News of the World phone hacking scandal could deepen and spread to the U.S.

The phone hacking scandal could deepen and spread to the U.S. after claims the private detective who hacked phones for the News of the World had American telephone numbers in his notes.

Glenn Mulcaire, who was jailed in 2007 for illegally accessing mobile-phone messages, had the numbers of singer Charlotte Church’s Los Angeles agent and New York publicist among thousands of pages of notes seized by Scotland Yard detectives, it has been claimed.

Miss Church, 26, whose personal phones and those of her parents were hacked by Mulcaire for at least four years, settled a lawsuit against News International on February 23.

News International, which closed the News of the World in July in an attempt to contain public anger, still faces possible claims by more than 800 'likely' victims identified by police as they sift through 11,000 pages of Mulcaire’s notes. (more)

CONTEST ALERT - Wednesday Noon (EST) - Last Special Agent Shirt

The famous Security Scrapbook contest back! 

Next Wednesday (noon EST) we will post a spy question. The first correct answer received wins! 

Click to enlarge.

We post this alert to give everyone an equal chance, as readers of the e-mail version receive these posts the following next day.

The prize - our Limited Edition Special Agent Black T-Shirt. 

("How limited," I hear you say.)  

Well, there are only three in the whole world! (one medium, one large, one x-large) And, they will be awarded in that order. So if you're a big Special Agent this is YOUR contest.

Did you know you could design custom t-shirts yourself? It's easy. I made these myself at ooShirts.com. They have a DIY on-line design lab! All types of t's, all colors, all prices. These are the Champion brand with the logo on the left sleeve.

ooShirts also provides design help, if needed. They suggested I use brighter colors to have the logo stand out better. They were 100% correct, but I went with muted gray and red for a subtle look (Special Agents don't have to shout it.) The shirt shows the colors correctly. The enlargement is brightened to show the fine detail of the printing, just look at the dots! This was a test run for us. We're thrilled.

SpyCam Story #655 - This Week in SpyCam News

NY - Corning police have made an arrest in connection with an alleged case of voyeurism at a Market Street tanning salon. Jesse R. Cady, 23, of Creek Side Drive, Cameron, is accused of secretly video-taping a woman while she was tanning at Beach House Tanning. (more)

UK - A Carlisle man has been accused of fitting secret cameras in bathrooms to spy on women and young girls. Mark Klein, 45, of Charles Street, appeared before the city’s magistrates’ court where he was charged with voyeurism and two counts of engaging in sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl. (more)

KY - A bizarre and disturbing incident is playing out in Kentucky, where a star basketball player has been charged in connection with a video of a nude minor in his school's locker room and sharing the video to a host of other teenagers... 18-year-old Henderson County (Ky.) High senior basketball player Gavont Baker has been charged with video voyeurism and unlawful transaction with a minor in connection with a video of a nude teenager which was filmed in the Henderson locker room. (more)

GA - The voyeurism case involving the former deputy registrar of the Marietta office of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles is nearing a conclusion, with a plea agreement possible this week... The case began when the BMV office, located in the Frontier Shopping Center, was closed Sept. 23 by the Ohio State Highway Patrol after someone reported the discovery of a hidden camera in a bathroom at the office. (more)

NY - Tracy Gurnett, a Recreation Department staffer who has already sued the Town of Wheatfield once, has filed another notice of claim accusing town officials of spying on her by installing a video camera in her office. Supervisor Robert B. Cliffe and Town Attorney Robert O’Toole said this week that the surveillance camera was installed for security reasons and followed other cameras previously set up at other Recreation Department locations. Political sources told The Buffalo News that the camera was installed in the wake of suspicion that Gurnett was using the town photocopier in her office to run off copies of election fliers last fall for her live-in boyfriend, former Supervisor Timothy E. Demler (more)

NJ - Opening statements Friday in the trial of a former Rutgers student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate making out with another man focused on whether the defendant was malicious or just an 18-year-old boy acting his age. (more)

FL - Before Steinberg was investigated for cyberstalking, he voted against it. Rep. Richard Steinberg, a Miami Beach Democrat accused of cyberstalking a married Miami female prosecutor, has voted for several laws that crack down on stalking-–one as recently as this week. (such as) 2012 -- HB 215 – Video Voyeurism – (Vote: 1/25/2012, Judiciary Committee): The bill increases the penalties associated with video voyeurism offenses. The penalty for a first-time violation of “video voyeurism,” “video voyeurism dissemination,” or “commercial video voyeurism dissemination” is increased from a 1st degree misdemeanor to a 3rd degree felony. The penalty for a second or subsequent violation is increased from a 3rd degree felony to a 2nd degree felony. (more)

Spyware Is Everywhere

You are being watched. What you consider private moments may be anything but. Whether it’s a family fight, tiff with your spouse, plan for a new business, pile of cash swiped behind your business partner’s back, or a kickback you have asked of a supplier, you are being watched...

