Spotify Apologizes for Spying on Its Users

On Wednesday, Spotify quietly updated its terms and conditions to grant itself sweeping abilities to track every location, movement, and online activity of its users, even when those users weren’t using Spotify. That data, including information pulled from friends’ profiles, would then be transmitted to advertising partners.

This morning, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek back-pedaled on those terms and promised an entirely new set of terms of conditions, to be updated next week. He also pointed to the ability for users to opt-out of certain data collection activities, a claim that contradicts language in the recently-updated terms.

The following is a statement on the matter shared with Digital Music News this morning from Ek... more

Mayor Bugged - No, really. He has been indicted.

SC - The mayor of the town of Lyman has been indicted on charges of wiretapping and misconduct in office.

A statement from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division sent to local media outlets says Mayor Rodney Turner was indicted Friday by a Spartanburg County grand jury.

The 58-year-old Turner was charged earlier in August. According to the indictment, Turner used electronic devices to intentionally intercept the communications of employees working in and around Lyman Town Hall. more 

He's Back... The Air Gap Computer Hack

Researchers at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) Cyber Security Research Center have discovered that virtually any cellphone infected with a malicious code can use GSM phone frequencies to steal critical information from infected “air-gapped” computers.

Air-gapped computers are isolated -- separated both logically and physically from public networks -- ostensibly so they cannot be hacked over the Internet or within company networks.


Led by BGU Ph.D. student Mordechai Guri, the research team discovered how to turn an ordinary air-gapped computer into a cellular transmitting antenna using software that modifies the CPU firmware. GSMem malicious software uses the electromagnetic waves from phones to receive and exfiltrate small bits of data, such as security keys and passwords...

This is the third threat the BGU cyber team has uncovered related to what are supposed to be secure, air-gapped computers. Last year, the researchers created a method called Air-Hopper, which utilizes FM waves for data exfiltration. Another research initiative, BitWhisper, demonstrated a covert bi-directional communication channel between two close-by air-gapped computers using heat to communicate. more

Everything You Believed About Telephone Security is Wrong - The SS7 Scandal

The scary version...
A massive security hole in modern telecommunications is exposing billions of mobile phone users in the world to covert theft of their data, bugging of their voice calls, and geo-tracking of their location from by hackers, fraudsters, rogue governments and unscrupulous commercial operators using hundreds of online portals across the planet.

In a world-first, 60 Minutes has proven the worst nightmares of privacy advocates around the world: that mobile phone calls and data are wide open to interception because of flaws in the architecture of the signalling system – known as SS7 - used to enable mobile phone roaming across telecommunications providers. Despite this concern, the Australian Government’s own Cyber Security Threat Report, published in June, makes no mention of what is probably the biggest threat to this country’s commercial secrets and individual privacy.


60 Minutes’ story shows how German hackers working from Berlin, given legal access to SS7 for the purposes of the demonstration, were able to intercept and record a mobile phone conversation between 60 Minutes reporter Ross Coulthart while he was speaking from Germany to Independent Australian Senator Nick Xenophon in Australia’s Parliament House. As further proof of the hack, Coulthart then made another phone call from London, England, to the Senator in Australia which the Berlin hackers were also able to intercept and record, even though they were in Germany 1000 kilometres distant. The Berlin hackers from SR Labs, who first warned of the vulnerability in SS7 in 2008, were also able to intercept and read the Senator’s SMS’ from Australia to Coulthart in London. The hackers were also then able to geo-track the Senator as he travelled to Japan on official business, mapping his movements around Tokyo and Narita down to the nearest cell tower (within a few hundred metres), and later precisely tracking around the streets of his South Australian home suburb when he returned to Australia.

The demonstration also shows how the key fraud protection relied on by banks to protect banking transactions from fraud – verification by SMS message – is useless against a determined hacker with access to the SS7 portal because they can intercept and use the SMS code before it gets to the bank customer. The same technique can also be used to take over someone’s online email account. The call-forwarding capacity of SS7 also allows any mobile to be forcibly redirected to call hugely expensive premium numbers, the cost of which is then billed to that customer’s account. SS7 also allows any number to be blocked, raising the fearful possibility that the vulnerability could be used by criminals or terrorists to stop a victim from calling police or emergency services. Cellular telephony is also used to remotely manage large industrial equipment, to send instructions to gas, electricity and other utililities and factories over 2G and 3G mobile communications. It is not inconceivable that an SS7 hack could be used to change settings or shut down a power station. more

The counterpoint version...
If you own a mobile phone, “you can be bugged, tracked and hacked from anywhere in the world”. That was the throughline of a particularly problematic story on the 60 Minutes program last night. It’s now being hailed as “the end of privacy” for all Australians, but let me assure you, that moment passed a long time ago.

“How it has been done, has never been shown before”, claimed the 20-minute report which demonstrated how a vulnerability in a global forwarding network can be “hijacked” to listen in on a user’s calls and text messages in real time.

After a lot of teasing and set-up, the report eventually took us to a basement in Germany, where security researcher Luca Melette demonstrated how he could intercept a phone call between the reporter and Australian Senator Nick Xenophon. Luca was able to intercept the call (if we’re to believe that there wasn’t any camera trickery going on), as well as a text message sent between the pair. Big drums. The hack has been reveeeeeeealed. more

Security Director Alert - NLRB Bans Blanket Confidentiality Policies for Workplace Investigations

It is common practice for employers to prohibit their employees from discussing ongoing workplace investigations. 

Many employers believe that this restriction is necessary to ensure the integrity and fairness of investigations involving employee misconduct. As a result, employers often have policies that require confidentiality in all workplace investigations.

