CA - Hollywood's disgraced private investigator to the stars shuffled in shackles into a federal courtroom Monday and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a celebrity wiretapping scandal.
The sentence was close to the 16 years sought by federal prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer ordered Pellicano to forfeit $2 million. The judge did not give the former sleuth credit for time served, meaning he will serve nearly all of the sentence.
Dressed in a green jailhouse jumpsuit, Anthony Pellicano, 65, blew a kiss to family members as he was led into court. (more)
via Wired...The PR company's email begins thus: "You've never seen a camera like this." And it's true. The Digital Window from Scallop Imaging is a rather neat mix of hack and paranoia, a device cobbled together from five cellphone camera lenses, an Ethernet powered box and software which stitches the whole lot together for a seven megapixel, 15 frames per second, 180º view.
To further increase employee paranoia, you'll never know when the camera is looking at you. Because of the 180º view and high-definition, a digital zoom combined with digital pan mean the the cameras never move when looking around. (more) (more) (manufacturer)
"Fast, efficient and easy to use, these 10-bladed scissors cut and shred at the same time. They slice through credit cards, destroy personal documents, paperwork, and bills so no one can see your discarded private information." (more)
CA - Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano isn't the only person imprisoned as a result of his wiretaps of the rich and famous. His victims say they have never been able to free themselves from the emotional and financial fallout caused by his crimes.A former reporter says she has nightmares about being hunted and raped. A mother copes with her daughter being mocked by other kids and their parents. An actress who once appeared in a popular television series says she has found little work since.They are among the victims who submitted letters to the federal judge who is scheduled to sentence Pellicano on Monday. The former private eye is in custody after being convicted of a total of 78 counts, including wiretapping, racketeering and wire fraud, in two separate trials earlier this year. (more)
Egyptian club Al Ahly's coach Friday angrily accused Mexican side Pachuca of spying on a team training session ahead of their crucial Club World Cup clash. "Three spies from Pachuka came to inspect our practice today. It's not fair. We didn't watch their practice. It's not fair," said coach Manuel Jose after their training session on Friday. (more)
Researchers at ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, say they've developed new analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person's brain and display them on a computer screen, according to Pink Tentacle, an English-language blog that covers news from Japan. Pink Tentacle picked up the info from Japan's Chunichi Shimbun daily newspaper...Although the technology is still in the early phases of development, it paves the way for applications that until now have only been the stuff of science fiction, such as reading minds for interrogation purposes, eavesdropping on dreams as people snooze... And researchers at the University of Sheffield in England believe that fMRI is more useful than polygraphs, which have been shown to have false positives and negatives, in determining whether someone is lying. (more)
UK - Teenagers in Cheltenham and Tewkesbury are being fitted with James Bond-style spy cameras in a bid to catch out rogue shop keepers who sell alcohol to underage buyers.
Teenagers are fitted with the cameras, which match buttons on their clothes, by specialist police teams. They are then monitored as they enter off-licences and supermarkets and attempt to buy alcohol. Sounds and images are relayed back to police officers outside the premises who can then take action.
During the past three years Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Police have carried out more than 500 test purchase operations. (more)
Welcome to the SpyCam Story 500 milestone.
Here, we feature news stories about video spying.
This Scrapbook feature started when a security director asked me, "How can I show my boss electronic eavesdropping is real and I am not just being paranoid?" Interesting problem. There are no 'illegal eavesdropping statistics' to quote.
Keep in mind, the media only reports spying failures; the one's who got caught. Successful spying is totally invisible. Like commercial airline stories; you never read about the successful landings.
The solution to the security director's conundrum...
• Track sales of eavesdropping devices.
• Track eavesdropping failures as reported by the media.
• Factor in... Most spycam, bug and wiretap failures are handled privately. They never make it to the lawsuit level, and media attention.
• Factor in... Not all media stories make it to my attention.
• Factor in... Many spycam stories are in such bad taste I exclude them.
Now, we see the tip of the spyberg.
Security directors use this proof to substantiate their Eavesdropping Detection Audit budgets.
And now (drum roll)...
