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Louisiana: bugged picture frame eavesdrops on office conversations.

Detention center secretary, trying to be a whistle blower, secretly recorded her supervisor’s conversations by placing a recording device behind a picture frame in his office. Regardless of intentions, the article indicates how easy it is to eavesdrop by hiding a recording device in an office or conference room.

The Advocate, 7/30/2015

AMITE — The Louisiana Supreme Court will decide who will preside over a criminal case against a Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center secretary, accused of illegally recording her supervisor’s conversations, now that a judge has recused himself and all of his colleagues in the judicial district.

State District Judge Bruce Bennett recused himself and the five other general jurisdiction judges of the 21st Judicial District Court from hearing Joy Chauvin’s case.

Chauvin faces one count of interception of wire, electronic or oral communications for allegedly bugging her boss’s office in an attempt to prove she was being […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:39-05:00July 30th, 2015|

Windows 10 security concern. Windows 10 wants to share your WiFi key through “WiFi Sense”

An article in The Register explains that a new Windows 10 feature could be opening up your wifi for others to use without your knowledge.

A Windows 10 feature, Wi-Fi Sense, smells like a security risk: it can share access to Wi-Fi networks with the user’s contacts.

Those contacts include their Outlook.com (neeHotmail) contacts, Skype contacts and, with an opt-in, their Facebook friends. There is method in the Microsoft madness – it saves having to shout across the office or house “what’s the Wi-Fi password?” – but ease of use has to be teamed with security. If you wander close to a wireless network, and your friend knows the password, and you both have Wi-Fi Sense, you can log into that network.

Wi-Fi Sense doesn’t reveal the plaintext password to your family, friends, acquaintances, and the chap at the takeaway who’s an […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:39-05:00July 29th, 2015|

Charges stand against woman who bugged diaper bag.

The CIA is known to have used fake poop for passing information, I don’t think I ever heard of them bugging a diaper bag, though.

The Ogden, Utah, Standard Examiner reports that slipping a recorder into a child’s diaper bag was not a good idea for Teri Anne Smith.

FARMINGTON — A judge ruled that even though a woman claimed she only wanted to record conversations between her ex-husband and children, the electronic eavesdropping charges against her will stand.

For more than an hour Thursday, 2nd District Judge Robert Dale heard arguments by defense attorney Rebecca Skordas and Deputy Davis County Attorney Richard Larsen about whether the charges against Teri Anne Smith are valid.

Smith, 37, is charged with three counts of wiretapping or intercepting electronic communications, all third-degree felonies. Another hearing is scheduled for Aug. 27.

Smith secretly recorded conversations between […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:39-05:00July 25th, 2015|

Voicemail as a cyber attack vector

Modern phone systems, both VOIP and premise based PBX, can offer voicemail to email conversion, so that when a message is left in your voicemail box, the system will send you an email with the message recording as an attachment for you to click on to hear. That now becomes one more way for cyber hackers to lure victims into clicking on fake link containing malware.

Security researcher Graham Cluely discusses this and other recent attack methods in a article at Tripwire.com

MiniDionis: Where a Voicemail Can Lead to a Malware Attack

For just over a week, government departments, research institutes and other high-value targets have been on the sharp end of a sophisticated attack, where fake voicemails are being used to create a diversion while malware infects computer systems.

As security researchers at Palo Alto Networks’s Unit 42 division

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:39-05:00July 19th, 2015|

German officials use disposable phones over eavesdropping fears

from Deutsche Welle www.dw.com

Advice worth considering for any confidential assignments, especially overseas.

German officials are now using disposable mobile phones when they travel overseas, ‘Der Spiegel’ magazine has reported. The move comes following concerns about eavesdropping foreigners.

The so-called “burner” phones have been used not only in countries such as Russia and China, which continue to be at loggerheads with the West over a number of issues, including the Ukraine conflict – but also during visits to close allies such as the Britain and the United States, “Der Spiegel” news magazine reported on Saturday.

The magazine said politicians had been advised by Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security to use disposable phones and only download essential data on it.

“There are clear signals that people are getting more sensible,” the report quoted one security source as saying.

NSA revelations

For years, security agencies have warned their […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00July 19th, 2015|

Canada’s new spy palace glass walls could allow eavesdropping

If your building boasts beautiful large glass walls and windows, you may want to follow Canada’s CSEC’s plan and find ways to darken the glass to prevent spying eyes.

From the Ottawa Citizen:

The government’s new billion-dollar spy palace in Ottawa has a problem that doesn’t sit well with the employees of one of the most secretive buildings in the world – it’s built like a fish bowl that might allow prying eyes to see inside.

The new Communications Security Establishment Canada complex, located in Ottawa.

The former head of the Communications Security Establishment once called the Ogilvie Road complex – with its massive glass walls – an “architectural wonder.”

But now CSE officials are realizing that all that glass could potentially allow foreign intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on Canada’s electronic eavesdroppers.

Specialized darkened screens are now going to be added to the windows to prevent such […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00July 11th, 2015|

Article: Economic Espionage- Is Your Competition Hacking You?