According to a 2015 decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), these policies are illegal. The decision, known as Banner Estrella, states that employers cannot enforce a blanket policy requiring confidentiality during workplace investigations. Because of this decision, many employers will need to update their policies and human resources (HR) practices. more

Priest Fleas After Spycam Discovered in Chuch Bathroom

OR - Father Ysrael Bien logged on to a spy-gear website and paid $295 for the hidden camera that was discovered last spring in a Sherwood church bathroom, according to information turned over to police this week.

The camera, designed to look like an electrical outlet, came from the online retailer SpyGuy Security based in Dallas, Texas. Police served a search warrant for transaction records there Monday after the business tipped them off.

A Washington County judge signed a warrant Tuesday for Bien's arrest on misdemeanor charges of invasion of privacy, tampering with evidence and initiating a false report, but police think the priest may not be in the U.S.

They did not find him at his last known address in Sherwood. Another priest there told them that Bien had left the country....

A 15-year-old St. Francis parishioner found the hidden camera affixed to a bathroom wall on April 26. The device looked like a power outlet placed at waist-height near the toilet. Thinking that was odd, the teenager pulled it off the wall and brought it to the priest.  more

Hamas Claims: We Trapped a Dolphin Spying for Israel

Hamas claimed on Wednesday that the terrorist organization trapped a dolphin that was spying for Israel.

Sources in Gaza say that the dolphin was outfitted with spyware and cameras, Army Radio reports. Israel has not confirmed that it has a dolphin spying on its behalf. more

Dressing Room SpyCam'er Convicted - Taped over 30 Females

NY - A Victor businessman is slapped with the maximum sentence after illegally videotaping dozens women in and outside his store.

At least nine women spoke directly to Glen Siembor in court today. Calling him a despicable man.

Glen Siembor was sentenced to 5-15 years for video tapping over 30 females anywhere from the ages of 8 to 49...

Siembor was convicted of 33 counts of 2nd degree unlawful surveillance and one count of possession of child pornography.

Many of his videos were taken in his victor shop's dressing room.. With the victims either nude or partially nude stood. more

Trashnet - Garbage Trucks with License Plate Readers

CA - San Jose may enlist garbage trucks as eyes on the ground for a short-staffed police force.

Equipping trash haulers with license plate readers would turn them into roving scouts for the San Jose Police Department. Already, the trucks travel every city street every single week, covering more ground than a cop car.

Mayor Sam Liccardo proposed the idea with support from council members Raul Peralez—a former policeman—and Johnny Khamis. more

Freaks Tattoo Owner Charged - Spied on Female Employee with (11) Hidden Cameras

MO - In March 2014, a 21-year-old woman who worked at, and lived in an apartment above, Nu Troost Tattoo (4101 Troost) discovered an intricate system of wires and hidden cameras installed inside her apartment that led down to a computer in the basement of the building. When the police were called, they found 11 hidden video cameras in the apartment. Four had been installed in the tenant's bathroom, including one with a view of the shower and one facing the toilet.

The building and the business were owned by a 47-year-old man named Rodney Sanell, who also owned the three branches of Freaks Tattoo and Piercing: Freaks on Broadway, Freaks on 39th, and Freaks on Noland. The woman told police that Sanell had been in her apartment to install smoke detectors while she was out of town the previous October. She also said Sanell had sexually propositioned her several times — advances she had rebuffed.

As we reported at the time, the discovery shook up the local tattoo community. Some Freaks tattoo artists quit on principle, some had to scramble to find new jobs, and others — who had nothing to do with Sanell's activity — tried to repair the Freaks public image.

Today, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced that Sanell will face 42 counts of invasion of privacy for using cameras to "observe victims in states of full or partial nudity without their knowledge," Baker's office says. Five victims — names withheld — are listed in the complaint.  more

Tapes Released - Eavesdropping on Henry Kissinger's Telephone Conversations

CIA director William Colby’s openness about more odious U.S. intelligence practices did not go over well with Henry Kissinger.

Speaking on the phone with McGeorge Bundy, the National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, Kissinger referred to Colby as a “psychopath.”

[A film by the son of CIA spymaster William Colby has divided the Colby clan]

The two men were chatting about congressional investigations into the CIA activities post-Watergate and worried about leaks and misinformation.

“On top of it you have the pysopath(sic)/running the CIA. You accuse him of a traffic violation and he confesses murder,” Kissinger said in the June 1975 telephone conversation. Colby, Loop fans will recall, was replaced soon after as director of CIA by George H.W. Bush.

That conversation is part of 900 final Kissinger phone transcripts from the Gerald Ford administration released Wednesday by the National Security Archive, which sued the State Department in March to have them released. For history buffs the tapes are precious gold... more

...thus making future eavesdropping devices infinitely more effective.

Although the ability tends to wane as we get older, the human auditory system is pretty good at filtering out background noise and making a single voice able to be understood above the general hubbub of a crowded room.

But electronic devices, such as smartphones, aren't quite as gifted, which is why getting Siri or Google Now to understand you in crowded environments can be an exercise in futility. But now researchers have developed a prototype sensor that’s not only able to figure out the direction of a particular sound, but can also extract it from background noise.

To create the sensor, scientists at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina used a class of materials known as metamaterials, which boast properties not found in nature, and a signal processing technique known as compressive sensing. The disk-shaped device is made of plastic and doesn't have any electronic or moving parts. Rather, it features a honeycomb-like structure and is split into dozens of slices which each feature a unique pattern of cavities of different depths. It is these cavities that distort the sound waves and give the sensor its unique capabilities. more 

See Through Walls by the Glow of Your Wi-Fi

Researchers at University College London (UCL) have devised a system for detecting the Doppler shifts of ubiquitous Wi-Fi and mobile telephone signals to “see” people moving, even behind masonry walls 25 centimeters thick. 