SpyCam Story #500
Extortionography - From Winehouse to the Big HouseUK - The man who sold video footage to a London tabloid showing Amy Winehouse engaged in what appeared to be drug use was sentenced to jail on Friday... Johnny Blagrove, and his girlfriend, Cara Burton, had filmed Ms. Winehouse, without her knowledge and sold the footage to The Sun for about $75,000. Mr. Blagrove and Ms. Burton admitted that they had offered to supply drugs to Ms. Winehouse and other celebrities. The police said that the couple had kept a list of celebrities they planned to record taking drugs. A judge sentenced Mr. Blagrove to two years in prison; Ms. Burton was ordered to perform two years’ community service. (more)
There were no tigers to catch, and it's not really the right season to be fishing shirtless, so Russian Prime Minister [ex-spymaster] Vladimir Putin renamed a mountain this week. There is a 10,788-foot peak in North Ossetia that had previously been without a name. Putin claimed naming rights, dubbing it the Peak of Russian Counterintelligence Agents, seriously, naming it after the country's spies. (more)Meanwhile, Google ogles an eye that spies at 2,233,440 feet!GeoEye 1, a satellite launched into polar orbit on September 6 that can "see" objects on Earth as small as 16 inches (0.41 meter) in size in black-and-white mode or 64.6 inches (1.64 meters) in color. Images from the GeoEye 1, which stands 20 feet (6.1 meters) high and weighs more than 4,300 pounds (1,950 kilograms), so impressed Google that the Internet search giant plans to add the satellite's high-resolution, digital color photos to Google Earth next month. (more) (sample photos)
MI - A former Brighton father convicted of using a mirror under a bathroom door [at home] to peek at... In a pee plea agreement with prosecutors, [other] charges were dropped in exchange for him pleading guilty to eavesdropping... (more)
A Japanese research team has revealed it had created a technology that could eventually display on a computer screen what people have on their minds, such as dreams.Researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories succeeded in processing and displaying images directly from the human brain, they said in a study unveiled ahead of publication in the US magazine Neuron.
While the team for now has managed to reproduce only simple images from the brain, they said the technology could eventually be used to figure out dreams and other secrets inside people's minds. (more)
Two stories today warn employee crime increases during tough times.
Businesses Say Theft by Their Workers Is UpCompanies Find That Trusted Employees Often Commit the Crimes, and They Believe the Recession Is to Blame (more)
Economic Woes May Bring out the Worst in IT StaffIBM Corp.'s ISS X-Force research team reports that its Web-based monitors have picked up a 30 percent increase in network and Internet-related security events in the last 120 days. Worldwide, the total number of such events has risen from 1.8 billion to 2.5 billion. "With a little planning and forethought, a disgruntled employee can do a lot of damage with little fear of being caught and prosecuted," said IBM security expert Gunter Ollman... (more)Biggest return for the lowest risk... your intellectual property and privacy. Keep alert. Conduct information security audits regularly.
The New Age of Wiretapping
Law enforcement is using new eavesdropping techniques
(video) ...many of the same audio/video eavesdropping tools are also available to people engaged in business espionage.
Court records from the investigation into Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich are filled with recorded conversations of the governor allegedly offering to sell an appointment to President-elect Barack Obama's former U.S. Senate seat. How did the government find out what he was saying?
Federal investigators tapped Blagojevich's home phone and bugged his personal office and a conference room in the Friends of Blagojevich campaign headquarters. Officials began listening to conversations in late October, the court documents say.
