Spy Project Corporate Espionage Case Settles Out Of Court

CO - Paragon Dynamics Inc., an Aurora defense contractor, is paying $1.15 million to settle allegations it stole bid information from Raytheon Corp. about spy agency projects over which the companies competed in 2009... 

Around July 31, 2009, an unidentified senior software director for Paragon used computer access to Raytheon’s systems in Aurora to obtain Raytheon’s bids for two NRO projects — code named Antietam and Savannah — plus other information, the settlement agreement says.

Security cameras caught the employee faxing some of the information to the president of Paragon Dynamics, who forwarded it to someone at a company Paragon partnered with to compete against Raytheon for the NRO’s Antietam contract, the government said. (more)

International Hotel Rooms: The Enemy's Gateway To Economic And Industrial Espionage

by Luke Bencie
"For most international business travelers, overseas hotel accommodations can conjure up an array of images. Depending on the region of the world they travel, frequent fliers know that lodging is never consistent.

For example, Southeast Asian hotels deliver a personal attention to detail that can only be found in the Orient, while hotels in the Middle Eastern Gulf states compete against one another through stunning opulence to attract powerful sheiks and wealthy oil barons. Closer to home, Latin America and Caribbean provide relaxing, tropical beach resort, while Europe still offers old world charm in quaint surroundings..."   Read the whole article here.

Mr. Bencie also conducts instructional seminars for executives who travel overseas. (more) 

If the above article applies to you, you should also read: 
• Top Five Ways Business Executives are Spied Upon Overseas and How They Can Protect Themselves (Luke Bencie)
• The Top Twenty Information Security Tips for Business Travelers to Closed Society Countries (Kevin D. Murray)
• Staying Safe Abroad: Traveling, Working & Living in a Post-9/11 World (Edward Lee)

Spy Tie Helps Make the Collar

via GeekAlerts.com...
Are you a spy and in need of a new camera that others won’t notice? This Spy Camera Tie with Wireless Remote will help and make you a well dressed James Bond.

Click to enlarge.

It looks just like a regular tie, but it records audio & video. It comes with a remote control and a built-in 4GB DVR. The built in USB port makes it easy to transfer data. This spy gadget will record up to 3 hours per single charge so you can get plenty of footage.

($70 at Amazon.com)

Why do I mention it?
So you will know what you are up against.
~Kevin

Saints Vindicated

LA - Louisiana State Police investigators have found no evidence that the Saints or general manager Mickey Loomis rigged Superdome wiring so opposing coaches' radio communications could be intercepted.

''This has been an intensive investigation, and after numerous interviews we have determined that there is no evidence that state laws have been violated,'' State Police Col. Mike Edmonson said Monday after meeting with Saints owner Tom Benson in New Orleans to brief him on the status of the probe.

State police investigators have been working in conjunction with the FBI since the eavesdropping allegations surfaced in news reports in April.

''We found no corroborating evidence that Mickey Loomis or anybody in the Saints was engaged in wiretapping or eavesdropping,'' Edmonson said. (more)

Fin for Fino - Argentine Ex-Police Chief Indited for Spying

Argentina - A court confirmed the indictment of former Metropolitan Police head Jorge “Fino” Palacios, who is accused of using the NOSIS system to spy on opposition city lawmakers...

The victims of the alleged spying were City lawmakers Silvia La Ruffa, Diana Maffia and Gonzalo Ruanova, and Patricio Datarmini, head of the City public employees union.

Palacios is accused of leading an illicit organization aimed at wiretapping opposition lawmakers. City Mayor Mauricio Macri is also accused of taking part of the illicit organization. (more)

Hello Moto - Ex-employee Sentenced for Spying

IL - A federal judge sentenced a Chinese-born American to four years in prison for stealing millions of dollars in trade secrets from Motorola, describing her as a soft-spoken, unassuming woman who carried out a ‘‘very purposeful raid’’ on the company in the dead of night.

In a barely audible voice and heavily accented English, 41-year-old Hanjuan Jin told the judge she was ‘‘so sorry for what happened’’ and pleaded for a second chance. Her lawyers had argued that she took the files merely to refresh her knowledge after a long absence from work and was not spying for China. They appealed for leniency and asked that Jin receive probation, in part because of her poor health. ( more)

But before you pull out your hankerchef...
Jin, who worked as a software engineer for Motorola Inc. for nine years, was stopped during a random security search at Chicago’s O'Hare International Airport on Feb. 28, 2007, before she could board a flight to China. Prosecutors say she was carrying $31,000 and more than 1,000 confidential Motorola documents, many stored on a laptop, four external hard drives, thumb drives and other devices.

Global TrapWire, INDECT protest planned Saturday, October 20

The TrapWire surveillance system and Europe's INDECT are the subject of a global protest planned for Saturday, October 20.