The method, which could be useful in situations from hostage-takings to traffic control, won the Engineering Impact Award in the RF and Communications category at this National Instrument’s NI Week 2015 meeting (which convened in Austin, Tex., 3-9 August). more

Related...

Wi-Vi Sees Movement Behind Walls Using Cheap Wi-Fi Tech (2013)

Wireless Network Signals Produce See-Through Walls (2009)

Secrets: Managing Information Assets in the Age of Cyberespionage

The following is from Jim Pooley’s new book on trade secrets — Secrets: Managing Information Assets in the Age of Cyberespionage.

Bankrupt networking giant Nortel reveals that its key executives’ email passwords were stolen and the company’s network hacked for a decade.

Boeing, hiring away Lockheed employees who bring documents to their new employer, pays $615 million to avoid criminal prosecution, while two of its former managers are indicted.

Apple scrambles to recover a sample of its unreleased new model iPhone that was left by an employee in a bar – a year after the same thing happened in a different bar.

Starwood employees leave to join Hilton, taking with them ideas for a new kind of hotel.

And the owner of Thomas’ English Muffins goes to court to protect its “nooks and crannies” recipe from being used by a competitor.

What do these corporate crises all have in common? Trade secrets. They reflect the enormous value of – and threats to – the most important assets of modern business...

Reading my new book — Secrets: Managing Information Assets in the Age of Cyberespionage — will give you a deeper understanding of how your business differentiates itself from the competition, and how it must work to keep its edge. As an executive or manager or small-business owner you will come away armed to protect and exploit your company’s advantages. As an individual you will have a greater appreciation for what intellectually belongs to you and how to use it to advance your career without being sued. And whatever your interest or line of work, you will have a much better understanding of how information has become the global currency of the 21st century.

J. Wallace LaPrade, New York F.B.I. Chief in ’70s, Dies at 89

J. Wallace LaPrade, who oversaw the safe return of several celebrity kidnapping victims and was later fired as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York chief, accused of not being forthcoming about the bureau’s role in illegally investigating radical groups in the 1970s, died on July 31 in Lexington, Va. He was 89. more 
(Thank you for giving me what I needed to get through college.)

NEW Cyber-Flashing - Thus proving there is a first time for everything.

Police are investigating a "new" crime of cyber-flashing after a commuter received an indecent image on her phone as she traveled to work. The victim received two pictures of an unknown man's (you know what) on her phone via Apple's Airdrop sharing function.

Lorraine Crighton-Smith, 34, said she felt "violated" and reported it to the British Transport Police (BTP). Supt Gill Murray said this particular crime was new to her force and urged people to report any other incidents. more

Four Things You Didn’t Know Could Be Hacked

At two big hacking conferences in Las Vegas over the past week, security pros revealed new vulnerabilities in daily items we never considered security risks. These events serve as annual displays of the latest hacking tricks.

Rifles 
The Austin, Texas-based company TrackingPoint makes auto-aiming rifles that increase a shooter’s accuracy and have Wi-Fi connectivity. Within the 100- to 150-feet range of the Wi-Fi and using a mobile phone, a hacker can compromise the weapon and change the target of the shooter, says Runa Sandvik, one of the researchers who presented at the annual hacker gathering Def Con last week.

In a demonstration for Wired, Sandvik and a research partner finagled with a rifle’s software to shift aim 2.5 feet to the left, hitting a different target...

Electronic skateboards 
Electric skateboards can make your ride smoother — until the board no longer listens to your controls and throws you off. Two researchers developed a hack they dubbed “FacePlant,” which gave them total control over digital skateboards by manipulating the Bluetooth connection.

An attacker could force the skateboard to connect to a laptop and then stop the board, alter its direction or disable its brakes.

Death records 
It’s pretty simple to kill someone off — at least on paper — Chris Rock, chief executive officer and founder of the security company Kustodian, showed in a presentation at Def Con. Using information found online, anyone can complete state electronic death records, Rock found, and then register to become a funeral director online to complete a certificate of death.

Why kill someone off officially, but not physically? For revenge against an ex-partner or a jerk boss, according to Rock’s presentation, or to enjoy the insurance benefits or access elderly parents’ estates.

Teslas
We already know that the modern car is like a smartphone on wheels in that it’s susceptible to hack attacks like any other connected device... What they found: Teslas are, in fact, built with more security in mind than the average vehicle. But they also found several vulnerabilities, and were able to remotely open and close trunks, lock and unlock doors and stop a Tesla, depending on what speed it was being driven at.

The researchers worked with Tesla, and Tesla automatically pushed an update to all the cars so drivers could patch the vulnerabilities within one to two weeks — unlike other car companies, which have had to issue recalls on vehicles with security flaws.  more

Four Reasons To See ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'

• 60’s Cool Spy Style
• The Action
• Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki and Hugh Grant
• Perfect Soundtrack
more

Four Signs Your Boss Is Spying on You

Chances are, your boss is keeping an eye on you. Forty-three percent of companies actively monitor employee emails, according to the American Management Association (AMA), and roughly the same number track the time you spend on the phone and who you call (16% go so far as to record those calls). Nearly half of companies say they use video to reduce theft and workplace sabotage...

1. You’re secretly planning to quit – and your boss already knows
More companies, including Credit Suisse and AOL, are mining big data to make predictions about which employees are likely to leave their job in the near future. VoloMetrix, Inc., an analytics firm, examined employee emails and calendar data and discovered that it could predict up to a year in advance who would be putting in their notice, the Wall Street Journal reported...

2. You’re called out for a conversation that you thought was private
If your boss reprimands you for a less-than-professional conversation or email exchange that you thought was private, there’s a chance you have a tattletale co-worker. Or your supervisor may be spying on you, perhaps by scanning your email, monitoring your phone conversations, or even looking at the text messages you send on your work-issued device. If they’re using a key-logging program or other monitoring software, they may even know what you’re saying in your personal emails.

