An accountant resigned from her $42,000-a-year part-time job as West Seneca’s comptroller two months ago after employees accused her and an aide of using a tape recorder to secretly record their workplace conversations.
Town officials confirmed that two town employees made complaints against Jean M. Nihill, 57, about a month before she resigned from her job as the town’s top finance officer on May 12. Nihill, a certified public accountant, is the business partner of one of the town’s most politically powerful individuals – town Democratic Party leader Paul T. Clark, who served as town supervisor for 16 years.
The employees also alleged that former deputy comptroller Linda Kauderer took part in the bugging. Kauderer retired from her town job May 20.
Police investigated the complaints and verified that a tape recorder was used to record the employees while they were working in town offices, Police Chief Daniel M. Denz confirmed. (more)
Monday, July 7, 2014
1978 Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act Instigator Dead at 68
David Truong, a Vietnamese antiwar activist whose conviction on espionage charges in the United States in 1978 raised alarms about the federal government’s use of wiretaps without court orders and spurred passage of the 1978 Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act prohibiting such practices, died on June 26 in Penang, Malaysia. He was 68. (more)
Friday, July 4, 2014
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Today in Business Espionage News
PA - Cumberland County-based Harsco Corp. is suing one of its former top executives in federal court, accusing him of corporate espionage for allegedly passing confidential company information to a competitor.
Clyde Kirkwood essentially acted as a mole, Harsco contends in the U.S. Middle District Court complaint it filed this week.
Kirkwood abruptly quit his post as commercial vice president for Harsco's Metals & Minerals Division in early June, three months after he secretly agreed to take an executive job with the Michigan-based Edw. C. Levy Co., Harsco's suit states.
Harsco claims that, starting early this year, Kirkwood not only passed confidential Harsco information to Levy, including data on top-level corporate decisions, he also intervened to try to steer Harsco away from international projects where it could be in competition with Levy. (more)
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Taiwan tech giant Hon Hai said today it has pulled out of a deal to buy 4G equipment from Huawei after the government warned that the Chinese company posed a national security threat.
Taiwan raised those concerns in March after Hon Hai announced the USD 178 million deal, saying telecom equipment purchased from Huawei could be used for cyber espionage. (more)
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The wife of a Chinese company’s chairman was arrested in California after she was charged in an indictment filed Wednesday in federal court in Des Moines with conspiracy to steal trade secrets from U.S. seed corn companies.
Mo Yun, 42, was arrested Tuesday in Los Angeles. She is a citizen of China. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Nicholas Klinefeldt said he could not comment on whether she was in the U.S. on a work or visitor visa or why she was in California.
Her arrest is the latest development in a case Klinefeldt announced in December in which several employees of Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co., known as DNB Group, or its subsidiaries were alleged to have stolen patented seed corn from fields in Iowa and Illinois and shipped it to China to try to reproduce its traits. (more)
Clyde Kirkwood essentially acted as a mole, Harsco contends in the U.S. Middle District Court complaint it filed this week.
Kirkwood abruptly quit his post as commercial vice president for Harsco's Metals & Minerals Division in early June, three months after he secretly agreed to take an executive job with the Michigan-based Edw. C. Levy Co., Harsco's suit states.
Harsco claims that, starting early this year, Kirkwood not only passed confidential Harsco information to Levy, including data on top-level corporate decisions, he also intervened to try to steer Harsco away from international projects where it could be in competition with Levy. (more)
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Taiwan tech giant Hon Hai said today it has pulled out of a deal to buy 4G equipment from Huawei after the government warned that the Chinese company posed a national security threat.
Taiwan raised those concerns in March after Hon Hai announced the USD 178 million deal, saying telecom equipment purchased from Huawei could be used for cyber espionage. (more)
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The wife of a Chinese company’s chairman was arrested in California after she was charged in an indictment filed Wednesday in federal court in Des Moines with conspiracy to steal trade secrets from U.S. seed corn companies.
Mo Yun, 42, was arrested Tuesday in Los Angeles. She is a citizen of China. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Nicholas Klinefeldt said he could not comment on whether she was in the U.S. on a work or visitor visa or why she was in California.
Her arrest is the latest development in a case Klinefeldt announced in December in which several employees of Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co., known as DNB Group, or its subsidiaries were alleged to have stolen patented seed corn from fields in Iowa and Illinois and shipped it to China to try to reproduce its traits. (more)
Marti Oakley's Pre-4th of July Privacy Review
- We have street lights spying on us in public.
- We have your SMART meters tracking what you do in your home, not to mention making many people ill.
- We got your scan enabled license plates so that you can be tracked for any reason or no reason as you travel.
- These plates will also be handy for “tax per mile” calculation at the pump coming to a state near you in the very near future.
- Our cell phones can be tracked using GPS installed in them.
- Retailers can access your cell phone while you shop in their stores.
- NSA can listen in and track you anytime they want on the phone, on the net, or on any gadget you might possess.
- GPS allows the tracking and location of our vehicles.
