Just when you thought there were no more places to hide a spycam...

FL - A 54-year-old Southside man is behind bars after a young woman found a tiny camera hidden inside a loofah as she was taking a shower in their home, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

Kelly Lloyd Birkley remains jailed on $25,000 bail after being charged Monday with video voyeurism of someone 19 or older. Responding officers found Birkley sitting in a car in the driveway, reporting that he told them “I’m a dirty old man” when they approached, according to his arrest report...

Court records show Birkley’s wife filed a temporary injunction for protection against him the same day he was arrested. more

Hacktivists - Hackers Who Hack For Privacy

Another day, another data breach – This time it is Retina-X Studios, a well know spyware developing firm.

There are different types of hackers, some hack for profit while some hack for good and then there are hacktivists who do it for the cause...

...the company suffered a security breach in April 2017 revealing that Retina’s software are also used to spy on customers to keep an eye on their partners without their consent which is unlawful...

Retina-X has once again suffered a data breach in which a hacker going by the online handle of Precise Buffalo on Mastodon server has targeted Retina-X and completely erased 1 terabyte of data from its cloud server including photos customers stole from unsuspecting users including kids who installed Retina-X’s Phonesheriff application on their smartphone...

“None of this should be online at all. “Aside from the technical flaws, I really find this category of software disturbing. In the US, it’s mainly targeted to parents,” the hacker said, explaining his motivations for going after Retina-X. “Edward Snowden has said that privacy is what gives you the ability to share with the world who you are on your own terms, and to protect for yourself the parts of you that you’re still experimenting with. I don’t want to live in a world where younger generations grow up without that right,” said the hacker.

This is not the first time when a spyware developer has been hacked. Previously mSpy was compromised when a hacker stole personal data of 400,000 users and leaked it online. more

EU Kills Nanny, and other covert cams used to spot theft and wrong-doing.

Translation

EU - Employers looking to monitor the conduct of their employees should consider their actions carefully, particularly in light of the requirements of the new data protection laws coming into force in May.

In a recent legal case, a Spanish supermarket set up hidden CCTV cameras to monitor its employees after it uncovered theft at one of its stores. The footage collected showed five employees stealing items. The employees were confronted and admitted to theft, after which they were dismissed.

They pursued unfair dismissal claims, arguing that the use of the covert video evidence was an infringement of their privacy rights. The European Court of Human Rights agreed that the use of covert cameras constituted a violation of the employees' right to privacy and breached Spanish data protection law.

How does this apply in the UK? more

Minion nanny cams. Soon to be discounted.

Sunshine Disinfects Fortune Over iPhone Spyware, or Tobacco Rode... away.

Fifty dollars worth of spy gear just cost this Yale grad a fortune.

Brooklyn Heights dad Crocker Coulson forfeited any claim to his estranged wife’s tobacco fortune after he bugged her iPhone with $50 software that allowed him to record confidential meetings with her lawyer and shrink to gain an advantage in their divorce.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Sunshine doled out the “drastic” punishment because of the “unprecedented, contumacious conduct” of the Yale-educated investment consultant. Sunshine added that the punishment was a signal to other divorcing spouses not to violate attorney-client and doctor-patient confidentiality by playing private eye. more

Concerned about your smartphone?

Spyscape Opens in New York City Today

Calling all spies: Announcing the opening of SPYSCAPE, a truly unique permanent destination that combines three distinct elements:
• a contemporary museum,
• an immersive experience,
• and a journey of personal discovery. 

SPYSCAPE opens at 10am ET on Friday, February 16.  (928 8th Avenue, New York, NY)
 
Students (with valid student ID) can reserve free admission online for the opening weekend (February 16-19).

The Experience:
Upon entry, visitors will receive a unique Identity Band, which uses RFID technology to personalize their experience. They then enter the Briefing, a high-tech theater which rises up through the building as it introduces the world of secret intelligence via an immersive film developed with the studio that creates VFX for films such as Avengers, Ex-Machina and Blade Runner 2049.

Their Spy Profiles are then analyzed in Debrief, where they discover which of the 10 archetypal Spy Roles they are best suited to. This authentic profiling system was developed with a former Head of Training at British Intelligence and top industrial psychologists. The Spy Roles are: Agent Handler, Cryptologist, Hacker, Intelligence Analyst, Intelligence Operative, Special Ops Officer, Spycatcher, Spymaster, Surveillance Officer, Technical Ops Officer. more

Cuba - Concussion-like Symptoms Found in US Diplomats - Updates

Members of the US diplomatic community in Havana began visiting the embassy’s medical unit in late December 2016 with symptoms, such as headache and ear pain, that they said began after they encountered strange sounds or sensations...

In this preliminary report of a retrospective case series, persistent cognitive, vestibular, and oculomotor dysfunction, as well as sleep impairment and headaches, were observed among US government personnel in Havana, Cuba, associated with reports of directional audible and/or sensory phenomena of unclear origin. These individuals appeared to have sustained injury to widespread brain networks without an associated history of head trauma...

Neurological Manifestations Among US Government Personnel Reporting Directional Audible and Sensory Phenomena in Havana, Cuba 

More Questions Raised by Concussion-like Symptoms Found in US Diplomats Who Served in Havana

Neurological Symptoms Among US Diplomats in Cuba

Health Alert – U.S. Embassy Havana, Cuba (February 14, 2018)

Email Bugs Are Tracking You

Do you want to know exactly when a friend or colleague opens your email? How about where they are when they do?

Free services now allow us to do a little spying through the email we send. But it's raising some questions about privacy.

A growing number of people are using this technology. One More Company OMC, a company that makes software to detect this kind of email bugging, released a report last year. It says marketers put bugs in virtually all of the email they send.