3. Your boss knows what you did this weekend before you tell him
Does your boss seem to know an awful lot about your personal life? He or she could be checking out your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media profiles, even if you haven’t added him to your network or given him your password (something that some employers really do ask for, though laws about that are changing). Stalking your public profiles is a bit creepy, but it’s not all that unusual...

4. There’s some suspicious software on your devices
If your company’s IT department is monitoring your computer use, it’s not always going to be immediately obvious. However, you can poke around on your desktop to see if there are any telltale signs of monitoring software (Online Tech Tips has some advice on how to do that, if you’re so inclined). The same goes for unusual apps installed on smartphones... more

Spying Claim New Headache for SeaWorld

Accusations of spying have put a new twist on the battle between SeaWorld Entertainment and animal-welfare activists, which experts say could cause more trouble for the theme-park company.

Orlando-based SeaWorld has opened an investigation and placed an employee on paid leave after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals accused the employee of attending protests posing as an activist...

It's not unheard of for both corporations and nonprofits to gather intelligence on critics or competitors, said Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of Santa Clara University's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

"To me, the line is crossed when one presents oneself deceptively and certainly is crossed when one tries to incite violent action," Hanson said.

Typically companies that snoop on critics hire outside firms to put some distance between them and the surveillance, said Gary Ruskin, who authored a 2013 report on corporate espionage for a nonprofit citizen-activism organization, Essential Information.

If management encouraged its own employee to spy, Ruskin said, "it's espionage incompetence on the part of SeaWorld." more

Government-Level Spy Gear Found Used for Blackmail and Bid Rigging

South Africa - In what has been described as a serious compromise of the sovereignty of the state, three men appeared in court this week after they were found in possession of a super-spying device which can tap into more than 10 000 phones and eavesdrop on conversations from as far as 3km away.

The discovery is creating sleepless nights for South African intelligence officials and the police, as the men allegedly acquired the device with the help of government officials.

The Sunday Independent understands the device has been used to bug top politicians, cabinet ministers and prominent business people who do business with the government.

The men behind the acquisition of this powerful device had been using it for almost a year.

They apparently used it to manipulate and blackmail people in powerful positions, as well as sway multibillion-rand tenders in state institutions. more more

10 Gadgets That Will Make You Feel Like a Spy

1. Mini Camera Camcorder Video DV DVR Hidden Web Cam

2. SPY DVR Camera Camcorder Eyewear Sunglasses
3. Voicelok Voice Authenticating 8GB USB Drive
4. Spy Camera Tie with Wireless Audio Recorder with Remote Control – 4GB DVR Built-in
5. Mini Gadgets Inc CD60 Wireless Camera Detector
6. Spy Tec STI_GL300 Mini Portable Real Time GPS Tracker
7. Sport Treavy Lock N’ Load Gun Alarm Clock target Alarm Clock creative Clock – Black
8. US Mint Quarter – Micro SD Card Covert Coin – Secret Compartment US Quarter
9. Seek LW-AAA Thermal Imaging Camera Lightning Connector for iOS Devices, Black
10. Traveling Bartender 7 Piece Set by Brouk & Co. more

Bad Year for Former Spy Chiefs ... and it's only August

Chile - Gen. Manuel Contreras, who headed the feared spy agency that kidnapped, tortured and killed thousands during Chile's military dictatorship, died late Friday at a military hospital while serving a combined sentence of more than 500 years for crimes against humanity. He was 86. more 2013... former spy chief, Gen. Odladier Mena, commits suicide before transfer from luxury jail. more

Bulgaria - Former head of Bulgaria's National Intelligence Service Kircho Kirov was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison on corruption charges. The court said on Friday that Kirov received the minimum sentence possible under Bulgarian law, adding that half of his assets would be confiscated. more

South Korea - South Korea’s Supreme Court has ordered the retrial of the country’s former spy chief, who was jailed in February, in a development likely to ease political pressure on President Park Geun-hye. more

Burundi - The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has expressed shock at the assassination of Burundi’s General Adolphe Nshimirimana, a former army Chief of Staff and head of Burundi’s intelligence service. more

Libya - A Libyan court has sentenced to death former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi's last prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, for "genocide" during the 2011 revolt against his rule, the Lana news agency said on Tuesday. more

UK - Former MI5 chief warned of political embarrassment risk over child abuse claims more

Argentina - Carlos Menem, the flamboyant former president of Argentina, has gone on trial for orchestrating a cover-up of his country's worst ever terrorist attack. ... Hugo Anzorreguy, former spy chief, was not in court either – but was following the proceedings by video conference from his hospital bed. more

US - Barack Obama's former spy chief has admitted that drones are causing "more damage than good" and that US prisons in Iraq "absolutely" helped in radicalising young Iraqis who later joined al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn also called the US invasion of Iraq a "strategic mistake," according to reports. more

China - China's former security chief has been given a life sentence for corruption charges following a secret trial, seen as a victory for President Xi Jinping's anti-graft campaign. more

Syria - Rustom Ghazali, Syria's last chief of intelligence in Lebanon who was a suspect in the killing of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, has died in Damascus, Lebanese media reported. A Lebanese source with ties to Damascus also said that Ghazali had died on Friday. The cause and circumstances of his death were not immediately clear. There was no mention of his death on state media and the Syrian government made no statement. more

Colombia - The former head of Colombia's intelligence service was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Thursday for spying on opposition lawmakers, judges and journalists in one of the biggest scandals to mar the government of ex-President Alvaro Uribe. more

Turkey - Turkey's powerful former intelligence chief was on Monday reappointed head of the secret service after dropping a bid to run for parliament in upcoming elections (smell a rat?), a government spokesman said... more

Rwanda - Rwanda has angrily condemned the arrest of the country’s intelligence chief, Karenzi Karake, by British authorities acting on a Spanish indictment... Metropolitan police say Karenzi Karake is wanted in Spain in connection with alleged massacres in wake of 1994 Rwandan genocide more (last year...) I wish we had murdered former spy chief, says Rwandan President Paul Kagame... his country’s former spy chief's body was found in Johannesburg... more

The exception seems to be... Kazakhstan's former spy chief and a presidential family guard were acquitted by an Austrian jury on Friday of double murder in a trial whose main suspect, the president's former son-in-law, was found hanged in jail. more

Still dreaming of becoming a top spy?

