(Note: Garda = Police)
Ireland - The British consultancy firm which carried out a security sweep of the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission's headquarters offered to sell gardai equipment similar to one of the devices at the centre of the 'bugging' saga.
Officials from the Verrimus firm met garda technical experts while they were in Dublin for the sweep.
They brought with them the "international mobile subscriber identifier (IMSI) catcher" device which, in an ironic twist, was similar to one that created the third and most "credible threat" to the security of the Ombudsman's offices. (more)
(Long but interesting. Proves no business is immune to business espionage.)
Stealing trade secrets has been a part of the business and international scene for a long time. I suspect such activity has made some people very rich when they don’t get caught and some lawyers very rich when they do...
Military secrets, medical research, computer technology, certain oatmeal raisin cookie recipes... it’s understandable why some people, companies or countries might be tempted by any of these. The payday would be huge.
Agriculture has not been immune to incidents of unethical business activity... (more)
Want to know if eavesdropping has occurred in your organization?
These days, your chances of knowing has skyrocketed. Here's why...
Electronic eavesdropping devices have become:
• so inexpensive,
• so easily available,
that they are now throw-away objects.
Eavesdroppers don't have to risk discovery by replacing batteries or retrieving them. Just toss one behind the bookcase, or into a lighting cove once a week.
Bonus For You - Since many of today's eavesdropping devices are not being serviced or retrieved, the evidence is left there waiting for you (or me) to find it! Knowing you are having your pockets picked is valuable knowledge, and the first step in putting an end to it.
Example of a bug being sold on eBay today... ($21.97 - FREE shipping)
Each
battery should give you around 40 hours of use!
This IS the smallest bug on ebay measuring just 22mm diameter (plus a little extra for the protruding microphone and rear) x only 11mm thick and THIS IS WITH A BATTERY INSTALLED!!! This tiny transmitter runs off a small coin cell and the measurements given above include the cell holder!
The quality small electret microphone will pick up the smallest of sounds and transmit them to your radio with crystal clear reproduction. Only quality surface mount components have been used on a professionally designed circuit board. The copper of the board has been coated to prevent corrosion - this is NOT a cheap homemade item like others are offering!" (more)
P.S. We have the technology to find these bugs even after the battery is depleted.
Visitors to Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport may notice the bright, clean lighting that now blankets the cavernous interior, courtesy of 171 recently installed LED fixtures. But they probably will not realize that the light fixtures are the backbone of a system that is watching them.
Using an array of sensors and eight video cameras around the terminal, the light fixtures are part of a new wireless network that collects and feeds data into software that can spot long lines, recognize license plates and even identify suspicious activity, sending alerts to the appropriate staff...
Fred H. Cate, director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research
at Indiana University, described the potential for misuse as
“terrifying.” ...
The light fixtures are outfitted with special chips and connect to
sensors, cameras and one another over a wireless network. Data that is
collected — say, a particular car pulling up to the terminal — can then
be mined and analyzed for a broad range of applications...
“No one really wanted the smartphone 20 years ago because they didn’t
know they could have it,” said Fred Maxik, founder and chief technology
officer of Lighting Science Group, which manufactures LEDs. “And I think
the same is true of lighting today: No one knows what lighting is going
to be capable of.” (more)
Late last week–just in time for Valentine’s Day–artist and software developer Lauren McCarthy launched Crowdpilot, an iOS app designed to let anyone invite friends and strangers to listen in on a live audio stream of a private conversation and offer text-based advice and encouragement.
“Crowdpilot lets you crowdsource your conversations by inviting a group of people to listen in and give you suggestions in real time,” says McCarthy. “I see the possibility of having this networked hivemind that weighs in on your decisions, like having a ‘wingman’ in a bar.”
Just launch the app, choose from an array of conversation types including “date,” “argument,” “meeting,” or “family gathering,” and choose who you want to listen in. ...
McCarthy strongly suggests that anyone using the app warn all participants in a conversation Crowdpilot’s crowd will be listening in. (Sure, Lauren.)
Although it’s possible to run Crowdpilot on your iPhone with the screen turned off, it can’t run in the background, reducing the app’s potential as a stealth spy tool. (Screen turned off should suffice for most spies.) (more)
FutureWatch: Covert remote coaching during business negotiations?
No cat has two tails.
Every cat has one tail more than no cat.
Therefore every cat has three tails.
(more)
MD - A group of legislators in Maryland has introduced legislation that would deny state support to federal agencies engaged in warrantless electronic surveillance in a move aimed at curtailing the National Security Agency's power to monitor and track citizens.
Eight Republicans in the Maryland House of Delegates last week introduced the "Fourth Amendment Protection Act," which would deny the NSA "material support, participation or assistance in any form” from the state, its political subdivisions or companies with state contracts, US News reported.
The bill would deprive NSA's headquarters in Ft. Meade, Md., water and electricity carried over public utilities, prohibit the use of evidence gathered by the agency in state courts and prevent state universities from partnering with the NSA on research, according to the report. (more)
Tennessee proposed the same thing last month. (more)
IL - In January a UPS truck pulled up to the farm of Bill McDonnell north of Ottawa.
