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.
Story of a Russian spy in 1950’s Brooklyn
From Narrative.ly comes a well told tale, by Robert Silverman, of cold war espionage in Brooklyn, NY. It is interesting to note the author's observation that the spy does not usually appear as a James Bond or Jason Bourne: "How could Emil be a 'master spy,' or even [...]
Baltimore police officer resigns so wiretapping charges are dropped, after recording conversation with judge
Maryland requires "all party consent" before recording any conversations (remember Linda Tripp?). Police Sergeant Carlos Vila is now out of a job, not just for making the recording, but also because he played it for others to hear. Know your state's laws before you consider [...]
Peep on a Rope: Sochi Official Reveals Hotel Shower Video
Attempting to demonstrate that hotel vandalism has occurred, Dmitry Kozak revealed a bit too much "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day," From the [...]
Target Hackers Broke in Via HVAC Company
Brian Krebs, KrebsOnSecurity.com offers a good summary of how the hackers found their way into the Target data network by stealing an HVAC vendor's network access credentials. Expect to hear more about such vulnerabilities as more and more devices are connected online for maintenance, updates, [...]
Corporate Espionage Countermeasures for Car Manufacturers…
I SPY A STRANGE-LOOKING CAR Autonet.ca, Montreal QC How does one hide a car in plain sight? There's a clandestine component to automotive testing - the act of car cloaking with camouflage. When an automaker builds a new model, the vehicle reaches the prototype stage, and [...]
Espionage history: The Laird’s Lug (the Lord’s Ear)
In the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle, evidence of eavesdropping technique is there for all visitors to witness. The Laird's Lug (the "lord's ear") is what looks like a type of ventilation hole over the fireplace. It was used by the lord of the castle [...]
No Butts (dialing) – Airport Chairman’s Wiretapping Lawsuit Dismissed
Back in December we reported on a case where Jim Huff, a member of the Cincinnati airport board, filed a lawsuit against airport administrative assistant Carol Spaw stating he accidentally called her while discussing firing another board member and the woman recorded the call and shared the information, citing the Federal Wiretap Act. [Law suit cites Federal Wiretap Act www.upi.com] On Friday, January 25, U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning ruled that even though the cell phone call was accidental, Spaw was under no obligation to hang up. Advice here: protect yourself from "pocket dialing". Make sure your phone locks when you turn it off and put it away and also consider using a case that protects the keypad or buttons from redialing (if your phone still has buttons). Bluetooth earpieces are also a big vulnerability. Many of them will redial with a long press of the earpiece button. Shoving it in a pocket or even into a case could inadvertently squeeze the button initiating a redial even if when phone itself was locked. Some earpieces have an actual on-off switch, that is the best way to keep it off when it is not in use. Some Motorola earpieces will flip the mouthpiece to close and turn off, but (I found out the hard way) even when they were flipped closed, a firm squeeze would still wake up the phone and redial the last number.
Electronic Espionage Countermeasures for Executives and Executive Protection
By Charles Patterson, Jan 24, 2014 Corporate espionage strikes fear in the hearts of many executives, and rightly so. The threat is real, often not visible and not understood, and damage to the company (and to individuals) can be severe. Spying comes in many forms [...]
Teachers’ union hires sweep team.
The United Federation of Teachers union in NYC hired a TSCM team to sweep their offices. Unfortunately, comments on articles we read and even the articles themselves tend to make fun of their desire for privacy. One frequent comment we hear about TSCM is how [...]
Massive credit card data leak hits South Korea
The leak is linked to an insider. Reports vary as to how many accounts have been compromised, but all of them are big numbers. Bank executives are offering to resign. Report below is from Reuters.com The theft of personal information from more than 100 [...]