The National Cryptologic Museum is Open Again - Revamped - With New Spy Stuff

Vince Houghton (the new director of the National Security Agency's National Cryptologic Museum) and his team unveiled what they'd been working on during the COVID 19 pandemic: a complete overhaul of the aging, 1990s-era museum in Fort Meade, Md...

"These are artifacts that have never been on display before to the public at all," Houghton noted...

Until recently, historians believed many of the artifacts on display at the Cryptologic Museum were lost to history. For Houghton, unearthing old and unique pieces of cryptologic history has been an exceptionally satisfying part of his mission.

That's because the NSA maintains a large warehouse where employees have kept highly classified objects in the hopes that one day those stories could be told. Houghton compared the warehouse, where he and his colleagues spent hours before opening the museum, as "the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark," the 1981 Indiana Jones movie ending in a giant room full of treasure.

"It's floor to ceiling crates that are deteriorating, because they were sent back there in 1945," Houghton said. "To me it was like every day was Christmas, because I'm such a nerd about this stuff." more

Spy Christmas Present: George Orwell Lamp

Probably not a good gift for your paranoid Aunt. 

Seen recently on eBay.

Weird Science: Hacker Hacks Home Cam Then Reports it to Authorities

A former Davenport West High School science teacher has been found guilty of secretly recording people in various stages of undress in his Bettendorf home.

Clinton R. Vanfossen, 61, will be sentenced Jan. 5 on five counts of invasion of privacy, one count each of preventing apprehension and obstructing justice and electronic or mechanical eavesdropping...

District Court Judge Meghan Corbin filed a written ruling Monday. According to Corbin’s written ruling:

Bettendorf police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

According to the tip, a computer hacker in France hacked into the cameras of a home in Bettendorf and reported what he believed were people being unknowingly filmed in intimate moments.

Officers went to the location of the reported cameras, which were in Vanfossen’s Bettendorf home.

Officers searched the home and found two purported smoke detectors that appeared to contain a camera. The first camera was found in the second-floor hallway and the second camera was found inside a family member’s bedroom. more

Canada Awarded RCMP Contract to Firm with Ties to China

Canada - The federal government awarded a contract to provide and maintain RCMP communications equipment to a company with ties to the Chinese government, Radio-Canada has learned.

The contract has security experts raising concerns about potential Chinese access to RCMP communications and data.

On October 6, 2021, the federal government awarded Sinclair Technologies a contract worth $549,637 for a radio frequency (RF) filtering system. One of the system's purposes is to protect the RCMP's land-based radio communications from eavesdropping...

Conor Healy, a Canadian now based in Washington, said, "the risks include eavesdropping, collection of communications data and jamming or shutting down the radio communications system." more

PI Surveillance of Hand Injury Plaintiff Becomes 30.1 Billion Lawsuit

Cheap surveillance devices get expensive...

$11M settlement sparks $13.1B suit against American Family Insurance
A new lawsuit seeking billions of dollars in punitive damages claims AmFam and other parties illegally surveilled the plaintiff and her family...

It said that the lawyers hired the PI firm, at AmFam’s behest, to install surveillance devices around Mezqutal’s property and on family vehicles throughout the month of October 2019, or thereabouts.

“The AmFam defendants’ directions to the Martinelli Investigations Defendants included the mandate to have the investigators do whatever they needed to do to get surveillance of the plaintiff,” it said. “This direction was passed on to the Martinelli Investigations defendants by the Baker Donelson defendants.”

The PI defendants “unlawfully entered” Mezquitals’ property and “placed various electronic devices” on her property and two vehicles “to unlawfully record the activities of Plaintiff and her minor children. The electronic devices included at least one hidden video camera and multiple GPS tracking devices.”

The complaint said the PI team strapped a Spypoint Link-Dark “trail cam” digital camera, which is to a tree positioned to “capture plaintiff’s house, vehicles, and a portion of Plaintiff’s driveway. “The view provided by the Spypoint Link-Dark camera is not possible to obtain from a public road or from any other public property, it said. The “unlawful recordings were made without the consent of all persons observed and included photographs, videos, and electronic recordings of the activities of plaintiff and her minor children in a private place that was out of public view.”

The complaint includes claims for invasion of privacy, trespass to realty, trespass to personality, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and punitive damages and seeks joint and several liability for all the defendants. more  (Spypoint camera sales video)

Just Because You are Paranoid... Device Found in CEO's Car

Eskom CEO, André de Ruyter, has doubled down on the claim that he stumbled upon a highly sophisticated tracking device under the driver’s seat of his Volvo...

This comes after details were provided to press in October about a circuit board, described as an “NSA-level device”, that De Ruyter found while cleaning his car.

