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.

Phishing for trade secrets a la YouTube.

A successful phishing attempt was made by someone impersonating a popular YouTube creator. A fake email address, pretending to be the popular electronics reviewer was used to request confidential information from an electronics manufacturer. Learn more about how this happened.

2020-02-07T18:00:25-05:00February 7th, 2020|

Penetration testers arrested in Iowa have charges dropped.

Pen Testing is a valuable part of security tests and is conducted by many corporations on a regular basis. Two pen-testers who worked for Coalfire Labs, a security firm based in Colorado, had been arrested after entering an Iowa county courthouse in September, 2019. The charges against the testers were finally dropped after more than five months.

2020-01-31T23:49:19-05:00January 31st, 2020|

Mystery text messages freaking out both recipients and senders.

Everyone has at least some fear or concern that their cell phone may be vulnerable to some form of hacking or cyber attack.

This past week, a number of people (168,149 to be exact) surely thought that may have been the case when odd text messages -from them- started showing up on other peoples’ phones.

Ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends, bosses, relatives, and others received a number of text messages this past Wednesday that were not sent by the person labeled as the sender. Or at least, not sent recently…

Apparently, a server managed by Syniverse, and used by ALL major cellular carriers, had a failure back in February, 2019, on Valentine’s Day no less. The failure went uncorrected until November 7 when it was brought back online. All the messages were then sent. “Better late than never” does not necessarily apply when it comes to texts.

We heard […]

2019-11-09T18:17:12-05:00November 9th, 2019|

FBI initiative and video series addresses hacking and election meddling.

The FBI has produced a video series as well as provided other tools and resources in an initiative called "Protected Voices". The initiative focuses on information security concerns that should be addressed by political campaigns, companies, and individuals. Even though the emphasis is on protecting the election process, much of the information applies to all types of information and cyber security threats faced by companies today. 

2019-11-01T08:37:18-04:00October 31st, 2019|

Surviving Mumbai: Conversations in Close Protection Podcast Episode.

In the Conversations in Close Protection podcast by Chuck Randolph and Chris Story, they recently interviewed Bob Nichols, head of NSA-Global Security Consultants, and discussed his incredible experience during the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. Bob and his security team were out to dinner but quickly found themselves in the middle of the terrorist attack. His story of how his team reacted and helped lead a number of other guests to safety is worth listening to by everyone in the security and protection fields.

2019-09-06T09:35:50-04:00September 6th, 2019|

Camera found in Mexico’s National Palace

Cameras and surveillance devices end up in the darndest places.

A spy camera was found in a meeting room in the National Palace, President López Obrador revealed Thursday morning.

During a daily news briefing Lopez Obrador said the device had been found in a meeting room in the National Palace, his headquarters.

“A few days ago, in one of the rooms in our offices, a sophisticated camera was found, one of those little-bitty ones, they were recording us,” he said in his morning address. “In a room here in the palace, not in my office, but one of the rooms where we have meetings.”

“He who owes nothing fears nothing,” said the president, who says he was not troubled by the discovery.


President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, holds a tiny camera he says was being used to spy on his meetings, during his morning news conference […]

2019-09-06T10:26:29-04:00September 6th, 2019|

Covert recording devices invade offices in New York

Recent incidents serve as a warning- recording devices are easily secreted in a variety of places and can be very difficult to find. All someone needs is access to the target location. This could include employees, executives, cleaners, contractors, former employees who may still have access, or even the public at large...

2019-05-15T22:16:44-04:00May 15th, 2019|

Deep fried computers. “USB Killer” destroys at least 66 computers at College of St. Rose.

USB sticks are a major insider threat concern, but usually for either copying and stealing confidential files or possibly installing malware onto a computer or network. This case involves a USB stick designed deliberately to destroy computers. A former student of College of St. Rose in Albany, NY purchased a "USB Killer" thumb drive. It is a device adapted to convert USB voltage to higher levels and feed it back into the computer thereby destroying at least the USB port and possibly much more.

2019-05-02T20:24:04-04:00May 2nd, 2019|
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