Sun Oct 27, 2002
Security Scrapbook - Espionage & Privacy News of the Week.
To: Clients, colleagues and friends.
Subject: Espionage & Privacy News of the Week.
===================================================
Kevin's Security Scrapbook is published on an irregular
basis for a select audience. HTML versions are archived at http://www.spybusters.com/Security_Scrapbook.html
=================================================== SPECIAL SECTION -- Security Director News
SPECIAL SECTION -- World Spy Forecast
SPECIAL SECTION -- SpyCam News
SPECIAL SECTION -- The Great Barbie-Napping Case
SPECIAL SECTION -- Unclassified ===================================================
SPECIAL SECTION -- Security Director News
Workplace Eavesdropping Conviction A former security officer with the state of New Jersey Water Authority pleaded guilty to a charge that he recorded co-workers conversations without their knowledge. John Steven Swing, 38, of Bangor, PA said he had a co-worker put a voice-activated recorder in his locker on February 24-25, 2001. Swing will enter a pre-trial intervention program, and complete 75 hours of community service. He could have faced up to five years in prison if not for the agreement.
Today in Hunterdon, October 24-30, 2002
Cautionary Tale #488 - Laptops... Lock, password, encrypt! The U.S. Pacific Fleet's warships and submarines were missing nearly 600 computers as of late July, including at least 14 known to have handled classified data, according to an internal Navy report obtained on Friday. The fleet, based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, sought to prevent release of the Naval Audit Service report, even though it was not classified. "A release of this information could negatively impact national security," wrote Rear Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the fleet deputy commander in chief. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-962664.html?tag=fd_top_5
I don't want to hear your words
They always attack
Please take them all back Some people worry about receiving Microsoft Word documents, because of their hidden-field Trojan Horse info-snatch capabilities. Some people don't. This guy takes 2400 words to explain the free, two-click solution to the problem. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021017S0016/1
Murray's continuing wireless LAN rant...
Our colleague yells "FIREwall" in a crowded hotel... Preparing a conference presentation a few minutes before going onstage is cutting it close for some, but Gordon Mitchell, an information-security expert, wanted to make a point to an audience of skeptics about just how vulnerable they might be. Shortly before speaking to a group of corporate-intelligence specialists, Mitchell, 59, flipped open his laptop, plugged in an antenna and within moments slipped through the back door (of a LAN) left open by the unprotected signal of the Seattle conference hotel's wireless network. "I was looking at their firewall from the inside," Mitchell says. "All the things they were using to protect themselves were useless," because he could have deactivated them at will. In the middle of Mitchell's talk — during which he projected in front of the audience his computer screen showing the network's firewall setup commands — one participant leaped from his chair and ran out of the room. "I asked him where he was going," Mitchell recalls, "and he said, 'I'm going to call my network guy.'" http://www.time.com/time/globalbusiness/ http://www.bug-killer.com/
Another colleague emphasizes the point... An unprotected database can seem like Fort Knox compared with wireless communications. "On a wired or fiber system, there's a physical path that someone has to penetrate. With wireless, the geographic area and the technology to access it are much, much broader," says Noel Matchett, president of Information Security, based in Silver Spring, Md., and a former National Security Agency cryptographer. http://www.time.com/time/globalbusiness/article/0,9171,1101021028-366289,00.html http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Noel+Matchett
SPECIAL SECTION -- World Spy Forecast
Hazy... Washington - The NSA faces new obstacles in penetrating al-Qaeda because the terror group has learned how to evade U.S. interception technology — chiefly by using disposable cell phones or by avoiding phones altogether and substituting human messengers and face-to-face meetings to convey orders. Al-Qaeda operatives are also suspected of feeding disinformation to the NSA, in part to learn how successful the agency has been in penetrating the terror network. If U.S. forces act on the bad information, al-Qaeda operatives know where the leak is, U.S. intelligence officials say. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002-10-17-nsa-al-qaeda_x.htm
Hot... Canberra - Those responsible for the Bali bombing were able to plan and carry it out undetected despite the massive and constant monitoring of communications within Indonesia by spy bases in Australia. The terrorists appear to have slipped below the high-tech net by avoiding modern phone systems or using simple codes to avoid detection. ... Even before September 11, US intelligence specialists warned that long-range electronic surveillance was not going to be enough. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/19/1034561354582.html
... and HUMINT
Madrid - Spanish police have claimed that their warnings of the existence of a terrorist cell in Indonesia went unheeded. Spain has said it warned Indonesia more than a year ago of the existence of an al-Qaeda training camp on the island of Sulawesi, east of Borneo. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/pacific_rim/
Stormy later...
Washington –– The American Civil Liberties Union and three other groups sued the Bush administration Thursday, demanding information about expanded Justice Department surveillance in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. ... The groups on Aug. 21 asked for all policy directives and other guidance which the Justice Department and the FBI issued to their employees on:
–Obtaining circulation records from libraries, purchase records from bookstores or e-mail records from Internet service providers.
–The expanded use of pen registers and trap and trace devices. Pen registers capture phone numbers dialed on outgoing calls, while trap and trace devices capture numbers identifying incoming phone calls. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/
...with a chance of lightning. Israel was bewildered yesterday when the court permitted issuing the news of arresting a high ranking army officer in the Israeli army together with ten others under the charges of spying for the Hizbullah party and trading drugs. This bewilderment was not alleviated by the news that not all those are Jews but "Israeli Arabs." Having Hizbullah reach this level inside the Israeli army, regardless to the religion or sect of the arrested spying officer, constituted a big shock. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=
SPECIAL SECTION -- SpyCam News
SpyCam Case #668 - The Sticky-Fingered Super Toronto - A wily tenant caught his sticky-fingered super on a hidden camera sneaking into his apartment and pocketing $50 from a coin bowl in his kitchen, court heard yesterday. The larcenous caretaker, Monica Chenelle, was sentenced to house arrest for her petty pilfering. Court heard that Tony Zwicker, a tenant in a Keele St. apartment building, was saving holiday money by tossing change into containers, including a dish on a table in his kitchen. http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/ts.ts-10-25-0030.html
SpyCam Case #669 - "Marco..." Los Angeles - A water polo coach at a southern California high school has been fired after administrators found a secret videotape of girls undressing in their locker room, officials say. Brian Akian, an assistant water polo coach at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, about 40 miles south of Los Angeles, was dismissed over allegations that he was involved in the taping, said Carol Osbrink, assistant superintendent of Huntington Beach Union High School District. Osbrink said the tape was apparently made with a video camera that had been hidden in an equipment cage next to the girls' locker room and showed the students as they dressed, undressed and showered. ... Huntington Beach police Sgt. Gary Meza said the alleged crime was being investigated as a misdemeanor, which normally carries a punishment of less than a year in jail. http://news.excite.com/odd/article/id/276554
New SpyCam Law - Tokyo Since Oct. 1, Tokyo's ordinance forbidding people from creating a public nuisance has been toughened to allow for stricter punishments to be handed out to people filming others unaware that their actions or body parts are being captured on film. "We don't take statistics specifically on sneak filming, so there're no concrete numbers, but I get the feeling it's on the increase," said a spokesman for the National Police Agency. http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0210/021025upskirt.html
Let's call it The Original SpyCam Man (nah)... how about Hogan's Other Heroes (nah), okay what about... Auto Focus, a dark, fascinating film about the corrosive effects of celebrity and ego, zooms in on Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) with merciless clarity. Kinnear impressively nails the role, getting not only Crane’s physical mannerisms but something deeper. He portrays an amoral man who fails to grasp that his promiscuity is ruining his family life and, eventually, his career. http://people.aol.com/people/features/peoplespecial/0,10950,364939,00.html
SPECIAL SECTION -- The Great Barbie-Napping Case
Heir today... (From Bob Holmes holmz@ix.netcom.com)
My client represents a woman's estate from which a huge collection of vintage Barbie Dolls has been stolen. It's possible this could have been done by an heir. We think there's a probability that the heir already had a buyer, maybe a collector, before stealing them. If any of you hear of a Barbie collection being offered please email me.