Articles cited a preliminary report prepared by former police commissioner George Fivaz who claimed the device isn’t commercially available, and is typically used by law enforcement and intelligence agencies...

Journalists were provided photos of the circuit board, which they duly published....

Security researcher Daniel Cuthbert was willing to comment on the record.

He explained that, based on the evidence, the device was likely nothing more than a remote of some kind.

Such a remote button could be a gate or garage opener, a panic button, or a way to arm and disarm a home alarm.

MyBroadband’s in-house researcher and electronic engineer Wikus Steyn agreed.

“There is no GPS chip or antenna, so no tracking that way. I see no mic onboard, although there is what seems to be a 2-pin input at the top, but that is most likely for a push button,” Steyn stated. He also said the quality of soldering suggests cheap mass production. more

Our take... I agree with Dan and Wikus. (but be sure to read the last paragraph) If the TI IC info in the photo is correct TI lists the chip's applications as:

1.2 Applications

• Low-Power, High-Performance, Wireless Systems With Data Rate Up to 1250 kbps
• ISM/SRD Bands: 169, 433, 868, 915, and 920 MHz
• Possible Support for Additional Frequency Bands: 137 to 158.3 MHz, 205 to 237.5 MHz, and 274 to 316.6 MHz
• Smart Metering (AMR/AMI)
• Home and Building Automation
• Wireless Alarm and Security Systems
• Industrial Monitoring and Control
• Wireless Healthcare Applications
• Wireless Sensor Networks and Active RFID
• IEEE 802.15.4g Applications
• Wireless M-Bus, All Modes

Eskom CEO, André de Ruyter, may have misidentified this item, but it definitely doesn't mean he is not being surveilled. Thoughts of tracking and bugging are not normal. Something has made him suspicious. Trust your instincts, André. Get some professional TSCM help, and don't make it a public issue.

Sophos 2023 Threat Report

The Sophos 2023 Threat Report uncovers the latest cyberthreat trends and provides the insights you need to defend against evolving attacks.

Based on the research and real-world experiences of Sophos X-Ops – a new cross-operational unit that links Sophos' threat, incident response and AI cybersecurity experts, the report covers:

• The lasting cyber impact of the war in Ukraine

• The maturity of the “as-a-service” industry and how it has put advanced threat tactics into the hands of nearly any criminal

• How ransomware operators have evolved their activities and mechanisms, both to evade detection and to incorporate novel techniques

• A deep dive into the abuse of legitimate security tools by criminals to execute attacks

• An analysis of the threats facing Linux, Mac, and mobile systems

Spy Tech: Amazing Microphone Tricks

Forget about turning up the TV to block eavesdropping bugs. 

The EveryWord™ Ultra Far-Field AFE Processor is here.

ArkX Labs' EveryWord ultra far-field voice capture and control DSP solutions offer an unmatched voice experience for H2H and H2M interfaces. 

Utilizing 3-D reverberation technology, the AFE voice module and development kit capture voice commands from 3x the distance (up to 9+ meters) versus traditional beam-forming technology. 

These solutions work reliably around corners, and in noisy and reverberate environments without having to lower the playback volume from other loud or competing single-point noise sources... Just watch the video.

Quote of the Week

 “Realizing that espionage is not science fiction, but a tangible and real risk, is the first step to protect ourselves against it,” 

- Nicolas Fierens Gevaert, a spokesperson for the Belgian foreign affairs ministry. more

Five News Outlets Urge U.S. to Drop Espionage Charges Against Assange

The New York Times and four other major media outlets that first helped WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange publish sensitive U.S. government documents sent a letter on Monday to federal prosecutors urging them to stop prosecuting him.

The open letter, titled "Publishing is Not a Crime," was signed by the editors and publishers of The Times, The Guardian, the French outlet Le Monde, the German outlet Der Spiegel and the Spanish paper El Pais...

He faces extradition to the United States to stand trial for the hacking-related offenses and violating the 1917 Espionage Act. If Assange is convicted, he could serve up to 175 years in prison. more

Espionage Group Using USB Devices to Hack Targets

USB devices are being used to hack targets in Southeast Asia, according to a new report by cybersecurity firm Mandiant.

The use of USB devices as an initial access vector is unusual as they require some form of physical access — even if it is provided by an unwitting employee — to the target device.

Earlier this year the FBI warned that cybercriminals were sending malicious USB devices to American companies via the U.S. Postal Service with the aim of getting victims to plug them in and unwittingly compromise their networks...

