John A. Walker Jr., a former Navy officer who in 1986 pleaded guilty to recruiting his son, a brother and a friend into a spy ring that stole military documents and sold the information to Soviet agents, died on Thursday (8/28) at the federal prison complex in Butner, N.C. He was 77.

His death, at the prison medical center, was confirmed by Chris Burke, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons.

Mr. Walker was a Navy communications specialist when he began spying for the Soviets at the height of the Cold War in 1967. After his arrest in May 1985, the government said he had led one of the most damaging spy operations in American history. All four members of it were convicted.

Mr. Walker worked alone initially and by most accounts without an ideological […]

Ignorance of the law as well as “just following orders” is no excuse. Former hospital IT director faces felony charges while the well liked CEO apparently behind it all was only charged with a misdemeanor of stalking.

Idaho, KIDK Eyewitness News

BLACKFOOT, Idaho – Former Bingham Memorial Hospital IT Director Jack York changed his plea in a wiretapping case.

He entered an Alford plea one count of interception of wire, electronic, or oral communication, a felony. An Alford plea means he maintains his innocence, but will not fight the charges.

York made the move as part of a plea deal. The two other wiretapping charges were dropped. He is accused of setting up devices to record phone calls in a doctor’s office in 2009 and 2010. York said in court he didn’t know what he did was a crime.

His attorney, Ann Taylor, said York […]

from BBC Future, Frank Swain

Despite ubiquitous surveillance and fancy gadgets, there are still simple, old-fashioned ways that spies and criminals can avoid detection, says Frank Swain.

The F-21 buttonhole camera – as used by the Soviet Union, Europe, and North America in the early 1970s (International Spy Museum)

In the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations about the US National Security Agency’s activities around the globe, authorities in Russia and Germany declared they were investing in a foolproof counter-surveillance technology: mechanical typewriters. Patrick Sensburg, the head of the Bundestag inquiry into NSA spying, told a reporter from German TV programme Morgenmagazin the suggestion was “no joke”.

Is this the key to thwarting cybersnoopers? (Thinkstock)

Low-tech countermeasures […]

A historian’s new book examines the valiant spying effort made at a highly secretive house in Buckinghamshire, which may have saved London from the same fate as Hiroshima.

 Dr Helen Fry has written Spymaster: The Secret Life of Kendrick, which tells the story of the top MI6 officer at the heart of Britain’s Second World War intelligence work, Colonel Thomas Kendrick.

Kendrick at his desk in Latimer House in the Second World War

From 1942, he worked for the British Secret Service from Latimer House near Chesham where he led the operation of spying on German prisoners of war and eavesdropping their conversations.

Dr Fry said: “I find the topic fascinating, I wanted to find out more and more and uncover it in the book. Kendrick has not had much attention and he has taken a lot to his […]

More and more influential players are resorting to meetings abroad or in secluded areas

Prague, July 16 (ČTK) — Czech politicians, lobbyists and influential businessmen are seeking new places safe from bugging for their meetings in reaction to extensive wiretapping not only in offices but also in luxurious hotels and restaurants where they used to meet in the past, Lidové noviny (LN) writes today.

It names a recent case in which a bugging device was found in the office of a senior official of the Czech Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ) as well as the wiretapping scandal in neighboring Poland that almost led to the fall of the government. “A politically incorrect” conversation between Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and former Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski was wiretapped in a restaurant in Warsaw and then released to the public.

The Sunday Guardian of India claims to have a report from a “highly placed source” that high power bugging devices were found in the bedroom of Nitin Gadkari, senior BJP leader who is also the Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways. The reports are later denied but drawing a lot of media attention. They do admit regular sweeps are done at ministerial offices and residences.

The Guardian says:

In a startling incident, high power listening devices were found in the bedroom of Nitin Gadkari at his 13 Teen Murti Lane residence in New Delhi. The discovery was “accidental” and a debugging exercise was immediately ordered.

According to highly placed sources, more devices were consequently discovered at the residence of the senior BJP leader who is also the Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways. Gadkari has apparently informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh […]

from The Detroit News

Detroit— The FBI searched Ford Motor Co.’s world headquarters while investigating one of the automaker’s engineers and seized listening devices, computers and financial records, according to search warrants obtained by The News on Thursday.

A lawyer for the mechanical engineer said Ford’s security team feared she was stealing trade secrets by hiding secret recording devices in conference rooms at the Dearborn automaker’s headquarters, nicknamed the Glass House.

Court records that would explain why the FBI had probable cause to search Ford and the engineer’s home are sealed in federal court. The government’s lawyer on the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel, heads the National Security Unit in Detroit, successfully prosecuted underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and specializes in cases involving espionage, counter-terrorism and terrorism financing, among others.

Searching a Fortune 500 company’s world headquarters instead of issuing a subpoena is a rare […]

from The Buffalo News

An accountant resigned from her $42,000-a-year part-time job as West Seneca’s comptroller two months ago after employees accused her and an aide of using a tape recorder to secretly record their workplace conversations.

Town officials confirmed that two town employees made complaints against Jean M. Nihill, 57, about a month before she resigned from her job as the town’s top finance officer on May 12. Nihill, a certified public accountant, is the business partner of one of the town’s most politically powerful individuals – town Democratic Party leader Paul T. Clark, who served as town supervisor for 16 years.

The employees also alleged that former deputy comptroller Linda Kauderer took part in the bugging. Kauderer retired from her town job May 20. Police investigated the complaints and verified that a tape recorder was used to record the […]

POLICE are examining alleged threats made to a Greek priest and the bugging of a church house in which he was living.

The alleged threats, involving an unnamed priest from the Autocephalic Greek Church of America and Australia, were reported a fortnight ago while the discovery of the concealed listening device was reported to police in late March.

The alleged threats are ­related to the controversial ordination of Father Prokopios Kanavas as bishop of the AGCAA last August.

Father Kanavas resigned in acrimonious circumstances in April – just eight months after he was ordained. He has been stripped of his titles and moves are now being made to expel him from the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia.

While GOCSA executives ­believe they know who made the unlawful threats to the priest, the precise motive and culprit ­responsible for the bugging remain unclear.

The listening device was hidden in the rangehood of a church house […]

2 Colombia ex-intelligence officers receive extended sentences over wiretapping scandal

A Colombia judge has decided to increase prison sentences on two former intelligence officers who were already convicted for their roles in a wiretapping scandal that unfolded in 2008, local media reported on Thursday.

As more information came to light in the cases against former officials from Colombia’s now-defunct intelligence agency DAS, a Bogota judge has increased the sentences of Luz Marina Rodriguez and Bernardo Murillo Cajamarca from six years in prison to 12.

In addition to their crimes of conspiracy, abuse of public office, and violation of communication for spying on opposition politicians, journalists, and human rights advocates, Rodriguez and Cajamarca have also been linked to infiltrating Colombia’s supreme court.

“As the development of their functional duties, among which are highlighted sessions or private meetings, […] […]

Espionage concerns reach into all levels of politics. We have been called in on cases where a mayor suspected the chief of police may have bugged his office, and where the local police department thought the town council may have bugged their offices.

Here we find the N.H. State Police were called in to investigate allegations that the Nelson Town Hall may have been bugged with an electronic eavesdropping device.

N.H. State Police investigate allegations of wiretapping at Nelson’s town hall

NELSON — An investigation into whether town officials illegally wiretapped conversations at the Nelson Town Hall is now with the Cheshire County Attorney’s Office, police said.

N.H. State Police say they recently wrapped up a nearly two-month probe into the case.