GA - A Chatsworth man has been arrested on eavesdropping charges that officials said include installing a video camera in his daughter’s bathroom.
Douglas Harrison Keith, 59, of 1253 Stafford Road in Chatsworth, was charged by the Murray County Sheriff’s Office with unlawful eavesdropping/surveillance with audio equipment and unlawful eavesdropping/surveillance with hidden video cameras (four counts).
“The eavesdropping warrant by audio regards a telephone conversation being recorded without the people on the phone being aware of it,” said District Attorney Kermit McManus. “According to Georgia law, at least one person must be aware (the conversation is being recorded).”
McManus said another eavesdropping charge came when a video camera was discovered in a bathroom used “solely” by his daughter, with the images being fed into an office where Keith had sole access. A spokesman with the sheriff’s office said the daughter discovered the camera in the bathroom. (more)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Wiretap Scandal Heats Up in Spain
Spain - A scandal over alleged corruption and wiretaps in Spain heated up Tuesday as the opposition leader accused Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of "persecuting" his party. (more)
Spy Numbers Become Art
The Palais de Tokyo's ongoing exhibition, Spy Numbers, takes as its starting point the mysterious and vaguely distressing Numbers Stations. These shortwave radio stations have been broadcasting for several decades, yet their precise function and origin are an enigma. Artificially generated voices are reading streams of numbers, words, letters, tunes or Morse code...
On the short waves of our radios, voices read out uninterrupted series of numbers. 2… 11… 58… 35… 23… Whether they are encrypted instructions intended for sleeping agents, messages exchanged between traffickers, or simple telephone settings, the “Spy Numbers Stations” have been broadcasting for several decades without their precise function becoming known.
New Bugging & Eavesdropping Movie Coming
HONG KONG -- Now that financial crime thriller “Overheard” has become the top Chinese-language film in China so far this summer, writer-director Alan Mak and Felix Chong are planning a follow-up that revolves around eavesdropping...“It wouldn’t be a prequel that involves the same characters, as their lives before what happened in ‘Overheard’ wouldn’t be dramatic enough for a story,” Mak told the Hollywood Reporter. “But we think there’s a lot to be explored about bugging and eavesdropping, and are developing a script around this theme.” (more)
Synopsis for "Overheard"
A major stock exchange in the world, Hong Kong attracts not only money but anyone who tries to manipulate the market. At the Hong Kong Police Force Commercial Crime Bureau, an operation is underway to infiltrate a trading company where a man nicknamed Boss is the chief suspect. The team, led by Inspector Leung (Lau Ching Wan) together with Yeung (Louis Koo) and Lam (Daniel Wu) installs bugs to monitor the communications. When crucial information on a surging share is intercepted, a moment of greed now puts them in a crossfire between the Bureau and the boss.
Security Director Alert - 911Headcount
True security innovations don't show up every day. Locks are still locks. Alarms are still alarms. Models, designs and features change, but functions remain the same. You get the idea.Here is truly innovative and useful idea... a system that can quickly account for employees during emergency situations (an OSHA requirement).
The system - 911HEADCOUNT - is a clever combination of technologies. The brains behind 911Headcount is Bo Mitchell, the Former Police Commissioner of Wilton, CT and a respected consultant in the private security industry.
from their Web site...
"911 Headcount is the first and only automatic two-way, triple redundancy Mass Emergency Notification System that you can launch and manipulate on the run to account for employees, visitors and contractors in any emergency."
• Background.
• How it works.
The Un-Welcome Mat
Coming this Fall (in Japan)...The Un-Welcome Mat
or, as we call it around here, Kevin's Home Alone Safety Zone Burglar Atone and Drop Zone Rat Mat. It is a giant sticky mat! Strategically place them at your portals when you leave. Stuck like a bug in a rug, your burglar will be playing Ultimate Twister instead of carting off your goodies. Just don't forget it's there when you come home. Look for it to be sold here.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Video over IP. Convenient, but not secure.
Video about video being hacked, hijacked and insert-attacked...
• A security assessment of an IP Video Camera; think Ocean’s Eleven.
Man-in-the-middle attacks tamper with video surveillance feeds, eavesdrop on IP video phone conversations
In one attack, researchers from Viper Lab showed how a criminal could tamper with an IP video surveillance system to cover up a crime by replacing the video with another benign clip. In another demo, they eavesdropped on a private IP video call. (more)
• A security assessment of an IP Video Camera; think Ocean’s Eleven.