The hackers behind it are concentrating on targets in the Philippines. The researchers assess the group has a China nexus, although it did not formally attribute the cyber espionage operation to a specific state-sponsored group. more

Tiny State Buys $60 Million Surveillance System

(Kogi is a small state in Nigeria.)

Kogi governor acquires $60 million Chinese surveillance to eavesdrop on people. “We are putting the whole state on the map, real-time, virtual, audio and visual, so as you enter Kogi state from anywhere, we will see you. I won’t go into too much detail.”

Abdulkareem Siyaka, Kogi State Investment Promotion and Public Private Partnership Agency CEO, disclosed that the project would create 685,000 jobs and attract over N591 billion in investment yearly while encouraging migration to Kogi’s rural areas. more

The EU's Spyware Conundrum

MEPs are concerned that eavesdropping with Pegasus-type software is escalating, but the bloc is unlikely to impose rules as the final word rests with member states who dislike such oversight, experts said.

Pegasus and other software, such as Predator, have gained significant notoriety in recent years after it came to light they were being used by governments and politicians against political rivals, journalists, and activists, amongst others...

Jeroen Lenaеrs, chair of the PEGA European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware, said it was “pretty scary” how much information about personal life the Pegasus-type spyware can get...

“The Commission realises that something must be done,” said Lenaеrs... But he lamented the lack of political will from many capitals. more

Under Appreciated Espionage Attach Vector - Computer Repair Shops

If you’ve ever worried about the privacy of your sensitive data when seeking a computer or phone repair, a new study suggests you have good reason. It found that privacy violations occurred at least 50 percent of the time, not surprisingly with female customers bearing the brunt.

Researchers at University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, recovered logs from laptops after receiving overnight repairs from 12 commercial shops. The logs showed that technicians from six of the locations had accessed personal data and that two of those shops also copied data onto a personal device. Devices belonging to females were more likely to be snooped on, and that snooping tended to seek more sensitive data, including both sexually revealing and non-sexual pictures, documents, and financial information. more

Trade Secret Litigation 101

Trade secrets, and their associated value, are an understated facet of commercial activity. The intellectual property owned and protected by businesses carry with them enormous economic weight and are often the target of inappropriate corporate activities such as espionage and theft. 

Too often, these pieces of property are insufficiently protected, misunderstood, and do not get the attention they deserve. As such, trade secret litigation has evolved into a niche, but growing area of law practice.

Below, we will explore some of the key elements of trade secret litigation, its scope and magnitude, distinctions between trade secrets and other types of intellectual property, as well as several other important considerations... more

This Week in Spy News

Swedish brothers face trial on Russia spy charges
Two Swedish brothers accused of selling secrets to Russia's intelligence services have gone on trial in what has been called one of Sweden's worst ever alleged cases of espionage. more

Alleged Chinese spy detained in Quebec seeks bail, wants to clear name
A former employee of Quebec's electricity utility who is charged with economic espionage for the benefit of China denied on Thursday that he was a flight risk and said he wanted to stay in Canada to fight the charges. more

US Senators Reportedly Worried About Foreign Espionage As Chinese Drones Fly Over No-Go Zones In DC
Recreational drones made by Da-Jiang Innovations, or DJI, a Chinese technology company, have been reportedly detected in restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. more

Pakistan appoints ex-spy master Gen. Munir as new army chief
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has named the country's former spy chief as head of the military, the information minister said Thursday, ending months of speculation about the new appointment. more

Fear of espionage: USA bans Huawei products from stores
The US government bans the sale and import of communication devices from Chinese smartphone manufacturers and network suppliers Huawei and ZTE. They posed an unacceptable risk to national security, the US telecommunications regulator FCC said on Friday. more

UK bans Chinese surveillance cameras from 'sensitive' sites
Hikvision, a leading Chinese surveillance company, has denied suggestions that it poses a threat to Britain's national security after the UK government banned the use of its camera systems at "sensitive" sites. more

Travelling Australian espionage exhibition reveals double life of post-WWII spies
The touring exhibition is at the Albury Library Museum, on the New South Wales and Victorian border, where it explores espionage and counter-espionage in Australia, from federation through to the present day. more

Bond-inspired watches pay homage to franchise’s 60 years

Swiss watchmaker Omega has released two 007-inspired timepieces.
Photos courtesy Omega

In honour of six decades of high-tech gadgets, espionage, and ‘shaken, not stirred’ martinis, Swiss watchmaker Omega has crafted two new James Bond-inspired timepieces. more

Autonomous Vehicle Espionage Concerns in Congress

A member of the American House of Representatives has raised concerns about the dangers of AVs, warning that these vehicles represent a treasure trove of data that could be exploited against American citizens—or national interests...

According to an article by Wired, AVs effectively serve as moving cameras with access to emails, messages, phone calls.