EFF Browser Extension That Blocks Spying Ads Officially Launches

After more than a year of testing, 

the Electronic Frontier Foundation is releasing Privacy Badger 1.0, a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that prevents ads and sites from tracking your activity on the web. The EFF says over a 250,000 users have used the early versions of the extension, following a call for testers last May. So how does it work... more

The Android Wiretapping Case Against Apple is Rotting

Apple today asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit against it that claims the company wiretaps Android users by intercepting, and then failing to deliver, texts sent from iPhones to Android phones. 

The motion was made after Apple discovered that two of the three plaintiffs in the case had gotten rid of their old iPhones after they filed the suit against Apple. They are thus unable to demonstrate whether texts sent to their phone numbers went to their Apple or Android devices, Apple claims.

One of the plaintiffs has also asked that she be dismissed as a "named plaintiff" in the case.

And that request came a day after a judge declined to grant the case class-action status. more

A Win for Whistleblowers - Ag-Gag Law Gagged

The U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho struck down Idaho’s “ag-gag” law, which criminalized undercover investigations in which animal cruelty was filmed and publicized.

A coalition of animal right groups and activists challenged the law, and the Reporters Committee led a coalition of sixteen news organizations in filing an amicus brief in December, arguing that the law infringed on constitutionally protected newsgathering rights.

The law, Idaho Code § 18-7042, created the new criminal felony offense of “interference with agricultural production,” which occurs when a person, among other things, entered an agricultural production facility by misrepresentation and made audio or video recordings of the facility’s operations. It was enacted in early 2014 after animal rights activists aired videos of workers using a tractor to drag cows with chains around their necks, while also beating and kicking them.

Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill condemned the law as an unconstitutional ban on valuable political speech on food and worker safety, which are matters of public concern.

“§18-7042 seeks to limit and punish those who speak out on topics relating to the agricultural industry, striking at the heart of important First Amendment values,” the opinion states. “The effect of the statute will be to suppress speech by undercover investigators and whistleblowers concerning topics of great public importance: the safety of the public food supply, the safety of agricultural workers, the treatment and health of farm animals, and the impact of business activities on the environment.” more

New FBI Blockbuster Movie on Economic Espionage (2 Thumbs Up)

The Company Man: Protecting America's Secrets run-time is 36 minutes. Watch it when you have the time. I promise you, it is as suspenseful and entertaining as anything on TV or in the movies. Plus, it is a true story. Be sure to visit the 'movie FAQ' link after the movie ends.



Industries in the United States spend more on research and development than any other country in the world. The amount of effort and resources put into developing a unique product or process that can provide an edge in the business world is not unsubstantial. But what happens if someone comes in and steals that edge—a company’s trade secrets—for the benefit of a foreign country? The damages could severely undermine the victim company and include lost revenue, lost employment, damaged reputation, lost investment for research and development, interruption in production—it could even result in the company going out of business. more movie FAQ

Book: Cell Phone Investigations by Aaron Edens is 50% off.

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Cell Phone Investigations Search Warrants, Cell Sites, and Evidence Recovery

As the first of its kind, Cell Phone Investigations is the most comprehensive book written on cell phones, cell sites, and cell related data. This book also features sample search warrant templates and updated material regarding the 2014 Supreme Court ruling.  Cell Phone Investigations demonstrates how to examine mobile devices and sift through data without expensive equipment or years of specialized training. Author: Aaron Edens
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How Your Washing Machine Can Steal Computer Files

(Leave it to CNN to come up with such a misleading lede and headline.)


Imagine hackers stealing top secret files from a military base. Except they don't need the Internet to pull data out of the facility's computers. Instead, they can just infect an office printer and -- with software alone -- turn it into a radio.

This sounds like sci-fi, but it's now possible. Security researchers at a Manhattan startup have discovered how to make any modern device -- printer, washing machine, air conditioner -- broadcast invisible, inaudible signals for miles.

That's a game changer -- and a huge step forward for hackers...

Last week, the team at Red Balloon Security demonstrated how it works to several news reporters.

They infected a Pantum laser printer and toyed with its circuits, making it do something it was never meant to. By quickly switching a chip's energy output back and forth, the printer emits electromagnetic radiation. more

TEMPEST re-packaged.
Note to clients... Please don't worry. We can easily detect this.

No Time for Spycam'er - Video Voyeurism Victims Pissed

Kevin Thomas Roy worked on the production crews of some of Hollywood’s biggest movies,

including the “Lone Ranger,” “Transcendence” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.” But it was the filming he was doing in secret that landed him in trouble with law enforcement, according to court documents.

Roy’s computer hard drives contained more than 40 videos and 400 photographs capturing unsuspecting women showering or changing in private areas, on film sets and at shopping centers, according to a search warrant affidavit.

Roy, a Los Angeles County district attorney’s investigator wrote, appeared to be a “prolific collector and producer of voyeuristic matter” with a “voracious appetite and affinity for videos ... depicting women in bathrooms, dressing rooms and other places of privacy.”

As part of a deal with Los Angeles prosecutors, the district attorney’s office said, Roy pleaded no contest June 26 to a single misdemeanor charge of unauthorized invasion of privacy. He was sentenced to three years of probation and required to undergo 52 weeks of sex offender counseling in Georgia, where he now lives.