Former law enforcement officials and security experts, who were not familiar with the details of the investigation, said it may be easier than one would think to listen in on private conversations, even those of a governor..."It's amazing to me how easy it is to get into most places," said Kevin Murray, a security consultant. "Locks and alarms are not really good enough to deter espionage." [speaking about covert entry into commercial buildings]
Listening devices can be very small and easily concealed, with some so tiny they can "fit underneath your fingernail," said Murray. Bugs have been placed inside walls, in light fixtures, lamps, phones and coasters. (more)
UK - A businessman has been fined thousands of pounds for selling illegal spy equipment that could have interfered with aircraft – and even Ministry of Defence communications.The "spy bugs" were sold by Umesh Bharakhada (43), of Millers Close, Syston.The bugs used the same radio frequencies as the aviation industry and could disrupt communications with aircraft flying overhead.Bharakhada made the illegal kit and sold it on to surveillance supply firms in Chesterfield and Coventry – who sold it on to anyone who asked, city magistrates were told...He was fined £4,200 and ordered to pay £6,000 in legal costs... It is the second time he has been fined. In 2003, he was prosecuted for selling bugging devices to private investigation companies to eavesdrop on conversations. (more)
GA - Terry McCrary, 40, 29 Woodland Circle, Columbus, was charged Friday with unlawful eavesdropping and surveillance. (source)
Steinbach accuses mayor of spyingFormer rival says Calderone hacked municipal e-mail accountsIL - Using information gleaned from the hard drives of a dozen village-owned computers, former commissioner Theresa Steinbach has named Mayor Anthony Calderone, her next-door neighbor, as the culprit responsible for allegedly hacking into her municipal e-mail account.The accusation was filed in federal court this month as an amendment to the 2006 suit in which Steinbach accused three unknown Forest Park officials of privacy violations. Supporting the accusation is a third-party report that concludes the mayor's laptop was used to access the e-mail accounts of five employees and public officials, including Steinbach's. (more)
A UK internet retailer specialising in surveillance equipment is reporting a huge jump in sales. Spy Catcher Online is the internet retail outlet of the Spy Master Store located in Central London...Director Julia Wing says the credit crunch is encouraging people to use their products to get concrete evidence of deals reached with other parties. 'People want to have, on record, what someone has agreed to,' she says. (more)
Motorola sees all LANs wireless in future...Corporate networks will increasingly be deployed using wireless technology.
...69 percent of IT directors said they planned to make their LAN completely wireless by 2010, providing key concerns were met...Businesses may still have concerns over wireless with regards to the security of the technology against eavesdropping, performance of the network, and its reliability.However, Angelo Lamme, wireless director of Motorola's Enterprise Mobility, said that the newer 802.11n equipment now being deployed addresses many of these concerns. (
more)Just "many"; not all? Which ones?Hit the brakes!screeeech!!!!!!!!What could possibly go wrong?!?!• Hackers have already cracked every level of Wi-Fi security.
• Laptop users are already corporate info-sieves due to WiPhishing and Evil Twin loopholes.
• And, public access Wi-Fi is a data voyeur's delight.Advice: Demand better before you pull out the corporate wallet, and unlock your info-vault.
Think you are ready for a career with the CIA. Let's see what they think about you... Take "The CIA Personality Quiz" They have many job openings and are looking for selfish types... self-reliant, self-disciplined, self-starters.Here is what they had to say about me...
Guess I'll keep my day job. (another spy personality quiz)
via money.cnn.com...The financial crisis means boom times for spooks-for-hire.NEW YORK (Fortune) -- If James Bond's "License to Kill" gets revoked, he'd have no problem finding work as a corporate spy. To the short list of sectors that stand to gain from the financial crisis, add corporate intelligence firms. They are seeing a dramatic uptick in business... (more)
Legal corporate Paladins are only half the story. Covert corporate moles are also having "boom times"; tapping disgruntled employees to plant bugs and feed them inside information. Very lucrative for all concerned.
2008 – A year of memorable bug and tap stories...• New York, Governor Elliot Spitzer• Illinois, Governor Rod Blagojevich
"If anybody wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead, feel free to do it. I appreciate anybody who wants to tape me openly and notoriously. And those who feel like they wanna sneakily and wear taping devices, I would remind them that it kinda smells like Nixon and Watergate." Spoken the day before his arrest.• Nevada, O.J. Simpson• California, Hollywood Private Investigator, Anthony PellicanoEach person failed to respect the power of electronic surveillance. Sheer arrogance.
In the private sector, electronic surveillance works just as well for "getting the goods." The difference is that business respects the havoc electronic surveillance can bring. Because they respect, they inspect. Frequent eavesdropping detection audits of sensitive offices, conference rooms, executive homes, off-site meetings, etc. are a standard practice.
I know. I help businesses keep their business from becoming front-page news, or worse. Need some help? Just let me know.