But surprisingly, last year 16 percent of all conversational email-- the messages you send to friends, family and colleagues-- was also tracked. And that's up from 10 percent the year before. video more

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Counter Measures for Users
Possible measures to restrict the functioning of tracking pixels:

• Set browser and email settings to be as restrictive as possible such that external graphics are only supported after permission, and HTML emails are not supported. Appropriate firewall settings can also be used to do this.
• Some browser extensions can be used to make tracking pixels visible.
• Anonymous surfing with the Tor Browser or use of proxy servers to prevent the download of tracking pixels.
• In order to prevent the collection of additional user data such as browser type or operating system, the support of scripts in the browser can be deactivated. This can however restrict other functions on the Internet under certain circumstances. more

Rango - Spy Mission in Iran

A former high-ranking Iranian military leader recently claimed that Israel used lizard spies that "attract atomic waves" in order to identify the location of Iranian uranium mines.

The remarks, by Hassan Firuzabadi, a military advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were made in response to the recent arrest of local environmentalists, The Times of Israel reported.

"We found out that their skin attracts atomic waves and that they were nuclear spies who wanted to find out where inside the Islamic Republic of Iran we have uranium mines and where we are engaged in atomic activities," Firuzabadi told the Iranian Labour News Agency...

...the bizarre claim is ridiculous, two reptile experts told Live Science.  more

Seattle's $3,750,000.00 Lightpole Art Exhibit Closes, or Sightless in Seattle

Back in 2013, the Security Scrapbook featured Seattle's new citywide surveillance system.

"A New Apparatus Capable of Spying on You Has Been Installed Throughout Downtown Seattle. Very Few Citizens Know What It Is, and Officials Don’t Want to Talk About It."

2018...
Five years after activists forced Seattle's mayor to return the city's surveillance drones to their manufacturer, the city has announced that it is terminating its warrantless mass-surveillance program altogether.

The DHS gave the city a $3.6m grant to build out a mesh wireless network that could be enjoyed by the public and also provide communications services during emergencies -- but it was also specked to do continuous location-based surveillance as well as CCTV surveillance from lightpoles all over the city.

Activists worked with the ACLU to pressure the city to work with police to produce a privacy policy that would explain when this data would be gathered, how long it would be retained, and how it would be used. The devices were switched off while these questions were to be answered.

Five years on, the police and city were unable to articulate an answer to these questions, and so now they're spending $150,000 to tear all the gear (including the mesh networking access points) out, rather than accept any limitations on their use. more

Spying is Turning Us into a Stalking Society

Bugging and GPS-tracking used to be so expensive that they were only used by governments and private investigators, but a quick Amazon search offers up a hidden car-tracking device for US$27 (£19).

In the related items: a spy cam disguised as a USB charger, $52. These items are marketed as a “real-time teen-driving coach”, nanny cams or parental control software, but there is nothing to stop them being used for nefarious purposes.

Meanwhile, law enforcement struggles to keep up: victims of stalking or online harassment are frequently told simply to stop going online, which for a 19-year-old in 2018 is like being told not to breathe air.

As the National Stalking Helpline’s manager, Clare Elcombe Webber, points out, it feels like there are near-infinite technologies to help stalkers but few to help victims. more

Quote of the Week

“If you're a company doing business with other countries, you can expect that you're being hacked – because they want to know your negotiating position,” Charles Widdis, Security Strategy and Planning Manager at CitiPower and Powercor

Number Stations, Spies... and The Sultans of Swing (?!?!)

Numbers stations: The 'spy radio' that anyone can hear...

For decades, people around the globe have been able to listen in to mysterious spy broadcasts from all over the world with just a radio.

Gordon Corera has been investigating the strange world of number stations. more

The Next Generation of Corporate Spies Begins Training in May

The trailer for a career in spying used to come from movies and TV shows. In May 2018, it will come from gaming. The new game is called Assault Spy.

"The self-proclaimed elite corporate spy Asaru and his deadweight partner Kanoko are hired for a new job in a dreary world dominated by corporations. Their mission? Infiltrate the mega corporation, Negabot. Dash, evade, and smash your way to the truth in this fast paced action game. No secret is safe from THIS bombastic spy duo!"

Well, Some Young Spies Still Learn From TV

Bart purchases a mini spy camera and manages to take a picture of Homer dancing next to stripper named Princess Kashmir at a co-worker's strip club party.

He gives copies of the picture to his friends, and eventually the picture starts to circulate around until eventually Marge sees it. She kicks Homer out of the house, but the next day explains that she is not upset about him dancing next to a woman, but rather that Bart saw it.

She demands that he take Bart and go apologize to Princess Kashmir. Homer agrees and says that he is ready to start respecting women.

Book Review - Loose Ends - David B. Watts, PI (really)

Ever read a really good book that you wish would become a feature-length Hollywood movie? Or, a television series, because you wanted to see the main characters in more of their adventures?

Loose Ends, by David B. Watts, is that book. I read it today in one sitting. It left me full of time well spent, yet hungry for more.

Loosely based on an actual case, solved by a real-life private investigator, it’s a multiple murder mystery set in New Jersey.

Geographically, it’s all true. You can almost smell the exhaust coming from the trucks on Route 22, in Union County; see the plushness of a wealthy defense lawyer’s conference room; hear the gasps in the courtroom as the surprise ending unfolds. This read creates a mental movie as the eyes pull the words off the pages.

Total verisimilitude, especially when it comes to private investigations, attorneys, police, prosecutors, and the courtroom.

If you are at loose ends for a great read, yes, tie up with Loose Ends.