*Security and TSCM Archives - Page 14 of 30

Old Israeli spy device found by Lebanese army

Times of Israel reports artificial rock containing camera, four batteries found in town near border; device said to date from before Israel’s withdrawal in 2001.

A device concealed in an artificial rock in the southern Lebanese town of Bani Hayyan. According to the Lebanese Army, the device is an Israeli surveillance camera. (screen capture: Lebanese Armed Forces Facebook page)

Soldiers from the Lebanese Armed Forces claimed Wednesday to have found a rock concealing an Israeli spying device in the south of the country.

The army said it found the device in the town of Bani Hayyan, around four kilometers from the border with Israel.

According to a report in al-Manar, a Hezbollah-affiliated website, the device included a camera and four batteries.

In a short video clip released by the Lebanese Army, a shiny surface appearing to be the lens of a camera can be seen through an […]

Exec Security2015-10-01T19:05:15-04:00October 1st, 2015|

Pennsylvania man admits to wiretapping and harassment

Pennsylvania is one of the twelve “all-party-consent” states, requiring that for a recording of a conversation to be legal, all parties in the conversation must give their consent to the recording. Defendant in this case recorded calls on his cell phone without the other parties’ permission.

WEST CHESTER >> An East Goshen man who secretly recorded telephone conversations with his ex-wife, her attorney’s office, two police officers and others, and who also made profane telephone calls to a Common Pleas Court judge and officials in the Chester County Domestic Relations Office, has admitted his culpability in those crimes.

On Wednesday, William Robert Wheeler pleaded guilty to charges of wiretapping and harassment, as well as driving under the influence, before Judge Patrick Carmody, who deferred formal sentencing to allow Wheeler to apply for the county’s alternative sentencing program for repeat DUI offenders.

Attorneys on both ides of the case — Deputy District Attorney Thomas […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:39-05:00October 1st, 2015|

Philip Morris heiress claims estranged husband hacked her iPhone with spy app

From The Daily Mail

Anne Resnik is the daughter of late Philip Morris CEO Frank Resnik
She claims Crocker Coulson, father of her six-year-old twins, bugged her
Coulson ‘installed mSpy on her iPhone then accused her of cheating’
He then ‘left the app installed for four months until her lawyers found it’
The app tracks every text, email, location, photo and sends to a database
New York courts have impounded all of Coulson’s devices to investigate

A tobacco heiress claims her estranged husband hacked her phone with bugging equipment to eavesdrop on every call before he filed for divorce.

Anne Resnik, the daughter of Philip Morris USA’s late chief executive Frank Resnik, accuses investment consultant Crocker Coulson of installing detective software mSpy on her iPhone in September 2014.

She claims he monitored her for three weeks until he left her on October 6, 2014, accusing her […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:39-05:00October 1st, 2015|

Winning at chess- use spy technology and Morse code.

Italian chess player allegedly uses a spy pendant containing a hidden camera to cheat during Italian tournament (www.telegraph.co.uk)

An Italian chess player has been expelled from one of Italy’s most important tournaments after he allegedly used Morse code and a spy pendant containing a hidden camera to communicate with an accomplice.

Arcangelo Ricciardi entered the International Chess Festival of Imperia ranked 51,366 in the world, but astonished rivals as he breezed through the early stages of the competition to reach the eighth and penultimate round.

Jean Coqueraut, who refereed the tournament in Liguria, northern Italy, said he began to suspect something was wrong early on in the competition.

“In chess, performances like that are impossible,” he told La Stampa newspaper. “I didn’t think he was a genius, I knew he had to be a cheat.

“I kept on looking at him. He was always sitting […]

Exec Security2015-09-11T18:39:16-04:00September 11th, 2015|

Visual hacking- something worth looking at

The new iPhone 6s touts a 12 megapixel camera and the Samsung Galaxy S6 a 16 megapixel camera. You can get a lot of detail with such a camera. It may be time for corporations to re-think their employee policies and restrict photography to help employees, managers, and executives understand the potential for information leakage and theft from photos taken around the office. A selfie taken at an office or cubicle could unwittingly expose confidential information from computer screens, calendars, or posted notes (how many cubicles still have passwords posted?)

A recent article by Dan Burks at AmericanBanker.com looks into this problem. While he is mainly referring to banks, the problems and solutions apply to all industries.

…A visual hack could involve someone inside a bank branch or back office, such as a customer or delivery person, taking a picture of an employee’s computer screen. It could also involve capturing information from documents […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:39-05:00September 10th, 2015|

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 […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:39-05:00August 21st, 2015|

Japan: Government taking steps to fight industrial espionage

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The National Police Agency will soon team up with the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry to fight industrial espionage.

Joint measures will include visits by police officers to about 10,000 domestic corporations with cutting-edge technology to give them advice, according to NPA sources.

Under the plan, which will be implemented as early as this autumn, companies with state-of-the art technology will also be provided with the latest information about how industrial spying is conducted, according to the NPA sources.

The move reflects growing concerns that the theft of leading technology from domestic companies could lower the international competitiveness of Japan’s corporate sector.

The economy ministry will list companies with sophisticated technologies or products that might be targeted by industrial spies from overseas and provide the information to the NPA.

Based on instructions from the NPA, officers of prefectural police forces will visit the companies’ head offices, plants and laboratories.

They will […]

Exec Security2015-08-11T17:56:21-04:00August 11th, 2015|

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 […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:39-05:00August 7th, 2015|

SC Mayor arrested on wiretap charges- when computer hacking is not enough…

Mayor Rodney Turner of Lyman, South Carolina was arrested along with an associate on computer hacking and wiretap charges. It is important to recognize that while cyber crime receives the majority of attention these days, oral communication is still very much at risk and needs protection. None of the reports we read gave any indication of the wiretapping techniques used but they do refer to interception of oral communications. We will be following this story to see if there is any indication of how wiretapping of the town hall was accomplished.

From Gannett Greenville Online:

The mayor of the town of Lyman was arrested Wednesday in connection to a wiretapping investigation, state law enforcement officials said.

Rodney Dean Turner, 58, of 303 Earl Drive, was charged with wiretapping, misconduct in office and misconduct in office by a public official, according to warrants.

Warrants allege Turner failed to faithfully execute the responsibilities and power […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:39-05:00August 6th, 2015|

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|

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 […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:39-05:00July 24th, 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|

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|