~ Kevin
The European Union is spending $10.3 million on wireless tracking systems designed to allow authorities to issue automated tickets for increasingly minor traffic infractions.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a key component in achieving the goal described as "traffic violations detected in a flash." Many of the ideas have already made their way to the United States. (more)
RFID Plates Are Coming to Town
You better watch out
You better not lie
Better not speed
I'm telling you why
RFID plates are coming to town
They're making a list
And checking it twice
Gonna find out who's driving ain't nice
RFID plates are coming to town
They'll see you when you're speeding
They'll toll you at the gate
They'll know if you're tailgating
So back off for goodness sake!
O! You better watch out!
You better not lie
Better not speed
I'm telling you why
RFID plates are coming to town
from the manufacturer's website..."Firewalls and antivirus software are no defense against acts of data theft and corruption from within your organization at local endpoints. You don't have to be an administrator to connect a small digital camera, MP3 player, or flash memory stick to the USB and begin uploading or downloading whatever you want. If you are a system administrator, you know you can't manage such device-level activity via Group Policy.Using endpoint device security solution called DeviceLock®, network administrators can lock out unauthorized users from USB and FireWire devices, WiFi and Bluetooth adapters, CD-Rom and floppy drives, serial and parallel ports, PDAs and smartphones, local and network printers and many other plug-and-play devices. Once DeviceLock® is installed, administrators can control access to any device, depending on the time of day and day of the week.For enterprises standardized on software and hardware-based encryption solutions like PGP® Whole Disk Encryption, TrueCrypt and Lexar® SAFE PSD S1100 USB drives, DeviceLock® allows administrators to centrally define and remotely control the encryption policies their employees must follow when using removable devices for storing and retrieving corporate data. For example, certain employees or their groups can be allowed to write to and read from only specifically encrypted USB flash drives, while other users of the corporate network can be permitted to "read only" from non-encrypted removable storage devices but not write to them. (more)
Did you know..."The book “Bambi: A Life in the Woods,” on which the Disney movie was based, was translated from German to English by Whittaker Chambers, the famous Soviet spy." (source)
"Just hours after the launch of Facebook Connect, Google also took the beta tags off its similar Friend Connect venture. Google and Facebook on Thursday announced the availability of competing authentication systems that enable Internet users to sign in to third party Web sites using either their Facebook or Google Account login details." (more)Coincidence, or espionage?You decide.
Remember Tom Daley?PA - The man prosecutors dubbed the "Peeping Tom Landlord" has pleaded not guilty to charges he used electronic surveillance devices to videotape more than 30 women who lived in his Norristown apartment buildings.Thomas Daley, 45, of the 1000 block of Spring City Road, Phoenixville, waived his arraignment Thursday in Montgomery County Court and entered not guilty pleas to charges of invasion of privacy, criminal use of a communication facility, tampering with evidence, burglary and violations of wiretap and surveillance laws in connection with his alleged activities at residential buildings he owns in Norristown...In a criminal complaint filed against Daley, authorities alleged Daley installed hidden cameras and audio equipment in numerous apartments in buildings he owned.During the investigation, detectives seized numerous boxes of electronic equipment authorities claim Daley used for his secret audio and video recordings. The equipment was allegedly found in his home as well as his apartment buildings.This equipment included 32 cameras, 14 of which were equipped with an audio components. The tiny cameras were found in multiple locations throughout the apartments, detectives alleged. Some were hidden behind screws in bedroom ceiling fans and others were found behind pinholes in walls, behind faucets in bathtubs and towel racks and behind doorbell chimes, detectives alleged. (more)
TN - A Bartlett church is now at the center of a police investigation. Bartlett Police say a man planted a camera in the women's restroom. They say it happened at "That Church," located at 6001 Bartlett Center Drive...
"His whole goal was to get video of her, because he was in love with her and she didn't want anything to do with him," says Youth Pastor Corey Force. Force says a church member hid a camera in two of the women's restrooms to videotape a woman he had a crush on...Eyewitness News was told the camera was found in a plant on top of the toilet. Force says the tapings took place on Thursday's during youth services. (more)
Think GPS tracking devices are just sinister spy shop gadgets used by: police, sleazy private investigators and insecure spouses? Think again.
GPS is now a respectable, 'helpful technology' with product names like: "Car & Family Locator", "Dog Locator" and "Universal Locator". Yup, hit the net, find: Poochy, Chevy, Mommy and your school backpack – possibly with Bobby or Janey strapped to it.