So we did... Bob, here is a Barbie napping case from earlier this year. Expect to receive a ransom note...
http://adam.gerstein.net/archives/000222.html
Also, check this list of the rarest, most valuable Barbies. These are prime targets for collectors and Barbie-nappers alike... (must see) http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/6104/barbie.html
(Bob is being serious. My "tips" were not. Please help Bob find the Barbies.)
Yakkin' Barbie's Dreammobile... The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington has outfitted a high-mobility, multipurpose, wheeled vehicle (HMMWV, pronounced “Humvee” or “Hummer”) with almost every telecommunications link a public safety agency might need. Interoperable radio communications from 2 MHz to 800 MHz; private cellular and landline telephone networks; even microwave and two-way satellite communications for voice, data, and video are included in the sleek black truck dubbed InfraLynx. http://iwce-mrt.com/ar/radio_infralynx_hummer_delivers/index.htm
SPECIAL SECTION -- Unclassified
From the man who brought you Minority Report... Chips in Dip. Director Steven Spielberg, 55, was granted a restraining order against Diana Louisa Napolis, 46, a former social worker who has allegedly stalked the filmmaker. Napolis claimed in a 13-page manifesto that she believed Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, were part of a "satanic cult" that had implanted a microchip in her brain called a "soul catcher" that was controlling her. She allegedly believed the cult was operating out of Spielberg's basement. http://www.santabanta.com/newsmaker.asp?select=560
FutureWatch - Microchips... in everything! A breakthrough technology -- about the size of a grain of sugar and the cost of a piece of candy -- promises to revolutionize supply-chain management, letting companies track products from the early stages of manufacturing until they're plucked from store shelves, and every point in between. (Not to mention the security applications, and movie plot possibilities.) http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020927S0042
FutureWatch - Let's call it Happy Luck Chip (nah), Soul Catcher? (ahhhh!)
Soon all you may need to transmit data is a simple handshake. Japanese researchers at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone are developing a gadget that would plug into a conventional PDA to transmit and receive weak electrical signals across a user's body, exploiting the conductivity of human skin. The technology is viable, says Farpoint analyst Craig Mathias, but could pose interesting security issues. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021011S0011
ESPIONAGE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Annual Meeting November 4-5, 2002
Washington, DC
IF YOU DON'T SHOW, YOU WON'T KNOW...
- about software development for high speed RF spectrum scanning.
- the latest equipment developments for more effective TSCM inspections.
- how to diagnose wireless networks.
- about distributed antenna systems for cellphones.
- how to build computer forensics into your business.
- how to properly prepare your cases for the police and courts.
- about recent voicemail hacks.
- about Thermal Emissions Spectrum Analysis for TSCM. (the 1-year update)
- the must-know differences between digital, analog, and hybrid phones.
- about the CCISM certification program.
- the latest espionage trends.
Bonus - A side trip to the NEW International Spy Museum in Washington, DC is being organized.
Attendance is open to ERI members only, and there is still time to become a member. Contact Glenn Whidden glenn.whidden@verizon.net for details.
Reality check... One of our TSCM colleagues is recovering from brain tumor surgery. A brain tumor took his wife's life last October. Throughout his ordeal - diagnosis to surgery to chemo - he has generously kept family and friends informed via very educational, documentary-style email updates.
He has been doing well, but I can hear that it is getting to him...
"Feeling and being sick for so long, knowing that it needs to continue to fight the cancer numbs the mind. It hurts you so much that it makes you scream and cry. Fighting Cancer becomes a very personal and destroying fight. There are times that I feel so very alone. Take care....and....remember, time may be shorter that you know, make each day count for someone you care about or love." - James Calhoun delphitexas@earthlink.net
Sun Oct 20, 2002
Security Scrapbook - Espionage & Privacy News of the Week.
To: Clients, colleagues and friends.
Subject: Espionage & Privacy News of the Week.
===================================================
Kevin's Security Scrapbook is published on an irregular
basis for a select audience. HTML versions are archived at http://www.spybusters.com/Security_Scrapbook.html
=================================================== SPECIAL SECTION -- Security Director News - Cautionary Tales!
SPECIAL SECTION -- Plugola...
SPECIAL SECTION -- World Spy News
SPECIAL SECTION -- When you wish upon a star...
SPECIAL SECTION -- FutureWatch
SPECIAL SECTION -- Did You Know? ===================================================
SPECIAL SECTION -- Security Director News - Cautionary Tales!
Cautionary Tale #301 - Beware the Employee Bugs A wireless SpyCam was found this week in a fellow Security Scrapbook reader's company. We provided autopsy assistance and have permission to tell you the strange story...
A receiver and timelapse VCR (on and operating) was found in a hotel room by a maid. She reported it to management. Terrorists?!?! Management called the cops. Police arrived and reviewed the tape recording. It showed an office cubicle at time-lapse speed - no audio on the tape, of course.
Occupant returns to the room and police conduct an interview. The occupant reports that he works across the street and set up the camera, "to see who touches my stuff when I'm not there."