Man-in-the-middle attacks tamper with video surveillance feeds, eavesdrop on IP video phone conversations
In one attack, researchers from Viper Lab showed how a criminal could tamper with an IP video surveillance system to cover up a crime by replacing the video with another benign clip. In another demo, they eavesdropped on a private IP video call. (more)
Disaster Recovery Plan time...
Hey, how's your disaster recovery plan looking?
Dusty?
Faded?
Incomplete?
Incompetent?
MIA?
Just missing?
Don't have one yet?
I see a lot of raised hands.
Every business, large and small, needs a "what if... what do we do?" plan.
Creating one need not be hard, nor expensive.
There is a lot of expert help out there.
• How to Create a Disaster Recovery Plan. (free basic outline)
• Disaster Recovery Journal (free magazine)
• D-I-Y Template ($)
A smarter way is to enlist the aid of a professional consultant.
• International Association of Professional Security Consultants
• BAM - "BAM has a crackerjack team of ex-military strategists, FBI trainers, intelligence and security professionals, mathematicians, and 3D creative agents who use the latest technology, including mobile devices and social media networks, to arm their clients with the most appropriate tools for dealing with disaster, as it happens." Kevin Burton is their CEO.
or, you could use the Dilbert Disaster Recovery Plan.
Dusty?
Faded?
Incomplete?
Incompetent?
MIA?
Just missing?
Don't have one yet?
I see a lot of raised hands.
Every business, large and small, needs a "what if... what do we do?" plan.
Creating one need not be hard, nor expensive.
There is a lot of expert help out there.
• How to Create a Disaster Recovery Plan. (free basic outline)
• Disaster Recovery Journal (free magazine)
• D-I-Y Template ($)
A smarter way is to enlist the aid of a professional consultant.
• International Association of Professional Security Consultants
• BAM - "BAM has a crackerjack team of ex-military strategists, FBI trainers, intelligence and security professionals, mathematicians, and 3D creative agents who use the latest technology, including mobile devices and social media networks, to arm their clients with the most appropriate tools for dealing with disaster, as it happens." Kevin Burton is their CEO.
or, you could use the Dilbert Disaster Recovery Plan.
SpyCam Story #544 - Monkey Business
TX - Surveillance video at a Dallas-area store caught the theft of several dozen plants, flowers and small statues on tape. But the culprit turned out to be a very unusual thief, a monkey with serious sticky fingers. (video) (sing-a-long)
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Business Espioange - Goldman Sachs
via The Wall Street Journal...
A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. computer programmer who quit last month was arrested and charged with stealing codes related to a high-speed trading program that he helped develop.
The programmer, Sergey Aleynikov, 39 years old, was arrested Friday by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents as he got off a plane at Newark Liberty International Airport. According to a complaint filed Saturday, Mr. Aleynikov downloaded 32 megabytes of data from Goldman's computer system with "the intent to convert that trade secret to the economic benefit of someone other than the owner."...
According to the FBI, Mr. Aleynikov got a job offer earlier this year at an unnamed Chicago firm that planned to triple the $400,000-a-year salary he was paid at Goldman. The unnamed company is "new" and "intended to engage in high-volume automated trading," the FBI said in the court filing. (more)
A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. computer programmer who quit last month was arrested and charged with stealing codes related to a high-speed trading program that he helped develop.
The programmer, Sergey Aleynikov, 39 years old, was arrested Friday by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents as he got off a plane at Newark Liberty International Airport. According to a complaint filed Saturday, Mr. Aleynikov downloaded 32 megabytes of data from Goldman's computer system with "the intent to convert that trade secret to the economic benefit of someone other than the owner."...
According to the FBI, Mr. Aleynikov got a job offer earlier this year at an unnamed Chicago firm that planned to triple the $400,000-a-year salary he was paid at Goldman. The unnamed company is "new" and "intended to engage in high-volume automated trading," the FBI said in the court filing. (more)
"He kicked me around, tried to drown me, burned me, and now he wants to swap me!"
Apple says it has had enough of giving people replacement iPhones and iPods when, in their view, it is the consumer who has abused the gadget and rendered it inoperable.
So today the firm has filed a patent on a kind of spy system that sits inside gadgets to record "consumer abuse events" and reveal them to Apple staff when you ask for a replacement.
"Often, particularly at a point of sale, personnel receiving the returned device may be unqualified or untrained to determine whether or not a device has failed due to manufacturing defects or due to consumer abuse," the company explains in US patent application 20090195394. (more)
So today the firm has filed a patent on a kind of spy system that sits inside gadgets to record "consumer abuse events" and reveal them to Apple staff when you ask for a replacement.
