Spy toys for Christmas?
Every year there is an increasing number of spy-themed toys for kids.
This year, one company wants the adults to get into the fun, spying on Santa, as well.
The Santa Stake Out Kit by OpticPlanet
New Orleans: PI arrested for installing a tracking device
When the victim believed he was being followed, he made a call to police who asked him to give his car a physical inspection. After he found the device the police detectives arranged to follow him until they saw the private investigator following as well.
The GPS technology was not illegal, but Louisiana state law bans the use of a tracking device without the knowledge or consent of the person being followed.
The Times-Picayune of New Orleans
Gretna police arrested a River Ridge private investigator accused of illegally installing a tracking device on the vehicle on a man he was following. David Centanni, 38, put the GPS device on a truck belonging to an unidentified Gretna resident about two weeks ago because he was trying to serve civil paperwork, according to Gretna Police Deputy Chief Anthony Christiana.
The resident contacted police Tuesday, nervous about a man that seemed to be following him, Christiana said. Despite […]
The effects of bugging an office, 12 years later, FBI bugger reflects on Phila incident.
A bug in your office could hurt you in many ways. Theft of information is one, but the revelation that the bugging took place can have other ramifications as well. The discovery of an FBI bug in the mayor’s office by the Philadelphia Police, may have cost the opponent his election- even though he had nothing to do with it at all.
If you suspect that listening devices may have been installed in your office or conference room, the inspection and any follow up investigation needs to be handled very discretely.
Mitch Blacher from NBC10 was able to interview J.J. Klaver, the FBI agent who planted the bugs.
Site of 2003 FBI bugging operation, office of Philadelphia Mayor John Street
Former FBI Agent Who ‘Bugged’ Mayor Street’s Office Speaks Out by Mitch Blacher,
Sports: Ex-Patriots hinted that the locker room may be bugged – says Tony Dungy
from Sportsgrid.com
On Thursday’s “Dan Patrick Show,” Tony Dungy — a regular on the program — casually threw out a very disconcerting bit of information about the Patriots’ intelligence gathering procedures. He made a point to say that this kind of stuff — which essentially amounts to spying — is not confined to New England. He’s just “heard” that it might definitively occur within the walls of Gillette Stadium.
Dan Patrick: “Did you think that your locker rooms were being spied on?”
Tony Dungy: “We had a few ex-Patriots that said, ‘You better be careful what you do in the locker room and what you say,’ and that kind of thing. I think a lot of that is psychological warfare, you know, they want to think certain things and worry about more about what’s going on off the field than on it. You can’t worry […]
FBI offers video with insight into economic espionage
The FBI has recently produced a video called “The Company Man: Protecting America’s Secrets” that illustrates how a US company was targeted by foreign agents and how the company worked with the FBI to set up a sting operation to catch the perpetrators.
“Economic espionage is a problem that costs the American economy billions of dollars annually and puts our national security at risk. To raise awareness of the issue, the FBI and the National Counterintelligence and Security Center have launched a nationwide campaign and released a short film aimed at educating anyone with a trade secret about the threat and how they can help mitigate it.”
The full Company Man video is about 36 minutes long, but the FBI also have other related videos that are worth looking into, including interviews with corporate attorneys, security directors, and FBI agents discussing the threat of corporate espionage. Of […]
Eavesdropping via a “pocket dial” ruled ok.
A case reported on last year here, where a woman received a butt-dial call from her boss and recorded the ensuing conversation, has the appeals court now ruling in favor of the one who did the eavesdropping- they found the person who made the accidental call should have been more responsible. [Read more below]
In the course of our work, we have often received calls from security directors believing one of their meeting rooms was bugged. They suspect this because someone received a voicemail that contained a recording of a confidential meeting. In such situations, though, it was most likely a case of the dreaded butt-dial.
Here is an example of a security problem that could happen if you accidentally place a call at the wrong time –
We were assisting with technical security for a conference where then President Bill Clinton would […]
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
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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.)
Turkish beauty queen’s bedroom ‘bugged by in-laws’
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 […]
Tap, tap, tap, “is this thing on?”, from embarrassment to murder conviction- check your mic, you may be bugged.
Robert Durst should have paid more attention to Leslie Nielson in “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!”. For those who missed it, check out the clip below to see the type of embarrassment that can come from forgetting that your microphone is still on.