Police call corporate security at the company across the street and all head to the employee's cubicle. Employee shows them where the eavesdropping device is located - in audio speakers on his desk. Employee cracks open the speakers to show them the components. Photos are taken. Employee says he knows audio eavesdropping is illegal so he is only watching the video.
This employee 'knows too much'. Photos show a hidden microphone, and that both audio and video are indeed being transmitted.
The trend... This is the third time in recent years we have had a case where an employee brought their own covert spycam into work. Earlier this month - on another assignment - we determined that cubicle employees (different company) had planted a cheap FM wireless microphone in their boss's office - in a potted plant! All the cubicle employees in the area wore headphones and listened to their FM radios while working. The intelligence they gathered got their boss fired "for cause" ...three days before the bug was found. That's right! Employee Vigilantism!
The point... Employee snoops find low cost eavesdropping tools irresistible.
Time to create a corporate policy about employee-introduced spyware in the workplace. Spycams, bugs, wiretaps, voice recorders, computer spyware, abuse of phone system features, etc. all need to be addressed... as well as the handling of information brought to management - which may have been collected via electronic surveillance methods.
As always, conduct regular inspections.
If we don't show, you won't know.
Cautionary Tale #302 - Conduct Eavesdropping Detection Inspections Utah - Campaign officials for Democratic congressional candidate Dave Thomas told state investigators that a listening device was discovered on one of Thomas' phone lines. Ryan Hawkins, campaign manager for the 1st Congressional District candidate, said a Qwest repairman found "some kind of listening device" on a phone line at the Cache County Democratic Office during routine service Wednesday. The phone line is paid for by Thomas' campaign. The discovery was reported to the state's Criminal Investigations Bureau the following day, Hawkins said. http://www.sltrib.com/10142002/utah/6911.htm
Cautionary Tale #303 - Lock Up, Password Protect & Encrypt Laptops Tennesse - Sensitive campaign material was stolen from the headquarters of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Bredesen during a break-in over the weekend, campaign officials said. Among the items missing from the Music Row office are a computer that includes confidential campaign strategy points and a laptop with donor lists and other financial information, said Dave Cooley, Bredesen's senior strategist. Bredesen said he thinks the burglar or burglars were after information and not the equipment. ... He said security has been increased at the office. (Isn't that always the way?) http://tennessean.com/government/archives/02/10/23804779
Cautionary Tale #304 - Be Aware of Competitor Deception Tactics... People accuse Microsoft of devious tactics all the time. Microsoft generally denies the accusations, and that’s that. This week, though, Microsoft gave itself a big, goopy pie in the face. On October 9, the company posted a testimonial on its Web site called “Confessions of a Mac to PC Convert.” It was a first-person account by a “freelance writer” about how she had fallen in love with Windows XP, which she compared to a Lexus. “I was up and running in less than one day, Girl Scout's honor,” burbled the attractive, 20-something brunette in the photo. There was only one problem: She doesn’t exist. A with-it member of Slashdot.org, the popular hangout for articulate nerds, happened to notice that the woman’s picture actually came from GettyImages.com, a stock-photo agency. Ted Bridis, and Associated Press reporter, took it from there. Amazingly, he tracked authorship of the article to Valerie Mallinson, a public-relations woman hired by Microsoft to write the story. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/17/technology/
Cautionary Tale # 305 - Celebrity 'phone hacking' is on the increase... PR advisers to the rich and famous are warning their clients to be on their guard amid claims that journalists are resorting to increasingly underhand methods to hack into celebrities' mobile phones. As competition for celebrity stories increases, unscrupulous journalists are using hacking techniques to beat their rivals to scoops. According to one well-known PR man, some journalists are even tapping into phones to sabotage their rivals' chances in story bidding wars by deleting messages. Hacking into strangers' mobile phone voicemail boxes is a relatively simple process but can only be used if the mobile phone user has not personalised his or her voicemail access code. http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,810374,00.html
VOIP Wiretapping Risks... As with traditional telephony, eavesdropping is a concern for organizations using VOIP—and the consequences can be greater, says Charlie Rabie, a vice president at Aspect Communications Corp. ... Because voice travels in packets over the data network, hackers can use data-sniffing and other hacking tools to identify, modify, store and play back voice traffic traversing the network, says Christopher Kemmerer, an analyst at NexTiraOne Inc. ... A hacker breaking into a VOIP data stream has access to a lot more calls than he would with traditional telephone tapping. As a result, "one of the big differences is that a hacker has a much higher probability of getting intelligent information" from tapping a VOIP data stream than from monitoring traditional phone systems, Rabie says. http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=750465
Imagine combining a VOIP wiretap combined with
this excellent bit of software... "With our unique phonetic technology, you can retrieve any word, name or phrase from voice data, regardless of speaker or dialect, with up to 98 percent precision. We enable you to search your digital assets 72,000 times faster than real time, or 20 hours in less than one second. The result: Fast-Talk significantly improves the way people search and access valuable audio and voice data." http://www.fast-talk.com/
Distribute to your troops...
How to Be a Good Eyewitness - Personal safety comes first. If you hear the sound of a gunshot, get down and/or seek cover.
- Look in the direction of the sound. Make a mental note of persons or vehicles in that area.
- With regard to people, remember that some facts and characteristics are permanent and some are temporary. Permanent features include height, weight, build and complexion. Temporary characteristics include clothing, hairstyle or hair color, facial hair (beard or mustache) and glasses.
- Permanent vehicle characteristics include make and model. Temporary characteristics include color, tag number, dents/primer, lights on/off or broken/burned out. Some temporary characteristics can be altered more easily than others.
- Commit what you saw to memory. Have a pen available on your person; if paper is not available, write what you have just witnessed on your hand.
- Remain on the scene, in a safe place, until people arrive.
- Do not allow another witness or media to contaminate your memory.
- Do not compare or discuss what you saw with another witness.
(From the Montgomery County Police.) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,65858,00.html
SPECIAL SECTION -- Plugola...
New Book...
"Corporate Investigations" Reginald J. Montgomery - CLI, CPP, CFE (Editor)
Lawyers & Judges Publishing Company; ISBN: 0913875635; 2002
Comprised of speciality chapters. Examples...
- FCRA & Corporate Investigations
- Profiling for Corporate Investigators
- Intellectual Property Theft
- Product Diversion
- The Statement as a Crime Scene
- Electronic Eavesdropping & Corporate Counterespionage
Authored by a wide variety of respected security industry practitioners, e.g. James Carino, Bruce Hulme, Kitty Hailey, Kevin D. Murray - CPP, CFE, BCFE, Tom Owen - BCFE, ABFE, Raymond Pierce, David Roberts, etc.
...and we thank our friends for
periodically mentioning us in their fine newsletters.
