A man who advertised and sold the notorious StealthGenie mobile-phone spyware has pleaded guilty to federal charges, earning himself a $500,000 fine, the Department of Justice said Tuesday. Hammad Akbar, a Danish citizen originally from Pakistan, was arrested in September and charged with advertisement and sale of interception devices — a category that includes spyware apps like StealthGenie. Once the app was secretly installed on the target phone, it would remain undetectable while recording every phone call and text, every photo and every email, among other things. The app, which investigators said was designed for use by “stalkers and domestic abusers,” could be installed on iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices. “This illegal spyware provides individuals with an option to track a person’s every move without their knowledge,” the FBI’s Andrew McCabe said.

Akbar allegedly sold a copy […]

Take-away: if you have a video system that also records audio, then you’d better make sure all of your employees have agreed to be monitored, or else disable the audio.  Whether or not the UC police surveillance system was used nefariously, once people (especially the union) discover that they are being recorded, that opens the door to lawsuits. During regular TSCM sweeps we have often found audio devices that were installed with apparently good intentions yet they put the company at risk for legal action such as this.

Department secretly installed a surveillance system throughout its headquarters, according to a lawsuit filed by a police union

By Kale Williams, San Francisco Chronicle

IRVINE, Calif. — A University of California campus police department secretly installed a surveillance system throughout its headquarters, including in bathrooms, and recorded officers’ private conversations, according to a lawsuit filed by a police union.

Devices installed throughout UC Irvine’s police […]

from WIRED magazine, 11/20/2014

In 1989, the year the Berlin Wall began to fall, American artist Jim Sanborn was busy working on his Kryptos sculpture, a cryptographic puzzle wrapped in a riddle that he created for the CIA’s headquarters and that has been driving amateur and professional cryptographers mad ever since.

To honor the 25th anniversary of the Wall’s demise and the artist’s 69th birthday this year, Sanborn has decided to reveal a new clue to help solve his iconic and enigmatic artwork. It’s only the second hint he’s released since the sculpture was unveiled in 1990 and may finally help unlock the fourth and final section of the encrypted sculpture, which frustrated sleuths have been struggling to crack for more than two decades.

Kryptos, a sculpture by American artist Jim Sanborn located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, […]

DailyStar

Louis Walsh believes that recording gear has been hidden in his room at Wembley Stadium to sabotage his chances. And he is so obsessed about it he makes anyone who comes to see him go into the toilet when they want to talk to him.

X-Factor judge, Louis Walsh

Louis, who is mentoring the groups, has two acts left in the show, eight-strong boy band Stereo Kicks and the mixed-sex quartet Only The Young. Both have been struggling and have been involved in sing-offs. Now Louis is convinced their efforts have been sabotaged. A show source said: “He thinks people have been listening in to his briefings and advice to disadvantage them.”

[Read more]

State Department concerned about Chinese spying at Waldorf Astoria after sale to insurance company with possible Communist Party ties.

The State Department said it is reviewing the sale of the hotel to Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group, and that it may stop leasing space for the U.S. ambassador to the UN or the General Assembly. Anbang is reportedly linked to China’s Communist Party, which has overseen a massive effort to use cyberspying to steal U.S. trade and military secrets.

WASHINGTON — The sale of the Waldorf Astoria to a Chinese insurance giant is really bugging the State Department.

Grand plans by Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group “to restore the property to its historic grandeur” has some Washington diplomatic and security insiders wondering if the Chinese will be adding more than a view to kill for.

Officials said Monday they are reviewing the sale — and implied the glittering renovation scheme for the iconic Park Ave. […]

TOWANDA, PA. Sept 9, 2014: A Towanda landlord, who is accused of possessing child pornography and using an electronic device to listen to a tenant having sex, is being held on $500,000 bail, according to court records. Daniel L. Bell, 65, of Towanda was charged Monday with 19 counts of possession of child pornography and three counts of wiretapping, both third-degree felonies, police said.

…The illegal activity was uncovered during a search that the Bradford County Probation Department conducted of Bell’s residence on April 4, police said. At the time, Bell was on probation and being supervised by the Probation Department, police said. During the search, the Probation Department seized the receiver unit for a baby monitor, which the Probation Department had information to believe Bell was using to eavesdrop on a tenant of his who lives in an adjoining building, police said.

…The sending unit for the baby monitor, which includes a […]

The voicemail hacking scandal that caused the collapse of News of the World, Rupert Murdoch’s UK tabloid, is about to be made into a movie, taken on by director George Clooney. 

Journalist Nick Davies recently published the book “Hack Attack” telling the story of how he took on the News of the World and their investigators who hacked phones, listened to live calls, sent Trojan horse emails, bribed the police, and committed burglaries to dig up tabloid scoops. (Available at Amazon [here]).  George Clooney will be heading up an adaptation of the book for Sony pictures, scheduled to begin filming in 2015.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

George Clooney has made the call on his next directing project. The actor-producer-director will helm an adaptation of the book Hack Attack, exploring the British phone-hacking scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch‘s news […]

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 […]