No need to slink into the former adult-book-store-turned-spy-shop. Radio Shack, Target and many other main-stream stores are now selling GPS trackers to everyone.
Zoombak (product)
(Go here to actually contribute to the Poll)
These are the questions (my answers in red)...
What do you consider the biggest security risk for your company in 2009?• Terrorism• Workplace violence• Intellectual property theftHas your perceived risk for 2009 changed during the past year?• Yes• NoDo you feel you can adequately prepare for and prevent this risk?• Yes.• No. Why not?Comments: Historically, security budgets have been skewed toward protecting physical assets. The value of most organizations, however, lies in their intellectual property assets. It is common to see budgets split 80%/20% when it should be the other way around.Times are changing. Savvy security directors now understand intellectual property theft is a daily threat with very high-value consequences. Terrorism, workplace violence and general property protection problems tend to be sporadic and unpredictable; usually with a much lower dollar-value consequence.The word among many of my clients is, "Let's put the money where it will do the most good." They are doing this by realigning budgets to match the real risks.
Paying attention to intellectual property theft is the new trend. Programs being instituted include:
• better management of information storage,
• eavesdropping and espionage detection audits,
• wireless LAN security auditing and compliance evaluations,
• employee education,
• workplace safeguards like... proper document disposal, and implementing the security features on computers and hard-drive based document printing stations.The nice part – given the current economic situation – is that these changes do not increase the budget. They just make better use of it. ---
Take the Poll.
See how others feel.Kevin
Rob Spence looks you straight in the eye when he talks. So it's a little unnerving to imagine that soon one of his hazel-green eyes will have a tiny wireless video camera in it that records your every move.The eye he's considering replacing is not a working one -- it's a prosthetic eye he's worn for several years. Spence, a 36-year-old Canadian filmmaker, is not content with having one blind eye. He wants a wireless video camera inside his prosthetic, giving him the ability to make movies wherever he is, all the time, just by looking around."If you lose your eye and have a hole in your head, then why not stick a camera in there?" he asks. (more) (video of operation yuck factor 10)
Canada - Federal agents say they have infiltrated a foreign spy ring that illegally exported sensitive goods from Canada while engaging in tens of millions of dollars worth of financial transactions...Senator Colin Kenny, who chairs a committee on national security, said foreign espionage is a big concern for him and other officials. "We've been very concerned, particularly about the Chinese," he said. (more)
SpyOn Voice is a Microsoft Windows application suitable for Win 95, XP and Vista.
SpyOn Voice is undetectable.
The person you are spying on will not notice the bug has been installed and will be able to use their PC normally. The SpyOn Voice bug can be installed on many PC’s in the network. The SpyOn Monitor allows you to connect up and listen to any bugged PC. SpyOn Voice allows you to record vital and sensitive conversations for later playback. These recording can be used for analysis or as evidence material.
SpyOn Voice is easy to use – if you can handle a mobile phone you can handle SpyOn Voice. (more)
Singapore - A woman was about to undress when she spotted something on top of a bathroom cabinet in a Choa Chu Kang flat last December. When the 31-year-old, who had been renting a room in the unit, took a closer look, she discovered a pinhole-camera, hidden among some buckets on top of the cabinet...A length of wire attached to the camera led to the master bedroom where it was linked to a computer. The woman immediately told her six other room-mates about her discovery and confronted private school student Toh Tong Ming, 26, who slept in the bedroom. She later made a police report. It is not known how long Toh had been living in the flat, which is owned by his uncle.Yesterday, he was sentenced in a district court to three weeks' jail for insulting the modesty of the tenant. (more)
Two Pennsylvania siblings have been accused of illegally spying on their father before his murder last winter—a case that remains unsolved—because they thought he was cheating on their mother.While investigating the homicide, state police learned that Ingle's two adult children had been intercepting their father's e-mails in an attempt to prove his infidelity, according to arrest affidavits.Parth Ingle, 22, and his sister Avnee Ingle, 25, both of Pottstown, were charged this week with 117 counts of unlawful use of a computer and 117 counts of illegal wiretapping. They were freed on bail. (more)
When most people think of eavesdropping, wiretapping and espionage in the workplace, they think outsiders: economic spying conducted by countries, other businesses, freelance spies, etc.