Thanks this month to Privacy Journal, which carried two pages of our rant about The SpyCam Epidemic.
Two great newsletters...
Privacy Journal (newsletter and other publications about privacy)
Robert Ellis Smith, Publisher 401-274-7861
ISSN 0145-7659 http://www.privacyjournal.net
Security Letter
Robert D. McCrie, Publisher 212-348-1553
ISSN 0363-4922
For over 20 years now these two publications have kept me up-to-date on Privacy and Security topics.
SPECIAL SECTION -- World Spy News
Havana Mooned Washington — A defiant U.S. intelligence analyst (Ana Belen Montes, 45), who confessed to spying for Cuba throughout her 16-year career, harshly criticized American policy toward Fidel Castro and was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison. ... According to court papers, Montes communicated with the Cuban Intelligence Agency through encrypted messages and received her instructions over short-wave radio. From public pay phones, she then used a prepaid calling card to send coded numeric messages to a pager owned by Cuban intelligence. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,65837,00.html
Rock & Roll to the rescue... Efforts to capture the Washington-area sniper who has killed nine and injured two are to be boosted by the deployment of military surveillance planes. The Pentagon has agreed to provide a "handful" of RC-7 Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL) planes. (...and this will make you techies swoon...) The SIGINT subsystem has a HF/VHF/UHF intercept and direction finding (DF) capable Electronic Support Measures (ESM) system. The IMINT subsystem is equipped with infrared line scanner (IRLS), forward looking infrared (FLIR), and daylight imaging system (DIS). The core complement of sensors may be augmented with low-light level TV (LLTV), MTI cueing radar, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), multi-spectral camera, acoustic range extension system, precision targeting subsystem, and remote configuration using a direct air-to-satellite datalink. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992932 http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/arl.htm
The old exploding telephone trick... The Palestinian Authority accused Israel on Sunday of using a booby-trapped public phone booth near Beit Jalla hospital to kill Mohammed Abiat, a mid-ranking member of the Tanzim from the Bethlehem area, who died Sunday when the receiver he was holding blew up. http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?
Cellular + Radar = Celldar
UK - Government's secret Celldar project will allow surveillance of anyone, at any time and anywhere there is a phone signal. Secret radar technology research that will allow the biggest-ever extension of 'Big Brother'-style surveillance in the UK is being funded by the Government. The technology 'sees' the shapes made when radio waves emitted by mobile phone masts meet an obstruction. Signals bounced back by immobile objects, such as walls or trees, are filtered out by the receiver. This allows anything moving, such as cars or people, to be tracked. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story
Not only do they know where you are, they know why... US - Several of the large wireless carriers say they soon will roll out emergency location technology. Sprint recently announced plans to deploy E911 technology that will enable callers to be precisely traced through global positioning system coordinates. ... Plano dispatcher Karin Christian will never forget answering a 911 call one night in June and hearing a faint voice calling, "Help me, I'm bleeding." The victim, who was disoriented and slipping in and out of consciousness, was unable to convey her location. Plano dispatcher Karin Christian led rescuers to a crash site by listening to their sirens on a disoriented victim's cell phone. In an ironic twist, the cell phone that helped police find her also played a role in her accident. "She was making a cell phone call," Ms. Christian said. "That's why she went off the road." http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/19615.html
We will find you... United States security sources believe a taped message from Osama bin Laden was the trigger for Indonesian terrorists to launch a devastating attack on a Bali nightclub packed with tourists, killing at least 187 people and injured more than 300. http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1136262002
"We were just shooting each other..." U.N. - Just days after a man vaulted the fence at U.N. headquarters and fired shots in the air, two New Yorkers were arrested after sneaking into the U.N. compound under cover of darkness to take pictures of one another, police said on Monday. Jose Galeano, 20, of Sands Point, New York, and Christopher Clemente, 22, of Port Washington, New York, were taken into custody early on Sunday by U.N. security guards who saw them jump over the U.N. fence along First Avenue on Manhattan's East Side, U.N. and police officials said. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/
SPECIAL SECTION -- When you wish upon a star...
Makes no difference who you are... U.S. weapons manufacturers are hard at work developing futuristic precision weapons that promise to keep Americans even further out of harm’s way: lasers. ... The JSF laser system could be used to destroy communication lines, power grids, or fuel dumps, or to zero in on part of a vehicle, like the engine. The weapons would be covert, powerful and untraceable. “There’s no huge explosion associated with its employment, there are no pieces and parts left behind...” explains an unnamed official. “The damage is localized, and it is hard to tell where it came from and when it happened. It is all pretty mysterious.” http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/26/24/news1.html
If your heart is in your dreams, no request is too extreme... Tokyo - The spies used "Don Quixote" to decode messages from their headquarters in North Korea. They slipped ashore on made-in-Japan life rafts and used Japanese cell phones for their contacts. When they went home after a mission, they hauled bags of pens, shirts and sweaters as gifts. These and other glimpses of the espionage carried out by North Korean agents in Japan starting in the 1970s are emerging as their spy activities here are flushed into the open. The clues are coming from interviews conducted this month by Japanese officials in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, with five people who were kidnapped from Japan; from old cases now being reexamined; and from evidence found in a sunken North Korean spy ship that Japan recently raised. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18308-2002Oct12.html
Like a bolt out of the blue, fate steps in and sees you through... An asteroid which burned up in the earth's atmosphere in June could have triggered a mistaken nuclear war between India and Pakistan had it detonated over South Asia. The asteroid sizzled with a burst of energy comparable to the Hiroshima atomic bomb over the Mediterranean. ...the US early warning satellites detected the flash of energy released by the small asteroid, a so-called near earth object, or NEO, on June six. Had the detonation taken place over South Asia, where nuclear armed rivals India and Pakistan were poised on the verge of war, it could have sparked disaster. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_84433,0008.htm
SPECIAL SECTION -- FutureWatch
FutureWatch - New audio / video enhancement technique... It's a good thing satellite static crackles at the same frequency as human speech. That coincidence allowed the Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., which usually works for the U.S. military, to make a surprising contribution to the field of forensics. Accustomed to separating out the low-frequency waves that affect communications of a satellite orbiting Earth, Aerospace scientists are applying the same technology to assist police agencies that need to separate background noise from speech on audio-surveillance tapes. Thanks to a Department of Justice grant, Aerospace has cleaned up tapes in nearly 400 cases and now offers similar cleanup services for video surveillance. Earlier this year, the laboratory restored an ATM video that had captured a muddy image of a van in which, allegedly, a rape victim had been abducted. Once the image was cleaned up, six of the seven license-plate numbers became visible, and police nabbed the driver. http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101021021/ttesting.html http://www.law-west.org/ (Click on "Frame averaging." Awesome.)