...even though AVs can improve mobility for people with disabilities and make roads safer, they also enable larger, more sophisticated foreign espionage against industries, organizations and dissidents in the United States. For the original letter posted by Wired, click here.

Best Opening Line of a Scam Email Ever (off topic)

Dear Friend, 

I am enchanted using this tremendous opportunity to converse with you in this medium of communication....

From, Mr. James Mensa, the accounting manager in the Bank of Africa Ltd., Ghana... offering me "US$4.6million us dollars." I declined the money, however the opening sentence is priceless. I'm stealing that for my own use. ~Kevin

Poor Spycraft: Suspected Spy Had a One-Way Ticket Out of Norway

A man suspected of spying for Russia in Norway had bought a one-way ticket out of the Scandinavian country for the day after he was detained, his lawyer said Thursday.

“He was originally leaving. He had a one-way ticket for Oct. 25,” his lawyer Thomas Hansen told the VG newspaper. He added that his client explained that he had canceled the plane ticket. He did not know where his client intended to travel. more

Repair Worker Accused of Hiding Camera in DC Apartment

D.C. police and prosecutors say 41-year-old Eddy Giron installed a small camera in the bathroom of an apartment in Southwest D.C. near the Waterfront Metro station while he did remodeling work... 

Prosecutors said Giron moved the camera to different locations in the bathroom over the course of three days, including inside a vent and beneath the sink aimed at the toilet...

Detectives are investigating the possibility that there could be other victims. more

Retail Employee Says Company Installed Illegal Audio-Recording Cameras at Work

In the U.S., most surveillance laws are dictated at the state level. While the majority of workplaces allow companies to install video cameras that capture visuals of whatever is going on in the store, including interactions of customers and employees, recording audio of their conversations is strictly prohibited in many states.

One of those states is New York, which has implemented anti-eavesdropping statutes that protect employees' conversations from being recorded while at work.

TikToker Ethan Carlson, who posts under the handle @therealethancarlson, recently uploaded a video about his workplace's audio-enabled cameras, prompting many viewers to urge him to report his employer.

In a now viral clip, Ethan says to the camera, "This is not a f--king drill, my place of work has installed these cameras."

He then points his camera lens and zooms in to show security devices installed up high in his store. more

Recently in Spycam News

WA - School Employee charged with over 137 counts of voyeurism after it was found that he put a video camera in the female bathroom of a high school that he was working in, reportedly doing so since 2013. more

Singapore - A 25-year-old man was sentenced to three years and 24 weeks in jail and five strokes of the cane for video voyeurism. He was previously sentenced to three years in jail and three strokes of the cane in November 2018. more

FL - Twice this week there were reports that women were secretly recorded in spaces they thought they had privacy while undressing... "I've watched this issue get worse, and the legislation has responded by getting tougher," Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said. more

FL - Condo Association President, Charged with 4 Counts of Video Voyeurism... a cord led to a charger, which had a USB from which a USB cord connected to something in the plant. It was a tiny surveillance video camera. It had been placed there to spy on the bedroom’s occupants. more

• You don't have to be a victim. Learn how to spot spycams in places where you expect privacy.

Police Use New Tool to Track People Without a Warrant

Government agencies and private security companies in the U.S. have found a cost-effective way to engage in warrantless surveillance of individuals, groups and places: a pay-for-access web tool called Fog Reveal.

The tool enables law enforcement officers to see “patterns of life” – where and when people work and live, with whom they associate and what places they visit. The tool’s maker, Fog Data Science, claims to have billions of data points from over 250 million U.S. mobile devices. more

Espionage Claim in Airbus Court Fight

Airbus has faced claims that it is using a court battle with an airline to obtain “super sensitive” commercial secrets about Boeing, its main rival.

In the latest twist to the dispute between Qatar Airways and Airbus, the world’s second largest aircraft manufacturer, a judge heard allegations that amounted to corporate espionage.

The Gulf airline is bringing a £1.3 billion claim against Airbus over allegations that problems with cracking paint rendered the A350 passenger aircraft unsafe. more

Zillow Sued For Alleged Wiretapping - It’s not what you think...

If your company maintains a website – whether offering financial products or just selling pet stairs – you now need to be familiar with state and federal wiretapping laws.

The term “wiretapping” probably brings to mind images of police detectives or FBI agents huddled in the back of a white panel van or in a dark room with headphones on, listening to and recording conversations among shady characters.

What likely doesn’t come to mind are interactive business websites. 

