By Jeff Black,  NBC News

An American Airlines flight from San Francisco to New York was forced to make an emergency landing in Kansas City on Sunday afternoon because an electronic device thought potentially to be a bomb was found on board, authorities said.

Upon landing, the plane carrying 215 passengers and nine crew members was moved to a remote area of the airport where the jet was evacuated and searched, officials said.

The device found on the JFK-bound 767 was initially described to NBC News by a senior law enforcement official as a “flash drive.”

Later, senior government officials said the device was taped to part of the bathroom.

An preliminary inspection of the device showed it was actually a camera disguised as a flash drive, the officials said.

Security officials, including the FBI in Kansas City, were working to determine who the device belongs to.

No injuries related […]

Man Sits Behind Ex-CIA Director On The Train, Eavesdrops, And Live-Tweets His Conversation,
by Brian Jones, Business Insider

According to Matzzie, Hayden was on a call with reporters and was speaking under the condition of anonymity, intending to be cited only as “a former senior administration official.”

Matzzie didn’t just recognize him, he live-tweeted the conversation, and made some great quips about when he was going to get rendered for live-tweeting the private conversations of a man who was among the most powerful on the planet. 

In subsequent tweets, Matzzie said he was working […]

Ex-husband used tracking devices on woman’s car to eavesdrop and find out her whereabouts

 Phone-hacking jury given peek into Glenn Mulcaire’s working routine

 Trial of Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson shown whiteboards and handwritten notes collected from hacker’s office and shed

 The working life of a phone hacker was exposed in the Old Bailey on Thursday, including a note to be wary of a particularly tricky Vodafone employee and a suggestion that the News of the World’s deputy editor had been a target of his own paper’s eavesdropping.

 The jury in the phone-hacking trial was shown eight of Glenn Mulcaire’s whiteboards – covered in handwritten notes and diagrams about his work – found by police in an office and a garden shed belonging to the News of the World’s specialist hacker.

 One board carried a list headed “Networking”, which included the names of Rebekah Wade (as Rebekah Brooks was then) and Greg Miskiw, the former assistant editor of the News […]

Corporate Spies Love Social Media, By Stephanie Blanchard, Digital Editor Mobile Enterprise

No one appreciates a fair-weather friend, the kind that is only around when something is in it for them, and quick to disappear when help is needed. But fake friends are even worse, the social profiles of people who simply do not exist in the real world. However, such profiles serve as bait, whether to collect information, or send out malware, or believe it or not, corporate espionage.
 
But are companies paying attention? After all, these are just social sites, right? And someone else’s problem. Think again. Spear phising is one way in to the network, and it’s possible every day.
 
One completely bogus profile on Linkedin, for example, identified by Websense Security Labs, had 400 connections. Yet it exists only to harvest intelligence, and in this particular case, lure viewers to a dating site. The consequences can […]

It’s probably happened to everyone, accidentally dialing the last number dialed or a speed dial from your cell phone, or receiving such a call from someone you recently spoke with and being able to listen to the other party riding in their car, listening to the radio, carrying on with their life unknowing that you are listening. Although fairly common, this can create serious security concerns.  I was in a security meeting at one organization with department heads and the Secret Service discussing the arrival of the President of the United States to an ongoing conference. An assistant of the person next to me came up to her and explained that she just received a voice message on her phone that was a recording of the entire conversation at our meeting.  She was a victim of butt-dialing. The last call the department head had made was to the assistant, […]

Most news articles focus on voyeurism, but of course, it’s not just peeping Toms to worry about. It could be an employee looking for an edge up, a jealous executive, any adversary planning an attack or disruption. Anyone who wants to take advantage of another’s situation has high tech spy technology available on line, literally at their fingertips. Micro video recorders, audio eavesdropping, tracking devices, all available for a few dollars from on line sources.  
TIP: If you see a device you are not sure of, one tell tale sign could be if the device has a USB port on it. A key fob, calculator, even sun glasses, if they have a connection plug for a computer it could be suspicious. On more advanced devices you may not see such connections, though. The more common covert video and audio recorders have a USB port for both […]

We’ve come across a number of articles recently highlighting the spy threats that come from within a company’s own employees, a few of these are referenced below. As with all security, some of the biggest threats come from within your own walls.  This is particularly worth noting when it comes corporate espionage. About 90 percent of all eavesdropping devices and threats we have discovered were placed by current or former employees or others who had free access to the target areas. In espionage cases, there may be nothing obvious missing to alert you to the incident. By the time the loss of information is recognized it may be too late, the damage may be done. 

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Digital security website Dark Reading reports:

Generation Y Users Say They Will Break Corporate BYOD Rules

Majority of users ages 21 to 32 say they would flout company policies restricting the […]

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

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 […]

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.