Not so. Over the past 30+ years, working with businesses and government agencies of all types, here is what I have found... about 50% of these problems are internal: employee vs. employee, labor vs. management (and vice versa), employee vs. external auditors, rogue employees, undercover spy employees, etc..
The following news item provides an example of internal intrigue worthy of a textbook chapter. It is also another very good reason to inspect for covert bugs, voice recorders and wiretaps on a regular basis.WI - City of Pewaukee Police Chief Gary Bach alleged Wednesday that several officers in his department secretly recorded conversations with him as part of a conspiracy to get him fired...Bach's allegation came just days before he is to face a disciplinary hearing before the City of Pewaukee's Police and Fire Commission that could lead to his firing...Lt. John Kopatich, who testified Wednesday that he secretly recorded conversations with Bach...
Testimony elicited throughout the day showed that officers were so distrustful of Bach - and Bach of them - that they all secretly recorded each other.Kopatich told Davis that he recorded Bach on a number of occasions without Bach's knowledge beginning in 2005. Kopatich said he made the recordings because he wanted proof in case Bach told him to do something and then later denied it...Bach began recording other officers about the time an investigation was launched into his conduct after a female officer filed a complaint in December 2006 alleging that he used inappropriate language when referring to her, according to testimony.Capt. Dan Meister testified that Bach also instructed him in January 2007 to begin recording conversations with officers. The chief had a secret code that he used to make sure both had their recorders running, Meister testified. The chief would say, "I'm loaded. Make sure you're loaded," Meister testified. (more)Internal spying can inflict just as much damage and expense as external spying. Inspecting regularly is both smart and cost-effective. (Learn more about Eavesdropping Detection Audits)
Following India’s threat to shut down the Blackberry network in the country unless Research in Motion allows the government to snoop on Blackberry users made earlier this year, the country seems to have found a more pragmatic solution, and in a surprising move has publicly announced that they have finally managed to crack Blackberry’s encryption :“The government has decrypted the data on Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry networks. The department of telecommunication (DoT), Intelligence Bureau and security agency National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) have done tests on service providers such as Bharti Airtel, BPL Mobile, Reliance Communications and Vodafone-Essar networks for interception of Internet messages from BlackBerry to non-BlackBerry devices.Initially, there were difficulties in cracking the same on Vodafone-Essar network but that has also been solved. This means that the e-mail messages sent on Internet through your BlackBerry sets would no longer be exclusive and government would be able to track them.” (more) (history)
"New Delhi, New Delhi"
Start spreadin' the news, RIM's leavin' today
Don't want no part of it, spy pork, spy pork
These Blackberry blues, are a freakin' dismay
Spy right through the very heart of it, New Delhi, New Delhi
If they can tap it here, They'll tap it anywhere
Fed up with you, New Delhi, New Delhi.
UK - A disgraced policeman set up a hidden video camera in the lavatory of his wife's physiotherapy practice and filmed female customers using the toilet.Former South Yorkshire Police officer Andrew James Maton, who was trained in covert surveillance techniques, hid the police camera in a tool bag on a shelf at Balance Physiotherapy Studios in Thames Street, Rotherham. Sheffield Crown Court heard Maton, aged 43, sat in his car with a control plugged into the cigarette lighter and recorded three women using the toilet.Maton, who had served in the Army, worked in South Yorkshire Police's technical support unit and specialised in high risk work involving covert installation of recording gear.The father of five was caught after he left a VHS tape of the footage in a video player at work. (more)
KY - When the family of a Louisville grandmother suspected her caretaker was stealing money, they set up two hidden cameras in her home.It wasn't long, police said, before those cameras captured 56-year-old Marilyn Martindale committing crimes. Video released to WLKY shows Martindale allegedly taking the woman's purse out of view of the camera, then returning it several minutes later. Investigators said Martindale stole several hundred dollars out of the purse on that occasion. Another video shows Martindale rummaging through the woman's bedroom drawer, police said to steal more money the family had put there as bait. (more) (other caretakers caught on video)Side story...Burglar caught on video.
