Reading Recommendations from Privacy Journal

Query: I am a subscriber to your journal. Very informative. Could you please suggest a couple good references (journal articles, books, etc.) that discuss privacy and information retrieval?
 

From Privacy Journal's staff...

Publisher Robert Ellis Smith makes these recommendations:

“Alone Together” by Sherry Turkle

“Is My Cell Phone Bugged?” by Kevin D. Murray

Popular Mechanics: “Concerned About Your Digital Privacy?”

“Facebook Tracks Everyone” by Arnold Roosendaal

“Privacy Leakage vs. Protection Measures” by Krishnamurthy, Naryshkin and Wills

“Principles for Government Data Mining” by The Constitution Project
Need an expert witness on privacy? Smith is your man. Privacy Journal, has a world-wide subscriber audience and is based in Providence RI. Their address is P.O. Box 28577, Providence RI 02908, Phone: 401/-274-7861

Free Likejacking Prevention — Plug-In for Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari

ThreatLabZ, the research arm of Zscaler, released a free tool to combat the biggest threat on Facebook -- Likejacking.

Called Zscaler Likejacking Prevention, it was developed for the sole purpose of helping consumers stop being further victimized.

This popular attack leverages clickjacking to trick users into "Liking" a fake video, survey or web link, propagating the scam further as it spreads virally from one person to their network, and on to their networks’ networks, and so on. (download) (more)

Citizen Shame

S. Korea - With his debts mounting and his wages barely enough to cover the interest, Im Hyun-seok decided he needed a new job. The mild-mannered former English tutor joined South Korea’s growing ranks of camera-toting bounty hunters.

Known here sarcastically as paparazzi, people like Mr. Im stalk their prey and capture them on film. But it is not celebrities, politicians or even hardened criminals they pursue. Rather, they roam cities secretly videotaping fellow citizens breaking the law, deliver the evidence to government officials and collect the rewards.

“Some people hate us,” said Mr. Im. “But we’re only doing what the law encourages.” (more)

P.S. “I’m making three times what I made as an English tutor,” said Mr. Im, 39, who began his new line of work around seven years ago and says he makes about $85,000 a year.

Business Espionage Alert: Embedded Web Servers

Many types of Web-connected photocopiers, scanners, and VoIP servers have no default passwords or other security enabled to stop remote eavesdropping.

Numerous models of printers, photocopiers, and voice over IP (VoIP) systems are Internet-connected. But their embedded Web servers often use well-known default passwords or firmware that has known vulnerabilities, either of which could be used by remote eavesdroppers to intercept internal communications...

Web-accessible photocopiers and the like are essentially repositories of any recent documents or communications of interest, and thus could serve as a competitive intelligence treasure trove. 

Some devices even offer would-be attackers time-saving shortcuts. Certain models of Sharp photocopiers, for example, can be set to upload all scanned or copied documents to an external site via FTP, or email them to an outside email address. Meanwhile, some HP all-in-one printers have a feature called Webscan, which allows anyone with a browser to scan and download whatever is on the scanner bed. (more)

New York’s senior senator Charles Schumer wants the feds to investigate OnStar’s controversial new privacy policy, and demanded the Detroit navigation-and-emergency company refrain from monitoring vehicles after customers cancel service.

“By tracking drivers even after they’ve cancelled their service, OnStar is attempting one of the most brazen invasions of privacy in recent memory,” Schumer, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. “I urge OnStar to abandon this policy and for the Federal Trade Commission to immediately launch a full investigation to determine whether the company’s actions constitute an unfair trade practice.”

OnStar last week began e-mailing customers about its update to the privacy policy, which grants OnStar the right to sell GPS-derived and other data in an anonymized format. That data might include a vehicle’s location, speed, odometer reading and seatbelt usage. Schumer also asked the company, a General Motors subsidiary, not to sell that data. (more)

Search in Secret

Startpage.com now offers Google search results in complete privacy!

"When you perform a web search through Startpage, we remove all identifying information from your query and submit it to Google anonymously through our own servers. We obtain Google's search results and serve them to you in total privacy. Then we delete all records of your visit.

Your IP address is not recorded, your visit is not logged, and no tracking cookies are placed on your browser. In fact, Startpage does not record any information about its users. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. And Google never sees you at all."

In China, business travelers take extreme precautions to avoid cyber-espionage

Packing for business in China? Bring your passport and business cards, but maybe (definitely) not that laptop loaded with contacts and corporate memos.

China’s massive market beckons to American businesses — the nation is the United States’ second-largest trading partner — but many are increasingly concerned about working amid electronic surveillance that is sophisticated and pervasive.

Security experts also warn about Russia, Israel and even France, which in the 1990s reportedly bugged first-class airplane cabins to capture business travelers’ conversations...

But China’s brazen use of ­cyber-espionage stands out because the focus is often corporate, part of a broader government strategy to help develop the country’s economy, according to experts who advise American businesses and government agencies.

“I’ve been told that if you use an iPhone or BlackBerry, everything on it — contacts, calendar, e-mails — can be downloaded in a second. All it takes is someone sitting near you on a subway waiting for you to turn it on, and they’ve got it,” said Kenneth Lieberthal, a former senior White House official for Asia who is at the Brookings Institution. (more)

Want to increase the level of information security in your offices in China? We've been there. We can help.