FutureWatch - MiniMe UFO
Big spies in the sky are nothing new, from U2 spy planes to remote-controlled drones. But the microrobot sometimes dubbed the "spyfly" is new. http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/dailynews/
FutureWatch - MaxiMe UFO Anchorage, Alaska - A bird the size of a small airplane was recently spotted flying over southwest Alaska, puzzling scientists, the Anchorage Daily News reported this week. The newspaper quoted residents in the villages of Togiak and Manokotak as saying the creature, like something out of the movie "Jurassic Park," had a wingspan of 14 feet - making it the size of a small airplane. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/SciTech/reuters20021018_138.html
FutureWatch - Automatic Eavesdropper Alarm System Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated a six-state protocol that makes eavesdroppers on quantum encrypted signals easier to detect. ... To decode a message sent in this manner, a receiver would have to know which pairing is used, and any interception of the message would interfere with the final outcome -- indicating the presence of an eavesdropper. http://www.photonics.com/Spectra/Tech/oct02/techEavesdropper.asp
FutureWatch - Van-go on new s-tarmac... Star sprinkled driveway lights up at night... In St. Clair, Michigan, at Bob Manning's home, the driveway seemingly transforms into a planetarium with glowing stars, planets and moons levitating above the background of concrete. Manning integrated into the concrete substrate decorative lighting (LEDs) in the forms of celestial objects. http://www.photonics.com/Spectra/Tech/oct02/ http://www.ledtronics.com/pages/News103.htm
Watergate History - 25 Years Ago Today...
October 20, 1973, 8:25 P.M. - The Saturday Night Massacre.
Nixon forces Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to resign when they refuse to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox thus abolishing the office of Special Prosecutor. Cox would not agree to only accepting only "a summary" of the White House tape recordings. The man that finally does the deed for Nixon: Robert H. Bork. In a statement, Cox said: "Whether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people."
Sun Oct 13, 2002
Security Scrapbook - Espionage & Privacy News of the Week.
To: Clients, colleagues and friends.
Subject: Espionage & Privacy News of the Week.
===================================================
Kevin's Security Scrapbook is published on an irregular
basis for a select audience. HTML versions are archived at http://www.spybusters.com/Security_Scrapbook.html
=================================================== SPECIAL SECTION -- Security Director News
SPECIAL SECTION -- SpyCam News
SPECIAL SECTION -- World Spy News
SPECIAL SECTION -- Paper Tigers
SPECIAL SECTION -- Head Scratchers ===================================================
SPECIAL SECTION -- Security Director News
Wireless Microphone Alternatives... There is no longer any excuse for your executives to be bugging their boardrooms and off-site meetings using standard FM wireless microphones which broadcast up to a quarter mile with excellent fidelity. Time to junk FM wireless microphones. Safer wireless microphone systems are available...
FBI / InfraGard Meeting - Connecticut
October 24, 2002
"Background Checks" presentation by Al Sparaco, Baker Street Associates
"Risk Assessment" presentation by Kathy L. Wojciechowski, Security Officer NAVSEA Groton Supervisor of Shipbuilding
"Disaster Recovery" presentation by Bob Urion, CAPS
"Financial Issues with Security Implementation" presentation by TMP Worldwide http://www.infragard-ct.org/meetings/agendas/agenda_102402.html
SPECIAL SECTION -- SpyCam News
Security Alert #449 - Cameracide
No you're not paranoid.
Yes, they are out to get you.
Justified Cameracide? You decide... "Confronted with the unblinking eyes of surveillance cameras, Michael Naimark believes he can hide in plain sight with the aid of a $1 laser pointer. Mr. Naimark, a Silicon Valley artist and technologist, decided to try turning the tables on what he saw as the potential for Big Brother surveillance after the Sept. 11 attacks. His is a Little Brother response: using inexpensive laser pointers to temporarily blind those omnipresent electronic eyes." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/07/technology/07ZZAP.html?
"Using bright light as an aggressive tool goes back to ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes and the legend that he burned invading Roman ships with large mirrors and reflected sunlight. The activist art group, Rtmark (pronounced "arteemark"), inspired by the Archimedes legend, distributed 1,000 hand-held mirrors to protesters at the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, to use against the police by spot blinding them with sunlight. ... Rtmark has a Web guide to closed circuit television destruction." http://www.naimark.net/projects/zap/howto.html (How to Zap a Camera)
"Why destroy cctv cameras? Trust your instincts, but if you need intellectual justification then..." http://rtmark.com/cctv/
Okay, so not everyone is a literate Silicon Valley artist and technologist... As Canton High seniors Joe Byrd and Takeshia Fields walk the halls of their school, they know Big Brother may be watching at any given moment. Canton High is one of a handful of schools in Mississippi keeping tabs on students and campuses through surveillance cameras monitored via computers and the Internet, accessed with a password. ... "I have no problem with it," Byrd said. "I don't do anything that's visible that I feel is inappropriate. I feel we should be spied on at all times." ... "It is a wonderful system," said Larry Drawdy, Biloxi schools superintendent. "The cameras are not ostentatious in any way." http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0210/07/m01.html http://www.edweek.org/sreports/qc02/rc/rcard_frameset.htm
Joe McDonald, meet Michael Naimark. Michael, Joe. Perth, Australia - A Perth building company has enraged its workers by warning they will be covertly filmed and have their conversations recorded as they work on a city apartment block. Workers turned up at the building site yesterday to find a notice saying Sizer Builders would install spy cameras and microphones on the job to "discourage unlawful conduct". Workers were warned in the notice that their conversations would be recorded at "times of high risk", adding that would include the visit of a union official on site. The notice was stuck up in the workers' "smoko" shed last Friday. Up to 40 workers walked off the job yesterday morning, and plan to stay out until at least tomorrow morning. Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union assistant state secretary Joe McDonald said the notice was an absolute disgrace. "This is un-Australian," Mr. McDonald said. http://webpublisher.lexisnexis.com/index.asp?
