About Charles Patterson

Charles Patterson is the president, CEO, and primary consultant of Exec Security TSCM. He began working in the security field in 1978 in executive protection and related technical security services. He has been providing TSCM sweeps since 1995.

Tussle Over High-Tech Corporate Espionage

By KEVIN KOENINGER, Tues. Oct 22, 2013
Courthouse News Service

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (CN) – A satellite TV software developer claims in court that a competitor used high-tech skullduggery to steal its products and customers and commit “digital crime.”
     Pixsys Technologies sued Agemni LLC in Federal Court, claiming Agemni used a customer’s log-in credentials to access its software hundreds of times in the past year.
     Pixsys claims in the lawsuit to be a leading developer of installation and repair software for DISH satellite systems.
     The complaint involves a software suite called Dish Operations, which handles “work order management, inventory, payables and receivables, employee recruitment and retention, basic human resources, and business and employee performance and productivity.”
     Pixsys claims the configuration of its software is a closely guarded secret, and that access is available only through valid username and password credentials, which are given to […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:57-05:00October 27th, 2013|

Trade Secret requirement: reasonable measures must be taken to protect the secrecy of information

After an eavesdropping incident or any kind of information theft has taken place, it’s not enough just to claim then that proprietary information or trade secrets were lost.You must be able to establish in court not only that the information was considered a secret but also that reasonable measures had been taken to protect the information prior to the incident. Performing regular sweeps or communications security audits will help establish that fact if your case ever needs to go to court. It is the shareholders that require this element of protection. The articles below help point out some of the significance of trade secret protection.

Article from blogs.ParkerPoe.com

TRADE SECRETS CLAIM DISMISSED FOR FAILURE TO PLEAD “REASONABLE MEASURES” ELEMENT

Posted by Eric Welsh on Friday, October 4th
Recently, many of the battles in trade secret litigation in North Carolina have been fought […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:57-05:00October 27th, 2013|

New project for Elon Musk: making James Bond submarine car work.

The Drum.com 19 OCTOBER 2013

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed as mystery buyer of James Bond submarine car – and now he plans to make it work

Elon Musk, the billionaire tech inventor who co-founded Paypal, has admitted that he was the mystery telephone bidder who bought James Bond’s submarine car from ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ for £550,000 at auction in London last month. (see our post https://execsecurity.com/?p=571 )

But more intriguingly, the 42-year-old SpaceX and Tesla Motors chief now says he plans to make the classic Lotus Espirit work underwater.

“It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ drive his Lotus Esprit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater,” he said.

“I was disappointed to learn that it can’t actually transform. What I’m going to do is upgrade it […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:57-05:00October 21st, 2013|

Confronting the Insider Threat

This article from this month’s Security Management magazine (ASIS publication) provides a lot of insight into understanding how people inside your organization could be motivated to betray you. The writer delves into areas such as personality traits, background checks, risk assessment and dealing with terminations.

Confronting the Insider Threat
By Laura Spadanuta

Edward Snowden, who has leaked classified information about intelligence collection activities of the National Security Agency (NSA), reportedly told the South China Morning Post that he sought a job as a contractor at government consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton with a goal: to collect proof about the NSA’s domestic surveillance programs and alert the public to the programs. However, Snowden is not the typical insider threat. Most insiders who later betray their employer’s trust don’t start out with that intent. The change from benign employee to malicious insider can be spurred by anything from home-life stress […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 20th, 2013|

North Korea’s Overseas Restaurants Used for Espionage and Gaining Hard Currency

Travelling on business? Be careful not only of what you eat, but better be wary where you eat as well. “Another mission of the restaurants is to spy on …travelers who frequent the restaurants. Defectors say waitresses at the eateries are trained in intelligence gathering with an emphasis on prying corporate secrets from business travelers.”

BY: Bill Gertz, Washington Free Beacon
October 15, 2013

North Korea’s global network of state-run restaurants, most in China, are dens of espionage and sites of operations involving tens of thousands of overseas North Koreans who send the regime in Pyongyang more than $100 million in hard currency annually, according to U.S. and western intelligence officials.

In Asia alone, the U.S. government has identified 60 restaurants ranging from Nepal to Cambodia to Dandong, China – located along the Yalu River separating China from North Korea.

North Korean […]

Charles Patterson2013-10-19T19:31:18-04:00October 19th, 2013|

Hidden cameras keep on rolling

Discovery of hidden cameras continue to make the news. Here are a few of the latest. While the news media reports on the more sleazy discoveries, they are also popular devices for corporate spies. Most covert video cameras will also record audio making them even more dangerous as eavesdropping devices. Corporate discoveries rarely make the news as they are often dealt with in-house to avoid bad public relations.

1. Police investigating hidden camera at Waukesha swim school

TMJ4 report by Michele Fiore Oct. 4, 2013 – UPDATED: Oct. 4, 2013

WAUKESHA – A part-time swim instructor is accused of setting up a hidden camera and capturing images of his teenage coworkers in a changing room.

