Corporate Espionage and Countermeasures News
News updates and articles are presented regarding corporate espionage, eavesdropping, electronic countermeasures, and TSCM. Please subscribe for automatic updates by entering your email address in the box on the right. You can search past articles and view archives in the column on the right.
Excerpts from recent posts are shown below. Click on the title to view the entire article.
City official and town employee charged with eavesdropping
Employee guilty of eavesdropping? We are always warning our clients about this. Establish clear privacy policies, let everyone know, then check your work. With the proliferation of devices being sold, the temptation to eavesdrop is soaring (everybody wants to be a spy). Regular proactive sweeps [...]
In the news: Toy hacked by 6th grader becomes spy device
Reuben Paul, 11, tells a conference that smart cars, fridges, lights and even teddy bears can be used to spy on or harm people. Plugging into his laptop a Raspberry Pi Reuben scanned the hall for available Bluetooth devices, and to everyone’s amazement including his own, suddenly downloaded dozens of numbers, including some of top officials. Then using computer language Python he hacked into his bear via one of the numbers to turn on one of its lights and record a message from the audience.
Is communications interception ever legal?
Alpha Group Investigations recently posted: Thanks to Hollywood and TV Dramas like CSI, the average citizen might imagine a private investigator has the right to legally bug and wiretap anyone’s office or home. However, that is an incorrect and morally wrong picture of a reputable investigator. The laws in each State and Country, for what accounts for legitimate electronic surveillance, vary greatly. A good Private Investigator has a responsibility to both to protect his or her client from illegal electronic countermeasures and to abide by the privacy laws of the region.
CIA docs show how they had embedded transmitters into cats during cold war.
Wikileaks recently tweeted out a link to a declassified CIA document, first released in 2001. A microphone and transmitter was implanted into a feline in an attempt to develop new ways to collect information from the Soviets. The project was called "Acoustic Kitty" and ran from 1960-1967.
Sports teams need privacy protection. Russian hockey team finds bugging device.
Sports teams should be concerned about privacy and confidentiality. A listening device was apparently discovered in the coaches' room of the Russian hockey team, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg.
Spy History News: Spy Chamber Under Moscow Streets & Spying on the Royals
A couple of recent articles reveal some spy history. Spy chamber found under Moscow streets believed to be used by Ivan the Terrible. And a recent documentary reveals spying on King Edward VIII in 1936 by the British government.
TSCM Electronic Security Sweeps for Law Firms and Their Clients
Sharon Nelson and John Simek, of Sensei Enterprises, host a monthly podcast called Digital Detectives on the Legal Talk Network. Their guest for March 2017 was Charles Patterson of Exec Security TSCM. They discussed electronic surveillance countermeasures and how electronic security sweeps can help ensure privacy for lawyers and their clients.
Threat de Toilette, Kaspersky’s Cyber Security Perfume
Kaspersky's full range of toiletry items, guaranteed to please the most discerning cyber security professional. Russian anti-virus and anti-malware firm Kaspersky has launched a full range of toiletry items, guaranteed to please the most discerning cyber security professional. From hotel size shampoo, [...]
P.I. faces one year in jail for planting illegal tracking device.
Orange County Superior Court Judge W. Michael Hayes sentenced Christopher Joseph Lanzillo, a private investigator and former Riverside police detective, to 364 days in county jail and three years’ formal probation. Lanzillo had pleaded guilty in September to allegations that he illegally used an electronic tracking device [...]
Four charged with hacking 500M Yahoo accounts, connected to FSB
The U.S. Justice Department today unsealed indictments against four men accused of hacking into a half-billion Yahoo email accounts. Two of the men named in the indictments worked for a unit of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) that serves as the FBI’s point of contact in Moscow on cybercrime cases. Here’s a look at the accused, starting with a 22-year-old who apparently did not try to hide his tracks.