"Often, particularly at a point of sale, personnel receiving the returned device may be unqualified or untrained to determine whether or not a device has failed due to manufacturing defects or due to consumer abuse," the company explains in US patent application 20090195394. (more)
SpyCam Story #543 - The Tell-Tale Tape
OR - Last year the woman told police told police she thought her landlord was spying on her through a hidden camera in the shower.
The woman lived in an upstairs apartment inside the home the landlord shared with a second renter. That landlord - former Kalama City Council member Paul Stickel - has been charged with voyeurism, but he claims he did no such thing.
Police searched Stickel's home last Spring and confiscated videotapes, televisions and cable. They also found a hole in the wall in the woman's bathroom.
In a March 2008 affidavit, police said videotape taken from Stickel's home "shows Stickel simulating taking a shower" to test the camera-equipped shower stall. Detectives also cited a "secret viewing area" - a covered peephole - that looks out through a mirror on the woman's medicine cabinet.
Stickel claims the investigators are bluffing. (more) (video)
The woman lived in an upstairs apartment inside the home the landlord shared with a second renter. That landlord - former Kalama City Council member Paul Stickel - has been charged with voyeurism, but he claims he did no such thing.
Police searched Stickel's home last Spring and confiscated videotapes, televisions and cable. They also found a hole in the wall in the woman's bathroom.
In a March 2008 affidavit, police said videotape taken from Stickel's home "shows Stickel simulating taking a shower" to test the camera-equipped shower stall. Detectives also cited a "secret viewing area" - a covered peephole - that looks out through a mirror on the woman's medicine cabinet.
Stickel claims the investigators are bluffing. (more) (video)
Solar Assisted SpyCam from Australia
from the seller's Web site...Xtern-Cam® is a rugged outdoor standalone surveillance camera with inbuilt GPRS modem (receive the photos on your cell), digital image recording function, integrated night vision and inbuilt Solar Panel to give extraordinary long battery life.
The camera captures high-resolution black & white images when motion is detected and emails a selection of these to a monitoring station or mobile phone as well as storing all the high resolution images to a removable memory card for easy viewing later, on a computer or PDA. The camera can also be powered by an external 12VDC power source and can be externally triggered from a gate or door opening.
Outdoors in time lapse mode using its inbuilt Solar panel to recharge the battery during the day, Xtern-Cam® can capture and transmit wirelessly, one image every 5 minutes at night time without ever requiring the battery to be re-charged. Similarly, if Motion activated, it can capture and transmit up to 150 images every night without ever having to charge the battery.
In busy environments where the Camera may capture and transmit up to 330 images per night, the battery would still last around one month! The camera can store up to 65,000 VGA images and will optionally overwrite the oldest images when the memory card is full to enable ‘set and forget’ operation.
Xtern-Cam® is also available with a colour camera for daytime operation with optional 16mm or 8mm telephoto lenses. (more)
"So, how long had your phone been tapped?"
Wharton School professor Andrea Matwyshyn has attended Defcon for the past five years. This year, her radar is pointing to corporate disclosure of computer security threats.
Most consumers, she says, find out about them primarily through news reports and after-the-fact data breach notifications. Big business, Matwyshyn says, needs to do a much better job of keeping customers abreast of how they're dealing with big security threats. "Companies need to be aware that their customers are going to start asking questions about their security and what they're doing," she told Forbes. (more)
Having quarterly TSCM inspection logs in your files can help stave off stockholder lawsuits. ~Kevin
Most consumers, she says, find out about them primarily through news reports and after-the-fact data breach notifications. Big business, Matwyshyn says, needs to do a much better job of keeping customers abreast of how they're dealing with big security threats. "Companies need to be aware that their customers are going to start asking questions about their security and what they're doing," she told Forbes. (more)
Having quarterly TSCM inspection logs in your files can help stave off stockholder lawsuits. ~Kevin
The nights were cold and lonely...
IL - A Clinton police officer accused of viewing pornography on his squad car computer is asking that evidence collected from the computer be barred from an upcoming disciplinary hearing because police officials are guilty of eavesdropping. Patrolman Billy Hurst, 40, of Clinton will face the Clinton Police and Fire Commission on Aug. 13 on charges that he acted improperly by spending more than 23 hours watching pornography during working hours from Nov. 13, 2008, to Jan. 24...
Hurst's attorney, Shane Voyles, with the Policemen's Benevolent labor committee, filed a civil complaint in May in DeWitt County court accusing Reidy of eavesdropping by monitoring Hurst's computer activities. Hurst did not consent to the city's installation of software put in place after viruses were detected on city computers, said Voyles. (more)
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