- Black box recorders are now installed on all new models of cars so that conversations in the cab of the car can be retrieved, insurance companies can access info about you and so can the NSA.
- And there is not one major retail establishment that you can enter without having your picture snapped, compared to millions of faces in the system, and identified. You can and will be tracked throughout the store you are in, along with your purchases and how you paid for them.
- We have nano-chips, scan enabled from satellites, sprinkled in numerous high volume food products so that what we eat can be tracked, if anyone really wants to know what we are eating and where we are eating it.
- Medications are soon to be laced with nano-chips so that your doctor and/or insurance provider can determine if you are taking prescribed medications. (You can be dropped from your insurance for non-compliance if you are not taking the drugs for any reason)
- They will also be inserted into medical devices, like your hip and knee replacements. (more)
On the other hand, fireworks haven't been banned in all states, yet.
Map that shows the types of fireworks allowed in each state.
"Talk to the badge, Axxxxxx."
UK - Shop workers who have been the victims of hate crime are to be given 'spy' name badges - in a bid crack down on racism.
Some 48 devices are being bought by Merseyside's Police Commissioner Jane Kennedy to help tackle hate crime.
The semi-covert video cameras, which look like large name-badges, are intended to support victims of racial abuse. The cameras will capture evidence to help prosecute offenders.
The commissioner is also buying 100 personal safety devices for use by high-risk victims of domestic abuse, harassment and stalking. (more)
Spy Badges Gain Traction...
HIGHLY trained officers keeping the peace during G20 will wear tiny, spy-like cameras – the first to be issued by the Queensland Police Service.
The lightweight, miniature video cameras will be clipped to officers’ uniforms to record potential evidence during November’s summit.
The Courier-Mail can reveal 70 high-definition cameras will be used by frontline police. (more)
Some 48 devices are being bought by Merseyside's Police Commissioner Jane Kennedy to help tackle hate crime. The semi-covert video cameras, which look like large name-badges, are intended to support victims of racial abuse. The cameras will capture evidence to help prosecute offenders.
The commissioner is also buying 100 personal safety devices for use by high-risk victims of domestic abuse, harassment and stalking. (more)
Spy Badges Gain Traction...
HIGHLY trained officers keeping the peace during G20 will wear tiny, spy-like cameras – the first to be issued by the Queensland Police Service.
The lightweight, miniature video cameras will be clipped to officers’ uniforms to record potential evidence during November’s summit.
The Courier-Mail can reveal 70 high-definition cameras will be used by frontline police. (more)
The Government Owns Your Tweets - No, not the NSA... the LOC
Even deleting your Twitter account won't help.
You're brain farts are permanently archived.
Twitter and the Library of Congress have this "deal", see. Twitter gave the right to the Library of Congress to archive your public tweets from 2006 on. The result... everything posted publicly by you, since then, is now owned by the government.
"An element of our mission at the Library of Congress is to collect the story of America and to acquire collections that will have research value. So when the Library had the opportunity to acquire an archive from the popular social media service Twitter, we decided this was a collection that should be here.
In April 2010, the Library and Twitter signed an agreement providing the Library the public tweets from the company’s inception through the date of the agreement, an archive of tweets from 2006 through April 2010. Additionally, the Library and Twitter agreed that Twitter would provide all public tweets on an ongoing basis under the same terms."
FutureWatch: Data mining of your tweets by employers, attorneys, investigators, retailers, insurance companies, LOEs, ex's, and plain old creepy people.
BTW... Kevin's Security Scrapbook post headlines are Tweeted.
You're brain farts are permanently archived.
Twitter and the Library of Congress have this "deal", see. Twitter gave the right to the Library of Congress to archive your public tweets from 2006 on. The result... everything posted publicly by you, since then, is now owned by the government.
In April 2010, the Library and Twitter signed an agreement providing the Library the public tweets from the company’s inception through the date of the agreement, an archive of tweets from 2006 through April 2010. Additionally, the Library and Twitter agreed that Twitter would provide all public tweets on an ongoing basis under the same terms."
FutureWatch: Data mining of your tweets by employers, attorneys, investigators, retailers, insurance companies, LOEs, ex's, and plain old creepy people.
BTW... Kevin's Security Scrapbook post headlines are Tweeted.
Infographic - NSA Interactive Spy Chart
This is a plot of the NSA programs revealed in the past year according to whether they are bulk or targeted, and whether the targets of surveillance are foreign or domestic. Most of the programs fall squarely into the agency’s stated mission of foreign surveillance, but some – particularly those that are both domestic and broad-sweeping – are more controversial.
Just as with the New York Magazine approval matrix that served as our inspiration, the placement of each program is based on judgments and is approximate.
For more details, read our FAQ or listen to our podcast. Also, take our quiz to test your NSA knowledge. (more)
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| Click to see whole chart. |
Just as with the New York Magazine approval matrix that served as our inspiration, the placement of each program is based on judgments and is approximate.