UK - Simon Cowell is warning gossip mongers 'enough is enough' after snagging an undercover reporter who planted a magnetic tracking bug underneath his blinging Bentley mobile.The TV judge says he won't tolerate anymore silly media games, complaining he is exhausted at being hounded by the press for the last seven years.Cowell's spokesman Max Clifford said his team have caught the journalist who planted the device and says the failed ploy is the final straw. (more)
China - "Microphone makers in the region, spurred on by a huge market demand, are up and ready to ramp up production of silicon microphones with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) processing technology. Worldwide shipment is forecast to reach nearly 1.6 billion units in 2011..." (more)
So, just how small is a MEMS microphone?
Get a penny.
Look at Lincoln.
It would fit up his nose.
(1.35 x 1.35 x 0.3 mm)
(source)
FutureWatch - Micro Micro Mics combined with other MEM technology, micro micro power components and micro micro batteries to create a new generation of eavesdropping bugs. Sci-fi SpyDust becomes fact. (more)
Once you are outside of the USA, anything that you say can be eavesdropped on without a court order by US authorities... and authorities from every other country. This rarely-mentioned exception in the US eavesdropping law was recently reaffirmed in this terrorist bombing case."El-Hage contends that the District Court erred by (1) recognizing a foreign intelligenceexception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement, (2) concluding that the search of El-Hage’s home and surveillance of his telephone lines qualified for inclusion in that exception, and (3) resolving El-Hage’s motion on the basis of an ex parte review of classified materials, without affording El-Hage’s counsel access to those materials or holding a suppression hearing. Because we hold that the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of reasonableness—and not the Warrant Clause—governs extraterritorial searches of U.S. citizens and that the searches challenged on this appeal were reasonable, we find no error in the District Court’s denial of El-Hage’s suppression motion."
Daruma Dolls are those cute round little wish dolls without arms or legs. Heck, they don't even have eyes until you start wishing. Appropriately, Zen ...until now.
(cue Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me")That 'someone' is stuffing these hollow,
"Holy moly my wish came true,"s
with spycams!!!Instant Japanese Santa?
Naughty? Nice?
Daruma sees all.
"Your wish is..."Let's go shopping... (video)
Canada - A budding coalition between New Democrats, the separatist Bloc Quebecois and Liberals is an exercise in nation building, NDP Leader Jack Layton told his caucus in a conference call covertly recorded by the government.Layton's national unity musings were secretly recorded Saturday by the Conservatives. They held the tape for a day and then had an official from the Prime Minister's Office deliver it to various media on Sunday. (more) (extortionography)
via WCBD-TV...
High-resolution hidden cameras sell for as little as a couple of hundred dollars and they come in all shapes and sizes.
The rapid spread of spy technology has caught the eye of privacy advocates. Michael Scott teaches technology and information privacy law at Southwestern Law School. “Technology develops so quickly that it takes a long time for the law to catch up,” he explained.
A quick YouTube search for spy cameras turns up what appear to be dozens of illegally shot hidden camera videos in fitting rooms, tanning salons and people’s homes. Of course, for every gadget, there’s usually a counter gadget. (and in the corporate world, counter-surveillance specialists.)
“There are a lot of people who are worried that someone else might be pointing a camera at them that shouldn’t be,” said Morris. Especially celebrities...
Kid Rock’s security team recently found a hidden camera in his dressing room in Minneapolis. (more) (video report)
UK - The House of Commons office of Damian Green, the Tories' immigration spokesman, is routinely swept for electronic bugging devices, along with other offices belonging to senior Conservatives, amid fears of covert monitoring, The Independent on Sunday has discovered.Anger surrounding the shadow immigration minister's arrest last week escalated dramatically last night over suspicions of a major bugging scandal inside the Palace of Westminster. (more)
NY - Officials with the Lincoln-Edison Charter School have proposed establishing a middle school with the theme of "Homeland Security." Students would receive instruction in emergency response, computer security and other issues related to "Homeland Security." ... (one course mentioned) ADVANCED INTEL 201 - Basic Wiretapping: What'd Daddy Say About That Lady? - Students will hone their wiretapping skills by listening in on their parents' phone calls. Students will learn how to properly interpret statements such as "Junior's acting kinda weird lately" and "What's that clicking noise?" (more)
CA - Hollywood's disgraced private investigator to the stars shuffled in shackles into a federal courtroom Monday and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a celebrity wiretapping scandal. 