Spyware is everywhere. Ask the experts. Almost every space can be bugged, and sting operations are easier than ever to carry out. Thanks to the Chinese genius for making vast volumes of low-cost gadgetry, spyware has become cheap, convenient and mean. It’s a great leveler of sorts: everyone can snoop on everyone else...

The bad news is that the corporate sector is the most eager user of spyware. It also has the money to use the most sophisticated devices available. ...

...there are 1,200 known ordinary telephone surveillance devices imported over the last couple of years by individuals, companies, private detective agencies and some State-owned firms... (more)

Special Agent T-Shirt Contest #2

Contest Closed - We have a winner.

This man invented one of the first electronic eavesdropping devices. It was used extensively by the private detective William J. Burns in the early 20th Century. What was this inventor's full name (He has a 3-word name)?  (Enter here.)

Click to enlarge.

The prize - our Limited Edition Special Agent Black T-Shirt. (Size: Large)

Answer: Kelly Monroe Turner

("How limited," I hear you say.)  

Well, there are only three in the whole world! (one medium, one large, one x-large) And, they will be awarded in that order. So if you're a big Special Agent, wait for the last contest.

We designed this custom t-shirt ourselves! It's easy, go to ooShirts.com. They have a DIY on-line design lab! All types of t's, all colors, all prices. These are the Champion brand with the logo on the left sleeve.

Business Espionage: Corporate Spy Get 6:1 Sentence Reduction

A Canadian engineer who was found guilty of corporate espionage in Indonesia has been released from jail after his three-year sentence was reduced to six months.

Rick van Lee, 63, is now with his wife in Singapore after an Indonesian High Court judge decided on Feb. 2 to reduce a lower court's sentence, according to a website set up by van Lee's friends and associates. (more)

SpyCam Story #654 - Today in Voyeurism News

IN - A man arrested and charged with voyeurism is out on bond after admitting he videotaped women who were undressing at a local tanning salon, court records said.

Stephen M. Fox, 32, of the 1600 block of Patriot Drive, told police he has taken videos of women there previously using his cellphone. Police found multiple videos of various women at what appeared to be the tanning salon. (more)

KY - Officers arrested Gavont Baker, 18, on a felony video voyeurism charge. The alleged incident took place before class one morning in late January. But Baker might not be the only student to face charges. Officers say up to five students, four of them being minors, could face charges in this case.

Authorities say, during the incident, a video was recorded of a minor who was not wearing clothes. That video was then allegedly shared with other students, prompting the school district to get involved. And because the video reportedly contained a minor, without clothes, and then was shared, it falls under the state's child pornography laws. (more)

WA - The third hearing for Hoquiam teacher Wesley A. Phillips is scheduled for today at 1pm in Grays Harbor District Court #1. Phillips was released on bail from Grays Harbor County Jail on January 27th after his second hearing in District Court.

41 year old Phillips is charged with Communicating with a Minor for Immoral Purposes and Voyeurism. Both charges are Class C Felonies and each count carries a maximum sentence of 5 years. (more)

MA - Smartphones are convenient, pocket-sized gadgets that allow users to snap pictures or record videos on the fly, and in the wrong hands they can be dangerously invasive devices—especially on a college campus. That was the case early Friday morning when a woman showering at Warren Towers spotted an iPhone on the floor, apparently recording her. When she tried to squash the device with her foot, she cut it on a jagged tile. As she did, a hand reached into the shower and grabbed the phone. The suspected photographer immediately fled the bathroom. Friday’s peeping incident marks the third time in the past month that women have reported surreptitious shower photographers to the Boston University Police Department. (more)

Security Directors: FREE Security White Paper - "Surreptitious Workplace Recording ...and what you can do about it."   

People Who Snoop on Significant Others - Some Common Sense

via Danielle Pointdujour, clutchmagonline.com...

Personally….I think they’re all nuts. I come from the train of thought that says what’s done in the dark always comes to light. I don’t have to snoop or look for evidence because your foolishness will catch up with you sooner or later. I just live my life and keep my eyes and ears open, but snoop, never, and just like I thought, everything came to life. Any man that has ever cheated and/or lied to me got found out because of his own slackness. Friends slipped up, accidental emails, chick got pregnant, etc. I’ve never had to become a female Sherlock Holmes to find out the truth. Besides, if you feel so strongly in your gut that something is going on then something usually is. Your instincts are usually all the evidence you need that something might not be right. The problem is most of us ignore our guts in favor of finding physical proof to substantiate what we’ve known all along. (more) (more thoughts)

GPS Jammer Crackdown Begins

UK - The illegal use of Global Positioning System (GPS) jammers in the UK has been revealed in a groundbreaking study. 

GPS jammers are believed to be mostly used by people driving vehicles fitted with tracking devices in order to mask their whereabouts. In one location the Sentinel study recorded more than 60 GPS jamming incidents in six months...

In 2009 Newark Airport in the US found some of its GPS based systems were suffering repeated interference. The problem was eventually traced back to a truck driver using a GPS jammer. (more) 

How easy is it to purchase GPS jammers? (jammers)

FutureWatch: Expect the crackdown to expand.