Yet a spate of recent class action lawsuits against a variety of business websites – including cases filed separately in September in Pennsylvania, Washington, and Missouri against Zillow Group Inc., as well as those filed against hardware retailer Lowe’s and travel website Expedia, among others – all cite state wiretapping laws as the basis of their complaints about invading consumer privacy...

Privacy experts say all of these wiretapping lawsuits have far reaching implications for any business that maintains a website and uses coding, software, or third-party vendors to analyze what clients or consumers do when they visit online. more

Sensors Tap Into Mobile Vibrations to Eavesdrop Remotely

Using an off-the-shelf automotive radar sensor and a novel processing approach, Penn State researchers demonstrated they could detect the vibrations of a cell phone's earpiece and decipher what the person on the other side of the call was saying with up to 83% accuracy...

The radar operates in the millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum, specifically in the bands of 60 to 64 gigahertz and 77 to 81 gigahertz, which inspired the researchers to name their approach "mmSpy." This is a subset of the radio spectrum used for 5G, the fifth-generation standard for communication systems across the globe.

In the mmSpy demonstration, the researchers simulated people speaking through the earpiece of a smartphone. The brand is irrelevant, Basak said, but the researchers tested their approach on both a Google Pixel 4a and a Samsung Galaxy S20. The phone's earpiece vibrates from the speech, and that vibration permeates across the body of the phone.

"We use the radar to sense this vibration and reconstruct what was said by the person on the other side of the line," Basak said, noting that their approach works even when the audio is completely inaudible to both humans and microphones nearby. more

This paper presents a system mmSpy that shows the feasibility of eavesdropping phone calls remotely. Towards this end, mmSpy performs sensing of earpiece vibrations using an off-the-shelf radar device that operates in the mmWave spectrum (77GHz, and 60GHz). abstract

FM Bug Kits from China - $0.70

 Just when you thought electronic surveillance couldn't get more affordable... more

SPECIAL EDITION: U.S. Bugging Operation Against Soviets

by Zach Dorfman

Recently, I obtained a set of declassified 1980s intelligence files from Poland’s cold war-era archives. The files detailed a Soviet operation to identify and remove a cornucopia of bugs placed in Russian diplomatic facilities across the United States. 

The document — written in Russian and almost certainly produced by the KGB, unlike the other Polish-language files in the tranche of documents — provides a meticulous pictorial account of the ways in which the U.S. spy services sought to technically surveil the Russians on American soil. The file offers an unprecedented, stunning — if dated — look at these efforts to eavesdrop on Russian government activities within the U.S.

Click to enlarge.

The file details a number of bugs found at Soviet diplomatic facilities in Washington, D.C., New York, and San Francisco, as well as in a Russian government-owned vacation compound, apartments used by Russia personnel, and even Russian diplomats’ cars. 

And the bugs were everywhere: 

• encased in plaster in an apartment closet; 
• behind electrical and television outlets; 
• bored into concrete bricks and threaded into window frames; 
• inside wooden beams and baseboards;
• stashed within a building’s foundation itself; 
• surreptitiously attached to security cameras; 
• wired into ceiling panels and walls; 
• and secretly implanted into the backseat of cars and in their window panels, instrument panels, and dashboards. 

It’s an impressive — and impressively thorough — effort by U.S. counterspies... 

Click to enlarge.

“The number of bugs is useful as an indication that this is a sustained operation over years,” a former U.K. intelligence official with experience conducting technical operations told me. (The official requested anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence techniques.) The sheer variety in where U.S. counterspies placed the bugs shows a great deal of “creativity” on their part, the former U.K. official said. While the bugging of cars and power outlets is considered “fairly standard,” the former official added, U.S. spies cleverly inserted bugs in more unusual locations like window frames...

It's unknown why the Soviets declined to publicize all the bugs they found within their U.S.-based facilities. The Russians ripped them out from their hiding spots, ostensibly preventing them from feeding the U.S. disinformation through the listening devices and trackers they identified.

Click to enlarge.

The likelier explanation is that the KGB knew that U.S. diplomatic facilities in the Soviet Union were bugged to hell — including, at certain points, with listening devices activated by blasting American facilities with microwaves. The use of this technique by the Soviets, which some U.S. officials believed sickened those exposed to it, became a serious diplomatic issue in the 1970s between the two superpowers. more

(Kevin) A friend of mine, now deceased, was one of the CIA technical specialists during this time period who developed and planted these devices. He was prohibited from discussing the actual devices and placement operations even after he retired. However, he did write a "fictitious" story which details a typical bugging operation. Corporate security directors especially should read... The Attack on Axnan Headquarters: An Espionage Operation

Office Bugging Leak Inquiry—Given 7 Days to Submit Report

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the leaking of several audio files and a review of cybersecurity at the prime minister’s office (PMO). Formally starting today, the committee will probe the public release of audio clips that took place in the PM office. 

