Murray Associates / Spybusters featured in the Tektronix March 2010 Newsletter

Case Study: 
Spybusters Tracks Down Hidden Eavesdropping Devices 

New technologies are making it easier than ever to listen in on private conversations. High-tech bugs are easy to plant and hard to detect, and are turning up in boardrooms and offices where they are not wanted. Learn how Spybusters LLC, a firm that specializes in detecting and removing surveillance devices, used Tektronix Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers to keep clients' offices bug-free. (Tektronix newsletter) (full story)

Password Whacker now a 100x Faster Cracker

Password-cracking tools optimised to work with SSDs (solid state drives) have achieved speeds up to 100 times quicker than previously possible.

After optimising its rainbow tables of password hashes to make use of SSDs Swiss security firm Objectif Sécurité was able to crack 14-digit WinXP passwords with special characters in just 5.3 seconds. Objectif Sécurité's Philippe Oechslin told Heise Security that the result was 100 times faster than possible with their old 8GB Rainbow Tables for XP hashes.

The exercise illustrated that the speed of hard discs rather than processor speeds was the main bottleneck in password cracking based on password hash lookups. (more)

If Tiger Woods' cell phone had this...

...he would be working on his putts today.

(from the manufacturer's press release...)

FlexiSHIELD is software for cell phones that effectively creates an 'invisibility' shield for your phone, protecting SMS, EMAIL, MMS, Phone Logs and actual Phone Calls from prying eyes.

For any phone number, or Contact that you specify, FlexiSHIELD will automatically hide any incoming or outgoing SMS, MMS, EMAIL, Phone Logs and actual Phone Calls in an invisible vault on the phone itself.

When installed and activated, there is no indication of the application, and all message and call notifications are suppressed, making FlexiSHIELD totally invisible in operation. (more)

No, it won't work on your iPhone or BlackBerry. Currently, it is only compatible with Windows Mobile / Nokia cell phones. Yes, these are the same people who make the cell phone spyware.

FutureWatch... It will be interesting to see how this development affects law enforcement, cell phone forensic investigations.

"How small are GSM bugs?"

A. They can be as small as a Compact Flash card.

This is a question I hear frequently, along with...

"How expensive are they?" 

($20 to $80)

"Where are people getting these?" 

(ebay and on-line spy shops)

"How do they work?" 

Plug in a SIM card and hide it. Call the listening device using any phone, from anywhere in the world. Or... some models will call, or text, you whenever it hears someone in the vicinity talking!

"How do you find them?" 

In 2009, Murray Associates developed a proprietary test - Digital Surveillance Location Analysis™ (DSLA™) - which plots the location of these normally dormant devices on a computer screen map, using triangulation.

Ain't this a kick in the head? (again)

Erin Muller says she found a GPS tracking device attached to the undercarriage of her car two weeks ago ... and Erin tells TMZ she believes her ex Michael Lohan is the one who put it there. Muller claims her dad found the device -- which can track the whereabouts of her vehicle in real time -- while he was checking for an oil leak... According to Muller's lawyer, cops are investigating the situation as a felony eavesdropping case -- and, as a result, Erin says she's so paranoid that she's going to have her apartment swept for bugs. (more)

Leave a key under the mat, Erin...

Michael Lohan has released an audio tape exclusively to RadarOnline.com which he says proves that his ex-fiance Erin Muller broke the restraining order against her, ultimately leading to her arrest on Thursday. (more)

And you thought TSCM was difficult in China...

China - Four private detectives from Liaoning province have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from seven to eight months in Chaoyang district court for running an illegal operation... The men registered their private detective agency in February 2009, describing it as a "business consultancy." Detective agencies are not legal in China. The men were accused of tracking, photographing and locating people between February and August 2009. (more)

If you need TSCM advice/assistance in any country, please call us, we can help you do it legally.