This article was originally posted to LinkedIn by Marcus Eagan, CEO and Founder at Nodal Industries. Nodal produces the network security device, Numa.

Corporate espionage is on the rise. For those unfamiliar with the term – also commonly referred to as industrial or economic espionage – corporate espionage is when one corporate entity or government hacks into the systems of another corporate entity to steal their data. The first conviction for economic espionage in the U.S. happened only recently. Last year a Taiwanese national who worked for Boeing and later Rockwell Corporation was convicted of stealing trade secrets from the Aerospace giants. Acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China, not Taiwan, Dongfan “Greg” Chung exfiltrated thousands of technical documents from Rockwell and Boeing to aid in China’s quest to build an earth-orbiting space shuttle.

Also making headlines is the report that the FBI was investigating the […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00July 11th, 2015|

Waitergate, bug in the bread basket: A year later, four Polish government ministers and the speaker of parliament resign

From The Washington Post, 6/11/15

It began with something so small: a tiny microphone hidden near a dining table in a fancy Warsaw restaurant.

But after the bug caught Polish government ministers discussing private deals, Cuban cigars and off-color jokes — including a comparison of U.S.-Poland relations to oral sex — over expensive meals, a scandal that began as small-talk quickly spread. There were arrests, accusations of international spying and sealed documents leaked on social media.

On Wednesday, almost exactly a year after they first emerged, the secret recordings claimed their biggest scalp yet when four Polish government ministers and the speaker of parliament abruptly resigned.

Polish parliament speaker Radoslaw Sikorski, who stepped down on Wednesday. (European Pressphoto Agency)

The resignations are bad news for the already embattled governing party, Civic Platform, which two weeks ago narrowly lost its grip on the presidency. Its chances to retain control of parliament in elections four months from now are disappearing faster […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00June 12th, 2015|

Aircraft security: forgotten reports say French spies bugged Concorde passengers

Corporate aircraft should regularly be swept for listening devices. It is a misconception to think that just because they are up in the air that conversations would be safe from eavesdroppers. Recording devices, hidden microphones and video cameras, and even Wifi enabled devices could make their way into the passenger compartments where many confidential conversations may take place.

This article from The Register reflects on past concerns that the French government had bugged the passenger areas of their Concorde fleet. The precautions are even more significant these days.

Ed Wallace, director of incident response and advanced threats at security consultancy MWR Infosecurity, pointed towards forgotten reports that French spies routinely bugged first-class passengers flying with Air France – including Concorde passengers – back in the 1990s.

The idea was that business people relaxing on a long trip, and perhaps enjoying a drink or two, might discuss all […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00June 9th, 2015|

Protecting your meetings: No Cell Phones Allowed; Steps to Consider

Security firm G4S began confiscating smart phones from share holders and journalists at it’s 2015 AGM (Annual General Meeting) in London after activists used them to record their protests and removal by security staff at last year’s event. Such events can not only be disruptive to the meeting but also damaging to shareholder relations.

A spokesman for G4S told the Guardian newspaper: “Last year we had a large number of protesters who were effectively staging demonstrations in the meeting and they were filming it. The intention is not to suppress the legitimate free speech of people but it is just simply to maintain some degree of security for our people in the meeting.” [Read more at rt.com]

Jun 5, 2014- Not much in terms of video footage due to covert nature of the recording, but a lot of very audible disruption as the G4S AGM was […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00June 7th, 2015|

Tech alert: GOOGLE TONE Shares Links Using Beeps and Boops

If your computer starts sounding like R2D2, it may be sharing links to others within earshot.

A report from Popular Science discusses a new Chrome extension that lets a computer share a URL with another computer using tones.

Popular Science, Jason Cipriani

Google Tone

A new Chrome extension, called Google Tone, released this week makes it possible to share a URL with another computer in the room using a series ofbeeps and boops. The concept is dead simple yet instantly instills a sense of disbelief. A computer making seemingly random sounds can transmit the URL for the tab I have open in Chrome across the room? Get out.

Full of skepticism, I decided to put it to the test. I installed the Chrome extension on a MacBook Air and a HP laptop running […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00May 27th, 2015|

NYC pranksters publish secretly-recorded public conversations to make point about privacy

WeAreAlwaysListening.com says:

Eavesdropping on the population has revealed many saying “I’m not doing anything wrong so who cares if the NSA tracks what I say and do?”

Citizens don’t seem to mind this monitoring, so we’re hiding recorders in public places in hopes of gathering information to help win the war on terror. We’ve started with NYC as a pilot program, but hope to roll the initiative out all across The Homeland.

Report from CBS News:

A group of anonymous anti-NSA activists claim to have placed hidden recording devices in restaurants, bars, gyms and cafes all around the city to eavesdrop on citizens’ private conversations.

While, as some have pointed out, this claim cannot be verified, a series of recordings uploaded to the group’s Soundcloud page and website last week have got many people talking.

WeAreAlwaysListening.com started blowing up on the viral web over the weekend after being spotlighted by a few high-profile Twitter accounts (like the ACLU’s) and publications (like WIRED.)