Durst, suspected in the 1982 disappearance of his wife, and the 2000 murder of his girl friend, was the subject of an HBO documentary “The Jinx”. In filming the final episode, filmmaker Andrew Jarecki suggests it is Durst ‘s handwriting on a note directing police to Berman’s body, Durst left his microphone on as he went to the bathroom. “There it is. You’re caught,” he said, adding “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” Now he has a bit more to answer to.
Executives and others involved in public speaking or the media may find themselves from time to time wearing a wireless […]
Eavesdropping through web service- spoofed phone calls; NJ corrections deputy director on trial.
Just as employees, secretaries, and anyone handling confidential information need to be aware of phishing and spoof email scams, they should also be attentive to any phone calls that come through odd or suspicious circumstances.
Kirk Eady, a Hudson County Corrections deputy director, is on trial in Newark federal court for allegedly eavesdropping on the phone conversations on corrections union leaders. He made use of a website service that allowed recording of phone calls.
Prankdial.com’s Evil Operator service no longer appears to be available. Screen shot from www.archive.org
Prankdial.com offered a service they called “evil operator” where you could enter two telephone numbers and they would call each other, then you could listen in to the conversation. Prank Dial no longer appears to have this service on their site, but other prank websites offer something similar.
[…]
In a ‘nation of eavesdroppers’, everyone can hear you!
If it’s trending in Britain, you can be sure it’s happening all over. British telecom company O2 surveyed 2000 people about casual eavesdropping. If you don’t have a “Cone of Silence”, you may need to heed their warning.
Here are some of the results from O2‘s survey:
- Over 80 per cent of Brits admit to eavesdropping on other people’s phone conversations while on a train or platform
- Nearly 9 in 10 think that people have no reservations while talking on the phone in public
- 60 per cent of Brits think people would benefit from some kind of etiquette guide when it comes to talking on the phone whilst using public transport
- O2 has produced the very first public transport mobile phone etiquette guide to help Brits use their phone considerately
Maxwell Smart’s Cone of Silence
84 per cent of people admitted to listening in […]
Locations revisited- record of frequent locations stored on iPhone
Last September we mentioned how the “Location Reporting“ services built into your smart phone was keeping track of where you’ve been, using an opt-in Google service. Mike Leclair, of Sumuri, creators of Mac and PC forensics software, while investigating his iPhone, came across a “Frequent Locations” option buried withing iOS privacy settings. Here is some of his report from the Sumuri blog: Surviving Digital Forensics
Mike Leclair, 1/28/2015;
iOS has a built in feature that, as far as I can tell, is working like GPS locator. I have been testing this and so far all the dates, times and map locations that my iPhone is collecting are accurate. This feature is on by default and all you need is access […]
Wearable Tech Alert: Store and forward 60 seconds of audio from your wrist- anytime, anyplace
From smart TV’s to Amazon Echo, new devices all around us are listening. A new tech item scheduled for shipping this month promises to bring personal eavesdropping and BYOD threats to a new level.
The Kapture device, funded by Kickstarter, is a wearable device that constantly records all audio in it’s vicinity. It is designed to be worn on the wrist, with a clip-on option, a little like a cross between a Fitbit and Apple Watch. It is constantly recording, but remembers only the last 60 seconds.
At any moment, if you feel that something you just heard is worth saving- just tap the unit and it will send that 60 second audio clip to your phone via bluetooth. You can use their smartphone app to record longer segments. Their web site also explains, “The Kapture wristband allows for about 25 audio klips to be saved locally. Once your phone is back […]
Spy cam found in corporate restroom.
When inspecting or sweeping corporate offices, it is good to pay attention to restrooms that the executives may use. While trade secrets may not be discussed there, tremendous embarrassment could occur if improper images were distributed. It is also good for staff to be aware of such threats and take them seriously. In this instance the camera was reported by the building maintenance supervisor.
From nypost.com
A Chelsea building that hosts high-end brands and services, including fashion shoots, had a hidden pinhole camera in its unisex bathroom, sources said. A Johnson & Johnson employee discovered the creepy spy cam on the 16th floor of the Starrett-Lehigh building on West 26th Street Jan. 15, and the company immediately reported it to police, a spokeswoman said.
The device was hidden above a light switch in the bathroom next to offices that include Ralph Lauren and Haynes Roberts, whose interior-design projects focus on mansions […]