Information about the protest is being shared by Operation INDECT (OpINDECT International) and there is an #OpINDECT/#TrapWire Facebook Event Page.

It is not the first INDECT protest - but recent news about TrapWire from the Wikileaks leak of private intelligence firm Stratfor's documents has added a tanker of gas to the fire.

News and locations of the protest are being shared on various forums and social media sites primarily with a Google Map showing locations of protesters joining the efforts to raise awareness and intent to stop use of the surveillance technologies. (more)

Espionage Research Institute International Conference - September 7th-9th

This is a counterespionage conference you don't want to miss...

The Espionage Research Institute International's (ERII) annual conference will be held 7-9 September 2012 in Herndon, VA. The ERII conference provides a forum for ERII members to meet and discuss news and information related to the threats and recent discoveries in the fields of espionage and information security.

...and they make it easy to attend by holding it from Friday-Sunday (9/7-9).

A sneak peak...

David G. Major, President of the CI Centre, will be featured as a keynote speaker. Mr. Major's presentation on the topic of "2011/2012 Espionage Debrief: A Worldwide Year in Review" will be on the first day of the conference from 0900-1200 hrs.

Paul Turner of PDTG Inc., will be running a one (1) day Kestrel TSCM Professional Software familiarization and basic operation day at the Espionage Research Institute International (ERII) annual conference on Sunday September 09, 2012. His custom TSCM software is getting rave reviews.

Other presentations...

  • Understanding the TSCM (RF) Spectrum Environment
  • Surveillance Device Intelligence Briefing
  • Nation State Espionage Briefing
  • Cyber Espionage Briefing

The conference is always a worthwhile event. Join ERII and attend. The conference fee is $150.00 and hotel rooms are still available at $99.00 - until 8/30/12. Mention ERII when making reservations.

Where & When
Embassy Suites Dulles Airport
13341 Woodland Park Road
Herndon, VA 20171
Ph: 1-703-464-0200
September 7th through 9th, 2012
8:30AM-5:00PM

Join ERII and REGISTER for the Conference

The membership of ERII consists of TSCM, Counterespionage & Counterintelligence professionals and associates. TSCM is the abbreviation for "Technical Surveillance Counter Measures", it is the industry term for work that includes de-bugging sweeps, wiretap detection, and related counter-surveillance work. The purpose of TSCM is to help businesses,corporations and individuals protect themselves from unauthorized and illegal spying activities. One of the main functions of ERII is to help maintain high ethical standards in the TSCM, Counterespionage / Counterintelligence field.

Eavesdropping Find: Bandera City Hall Bugged

TX - No accusations were made last week at a budget workshop but evidence was brought to light that city security may be at risk... 

Bandera City Hall was checked for breaches recently, reported Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Schumacher during the city's Aug. 9 budget meeting. An unnamed security company scanned City Hall for listening “bugs” and other devices.

“There is no doubt by the (security) firm that offices had been bugged,” Schumacher said. “There were wires going into the police department.” The firm also found “cameras in the city secretary's office.”

“The report said there was so much evidence that [the City Hall] side of the building had been compromised,” Schumacher said...

Security at City Hall has been considered a potential problem since last year when former Bandera City Police Lt. Neil McLean allegedly told Schumacher that nothing was private in city offices, Councilmember John Hegemier told the Bulletin Monday.

Hegemier said Schumacher interpreted McLean's statement as meaning the offices had been bugged, though former City Police Chief Jim Eigner said they were not. (more)

Business Espionage: The Apple Bonkers Get Theirs

Apple won a decisive victory on Friday in a lawsuit against Samsung, 

Click to enlarge.

a verdict that will give Apple ammunition in a far-flung patent war with its global competitors in the smartphone business.

The nine jurors in the case, who faced the daunting task of answering more than 700 questions on sometimes highly technical matters, returned a verdict after just three days of deliberations at a federal courthouse in San Jose, Calif. They found that Samsung infringed on a series of Apple’s patents on mobile devices, awarding Apple more than $1 billion in damages.

That is not a big financial blow to Samsung, one of the world’s largest electronics companies. But the decision could essentially force it and other smartphone makers to redesign their products to be less Apple-like, or risk further legal defeats. (more)

Business Espionage on CNBC - Thu, 23rd 9p & 12a ET

I participated in the making of CNBC series, Crime, Inc. ("Secrets for Sale") and thought you might like to see it. Some of our advanced electronic surveillance detection instrumentation is shown, and business espionage issues are discussed. ~ Kevin

on CNBC. “CRIME INC #9 - SECRETS FOR SALE”
Premieres Thursday, August 23rd 9p | 12a ET
Re-broadcast: Sunday, August 26th 11p

 
Spying is an ever-present threat in the workplace.