For more details, read our FAQ or listen to our podcast. Also, take our quiz to test your NSA knowledge. (more)
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
BSI Publishes Study on Enterprise Mobile Device Security
BSI, the German Federal Office for Information Security, has published a report on "Enterprise mobile device security" (in German*) that provides a comprehensive overview on the current risks associated with the deployment of mobile devices in an enterprise context.
The report... covers Apple iOS, Google Android and Blackberry devices, taking a hard look at the current generation of hardware and software and the resulting dependencies on a limited number of key suppliers.
The study identifies key risk areas associated with the deployment of mobile devices in an enterprise context... and makes the case for doing so only in the context of a well-defined framework of organizational and technical measures that secure the enterprise against industrial espionage and other kinds of attacks.
* An English version may be available. Ask at ESD America.
Audio interview about Cryptophone, a high security cell phone ≈ 6 min.
The report... covers Apple iOS, Google Android and Blackberry devices, taking a hard look at the current generation of hardware and software and the resulting dependencies on a limited number of key suppliers.
The study identifies key risk areas associated with the deployment of mobile devices in an enterprise context... and makes the case for doing so only in the context of a well-defined framework of organizational and technical measures that secure the enterprise against industrial espionage and other kinds of attacks.
* An English version may be available. Ask at ESD America.
Audio interview about Cryptophone, a high security cell phone ≈ 6 min.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Travel - Should executives expect to be subjected to more traditional means of surveillance...
...such as hidden cameras or microphones, intrusion into hotel rooms, or being followed?
Hidden cameras, microphones or physical surveillance are all reportedly routine in many parts of the world, not just China, for purposes that can include industrial espionage, blackmail and to identify and monitor potential criminal activity.
Physical security systems, domestic security practices and personal privacy expectations can vary in different areas, but all of the above may be encountered.
At major facilities catering to foreign business travelers, we expect that plainclothes police and domestic security personnel are nearby at almost all times.
However, some individuals claiming to be police or facility staff may be scam artist impersonators – you never want to hand over a wallet containing identification, cash and all your payment cards.
If you travel into the interior on a domestic flight, do not be surprised if your wallet and personal electronic devices are removed to a location out of your view during screening at the security checkpoint. (more)
Hidden cameras, microphones or physical surveillance are all reportedly routine in many parts of the world, not just China, for purposes that can include industrial espionage, blackmail and to identify and monitor potential criminal activity.
At major facilities catering to foreign business travelers, we expect that plainclothes police and domestic security personnel are nearby at almost all times.
However, some individuals claiming to be police or facility staff may be scam artist impersonators – you never want to hand over a wallet containing identification, cash and all your payment cards.
If you travel into the interior on a domestic flight, do not be surprised if your wallet and personal electronic devices are removed to a location out of your view during screening at the security checkpoint. (more)
First a Drone. Now a Helicopter. World Cup Spying Continues.
Chile coach, Jorge Sampaoli, brought the session to a temporary standstill until the helicopter was ushered away from local side Cruzerio’s training centre at Toca da Raposa. (more)
Leaked: 10 Months Of The Houston Astros' Internal Trade Talks
Two years ago, the Houston Astros constructed "Ground Control"—a built-from-scratch online database for the private use of the Astros front office.
It is by all accounts a marvel, an easy-to-use interface giving executives instant access to player statistics, video, and communications with other front offices around baseball.
All it needs, apparently, is a little better password protection.
Documents purportedly taken from Ground Control and showing 10 months' worth of the Astros' internal trade chatter have been posted online at Anonbin, a site where users can anonymously share hacked or leaked information. (more)
It is by all accounts a marvel, an easy-to-use interface giving executives instant access to player statistics, video, and communications with other front offices around baseball.
All it needs, apparently, is a little better password protection.
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| Ground Control Failure |
The Banksy Spy Art Saga - Next Stop - The Art Gallery - Maybe
UK - A stop notice could be issued by Cheltenham Borough Council to prevent a Banksy artwork from being removed from the side of a private house.
A photo has emerged apparently showing a hole has been cut into the wall of the Grade II* listed building, on which the Spy Booth artwork was painted.
On Thursday it was confirmed it was being removed, but the council warned that planning permission may be needed.
The work, depicting men "snooping" on a telephone box, appeared in April. (more)
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| Click to enlarge. (worth doing) |
On Thursday it was confirmed it was being removed, but the council warned that planning permission may be needed.
The work, depicting men "snooping" on a telephone box, appeared in April. (more)
Bill Cosby's First TV Series, I Spy, Leads New Shows on DVD
“I Spy: The Complete Series”
(Timeless/DVD, 1965-68, 18 discs, 82 episodes; 20-page booklet/episode guide).
The story goes that actor Robert Culp was developing a secret-agent series to cash in on the James Bond craze and the second lead was to be an older white actor. But when producer Sheldon Leonard saw Cosby’s stand-up act, he suggested the character be changed to accommodate him. Cosby was 27, this was his first acting job and over the course of the show he won three Emmys. (more)
(Timeless/DVD, 1965-68, 18 discs, 82 episodes; 20-page booklet/episode guide).
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