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.
VW Burn Notice: Bugging incident heats up with burning of eavesdroppers car and possible homicide.
On the evening of August 10, a burned-out car was found on a field with a dead body inside. Reports from Germany say there’s a high probability that the dead man is the alleged VW manager that secretly recorded confidential meetings.
VW Bug: Auto parts manufacturer tells Volkswagen that someone was eavesdropping on their meetings.
The "VW Bug" takes on new meaning. Confidential meetings of the VW group were apparently systematically intercepted during years of disputes between Volkswagen and the supplier ASA Prevent Group. This is reported by the business magazine “Business Insider”. As a result, conversations from a special project group were secretly recorded in 2017 and 2018. How the almost 50 hours of material were created and used has so far remained unclear. The Prevent group told Business Insider that they had no knowledge of the audio recordings. How safe are your meetings?
Eavesdropping in the news: thinking of buying a new home? Sellers may be eavesdropping.
It makes sense - home owners who put their houses on the market may have cameras installed but they could be not only watching but listening as well. A lesson from this is to be aware of your surroundings where ever you may be. Cameras [...]
Former eBay security executives charged with cyberstalking and covert surveillance.
Six former employees of eBay, Inc. have been charged with leading a cyberstalking campaign targeting the editor and publisher of a newsletter critical of the company. The harassment included sending the couple anonymous, threatening messages, disturbing deliveries and conducting covert surveillance of the victims.
Bugging at the Ritz. Barclay family squabbles result in high stakes espionage.
A video of a UK bugging incident has recently been released. Earlier this year, a contentious battle over the sale of the Ritz hotel in London, by the Barclay brothers, Sir Fredrick and David, resulted in a full on eavesdropping operation against Sir Frederick and his daughter.
Phishing for trade secrets a la YouTube.
A successful phishing attempt was made by someone impersonating a popular YouTube creator. A fake email address, pretending to be the popular electronics reviewer was used to request confidential information from an electronics manufacturer. Learn more about how this happened.
Lessons in Insider Threat Learned from a Superbowl Ad
A past Superbowl ad highlights insider problems that often affect information security.
TSCM and Penetration Testing
TSCM is closely related to cyber security and penetration testing, but often bridges other aspects of security as well.
Penetration testers arrested in Iowa have charges dropped.
Pen Testing is a valuable part of security tests and is conducted by many corporations on a regular basis. Two pen-testers who worked for Coalfire Labs, a security firm based in Colorado, had been arrested after entering an Iowa county courthouse in September, 2019. The charges against the testers were finally dropped after more than five months.
Laser modulation on smart home devices, how much of a threat is it?
Are IoT devices vulnerable to laser modulation? Destin from YouTube channel Smarter Every Day took up the task of meeting with researcher Ben Cyr, then going to Best Buy and obtaining and setting up a number of smart home devices (locks, garage door opener, thermostat). They then put them to the test with modulated laser beams.