SPECIAL SECTION -- World Spy News
Moscow, Russia - CIA Kremlin bug 'saved Gorbachev' ... The CIA dug a tunnel under the Kremlin and installed a hi-tech bugging system to eavesdrop on the Soviet Union's most senior figures, according to the former US intelligence officer who executed the plan. The device was put in by a US agent who had to wear a protective suit and was guided by satellite and sonar images of Moscow's underground. The bugging formed part of audacious operations to rescue a key defector, a KGB officer with responsibility for eavesdropping, and to alert Boris Yeltsin to the attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,810935,00.html
Belfast, Ireland - Official of Sinn Fein charged in spy probe... Denis Donaldson, arrested in Friday's police raid on Sinn Fein's office in Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly... Police seized documents and computer disks in the raids, which security sources said followed a yearlong investigation into allegations the IRA had a spy working inside the Belfast headquarters of British government ministers. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/280/
Miami, Florida - A former East German spy was being detained Wednesday while the government tried to deport him, authorities said. Michael Didschurs, 44, was arrested Sept. 10 at his Gainesville home after failing to detail his past on an application for resident alien status, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said. Didschurs, a German citizen, worked for the Ministry of State Security, known as the Stasi, in communist East Germany, authorities said. INS spokesman Rodney Germain wouldn't say when Didschurs last worked for the Stasi. http://cgi.wn.com/?action=display&article=15869277
Moscow, Russia - A Siberian court has rejected a prosecutor's request to return to custody a Russian scientist accused of spying for China, his defense lawyer said Tuesday. Valentin Danilov was released Sept. 27 after agreeing not to leave the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. He had been jailed since February 2001 on charges of selling state secrets to a Chinese company and of misappropriating money. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-russia-spy-trial
Somewhere, Maybe - Osama bin Laden is alive and regularly meeting Mullah Omar, the fugitive leader of the Taliban, according to a telephone call intercepted by American spy satellites. http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/
SPECIAL SECTION -- Paper Tigers
The lollipop and paper pedestrians are a nice touch too... Cardboard traffic policemen have popped up at street crossings across the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in a novel scheme to boost road safety.
The authorities hope the dummy cops will trick drivers into killing their speed in this ex-Soviet Baltic republic, which has one of Europe's highest death tolls on the roads. A similar scheme in Denmark in the 1980s ran into trouble as cut-outs of motorcycle police were stolen - apparently by souvenir hunters. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2234965.stm
Maybe if we saw her we would understand... UK - A cardboard cut-out cop has slashed crime at a supermarket. Tesco managers say shoplifting has dropped by 32 per cent since the life-size photo of PC Teresa O'Brien arrived. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/page.cfm?
Teresa, meet Safe-T-Man.
Just don't ask him about his 'patch kit'...
Designed as a visual deterrent, Safe-T-Man is a life-size, simulated male, that appears to be 180 lbs. and 6 ft. tall, to give others the impression that you have the protection of a male guardian with you while at home alone or driving in your car. This unique security device looks incredibly real, with a positionable latex head and hands, air-brushed facial highlights, and salt-and-pepper hair. Made of the highest-quality, inflatable PVC vinyl, he weighs just 7lbs and can be dressed according to your own personal style and preference. When not keeping vigil over your well-being, he can be deflated, stored and transported inconspicuously in the optional tote bag. Comes with a repair patch. http://www.gusworld.com.au/rotd/9610/safe.htm http://www.asontv.com/products/849840117.html
Just in case you are scratching your head too much these days... "The Zeropa Ladybird (they mean ladybug) is the only US patented product (United States Patent No. 5,668,070) proven to absorb the harsh effects of electromagnetic fields. ... helps reduce the symptoms of discomfort experienced by many mobile phone users who suffer from headaches, giddiness, tiredness and sensations of heat." (This still has me scratching my head.) http://www.futuresafe.cc/z_home.htm http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?
Quote of the Weak... "About 20 percent of the bugs cause 80 percent of all errors, and -- this is stunning to me -- one percent of bugs cause half of all errors." - Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Balmer this week in a memo to customers. He said Microsoft would work to better the system. http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/021002/tech_microsoft_ballmer_1.html
...until they abbreviate it, cobber. A single number for email addresses, phone number and websites is being considered in Australia, despite fears the technology could become a de facto identification number. http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/
"You've got ma, ma, ma, ma, mail." - Max Headroom Email may grow out of practical control within three years, research from IDC has warned. The analyst organisation predicts that more than 60 billion emails will be sent every day by 2006. The report, Worldwide Email Usage Forecast, 2002-2006: Know What's Coming Your Way, puts the current daily email count at 31 billion. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1135485
AM, FM & DM?
The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved a method yesterday for broadcasting digital radio within current analog channels. And in a move likely to speed adoption of the technology, the agency endorsed a patented approach for delivering such services developed by iBiquity Digital, a privately held company whose investors include the nation's 15 largest radio broadcasting companies. The technology enables broadcasters to begin sending digital signals while also continuing to provide standard AM and FM analog service to listeners who do not own receivers able to pick up the digital programming. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/11/technology/11RADI.html?
...and we're still mad about this week's anniversaries... Oct 12 1960 - Nikita Khrushchev, President of the USSR, bangs his shoe on his desk at the United Nations. ...and Boris becomes a popular name... Boris Yeltsin, Boris Pickett, Boris Badenough.
Oct 10 1962 - BBC network bans Bobby "Boris" Pickett's innocuous song, "Monster Mash," citing vague principles. ...but then goes on to repair the faux pas by presenting Monthy Python and The Young Ones.
Sat Oct 5, 2002
Security Scrapbook - Espionage & Privacy News of the Week.
To: Clients, colleagues and friends.
Subject: Espionage & Privacy News of the Week.
===================================================
Kevin's Security Scrapbook is published on an irregular
basis for a select audience. HTML versions are archived at http://www.spybusters.com/Security_Scrapbook.html
=================================================== SPECIAL SECTION -- Security Director News
SPECIAL SECTION -- SpyCam News
SPECIAL SECTION -- Extortionography
SPECIAL SECTION -- World Spy News
SPECIAL SECTION -- Silly String ===================================================
SPECIAL SECTION -- Security Director News
Mark your calendars...
FBI / InfraGard Meeting
Date: 15 October 2002 10:00 - 13:00 Venue: Princeton University's Engineering School Building Topics:
* Espionage and Counter Espionage Technology, Kevin D. Murray
* Computer Spyware Case Study, Gideon Lenkey
* How the FBI can help with an espionage case, Jim O'Neill Speakers:
Kevin D. Murray - CPP, CFE, BCFE (Murray Associates)
Mr. Murray's specialty is electronic eavesdropping audits. He is a career technical consultant whose services are engaged by business and government clients.
Gideon Lenkey - CISSP (Ra Security Systems, Inc.)
Mr. Lenkey will be presenting an espionage case study involving computer spyware. This case will follow the events from the initial suspicion to the collection of evidence to revealing the identity of the spy.