World's First Concept Wireless Phone?

1922 - The umbrella is being used as the antenna. The fire hydrant is the ground. Good concept so far, but where is the battery?

From British Pathé - "The world's finest news and entertainment video film archive."
You can view and buy films and still photographs from the entire archive of 90,000 videos covering newsreel, sports footage, social history documentaries, entertainment and music stories from 1896 to 1976. (more)

Security Letter Book Review - "Is My Cell Phone Bugged?"

RECOMMENDED BOOK: IS MY CELL PHONE BUGGED?  Savvy readers have known for decades that cell phones are two-way radios. That means that someone else who hones in on the transmission can listen to everything that’s being said. But the matter is a quantum more serious when the cell phone itself has been rigged so that a third party can listen anytime, anywhere without discovery.

            Kevin D. Murray has been a well regarded consultant for over three decades in electronic eaves-dropping detection and countermeasures. He has a knack of explaining problem and controls of them in simple language, as this book reflects. While the focus is on cell phone vulnerabilities, other electronic communications risks are discussed as well.

            “We’ve got a problem with communications.” Many security practitioners face on-going frustrations in limiting confidential information from being discussed over cell phones. This book reveals the fragility of cell phone communications. It also offers other tips to protect cell phone communications.

            Murray is like an anti-eavesdropping missionary. His book is a real value. It also comes with a free SpyWarn Mobile™ to help conduct your own cell phone diagnosis. Pub. by: Emerald Book Co., www.ismycellphonebugged.com 158 pp. includes the SpyWarn Mobile token; $17.95. 

Thank you!

Annual Espionage Research Institute Meeting in DC

The world's top technical surveillance countermeasures specialists are meeting today through Sunday. If you're planning on planting a bug, now would be a good time. The cats are away.

Here is what they will be learning today...

• Blocking Competitive and State Sponsored Threats

• The Future of TSCM

• GSM Cell Phone Bug Detection using AirPatrol

• GSM and Hybrid Devices

• TSCM Product Demos

• Kestrel TSCM Software

• TSCM Inside Out

Oh, and that bug you planted. These cats will be back.

Where Can You Buy A Bug in Washington, DC?

...at the International Spy Museum, of course...

Audio Bug
Price: $25.00

Code: 17039

Product Facts: The walls have ears…and now, thanks to Audio Bug, so can tables, windows, bookshelves, and lockers! Use the attached suction cup to stick this clever bug where it won’t be seen. With the voice-activation feature, it will start recording when your adversaries start talking or if they make noise when snooping in your headquarters. A hidden speaker records the audio — play it back at the touch of a button. Save your files and upload the evidence to your computer with the secret USB connector. Then start bugging again!

Technical Data: Ages 8 and up. Plastic and metal. Black/silver/orange. 3-1/2” x 1” x 1”. Requires 1 AAA battery, not included. (more)

Next question...

How can you find a bug in Washington, DC? (more)

Tip: Remove the Secret Stuff From Your Smartphone Today

Back in March, Scarlett Johansson's name popped up on a list of celebrities who found themselves the target of hackers that broke into their cell phones and leaked some nude photos and video.

With sultry X-rated pics of the sex symbol surfacing today on various gossip sites, ScarJo's fighting back by reaching out to the feds to find the perpetrators. (more)

Jackie, oh!

According to interviews, Jackie Kennedy gives "tart commentary on former presidents, heads of state, her husband's aides, powerful women, women reporters, even her mother-in-law." 

(She also said.) Martin Luther King Jr is "a phony" whom electronic eavesdropping has found arranging encounters with women. (more)

She also admits to eavesdropping on her husband and his advisers one morning when the emergency committee in charge of the crisis gathered in the Oval Room, unbeknownst to the press.

"So then, I went in the Treaty Room where I well, just to fiddle through some mail or something, but I could hear them talking through the door. And I went up and listened and eavesdropped," she confided. (more)

The News of the World Phone Hacking Scandal Continues

UK - As the UK parliament's inquiry into News of the World phone-hacking scandal continues, there's a lot of back-and-forth going on with regards to who knew what was happening - and when.

Immediately after the major players testified in July, it appeared that a bit of a calm before the storm was on the horizon. Things went silent for a bit. But that's changed now as new allegations, arrests and concerns have brought about new questions and evidence in the case.

To start with, a former lawyer for News of the World testified that News Corp. executive James Murdoch must have known that illegal phone hacking at the News of the World newspaper was not confined to the single journalist who was imprisoned for it. Tom Crone, who was legal manager of the paper, said Murdoch would only have given Crone authority to settle a lawsuit against News of the World if he had understood that there had been more illegal eavesdropping. (more)

They are very busy. That's why they're called busybodies.

UK - Millions of adults are self confessed computer hackers with more than one in 10 (13%) admitting they have accessed someone else's online account details without their permission.

According to research by life assistance company CPPGroup Plc (CPP), the most common 'casual' hacking takes place on Facebook and other social network sites. And while this will often be viewed as harmless spying, many admitted to accessing personal and work emails, money transaction portals such as PayPal and online banking sites.

Many people (32%) casually dismissed their hacking as something they did 'just for fun' while others admitted they did it to check up on their other half (29%) or a work colleague (8%). But it wasn't all passive spying - two per cent had very different motives admitting they did it for financial gain. (more)