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00May 27th, 2015|

South Africa: Increased corporate espionage concerns

Times Live, Graeme Hosken

Industrial espionage is at an all-time high in South Africa, with an increase in requests for debugging services coming from gaming firms, research and development companies and those tendering for multimillion-rand contracts.

Driving fear in the world of Spy vs Spy are tough economic times and the ease with which South Africans can buy listening devices online.

The unregulated eavesdropping industry had led to an apparent surge in spying by businessmen on one another, according to Justicia Investigations, a company specialising in surveillance.

Its operations director, Alan Carey, said the number of inquiries about debugging services had increased rapidly since November, indicating a spike in South Africans spying on each other.

“In the past we received maybe two inquiries every fortnight. Now we are receiving at least three a week.

“The majority are from the gaming industry, research and development firms, cellular communication companies and businesses bidding for […]

Exec Security2015-05-16T09:05:30-04:00May 16th, 2015|

Where do you keep your passwords? Posted on your monitor for all to see on a TV documentary?

Reported in The Hacker News, the passwords and login credentials for a London railway station were posted on the top of a computer monitor and broadcast on a BBC TV documentary. Company security policies should include never displaying your credentials where they might be viewed by unauthorized personnel… or TV cameras!

The Weakest Link In the Information Security Chain is still – Humans.

And this news has ability to prove this fact right.

One of London’s busiest railway stations has unwittingly exposed their system credentials during a BBC documentary. The sensitive credentials printed and attached to the top of a station controller’s monitor were aired on Wednesday night on BBC.

What could be even worse?

If you think that the credentials might have been shown off in the documentary for a short while or just some seconds, then you are still unaware of the limit of their stupidity.

The login credentials were visible for […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00May 4th, 2015|

US using anti-spy laws to fight trade secret theft

DES MOINES, Iowa—The criminal trial of a Chinese executive accused of stealing high-tech U.S. corn seeds is turning into a battle over the federal government’s use of an anti-spying law to fight industrial espionage.

U.S. prosecutors say Mo Hailong, an official with a Chinese agriculture company, participated in a multiyear scheme to pilfer seeds from test fields of U.S. agribusiness giants Monsanto Co. and DuPont Co. The prosecutors claim that Mr. Mo, who was arrested in December 2013 at his home in Boca Raton, Fla., and several alleged accomplices transported seeds back to China, sometimes secreted in boxes of Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorn.

Smuggled seeds were secreted in boxes of Orville Redenbacher popcorn.

Prosecutors have charged Mr. Mo, now under house arrest in Des Moines, Iowa, and six alleged co-conspirators—five of whom remain at large—with stealing trade secrets. Mr. […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00May 2nd, 2015|

Give us our daily bread… with cell phone inside.

Smuggling cell phones into secure areas can be a problem for security at prisons as well as in boardrooms or other confidential meetings. Perpetrators can go to great lengths to get access for the contraband items. An inmate in a prison in Perth received a loaf of bread that had been carved out to conceal a cell phone inside. Contact us if you need help preventing cell phones or other recording devices from entering your secure facilities.

from the Evening Telegraph, UK, 4/15/2015

Phone found in loaf as killer’s Perth Prison cell searched

A mobile phone was found in a loaf of bread within the cell of prisoner who murdered a woman from Montrose.

Several slices of Kingsmill had been carefully carved to store the device in Douglas Matthewson’s cell at maximum security Perth Prison.

Matthewson […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00April 15th, 2015|

Future watch: secure fiber optics

Scientists Create Secure Communications By Slowing Down Light

Have you always wanted a more secure way of transmitting your information and not be worried about it being intercepted or eavesdropped along the way? While there are various security measures available at the moment, such as encryption, scientists at the Vienna University of Technology have come up with a way that could technically make eavesdropping impossible.

How they achieved this is by slowing down the speed of light from its typical speed of 300 million meters per second to a much more manageable 180kmph, and they did this using fiber optics which is a system that is currently in place around the world, thus making their findings even more applicable and viable.

To slow down the speed of light, the scientists grafted cesium atoms to the fibers which allowed it to slow light […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:40-05:00April 12th, 2015|

Turkish beauty queen’s bedroom ‘bugged by in-laws’

Hurrieyt Daily News

A former Turkish beauty queen has sued her former in-laws for bugging her bedroom with the help of her ex-husband, according to a local media report.

Sinem Sülün and the bug in the power socket.

Sinem Sülün, who was crowned Miss Model Turkey in 2005 and was runner-up at Miss Turkey-Universe in2007, divorced her husband Mustafa Yüksel last month. She was awarded 200,000 Turkish Liras in compensation and 2,500 liras as a monthly alimony after the divorce.

Daily Milliyet reported on April 1 that the divorce case led to a fierce argument between the two sides, after Sülün claimed that her husband and his parents had illegally wiretapped their private conversations by bugging a power socket in their bedroom.

The 5th Criminal Court of Peace recently ruled for the trial of businessman Yüksel and his parents on charges of illegally recording a […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:41-05:00April 12th, 2015|