James O'Neill - SA (FBI)
Special Agent O'Neill has been an FBI agent for 19 years and served in the Philadelphia, Dallas and Newark Field Offices. http://www.njinfragard.org/calendar.html
Alert: This Corporate Attack Is Happening Now!
I received the following unsolicited email this week.
From: "securityproject.org" <info@securityproject.org>
Date: Wed Oct 2, 2002 4:19:03 PM US/Eastern
To: murray@spybusters.com
Subject: Guardsmark: Can U Trust Them?
Case-in-Point #1: Johnson Products v. Guardsmark...
Case-in-Point #2: Lola Rabon v. Guardsmark...
...These are just two of the many cases where the aggrieved parties took the time and effort to file a lawsuit. How many other thousands of customers just wrote it off as not worth it? Stay tuned for more information that will never show up in a Guardsmark press release. Guardsmark: Public Relations, Not Public Safety. This “Facts Fax Email Supplement” is brought to you by the Security Project [www.SecurityProject.org] of the Home Justice Watch.
(Condensed. Full copy available.)
Summary... An anonymous 'public good' organization pops up out of nowhere. Oddly, this ".org" is only targeting one corporation for character assassination.
Add it to the list of other corporate attack tactics we alert you to... eavesdropping, espionage, Extortionography, death-of-a-thousand-cuts, etc.
Who owns this domain name? (type, type) ...ah, the story behind the story.
Duane Stillwell, duane@organizingfund.org,
P.O. Box 486, Jacksonville, AL 36265
Domain Name: securityproject.org
Record created: 2002-07-26
And what the heck is organizingfund.org? "The Organizing Fund ("Fund") is committed to all unions and workers that demonstrate a desire to organize -- especially those that are currently underserved... " (emphasis theirs) http://www.organizingfund.org/
Is this starting to make sense now?
...union organizers playing hard ball.
Coda... Did you know... Corporate attacks are not spontaneous?
Your opposition will collect intelligence about you first. Eavesdropping, document theft, Extortionography, trash collection and other espionage techniques will be employed. Spot these early-warning signs, and you will not suffer a surprise attack. ...an excellent reason to engage our services ...and keep them engaged. http://www.spybusters.com/Extortionography.html
Cautionary Tale #722 - Remind Employees About Social Engineering ...officials at local telephone company Sprint of Nevada have maintained that, as far as they know, their systems have never suffered a single intrusion. The Sprint subsidiary lost that innocence Monday when convicted hacker Kevin Mitnick shook up a hearing on the call-tampering allegations by detailing years of his own illicit control of the company's Las Vegas switching systems, and the workings of a computerized testing system that he says allows silent monitoring of any phone line served by the incumbent telco. ... Each switch had a secret phone number, and a default username and password, he said. He obtained the phone numbers and passwords from Sprint employees by posing as a Nortel technician, and used the same ploy every time he needed to use the dial-ups, which were inaccessible by default. ...That's a far cry from the unassailable system portrayed at the March hearings, when former company security investigator Larry Hill -- who retired from Sprint in 2000 -- testified "to my knowledge there's no way that a computer hacker could get into our systems." http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/
...and the #1 reason to discontinue post office "Special Delivery" services... "At approximately 1310 local time (1710 UTC) on 3 October 2002, a man protesting against alleged human rights abuses in North Korea fired several gunshots into the air in front of the United Nations (U.N.) Headquarters building in New York City, throwing dozens of political leaflets around him before security forces arrested him. The man apparently entered the U.N. compound by climbing over its perimeter fence, which separates the compound from First Avenue. Bullets from the assailant's gun reportedly hit the 18th and 20th floors of the landmark U.N. building, but did not cause any injuries. Police authorities cordoned off First Avenue and sealed the building until the area was secured."
Background... The UN is not the United States, it is international territory. They have their own armed police force, their own post office, etc. Security is hyper-excellent and just as hard to see.
It doesn't surprise me that the guy got over the UN's fence. Not too hard. Shooting and tossing literature probably took less than a minute. What the news item didn't reveal was the quick arrest. He wasn't shot. No security people were injured. The area was secured expeditiously. This speaks volumes about the professionalism of the UN security department (Chief Michael McCann, Lt. Nick Panzarino, et. al.) and their tight coordination with NYPD and the US Secret Service - who were in the area at the time.
Action... Now is a good time to think about how this would have played out at your facility. Dust off the plans, test, and revise as needed ...before they are needed, please.
FutureWatch - Splinter Fingerprint Scanners ... in everything! A sensor manufactured by Silicon Valley security company I-Control, in fact, is just a small strip, as wide as a fingertip and as thin as a splinter. To use it, you swipe your finger over the strip. The sensor is small enough to embed in a cell phone or PDA, or to hide on the side of an LCD monitor (which Acer plans to do for its new tablet computer). ... CEO Tony Bozzini predicts that his little scanner will eventually be embedded in credit-card-size smart cards and those new USB memory fobs that are starting to catch on. It's not hard to see how technology like Bozzini's tiny scanner could become essential. http://www.business2.com/articles/web/ http://www.icontrolinc.com/
SPECIAL SECTION -- SpyCam News
In the town where I was born
Lived a man who sailed to sea
And he told us of his life
In the land of submarines... A man in Colorado has been arrested for using mirrors to spy on a woman in the tanning booth next to him. Joseph Mueller faces charges of second-degree burglary and unlawful sexual conduct. Police were called to a tanning salon in Greeley Colorado by a woman who said she was in a tanning booth when she noticed two arms sticking out from the booth next to hers and the man's hands holding two mirrors. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_684617.html
So we sailed up to the sun
Till we found the sea of green
And we lived beneath the waves
In our yellow submarine... A teacher in Japan has been arrested for using his electronic notebook to look up a girls skirt. Takayuki Ikei was arrested for using his notebook to take pictures of an 18-year-old girl wearing a miniskirt on a train. He was arrested for being a public nuisance. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_684629.html
And our friends are all on board
Many more of them live next door
And the band begins to play... A federal appeals court panel found Sept. 20 that a PrimeTime Live hidden camera investigation into medical laboratory errors was not an invasion of privacy under Arizona law. The panel upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against ABC, Inc. by one of the subjects of that investigation. Medical Laboratory Management Consultants, a testing lab in Arizona, sued ABC over a story that aired on PrimeTime Live in 1994. The segment, "Rush to Read," focused on error rates among medical laboratories that analyze women's Pap smears for cancer. ... the court said: "Privacy is personal to individuals" and corporations cannot make legal claims for invasion of privacy. http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0924medica.html