34-year-old Michael Coyle appeared in Waukesha County Intake Court Friday in an orange jail jumpsuit. His mother looked on, taking notes, as the attorneys in the room spoke. Coyle did not […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 14th, 2013|

Bugging in history: Ten years ago, a bugging at the mayor’s office shook Philadelphia

This article looks into the bugging of the office of Philadelphia Mayor John Street, discovered on October 7, 2003, after Street had his own sweep team inspect his office. On the eve of the 2003 mayoral election, an FBI bug was discovered in Mayor John F. Street’s office, unmasking a federal pay-to-play corruption probe of City Hall. The investigation resulted in two dozen convictions, including that of former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The article goes into a fair amount of detail including the efforts made by the FBI to get their listening devices installed.

Craig R. McCoy and Mark Fazlollah, Inquirer Staff Writers
Posted: Sunday, October 6, 2013, 2:01 AM

Before it all blew up, the FBI’s bugging of Mayor John F. Street’s City Hall office went off without a hitch.

In a choreographed intrusion, dozens of agents protected the perimeter while the […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 6th, 2013|

Corporate espionage- not new. Lack of awareness- also not new.

Having been working in the security field for over thirty five years, and in the surveillance countermeasures field for more than half of that, I’ve come to accept the need for protecting information as a given. I’m always surprised when people I would have expected to be knowledgeable demonstrate their ignorance in such matters.

In this video from 2010, experienced newscaster Bob Schiefer shows that he was clueless about the world of corporate spying. Unfortunately, I think he represents the majority of CEO’s and corporate executives out there. They need to understand the dangers their businesses face and how significant the threat against their proprietary information is.

I just ordered Eamon Javers’ book, Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy from Amazon and have not read it yet. Judging by the reviews it may be good reading for anyone dealing with corporate information.

Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy (on Amazon)

-Charles […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 5th, 2013|

New audio technology could be an interesting way to pass secret messages…

Dr. Ivan Poupyrev is a Principle Research Scientist for Disney Research in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Among other creative projects, he has developed a method for transferring audio through the human body by modulating an electric charge in the body. The audio cannot be heard unless the charged up person touches someone’s ear (or other amplification device). His creation is called Ishin-Denshin, which is a Japanese expression for communicating through an unspoken medium.

Here is a description of Ishin-denshin from Dr. Poupyrev’s web site

Ishin-Den-Shin: Transmitting Sound via Touch

This project explores the use of human body as an analogue sound transmission medium. Called “Ishin-Den-Shin,” a Japanese expression for communicating through an unspoken mutual understanding, i.e. non-verbal communication, the technology turns an audio message into an inaudible signal that is relayed by the human body. When the communicator’s finger slightly rubs an object, this physical interaction creates an ad hoc […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 2nd, 2013|

Eavesdropping, tax evasion snare divorce attorney

SFGate.com by Bob Egelko, Sept 27, 2013

San Francisco. An East Bay divorce lawyer pleaded guilty Friday to planting a secret listening device in the car of a client’s ex-husband, using a private investigator who has admitted setting up drunken driving arrests of men involved in divorce cases.

Mary Nolan‘s admission to five federal felony charges wound up a series of criminal prosecutions stemming from disclosures of private sting operations in Contra Costa County that have been nicknamed “dirty DUIs.”

Investigator Christopher Butler said he designed the scheme to tarnish men facing divorce proceedings by hiring women to approach them, have drinks at a bar and then ask the men to follow them in their cars. Butler would then call police or 911 to report a suspected drunken driver.

Butler is serving an eight-year prison sentence. Officers from four Bay Area police agencies have also been convicted.

The charges against Nolan, 61, were not connected to the […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 2nd, 2013|

Canadian DND now says no listening devices were found at Nortel building

No bugs found in former Nortel building, Defence officials now say
Ottawa Citizen, October 1, 2013 by David Pugliese

OTTAWA — The Conservative government says Defence officials have assured it that no listening devices have been found at the former Nortel campus, contradicting previous security concerns raised by both former Nortel and government intelligence employees.

Former Nortel employees have contacted the Citizen to say that the listening devices were found when Department of National Defence officials did their initial security sweeps of the facility, purchased for DND’s new home.

DND documents also indicate that concerns about the security surrounding the former Nortel campus were raised last year within the department. A briefing document for then-Defence minister Peter MacKay warned that the public announcement that the DND was moving into the complex before it could be properly secured created a major problem.

“This not only raises the level of difficulty of verifying appropriate security […]

Charles Patterson2013-10-02T20:11:21-04:00October 2nd, 2013|

Ultimo bra tycoon Michelle Mone’s firm accused of bugging potted plant.

Once again, we find surveillance threats coming from within a company’s perimeters. Potted plants need to be checked carefully during any office sweep. They make an easy hiding place for eavesdropping devices. In this case, from Scotland, it was the chairman who actually approved the bugging.

Ultimo bra tycoon Michelle Mone’s firm accused of bugging pot plant in office of former director

By Sally Hind, DailyRecord.co.uk 9/24/2013

THE 35-year-old operations director claims he found a recording device in a plant pot containing artificial flowers at the headquarters in East Kilbride.