“It’s an awful feeling knowing that you’re a victim of such a sneaky, disgusting crime, and it is as though the law isn’t protecting us or any other women out there,” said Donna Unsinn, who was identified in the search warrant as being shown in some of the images.

A district attorney’s spokesman declined to respond to the criticism, saying the office’s investigation into Roy is ongoing. Roy, 38, and his attorney did not return calls seeking comment. more

Down Under News - Spy Camera Found in Toilet at Shopping Center

Australia - Detectives are investigating how a small camera came to be hidden inside a smoke alarm in a public toilet at a suburban Perth shopping centre.

Its discovery by a worker, understood to be an electrician, on Friday prompted management at Belmont Forum to conduct a “thorough sweep” of all its facilities to ensure there were no other devices.

WA Police are examining the contents on the camera.

A man posted on Facebook on Friday that he was working at Belmont Forum and when he went to the toilet he noticed the smoke alarm flashing. He said he pulled the smoke alarm cover off the ceiling and found a cordless camera inside.

The man said the discovery made him feel sick. He urged people to be vigilant about anything “dodgy” and to check for “domestic battery-operated smoke alarms” in public toilets.

Images posted on Facebook of what looks like a hidden camera, discovered in a smoke detector.

A spokeswoman for Belmont Forum said: “The device was immediately handed into centre management and subsequently turned over to WA Police.

“Belmont Forum is assisting WA Police with the investigation and has conducted a thorough sweep of all the facilities in the shopping centre. No further devices have been found.” more 

Interesting... This is the same camera I featured in the Basic Cameras chapter of my on-line Spycam Detection training course. Even more interesting... the camera also transmits a wireless signal directly to a smartphone. You can preview the Basic Cameras chapter for FREE. https://www.udemy.com/spycam-detection/ (scroll down to Basic Cameras)

New Ultra Low Light Level Camera for Investigators... named Amos Burke

Ever been poking around in low-light with your camera and thought, "you know what, I could really do with an extra few million ISO"? To be honest, neither have we because such a light-sensitivity would be ludicrous for most users.

Well, that hasn't stopped the folks at Canon stepping things up in a big way with its full-frame ME20F-SH, a 4,000,000 ISO HD video camera that seems sure to bring the noise.

The seeds were sewn for Canon's new shooter in 2013, when the company announced the development of a new 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor specifically for filming in poorly lit environments. This sensor has now found its way into a cubed-shaped 4 x 4.5 x 4.4 in (10.2 x 11.4 x 11.2 cm) body that weighs approximately 2.4 lb (1.1 kg) and features an EF mount for compatibility with the Canon's interchangeable EF glass...

The result is, Canon says in lieu of sample footage, the capture of low-noise, color, Full-HD video of subjects with a minimum illumination of less than 0.0005 lux. For reference, a crescent moon is about 0.3 lux. Infrared illumination has made it possible to capture such dim environments previously, but only in black and white. more

Suggested retail price: US$30,000

Great On-Line Movie - Dr Megavolt: from Geek to Superhero - Pay What You Want to See It

For 30 days, pay what you want is on!
Buy Dr Megavolt: From Geek to Superhero the feature documentary for as little as...

But, please, don't be too cheap. It cost him a lot of money to give you these visual thrills.

Run time 72 minutes.

Interesting Case - Two Lawyers Face Felony Wiretap Charges.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane filed criminal charges against two Pennsylvania lawyers alleging violations of the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act, 18 Pa. C.S.A. §§ 5701, et seq. (“Wiretap Act”).

Both lawyers are facing two felony counts under the Wiretap Act, and the charges arise from allegedly using illegally-obtained recordings in court proceedings. More specifically, charges against attorney Stanley T. Booker arise from his alleged use of a recorded telephone call (between his client and the victim of a robbery) during his cross-examination of a witness during a preliminary hearing. Attorney Gerald V. Benyo, Jr., allegedly attached a transcript of an unlawfully recorded call when he filed a motion for an evidentiary hearing. Both attorneys questioned why the Attorney General “would press charges,” but an Attorney General spokesperson stated: “Given all the new technology that is available today, we are aware that there may be more opportunities for potential violations of these laws. We are prepared to act when the situation warrants prosecution.” However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s 2014 decision, Commonwealth v. Spence, which held that telephones are expressly exempt from the devices prohibited by the Wiretap Act, could be a challenge to the Attorney General’s prosecution of these cases. more

Ratters: Hackers spying through computer microphones, webcams

A new report says hackers can take remote control of a computer and not only steal passwords and credit card numbers, but also listen through the microphone and watch through the webcam.

The hackers, known as ratters, can then post that information online with advertising.

It’s done by Remote Access Trojans, or RATs. According to the Digital Citizens’ Alliance, they are a growing threat to innocent people...

Benson shared a few tips to help computer users protect themselves:

• Cover a webcam when it’s not in use
• Update the computer’s operating system and make sure its anti-virus software and firewalls are up to date
• Beware of suspicious links 

more


Kevin's Spybusters Tip #834: Blind Ratters with this.

Guy Shoots Drone To Smithereens For Spying On Sunbathing Daughter

William Merideth was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and wanton endangerment Sunday evening after shooting down an $1800 drone he claims was spying on his teenage daughter sunbathing in Hillview, KY.

“My daughter comes in and says, ‘Dad, there’s a drone out here flying,’ ” William H. Merideth told WDRB, Tuesday.

“I came out and it was down by the neighbor’s house, about 10 feet off the ground, looking under their canopy … in their back yard," Merideth said. "I went and got my shotgun and I said, ‘I’m not going to do anything unless it’s directly over my property … Within a minute or so, here it came … hovering over top of my property, and I shot it out of the sky."