Kevin D. Murray discusses business espionage prevention with Carl Quintanilla.

From the coworker in the next cubicle to foreign governments, the faces of corporate espionage are all around us. Boeing, Intel and Coca-Cola have all been targets. The losses - estimated by the FBI to be more than 13 billion dollars a year in the United States - can go undetected for years despite sophisticated security. Crime Inc. follows cases where livelihoods are threatened, reputations ruined and trade secrets are bought and sold. (more)

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

Business Counterintelligence Conference at Kwa Maritane Bush Lodge, South Africa - September 17-19

CBIA will be hosting South Africa’s first conference on business counterintelligence  September 17-19, 2012, at the Kwa Maritane Bush Lodge in the Pilanesberg, North West Province...

Click to enlarge.

One of the key aims of the conference is to involve and to provide decision makers, managers and business unit leaders with the insight to understand business counterintelligence and how it differs from other streams of information management and security practices.

Corporate information gathering is a fact of life, even more so during hard and tough economic times...

The conference will take participants on an eye-opening journey regarding information protection issues. Attendees will gain a practical understanding of the value added role counterintelligence plays in competitive strategy and the protection of business information. 

Click to enlarge.

Conference Topics
• What is the scope of the business espionage and information theft threat to businesses;
• Non-cyber methods of information gathering and economic espionage;
• Social engineering, tradecraft and other psychological tricks used to penetrate a target company;
• The “insider” threat and motivational factors;
• Importance of information security awareness training;
• How to protect sensitive data and high value employees;
• Countering electronic espionage in business;
• Technical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM) risk management;
• The evolving cyber threat. The cyberspace is now providing relative small scale operators the opportunity to become involved in business espionage and information theft;
• Background screening and vetting, pre-employment and existing employee screening;
• The dark side of social media and what it means for business;
• The threat of consumerisation and BYOD;
• Policies, procedures and guidelines on how to build an effective business counterintelligence capability;
• A corporate case study;
• Active dialogue session (Ask the Expert) – An interactive brainstorming session to solve common challenges and to share innovative solutions;
• Technical security product demonstrations.

(brochure) (conference program)

Security Alert: Conference room reservation system - Arrive® InfoPoint™

Affected Murray Associates clients can receive special attention due to our working relationship with DigitalSecurus.

DigitalSecurus has discovered that some touch screen smart devices for conference rooms have arrived in the United States infected with a computer virus/malware (malicious software).

The infection was discovered during a recent investigation into suspicious activity on a network belonging to a DigitalSecurus client. Further analysis in a lab environment by DigitalSecurus revealed a variant of the malware known as “Downadup/Conficker” virus in unopened InfoPoint AI-101 touch screen computers. DigitalSecurus contacted the manufacturer of the device, Arrive Systems, and has been working with them closely to investigate the circumstances surrounding the infection.

This malware is particularly dangerous to a network environment as it will attempt to spread itself to other computers. The virus also attempts to communicate with unauthorized computers on the Internet, possibly allowing unauthorized access to corporate files and other sensitive data.

The infection appears to have been installed onto the devices prior to shipping into the United States...

Companies using the InfoPoint AI-101 devices are advised to consider removing them from their network until they can be properly analyzed, made harmless, and patched with software updates. For further instructions on specific steps that can be taken users are encouraged to contact the manufacturer, Arrive Systems, at this link.

DigitalSecurus is an Alaskan based network security consulting firm that provides computer security consulting, analysis, forensics, security training, and computer incident response to corporations and organizations in the United States.

Hacker Targets: Computer, Smartphone, and now... Your Car

A team of top hackers working for Intel Corp's security division toil away in a West Coast garage searching for electronic bugs that could make automobiles vulnerable to lethal computer viruses... 

It's scary business. Security experts say that automakers have so far failed to adequately protect these systems, leaving them vulnerable to hacks by attackers looking to steal cars, eavesdrop on conversations, or even harm passengers by causing vehicles to crash.

"You can definitely kill people," said John Bumgarner, chief technology officer of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a non-profit organization that helps companies analyze the potential for targeted computer attacks on their networks and products. (more)

Another Butt Dialing Lands Man in the Can

PA - A Scranton man faces drug charges after he accidentally dialed 911 while he met with a drug dealer, recording the entire conversation at Lackawanna County dispatch center Wednesday, Scranton police said...

The Lackawanna County Communications Center called Scranton police to say there was an open line to a phone that was recording a conversation inside a vehicle on the 100 block of West Market Street regarding narcotics activity and a man named "Rick," according to the complaint.

Police tracked Mr. Kryzanowski to his apartment, where they found him talking with slow and slurred speech. Police also saw pill bottles and a bottle cap with water in it in plain sight, according to the complaint. (more) (more butt dialing stories)