PM Office leak inquiry committee is chaired by Rana Sanaullah, Interior Minister, the main agenda behind it is to inquire how this bugging was done and how cyber security was compromised from such a sensitive office...

Debugging practices (TSCM) are done in government offices but authorities doubt that some advanced mobile phone applications were used. For this, the formal body is going to engage intel agencies and technical experts. more

New "RatMilad" Android Malware—Steals Data and Spies on Victims

"RatMilad", a new type of Android malware, is now being used within the Middle East to spy on victims via their smartphones and steal data. RatMilad is a kind of spyware, which are malware programs used to spy on victims through their devices. RatMilad is capable of recording both video and audio, giving the attackers the ability to listen in on private conversations and conduct remote surveillance.

On top of this, RatMilad allows malicious actors to change application permissions on victims' devices.

RatMilad is infecting devices via a phony VPN and number spoofing apps Text Me and NumRent. These apps are being spread through links on social media, meaning almost anyone could be exposed to RatMilad. Once the phony app is installed onto the device, RatMilad can start stealing data and spying on victims. It is being used in this campaign by an Iranian hacker group known as AppMilad. more

New Spy Show Is An Experimental TV First

The Russo brothers have developed an international spy show called Citadel, and the series is expected to be a first-of-its-kind, world-building endeavor. 

Backed by Amazon Studios, the seven-episode saga features Priyanka Chopra Jonas and former Game of Thrones star Richard Madden alongside veteran actor Stanley Tucci. 

Citadel has been in the works for several years, but the series' release date has yet to be announced... The plot is also being kept under close guard. more

Ties Cut with Berlin Football Club after Spy Scandal

Lars Windhorst has announced that he will terminate his involvement with Hertha BSC Berlin football club, following revelations that the German financier allegedly hired corporate spies to try to force out the club’s president. 

Windhorst, whose investment company Tennor Holding owns a majority stake in the club, has been battling a storm of criticism after the Financial Times reported last week that he allegedly enlisted an Israeli private intelligence company to orchestrate a clandestine campaign against Werner Gegenbauer, who stepped down in May after 14 years in charge. more

Former NSA Employee Arrested on Espionage-Related Charges

CO - A Colorado Springs man will make his initial appearance in federal court today on charges that he attempted to transmit classified National Defense Information (NDI) to a representative of a foreign government.

Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 30, was an employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) where he served as an Information Systems Security Designer from June 6, 2022, to July 1, 2022. 

According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, between August and September 2022, Dalke used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents he had obtained during his employment to an individual Dalke believed to be working for a foreign government. In actuality, that person was an undercover FBI agent. 

Dalke subsequently arranged to transfer additional classified information in his possession to the undercover FBI agent at a location in Denver, Colorado. The FBI arrested Dalke on Sept. 28, after Dalke arrived at the specified location. more

The CIA Renovated its Museum...

... The public still can’t go see it.

The CIA Museum covers the intelligence agency’s long history — from spying on the Soviets to the Argo mission in Iran — but the latest addition is practically ripped from the headlines: a model of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s compound in Kabul used weeks ago to plan the U.S. drone strike that killed the al-Qaeda leader.

The model is part of the newly renovated exhibition hall located deep inside CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Like the NSA’s Wall of Spies museum in Bethesda, Md., the CIA Museum isn’t open to the public. But it’s not exactly top secret either, welcoming CIA employees, official guests, foreign partners, potential recruits — and, early on a Saturday morning, a handful of carefully observed journalists, including reporters with old-school notepads and pens (electronics are banned).

There are plenty of fun gadgets to see, like a polygraph machine in a briefcase and a communication device disguised as a tobacco pipe, used in the 1960s. When a user bit down on the pipe, sound traveled through their teeth and jawbone to the ear canal, allowing them to hear messages that no one around them could. 

But many of the items displayed — the pigeon camera, the fake dead rat used for “dead drops” — can also be found across the river at the International Spy Museum. more

Allow me to sneak you in the back door.

Here's the Thing - Wednesday - Nov. 23rd

Wednesday Addams catches Thing spying on her...

Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) is not a fan of being spied on ... particularly when her parents are the ones doing the spying. 

During Netflix's TUDUM fan event on Saturday, the streamer released a new clip from the upcoming Addams family series, Wednesday, which follows a teenage Wednesday as she attends Nevermore Academy — the school where her parents once met — and discovers a supernatural mystery might be afoot. more

Fears Grow of Russian Spies Turning to Industrial Espionage

Russia acknowledged this week that parts of its technology industry are dependent on foreign knowledge and lagging competitors by more than a decade, raising concerns that the country’s cyber spies will be used for industrial espionage.