Out of the Box Malware

Security researchers report that malware has been discovered on a Vodafone HTC Magic smartphone running Google's Android operating system. The discover comes just days after battery producer Energizer acknowledged that the Windows software it had been distributing for its Duo USB charger was infected with a Trojan. (more)

Eavesdropping as Entertainment

You have to be sharp to keep up with the changing social mores. While "don't stare" "don't point your finger" are withstanding the changing social landscape, "don't eavesdrop" has not. Hundreds of thousands of Web sites now specialized in eavesdropping as entertainment.

One example, as reported by the Sun Sentinal... 

"Today, I was working at Publix ringing up some 70 year old woman. She says ‘Man, you're a fast cashier, I like my men fast!' and then gives me a wink. I got really nervous and didn't know how to respond, so not thinking, I quickly said, ‘Yeah, me too.' FML"

Murdoch’s News of the World censured for bugging on an “industrial scale”

UK - A report by the Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee has exposed the contempt that the mass circulation Sunday newspaper, News of the World (NoW), part of Rupert Murdoch’s media giant News International, has for basic democratic rights, parliament and the rule of law.

Its 167 pages, part of a wider inquiry into press standards, libel law reform, privacy and press regulation, found that the newspaper had lied about the extent to which its journalists had illegally hacked into the phones of the police, the military, royals, government ministers, celebrities and other well-known people in the top echelons of British society—in what was described by one MP as hacking on a “near industrial scale.” (more)

UK Football Team Bugged - "In the future, all rooms will be swept for such surveillance devices."

Video reports from BBC (video) and Sky News (video).

Olympic-level Surveillance Equipment Bargains

Now that the Paralympic games are wrapping up, Honeywell Building Solutions is beginning the final stage of its $30 million security contract with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police here: the removal of all the equipment that’s been installed to protect the 18 Olympic venues. But what to do with the roughly 1,300 Panasonic IP cameras, Computar lenses, 4,000 Xtralis PIRs, etc.? (more) (the list)

X-Ray Vision ?!?!

In the distant future private investigators may no longer need to peep through the cut-out holes in their newspapers, thanks to researchers at the ESPCI in Paris, who have discovered a way to see through various opaque materials. (more)

UK Football Team Bugged

UK - The FA have launched an investigation to uncover the culprits behind bugging the England camp last week. The Daily Mail says lawyers have already been instructed to prevent the illegal tape from being published. 

England were left facing yet more potential disruption to their World Cup plans when it emerged that a six-hour recording of team meetings was in existence. 

Last night, FA officials still had no knowledge of who committed what amounts to a serious breach of privacy laws — or the contents of the tape. 

Speculation remains that the sensitive tape includes Capello discussing tactics with his staff, as well as players talking about private matters that could cause some embarrassment to members of Capello’s first team, as well as World Cup bonuses. (more)

Sir Alex Ferguson, has spoken of his concerns about the news that one of Fabio Capello's team-talks was bugged during England's preparations for their friendly against Egypt last week.

Ferguson was speaking from personal knowledge after a device was planted in the home dressing room at Old Trafford before a game against Chelsea in 2005 and the tape was offered to newspapers.

'It happened to us once before,' Ferguson said. 'I would be concerned about it. Preparation involves discretion and secrecy. (more)

Sports is not a game. It is a business. A big money business. Electronic surveillance is as likely to occur against a professional sports team as it is at any other business.

Sports teams should seek local counterespionage help by adding their country name to this search.

And thus began the long parade of frogmen...

United Arab Emirates

Police in Dubai Wednesday ordered spies to leave the Persian Gulf...

"Those spies that are currently present in the Gulf must leave the region within one week.

If not, then we will cross that bridge when we come to it," said a lieutenant general with the Dubai police. (more)

Insider-Trading Wires & Taps

NYC - Federal prosecutors in Manhattan equipped several cooperating witnesses with recording devices to try to obtain information about targets in the Galleon insider-trading probe, people familiar with the matter say... A total of 21 individuals have been charged in the Galleon case. At least eight individuals have pleaded guilty and are cooperating against other defendants... Criminal prosecutors also are using evidence obtained from wiretapped telephone calls. (more)