the workplace for hidden spycams.

Home Owners Spook Their Real Estate Agents

Lisa Ramsey, a real estate professional with The Ramsey Group in the United States, told Realtor Mag earlier this week "about the trend of sellers putting [microphones and] cameras in the home”.

"We're talking outside because..."

“I go into every house assuming there’s a recording device in the house. We’re not going to talk money or strategy in the house,” she said.

Andrew Sorensen, an agent at Raine&Horne Charmhaven, believes it’s a similar story in Australia, stating that “absolutely, without doubt” the practice goes on here.

“If I go back to when I first started out 12 years ago, I was actually tape recorded at an open house by the vendor. I could see the digital equalizer on the cassette tape going up and down by his shoulder as I spoke,” Mr Sorensen told Real Estate Business.

With real estate agents once again ranked at the bottom of the most ‘honest and ethical’ professions, Mr Sorensen said it’s little wonder vendors would be trying to do it. (more)

Herbalife Ltd. Claims to have Discovered Bugs in its Los Angeles Headquarters

Charlie Gasparino, Fox News, on reports Herbalife found listening devices at its headquarters in Los Angeles. (video)