McDonnell’s order had come through. It was a brand new Phantom 2 drone, a four-rotor, remote-controlled quad-copter with a camera.
“It’s something I’ve been researching for the past year to see how we can integrate this into our farming operation,” McDonnell said.
Like many cutting-edge technologies in the United States, drones have crossed over from military to domestic use. Military drones appear like airplanes and are used to explore and survey landscapes or deliver missiles and bombs. Domestic drones look more like hobby helicopters and carry small cameras...
This coming season McDonnell plans to survey his corn and soybeans with his Phantom. (more)
A new computer chip invented by researchers from Columbia University
allows scientists to "listen in" on bacteria, as they exchange
information between individual cells. Integrated circuit (IC) technology
allows biologists to record images from the bacteria, as well as
"listen in" to what they are saying. (more)
...and, on the other end of the spectrum...
Scientists can now spy on whales from space.
There are two ways of looking at this story. One is as a triumph of new technology: Using high-resolution satellites, scientists can identify and track whales without disturbing them in any way. The other is as a tale of space voyeurism: Scientists are spying on whales from the sky. And not just spying on whales — spying on whales while there was a good chance the whales were doing it. (more)
• Grab an old cell phone (make sure it has GPS).
• Turn on its Internet access.
• Tweak the settings. Presumably, you're only going to use this for vehicle tracking. Set the ringer volume to 0 and mute the keypad.
• Next step is choosing a tracking/mapping service. InstaMapper (free) or AccuTracking (about $6/month)
• The final step is the trickiest. For real 24/7 tracking, you'll need to hardwire the phone to your car's battery. (more)
ID - Milk producers convinced state senators Tuesday to back a bill aiming to halt spying on their operations, a measure prompted by animal activists who captured cruelty at a southern Idaho dairy on film in July 2012.
The Agricultural Affairs Committee voted to back what proponents called an "agricultural security measure" — and what foes branded a heavy-handed and punitive response to groups seeking to expose horrendous abuses.
The industry-backed bill now goes to the full Senate for a vote. A Democrat, Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking of Boise, opposed the measure.
The legislation would put people who surreptitiously enter and record agricultural operations in jail for up to a year and slap them with a $5,000 fine. It would criminalize obtaining records from dairies or other agricultural operations by force or misrepresentation, as well as lying on a farm's employment application. (more)
Muckracking used to prompt decent laws...
Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968), was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle (1906). It exposed conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.[1] (more)
Netherlands - A Dutch cabinet minister faced calls to quit on Tuesday after
admitting he wrongly told parliament that 1.8 million telecommunications
intercepts had been collected by the US National Security Agency,
rather than the Dutch spy service.
The departure of Internal Affairs Minister Ronald Plasterk would come at
a bad time for Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s coalition government. It is
polling near its lowest level since taking power in November 2012...
Plasterk wrote on Monday in a letter to parliament that it was the Dutch
intelligence service, not the NSA, that had collected the so-called
metadata. (more)
But we already knew this seven years ago. (more)
And again last year. (more)
UPDATE:
The Dutch branch of British telecom company Vodafone has taken a stand on privacy by asking various Dutch ministries for permission to disclose the number of demands it receives for wiretapping, the telecom company announced in a statement Wednesday.
"We want to invest in a healthy ICT future by providing information to our costumers about what we do with data," Vodafone wrote in the statement.
"But if you really want to boost consumer confidence, the government should be more transparent," Vodafone added.
NH - The state's highest court has reversed the wiretapping convictions of the founder of a police watchdog group who secretly recorded conversations with Manchester police and school officials. (more)
Scotland - A former employee of Ultimo bra tycoon Michelle Mone's company is suing for constructive dismissal after claiming the resignation of a director left him with an increased workload and some of his conversations were bugged.
Hugh McGinley is demanding compensation at a Glasgow employment tribunal for loss of earnings after he resigned from MJM International in March last year.
Mr Kilday's bugging has been accepted by MJM, which is now known as Ultimo Brands International, but lawyers claim they were recording his conversations with operations director Scott Kilday because they feared he was betraying company secrets. (more)
Researchers have uncovered a sophisticated cyber spying operation that has been alive since at least 2007 and uses techniques and code that surpass any nation-state spyware previously spotted in the wild.
The attack, dubbed “The Mask” by the researchers at Kaspersky Lab in Russia who discovered it, targeted government agencies and diplomatic offices and embassies, before it was dismantled last month. It also targeted companies in the oil, gas and energy industries as well as research organizations and activists. Kaspersky uncovered at least 380 victims in more than two dozen countries, with the majority of the targets in Morocco and Brazil.
The attack — possibly from a Spanish-speaking country — used sophisticated malware, rootkit methods and a bootkit to hide and maintain persistence on infected machines. The attackers sought not only to steal documents, but to steal encryption keys, data about a target’s VPN configurations, and Adobe signing keys, which would give the attackers the ability to sign .PDF documents as if they were the owner of the key. (more)