Soon after Merideth shot the drone, four men showed up at his door “looking for a fight” and asked Merideth if he was “the son of a bitch that shot my drone.”



Merideth, with a 10mm Glock holstered on his hip, confirmed he had shot down the drone and told his accuser "if you cross that sidewalk onto my property, there’s going to be another shooting."
The men left, but soon after the police arrived and arrested Merideth. Though Ars Technica reports that law enforcement officials allegedly told Merideth they agreed with his actions, he was being charged due to an ordinance against discharging firearms in the city.

Though Merideth was disappointed in the law enforcement’s response to the situation, he feels “confident” his charges will be reduced or dismissed entirely. more

Do the Butt Dial Blues, You Lose

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that if you accidentally call someone and don't take reasonable steps to prevent it, you don’t have an expectation of privacy if that person listens in. more

Want to Shoot Down Your Neighbor's Drone? Think twice.

Before you decide to shoot that drone out of your backyard, there are a few important things you need to know. 

First of all, damaging any flying robot is a federal crime. It doesn’t matter if it’s crashing your pool party or watching you in your skivvies through the skylight in your master bath.

“In my ​legal opinion,” says Peter Sachs, a Connecticut attorney and publisher of Drone Law Journal, “it is never okay to shoot at a drone, shoot down a drone​,​ or otherwise damage, destroy​ or disable ​a drone, ​or attempt to ​do so. ​Doing so is a federal crime.​”...

It sounds like a cyberpunk, apocalyptic scenario, but if you ever found yourself in a situation where a drone is not only trespassing on your property, but is intentionally trying to harm you, then you can probably shoot it down. But this is only if the drone is swooping and trying to ram itself into you, or was outfitted with some (illegal) ammo of its own and started opening fire.  more

Spycam News - Rhino Spy Cameras to Help Crackdown on Poachers

Rhinos being hunted by poachers have received a new boost thanks to a British-designed spy camera and GPS system that can be implanted in their horns.

Experts hope the technology, which also includes a heart-rate monitor that triggers an alarm if a rhino is shot, could help turn the tables on poachers.

Park rangers will be helicoptered to the scene within minutes of an alarm, guided by the GPS, giving poachers no time to escape.

The video footage captured on the horn camera can then be used as evidence to secure a conviction. more

Spycam News - Planned Parenthood Pinged

Anti-abortion activists on Tuesday released a second undercover video aimed at discrediting Planned Parenthood's procedures for providing fetal tissue to researchers.

The video shows a woman identified as Dr. Mary Gatter, a Planned Parenthood medical director in California, meeting with people posing as potential buyers of intact fetal specimens. Much of the conversation on the video deals with how much money the buyers should pay. more

SPY Act - Senate Bill To Lock Hackers Out Of Connected Cars

As reporter Andy Greenberg recently detailed in Wired, hackers were able to remotely disable a Jeep while he was driving it. In a country where car ownership and the freedom of the open road are closely tied to individual and national identity, losing control over any vehicle you're driving is a nightmarish scenario.

Connecting more devices and vehicles to the Internet has immense economic potential but carries both security and privacy risks. The number of ways cars and trucks can be hacked has grown quickly, as automakers roll out new vehicles more screens and navigation, entertainment and communications systems in response to consumer demand.

Concern about the lack of security in vehicles led Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to introduce on Tuesday the Security and Privacy in Your Car Act, or the "SPY Act," which would require automobile manufacturers to build IT security standards into connected cars. more

How IT Can Spy on Your Smartphone

So what can your employer see about you on your smartphone if you let IT manage that device through an MDM tool?

On an iPhone or iPad, Apple's iOS restricts IT's visibility, so your private data stays private....in iOS IT can see only your full list of apps. If you give IT permission, it can see your location. Respondents' other sensitive areas are shielded: personal email, personal contacts, texts, voicemails, phone and Internet usage details, and data stored in apps.

IT can see anything in your corporate email, contacts, and calendar since it manages those servers, and it can see your Web activities conducted on its network since it can snoop that traffic.

...IT can see what apps you have installed (not only those deployed by IT), your battery level, your storage capacity and amount used, your phone number and its hardware ID (called an IMEI), your carrier and country, and your device's model and OS version. Plus, if you give IT permission to do so, it can track your location (iOS forces apps and websites to ask for your permission first, so they can't do it secretly).

Android shields almost as much as iOS does, but IT can change that... The default situation for Android users is slightly less private than for iOS users. The big difference involves location information access. iOS asks you when an app first requests access, and it lets you revoke the access at any time in the Settings app. Android asks when you install an app and does not let you revoke the permissions later; however, the forthcoming Android M changes that, working like iOS. more

What you want kept private, and where mobile devices oblige...

Device information	All adults' discomfort in IT seeing	Young adults' discomfort in IT seeing	iOS shields from IT	Android shields from IT
Personal email	78%	66%	Yes	Yes
Personal contacts	75%	63%	Yes	Yes
Texts and instant messages	74%	62%	Yes	Yes [2]
Voicemails	71%	63%	Yes	Yes [2]
Phone and Internet usage details	69%	59%	Yes	Yes
Information stored in mobile apps	71%	60%	Yes [1]	Yes [1]
List of all installed apps	67%	57%	No	No
Location	66%	57%	User decides	User decides [3]

Source: MobileIron
[1] Except data sent to corporate servers from apps
[2] Apps can access this data, so IT could monitor it if desired through an app
[3] At install only in Android 4 and earlier

iPhones Can be Infected with SpyWare Without Jailbreaking... and what you can do about it.

via lookout.com
The security world exploded with the news that Hacking Team, a vendor of Italian spyware — software that captures Skype, message, location, social media, audio, visual, and more data, and is marketed as “stealth” and “untraceable” — was hacked…
 
When it comes to iOS, public reports to-date have claimed that the Hacking Team spyware can only infect jailbroken iOS devices… this is not the case.