Experts told The Record that Western companies should be on “full alert” for attacks from Moscow’s intelligence services. President Vladimir Putin has suggested in recent months that the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) should support technological development as the country deals with mounting sanctions.

The admission about the state of Russia’s microelectronics industry is contained in a new strategic policy document from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, reported Tuesday by Kommersant. It lists a number of acute problems facing Russia’s domestic technology industry, including its dependence on foreign intellectual property; its lack of production capacity; and Russia being unattractive to investors. more

Wiretapping and Eavesdropping Research Paper

EARLY RESTRICTIONS ON ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE

The Supreme Court first considered the constitutionality of wiretapping in the 1928 case of Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928). The Court ruled that governmental wiretapping of telephone conversations fell outside the protection of the Fourth Amendment. The Court based its conclusion upon a narrow, textual reading of the amendment. First, the Court found that words spoken into a telephone were not tangible things and thus could not be subjected to a search or seizure. Second, it reasoned that because wiretapping could be accomplished without a trespass, there was no physical invasion of property to justify invoking the Fourth Amendment. Finally, the Court assumed that one who uses the telephone ‘‘intends to project his voice to those quite outside.’’

The ruling in Olmstead was controversial. more

Covenant Eyes: God isn't the only one watching you...

Churches are using invasive phone-monitoring tech to discourage “sinful” behavior. Some software is seeing more than congregants realize.

GRACEPOINT is (an) evangelical Southern Baptist church... when Grant Hao-Wei Lin came out to a Gracepoint church leader during their weekly one-on-one session, he was surprised to learn that he wasn’t going to be kicked out. According to his church leader, Hao-Wei Lin says, God still loved him in spite of his “struggle with same-sex attraction.”

But Gracepoint did not leave the matter in God’s hands alone. At their next one-on-one the following week, Hao-Wei Lin says the church leader asked him to install an app called Covenant Eyes on his phone...

Covenant Eyes is part of a multimillion-dollar ecosystem of so-called accountability apps that are marketed to both churches and parents as tools to police online activity. For a monthly fee, some of these apps monitor everything their users see and do on their devices, even taking screenshots (at least one per minute, in the case of Covenant Eyes) and eavesdropping on web traffic, WIRED found. The apps then report a feed of all of the users’ online activity directly to a chaperone—an “accountability partner,” in the apps’ parlance. When WIRED presented its findings to Google, however, the company determined that two of the top accountability apps—Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You—violate its policies. more

FutureWatch - Metaverse Espionage

By 2026, it is predicted that 25 per cent of people will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse. There, they’ll be able to participate in activities such as working and shopping, and 30 per cent of firms will have their products and services ready for the metaverse.

The metaverse — which includes blockchains and cryptocurrencies — is still in its early stages. As its possibilities expand, it’s important to consider the potential threats and dangers as the metaverse introduces risks related to legislation, property, control, fraud, privacy threats, ethics and security...

The metaverse can bring many fraud risks, such as market manipulation, cyber breaches and attacks, privacy breaches, money laundering, corporate espionage and identity theft.

Unlike traditional social media platforms, users have no guarantee that the data they share is only shared with those they choose to share it with in the metaverse. That means user identities can be tracked and revealed

As one researcher explains: “We cannot just turn off who can follow our avatars in the metaverse as we can do in the traditional social media.” more

The Flower Pot Bug Wins a Darwin Award

A 59-year-old man who was president of a condo association in the Matanzas Shores community faces four felonies for installing a video camera inside a condominium without the owner's permission, focused on the master bedroom, according to a press release from Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly.

Robert Orr turned himself in... Orr was president of Las Brisas Condo Association within the Matanzas Shores community.

FCSO was notified on August 30 by a woman who had a weekend stay at a condo, Staly said. As she was packing up to leave, she discovered a plugged-in USB camera hidden inside of an indoor flower pot located in the master bedroom she was sleeping in.

FCSO's Major Case Unit examined the camera and found that it contained video of two people in various stages of undress inside the condo, including the female who filed the report and a male who was also staying in the condo that weekend, according to Staly. It also contained videos of Orr testing the camera inside his own condo before it was placed in the flower pot (Darwin Award). more

Sports Spying (again)

Sacramento Republic FC plays Orlando City FC in the finals of the U.S. Open Cup, but there is some controversy ahead of the match.

A Republic FC spokesperson tells CBS13 at they filed a complaint with U.S. Soccer claiming that an Orlando City FC employee was caught spying on the Republic during practice just a couple of days ago...