A FORMER director of Michelle Mone’s bra firm yesterday told how he was horrified to discover his plant pot had been bugged after a row with the tycoon. Scott Kilday described how he found a “covert recording device” wrapped around an artificial flower as he debated resigning from Michelle’s lingerie firm in the wake of her bitter […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00September 28th, 2013|

London banks attacked by KVM keyboard/video/mouse remote interception.

Two London banks have been attacked by similar means. A KVM switch had been installed into their computer network that allowed remote control of computers via a 3G router. A Santander Bank branch in Southeast London and a Barclays branch in North London were both hit by these attempts.

Barclays Bank computer theft: Eight held over £1.3m haul

Eight men have been arrested in connection with a £1.3m theft by a gang who took control of a Barclays Bank computer. The money was transferred from the branch in Swiss Cottage in north London in April, a Met Police spokesman said. Searches are being carried out at addresses across London where property including cash, jewellery, drugs and credit cards has been seized. The raid is being linked to an attempt to steal from Santander last week.

Four men have appeared in court charged with attempting to take control of computers at a Santander […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00September 24th, 2013|

Espionage history: Stasi museum in Berlin, fascinating photos

The Stasi was an Eastern Germany version of the KGB, established by the Soviets in 1952. Just like the KGB, the Stasi was mostly busy looking for enemies of the people, employing round-the-clock surveillance, and eavesdropping on German citizens. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, people assaulted the Stasi headquarters, dissolved the organization, opened its archives to the public, and created a museum in the main building.

Stasi Museum

On the evening of January 15th in 1990 demonstrators took possession of the headquarters of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in Berlin-Lichtenberg. The Berliner Bürgerkomitee (Berlin Committee of Citizens) started here the closure and disorganisation of the MfS. One week later the Zentrale Runde Tisch (The Central Round Table) decided that a memorial place and research centre should be established in the former House No. 1 in the Stasi-Headquarters.
The new government of the GDR, formed after the elections on March 18th in […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:59-05:00September 24th, 2013|

New technology provides new tools, new threats

by Charles Patterson, Surveillance Countermeasures and Information Security Specialist

Two new tech items in are in the news and expected to hit the market soon. As we watch such new products emerge we should be reminded of the need to be aware of surveillance threats that appear alongside new technical advancements and modern conveniences.

First of note, Samsung has introduced their new Android powered, smartwatch, Galaxy Gear. Along with many other features the watch includes the ability to record both video and audio, making it a convenient surveillance device.

Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch

Sony has also unveiled a somewhat unique product with the QX10 and QX100, two “lens style” cameras offering high quality optics in a small packages that interface with smart phones or tablets for control and viewing. The devices are small, with all of the camera electronics is inside the lens housing. […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:59-05:00September 6th, 2013|

Germany: Government and business team up against espionage

from DW.DE Aug. 28, 2013

Faced with increasing rates of espionage attempts directed at companies, German government and business leaders have agreed on hammering out a joint protection strategy. Raising awareness is the first objective.

The German government and business organizations agreed on Wednesday that domestic companies needed stronger protection from espionage and cyber crime. They signed a declaration on hammering out a joint defense strategy and pooling resources for the most efficient infrastructure to ward off risks.

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said it was of pivotal importance to raise awareness for the threats particularly among small and medium-sized companies across the nation which tended to ignore or underestimate the scope of the problem.

“Spying attacks on companies can potentially lead to a painful drop in competitiveness and market distortions,” Friedrich said in a statement. “And it is bound to result in the loss of jobs, so we have to […]

Charles Patterson2013-09-02T20:13:35-04:00September 2nd, 2013|

Times are changing- this ain’t your father’s spy world.

Spy Kids: A sci-fi visionary on why the children of tomorrow are the NSA’s biggest nightmare.

The following article by Charles Stross, a Hugo Award-winning science-fiction writer, is an interesting read. We all know that technology is changing faster than we can digest it. What does this mean for our children? And more pointedly, what does it mean for the future world of espionage, privacy, and information security. While I may not entirely share the author’s view of the future, it is clear that many old and current rules will not apply. It is worth paying attention, especially when considering new threats and new adversaries as they come of age. The author focuses on the challenge spy agencies will face in dealing with new recruits, but it is worth considering as well, the challenges to information security that new technology and the users of […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:59-05:00September 1st, 2013|

Can’t believe it’s not bugger, er Bulger… supposed FBI wiretap equipment on ebay.

Problem with the auction, it is just parts from an old NEC phone system that happens to have the words “Bulger phone switch” written on the side. The claim is that it came from surplus FBI parts although they deny it. $3500 is bit steep for busted phone parts.

‘Bulger wiretap’ electronics on eBay

From the Boston Herald, by Laurel Sweet

A Connecticut history buff is selling a pile of electronic stuff on eBay that he claims was the surveillance equipment used “to tap phone conversations” and gather evidence against convicted mob killer James “Whitey” Bulger while he was on the lam — and which was later salvaged from a scrap heap — but the FBI says it’s not what it is purported to be.

Available on eBay for $3500, sold by universityarchives02

John Reznikoff of Westport is asking nearly $4,000 for […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:24:01-05:00August 24th, 2013|