While Apple does an admirable job protecting users from most malicious software, the fact is that non-jailbroken devices can be infected with Hacking Team’s spyware too…

For its part, Apple created security warnings to inform users before they install apps from outside the App Store. The challenge, however, is that recent research states that people are getting increasingly conditioned to ignore these security warnings.

Here’s what the warning looks like when Hacking Team’s fake Newsstand app is installed on a non-jailbroken iPhone:




Once a user clicks “trust,” the app is fully functional on the non-jailbroken iPhone…

So what can you do about it? 
First off, don’t freak out. Chances are, you do not have Hacking Team’s surveillanceware on your device. To check for this specific instance of Hacking Team’s surveillanceware you can:

Check iOS Settings for any apps with an empty name.

• Check iOS Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Keyboards to make sure that only keyboards you have installed are set up on your device.

And, here are some general tips for staying safe:

• Keep a passcode on your phone. A lot of spyware sold on the market requires that the attacker have physical access to the target device to install the software. Putting a passcode on your phone makes it that much harder for them.
• Don’t download apps from third party marketplaces or links online. Spyware is also distributed through these means. Only download from official and vetted marketplaces such as the Apple App Store and Google Play.
• Don’t jailbreak your device unless you really know what you’re doing. Because jailbroken iOS devices are inherently less protected, they are more vulnerable to attack when security protection measures aren’t properly enabled.
• Download a security app that can stop attacks before they do harm. Lookout does this, but if you’re not a Lookout user, ask your security provider if they detect Hacking Team and other forms of spyware.
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FutureWatch - The Dark Art of Light Eavesdropping is Coming

Maite Brandt-Pearce, a professor in the Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mohammad Noshad, now a postdoctoral fellow in the Electrical Engineering Department at Harvard University, have devised a way of using light waves from light-emitting diode fixtures to carry signals to wireless devices at 300 megabits per second from each light. It’s like having a whole wi-fi system all to yourself; using light waves, there would be more network access points than with radio waves, so less sharing of the wireless network...

Their breakthrough means that data can be transmitted faster with light waves using no more energy than is already required to run the lights....

“You can use it any place that has lighting,” Brandt-Pearce said. “In a stadium, in a parking lot, or from vehicle to vehicle if using LED headlights and taillights.”

Like current wireless communications, encryption is necessary to keep data secure, but Brandt-Pearce noted that a secure network could be created in a room with no windows.

“It can’t be detected outside the room because the light waves stop when they hit something opaque, such as a wall,” she said. “That can keep communications secure from room to room.” (Generally speaking. However, a hair-like strand of fiber optic poking into the fixture from above the false ceiling should do the trick.)

And two separate networks in different rooms would not interfere with each other the way they do with present wi-fi networks.

She said devices with LED circuits in them can also communicate with each other. more more

Modulation of room lights for eavesdropping purposes is not new. The advent of ubiquitous LED lighting, however, will dramatically increase the effectiveness and ease of this tactic for eavesdropping... and the long-range wireless interception of computer data via optical means (even if it is encrypted).

The Contorted Case of John Large Under Antiquated Wiretapping Laws

PA - Concerned about the care his disabled daughter was receiving in a Bethlehem nursing home, John Large set out last June to register his complaint with an administrator.

Tired of the he-said-she-said nature of their previous conversations, Large went to the HCR Manor Care facility on Westgate Drive prepared to make a recording of the meeting.

Unbeknownst to Patricia Zurick, the director of nursing services, Large used a video recording device concealed in a pair of glasses to capture the sometimes heated hourlong discussion, court papers say.

No one would have been any the wiser except that Large mailed a DVD containing the footage to an FBI field office in Scranton, according to court documents.

The FBI saw the video as a potential violation of wiretap laws, Large's attorney said. Agents forwarded the DVD to Bethlehem police, who charged Large with intercepting communications and possession of a device for intercepting communications.

Large, 50, of Lansford, was held in Carbon County Jail until April, when Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg ordered the charges dismissed.

In his opinion, Steinberg wrote that because Zurick's office door was open — she testified that she left it open because she was scared of Large — she had no expectation of privacy, a crucial element for determining whether a secret recording is illegal. And because investigators never determined what kind of device Large had used to make the video, Steinberg wrote, the charge of possessing a device for intercepting communications could not be sustained.

He added that Pennsylvania's wiretap law is not keeping pace with the widespread adoption of technology such as tablet computers and Google Glass — essentially a smartphone contained in eyeglass frames. more

Weird Wiretap Case - Anesthesiologist Calls Patient a Retard

Last month, a Virginia jury awarded $500,000 to a man who inadvertently recorded an anesthesiologist trashing him as he lay unconscious during a colonoscopy, the Washington Post reported.

The man had activated the recorder on his smartphone to capture his doctor's instructions for his discharge but forgot to turn it off. He was stunned after the procedure to hear the anesthesiologist say she wanted to punch him in the face, suggest that he had syphilis and call him a "retard," according to the newspaper.

The doctor's lawyers argued that the recording was illegal, but the patient's lawyers pointed out that in Virginia, only one party needs to consent to a recording, the Post reported. more

Screening of Staff Made Mandatory to Check Info Leak

India - To plug information leak in the wake of corporate espionage case, the Centre has issued stringent guidelines for its departments, making security screening of personnel outsourced from elsewhere mandatory and avoiding doing confidential work on computers with net connection.
 
The guidelines, which say external memory devices must not be connected to the USB drives on these computers and that misuse of photocopying machines should be prevented, were issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs last week.

The MHA came out with the guidelines against the backdrop of the leak of classified information from some ministries including the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. more