We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine... A camera is set to beam down live video as Space Shuttle Atlantis soars into orbit this week. The shuttlecam view will start with the launch pad, then the whole launch site and then all of Cape Canaveral and the Eastern Seaboard. Two minutes into the flight, viewers should see the booster rockets peeling away. Six minutes later, Atlantis will separate from its fuel tank, with the grand curvature of Earth below. Launch director Mike Leinbach say it going to be like being on board the shuttle. http://www.orange-today.co.uk/news/story/sm_684818.html http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/breaking.html
SPECIAL SECTION -- Extortionography
Extortionography - JonBenet Ramsey Police Tape to Air ...an investigator told her mother that physical evidence linked her to the slaying, according to a videotaped police interview. The interview, which is expected to be shown on CBS 48 Hours on Friday night, is used in a segment called "Searching for a Killer." It was not clear who made the video available to the network. Boulder police insist they did not. http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/1110/10-4-2002/20021004034502_12.html http://www.spybusters.com/Extortionography.html
Reverse Extortionography? ...I dunno... An alleged criminal is demanding royalties from the governor of Rio de Janeiro for improper use of his image. Elias Pereira da Silva, who was arrested for murder, says the governor of Rio is using pictures of him in jail to boost her popularity in the polls. His attorney Jorge Luis Souza says his client, who is known as "Crazy Elias", is shown every three days on television. Mr Souza told the IG Online News: "The cameras get images of him even in the bathroom." http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_678596.html
SPECIAL SECTION -- World Spy News
Good Neighbors Make Good Fences... A Yugoslav military prosecutor has filed espionage charges against a former army chief over a spy scandal that sparked a dispute with Washington. Military Supreme Court prosecutor Nikola Petkovic had charged General Momcilo Perisic, a deputy prime minister of Serbia at the time of the scandal, and two other officers with revealing state secrets. ... Perisic, Yugoslav army chief of staff during the rule of Slobodan Milosevic, was arrested by military police last March with John Neighbor, then first secretary in the U.S. embassy in Belgrade. The two had been meeting at a motel outside the city. ... The United States withdrew Neighbor from Belgrade within days of the incident. ... The army said it had evidence Perisic had passed military secrets to Neighbor, who was reported to have been the CIA station chief in Belgrade. Washington denied Neighbor received any material and declined comment on the CIA allegation. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story
FutureWatch - We Hear You... The largest U.S. intelligence agency will spend millions to upgrade the technology it uses to sift through the huge volume of telephone conversations, e-mail and other worldwide communications chatter it monitors, under a new contract. The National Security Agency has signed a $282 million contract with Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego to help develop a more refined system for culling useful intelligence from a flood of data it collects daily. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story http://www.saic.com
Now the maps make sense... Jakarta - Maps showing the locations of Indonesian military forces in Jakarta's strife-torn province of Aceh which were found in the possession of a former University of Tasmania lecturer and her American colleague prove the women are guilty of espionage, according to the prosecutor's office. More than three weeks after they were arrested, Aceh's assistant prosecutor for general crime, Zaenal Said, said his office intended to charge Lesley McCulloch, from Scotland, and Joy Sadler, from Iowa, with spying. ... Meanwhile, in north Sumatra, the Indonesian Army has jailed just 20 of about 100 soldiers believed involved in a weekend fatal attack on two Indonesian police stations but says it has no idea what happened to 1.5 tonnes of marijuana that disappeared from one station. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/03/1033538722254.html
Yo Slo, not for no reason, but uh, weren't you the 'authorities'? Slobodan Milosevic contested the admissibility of a recorded telephone conversation at his U.N. war crimes trial Monday, raising questions about the legality of important prosecution evidence against him. ... the former president argued that a secret recording introduced by prosecutors last week was obtained "illegally, without permission from the authorities." http://www.nandotimes.com/world/story/557430p-4391097c.html
...Did to! Ayman al-Zawahiri, considered Osama bin Laden's top aide, has been killed in Afghanistan, Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency reported today, citing informed sources. In a report from Islamabad, the agency cited sources as saying that al-Zawahiri was not killed in fighting but in a special operation carried out by unidentified individuals. http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5223892%255E401,00.html
US military officials in Afghanistan on Thursday sought to discredit reports that Ayman al-Zawahiri, said to be a top aide of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, had been killed in the country. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=24999715
SPECIAL SECTION -- Silly String
Not your father's Boy Scouts... (I can't make this up.)
"FM Bug - Educational FM Transmitter with Microphone - $10.95
This is a great kit with many fun and interesting ways it can be used. You can monitor or 'listen in on' conversations in the next room; or you can transmit sounds and conversations to your FM receiver. Easy to build and maintain. Make several. Comes with complete instructions. Give them as gifts to your friends.Recommended for Boy Scout Merit Badge. Measures 4cm x 7.5cm." http://www.hobbytron.net/9945.html
...and for your Wildlife Merit Badge... Government Request For Bids
Job Title 58 -- TRANSMITTERS - MAMMAL VAGINAL IMPLANT TRANSMITTERS
Scope Transmitters - Mammal Vaginal Implant Transmitters
Category 58
Status PROCUREMENT
Announced 10/03/2002
Due Date 10/11/2002
Contact Information
Owner State of Colorado, Department of Natural Resources- Division Of Wildlife
Address Denver, CO 80216
POC King Weith
Phone 303-291-7313 http://www.bidradar.com/d.asp?D=20021004&S=GBS-20021003STA77-349171
Knight Ride Her... A 77-year-old man in America has been accused of forcing a woman off the road for using a mobile phone. David W. Knight, of Stratford, Connecticut, reportedly told police he is "prejudiced against people who talk on cellphones while driving". He's been charged with reckless endangerment. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_682658.html
So, you're not Joseph Pujol aka Le Petomane! A Czech prisoner could end up serving a longer sentence after guards heard voices coming from his backside. Prison wardens in Brno say they discovered the 48-year-old had hidden a tiny walky-talky in his bottom. He was allegedly using it to communicate with his wife to arrange bribes for investigators and lawyers involved in the case against him. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_677789.html http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_394.html
New Jersey is famous for its many other fine inventions too... The telegraph, Morse Code, phonographs, boardwalks, salt water taffy, band-aids, the submarine, the incandescent lamp, transistors, FM radio, fax machines, electric guitars, synthetic vitamin B1, Streptomycin, motion pictures, electronic tubes (valves), cultivated blueberries, E=MC2, ship to shore communications, commercial transatlantic communications, underwater motor vehicle tunnels, frozen foods, air conditioning, ...even Santa Claus as you know him! ...and you thought this place was just known for advancements in electronic eavesdropping identification.
Eavesdropping Detection Services
United Kingdom Eavesdropping Detection Services