Animal Abuse Covert Video Activism Leads to Politicians Being Prodded to Outlawing Cameras Instead of the Problem

Undercover investigations of animal abuse and unsanitary farm conditions would be outlawed in eight states... under an expanding effort by legislators who say the exposes malign livestock industries... backed by Monsanto Co. and other agriculture companies, (the new laws) would halt activists from using deceptive practices (covert video) to target producers in the $74 billion-a-year U.S. beef industry, or the $45 billion poultry business, as well as other businesses...

“For politicians, it comes across looking like they’re trying to muzzle these groups,” said Wes Jamison, an associate communications professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida who studies interest-group activism, in an interview. “It’s putting restrictions on citizen ‘gotcha’ journalism.”

Media stories about animal welfare have a “significant, negative” effect on meat demand, especially poultry and pork, according to a 2010 study by economists at Kansas State University and Purdue University in Indiana on covert exposes and news articles. (more) (sample videos)

Enemies: A History of the FBI

In Enemies: A History of the FBI, author Tim Weiner used recently declassified intelligence files to write a comprehensive history of the FBI... 

Weiner said that Hoover disregarded privacy protections mandated by the constitution in order to obstruct the activities of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He ordered the FBI to bug King’s bedroom and repeatedly blackmailed the civil rights leader.

"When it came down to bugging bedrooms, you had to be careful not to get caught, but there wasn't anything to stop him," Weiner said. "He decided up to a point ... where the boundaries of the law [were] when it came to black bag jobs, break-ins, bugging, surveillance, the constitutionality of gathering secret intelligence on America's enemies — both real and imagined." (more)

Hand Grenade Bug Will Blow You Away

a la Wikileaks, but for real-time bugging...

"The lack of Corporate and Governmental transparency has been a topic of much controversy in recent years, yet our only tool for encouraging greater openness is the slow, tedious process of policy reform.

Presented in the form of a Soviet F1 Hand Grenade, the Transparency Grenade is an iconic cure for these frustrations, making the process of leaking information from closed meetings as easy as pulling a pin.

Equipped with a tiny computer, microphone and powerful wireless antenna, the Transparency Grenade captures network traffic and audio at the site and securely and anonymously streams it to a dedicated server where it is mined for information. Email fragments, HTML pages, images and voice extracted from this data are then presented on an online, public map, shown at the location of the detonation.

Whether trusted employee, civil servant or concerned citizen, greater openness was never so close at hand..

Details 

The Transparency Grenade was created in January 2012 by Julian Oliver for the Studio Weise7 exhibition at Labor 8, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, curated by Transmediale 2012 Director, Kristoffer Gansing." (more)

P.S. "Due to legal concerns the author will not provide a server for using this application. However, all code will be published for study and so that others can set up their own service, should they find a worthy need for it."

Let the Drone Wars Begin

A remote-controlled aircraft owned by an animal rights group was reportedly shot down near Broxton Bridge Plantation Sunday near Ehrhardt, S.C.

Steve Hindi, president of SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness), said his group was preparing to launch its Mikrokopter drone to video what he called a live pigeon shoot on Sunday when law enforcement officers and an attorney claiming to represent the privately-owned plantation near Ehrhardt tried to stop the aircraft from flying.

"It didn't work; what SHARK was doing was perfectly legal," Hindi said in a news release. "Once they knew nothing was going to stop us, the shooting stopped and the cars lined up to leave."

He said the animal rights group decided to send the drone up anyway.

"Seconds after it hit the air, numerous shots rang out," Hindi said in the release. "As an act of revenge for us shutting down the pigeon slaughter, they had shot down our copter." (more)

CONTEST ALERT - Wednesday Noon (EST)

The famous Security Scrapbook contest back! 

Next Wednesday (noon EST) we will post a spy question. The first correct answer received wins! 

Click to enlarge.

We post this alert to give everyone an equal chance, as readers of the e-mail version receive these posts the following next day.

The prize - our Limited Edition Special Agent Black T-Shirt. 

("How limited," I hear you say.)  

Well, there are only three in the whole world! (one medium, one large, one x-large) And, they will be awarded in that order. So if you're a big Special Agent, wait for the last contest.

Did you know you could design custom t-shirts yourself? It's easy. I made these myself at ooShirts.com. They have a DIY on-line design lab! All types of t's, all colors, all prices. These are the Champion brand with the logo on the left sleeve.

ooShirts also provides design help, if needed. They suggested I use brighter colors to have the logo stand out better. They were 100% correct, but I went with muted gray and red for a subtle look (Special Agents don't have to shout it.) The shirt shows the colors correctly. The enlargement is brightened to show the fine detail of the printing, just look at the dots! This was a test run for us. We're thrilled.

SpyCam Story #653 - Neighbors Nail Spy Guy with SpyCam

Australia - A Geelong man has admitted to spying on his female neighbours for years...

Bruce Guy, 51, was caught in October last year after neighbours set up a night vision digital security camera...

Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Geoff Lamb said Guy, who is identified wearing underwear and work boots in the surveillance footage, had harassed neighbours around his Highpoint home for eight years. (more)