Republic representatives say they asked the employee to leave but he refused. He eventually left after about 45 minutes -- this after taking various notes and making phone calls.

There are no official U.S. Soccer rules against spying on teams ahead of a finals match. more

...and in U.S. football...  Spies on the Sidelines: The High-Stakes World of NFL Espionage

Using SDRs for Signals Intelligence (SIGINT)

One of the several technical techniques your TSCM team uses to detect illegal electronic eavesdropping...

Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is an umbrella term for collecting and analyzing information through the monitoring of radio frequency signals. In the era of remote and wireless communications, intercepting radio information is crucial in any application involving the malicious use of the RF spectrum, including military surveillance, homeland security, and monitoring of illegal RF transmissions. In this article, we discuss the basic concepts of SIGINT/COMINT, the requirements for system design, how software-defined radio (SDR) can contribute to the performance, and the various applications of SDR-based SIGINT.

By detecting strange signals in a hostile electromagnetic environment, SIGINT systems can rapidly adapt to emerging threats, locate unknown and/or illegal devices, and counteract against adversarial interference. SIGINT requires a large variety of devices, techniques, and algorithms for RF signal detection, measurement, processing, exploitation, and manipulation.

The most fundamental component in a SIGINT system is the spectrum analyzer. more

Greece Wiretap and Spyware

It has been dubbed the Greek Watergate. What began as a surveillance of a little-known journalist in Greece has evolved into an array of revelations circling around the Greek government.

The story emerged last spring, when Thanasis Koukakis found out his phone had been infected with spyware that can extract data from a device. He also discovered he had been tracked by Greece's EYP National Intelligence Service via more traditional phone-tapping.

It then emerged that an MEP had also had his phone tapped before he became leader of Greece's third-biggest party. more

Tech Aids Chess Cheating and Possibly More

James Stanley — "I have come up with a new way to win at chess: I have connected up a Raspberry Pi Zero in my pocket to some buttons and vibration motors in my shoes, so that I can surreptitiously communicate with a chess engine running on the Pi. The project is called "Sockfish" because it's a way to operate Stockfish with your socks.

The feet are ideal for this sort of thing, because they're the only part of your body that has any sensible degree of dexterity while still being invisible to casual observers."

Now, imagine this innovative use of technology—easily combined with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or other radio-frequency modulation—being used during business negations or advance placement testing. Unsettling, to say the least. 

If you employ a Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) team this is another way they can help you. more

Poisonous Spouses — Spycams to the Rescue!

Man Jailed After Wife's Secret Camera Reveals He Was Poisoning Her Coffees...

A man in Macomb Township, Michigan, has been sentenced to 60 days in prison after his wife set up a camera to catch him poisoning her coffee.

Therese Kozlowski grew suspicious of her husband Brian Kozlowski - from whom she was going through a divorce - after she noticed she felt unwell whenever he made her a coffee.

She subsequently set up a secret camera in the kitchen which showed her husband was lacing her drink with what turned out to be an antihistamine.  more

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California Dermatologist Accused Of Trying To Poison Husband With Drano...

A California dermatologist has been accused of trying to poison her husband with Drano, with footage allegedly captured by a covert nanny cam.

Yue “Emily” Yu, 45, was arrested Thursday by Irvine Police after her husband told authorities earlier that day that he'd begun to suspect his wife was poisoning him when he started to feel sick over the course of a month-long period this summer, according a police statement obtained by Oxygen.com.

Yu’s husband, identified in court papers as radiologist Jack Chen, provided police with “video evidence supporting his suspicion.”

In a statement written to secure a restraining order against his wife, Chen described how he set up a secret nanny cam in the family’s kitchen after beginning to feel ill. more

Pegasus Spyware Maker NSO Avoiding a TKO

Will spyware maker NSO Group's struggles reduce use of its eavesdropping tech? Critics doubt it.

Embattled Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group announced a major reorganization Sunday — replacing its longtime CEO and laying off roughly 100 of its 700 employees — but experts who track the growing trade in surveillance technology say that’s unlikely to curtail deployment of the company’s technology designed to secretly monitor its targets...

More broadly, however, NSO may serve as a cautionary tale for the myriad other spyware vendors around the world hawking their wares. “Spyware tech is a risky investment,” Scott-Railton said. “Investors don’t usually line up to get wiped out.” more

In Other Corporate Spy News...

Enterprise giant Oracle is facing a fresh privacy class action claim in the U.S.

The suit, which was filed Friday as a 66-page complaint in the Northern District of California, alleges the tech giant's "worldwide surveillance machine" has amassed detailed dossiers on some five billion people, accusing the company and its adtech and advertising subsidiaries of violating the privacy of the majority of the people on Earth. more