Sat Jun 14, 2003
Subject: 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 -- Eavesdropping & Privacy News
SPECIAL SECTION -- Bott's Dots etcetera ===================================================
SPECIAL SECTION -- Security Director News (budget building bullets)
True Eavesdropping Confessions #54 - Garage Espionage I
"Everybody does it." In the ultracompetitive world of racing, where adjusting a track bar a fraction of an inch can make the difference between starting third or 30th, teams spy on one another as routinely as drivers make left-hand turns. Digital photographs, eavesdropping, snooping in a cramped workplace - it's all part of garage espionage. ... And everybody does it. ... Though teams are not above stealing one another's trade secrets, apparently there is a code of honor among thieves. Spies, yes. Informants, no. http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/11/Sports/Spy_games.html
True Eavesdropping Confessions #55 - Garage Espionage II
"...spying is as rife in F1 as it is in the world of the real James Bonds. " Spies stalk the world of F1 (Formula 1 auto racing)... Racing teams are not above using covert operations to get their hands on their competitors' vital secrets. ... "Industrial espionage is probably a more appropriate expression," says McLaren boss Ron Dennis. "It has been practised for years and is seen as quite normal. http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?
True Eavesdropping Confessions #56
"All networks are susceptible to eavesdroppers..." Wireless hackers are hard to detect and trace, so WLANs are tantalizing targets. And employees unwittingly might compromise corporate security by attaching wireless access points to the corporate network without informing the IT department." http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21700.html
True Corporate Espionage Confessions #127
"'Black Hat Team' ripped us off." Lockheed Martin Corp. filed suit against Boeing Co., accusing its biggest rival of illegally obtaining and using a "treasure trove" of proprietary Lockheed documents to win a multibillion-dollar rocket competition and then engaging in a four-year coverup of its transgressions. ... The lawsuit says Mr. Satchell, who was then manager of strategic analysis and marketing for Boeing's latest-generation rocket program, headed a group called the "Black Hat Team." Set up to gather competitive intelligence about Lockheed's rival rocket, the group's purpose was to ensure that Boeing "had a lower-cost bid that would ultimately win," the suit contends.
Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2003
True Corporate Espionage Confessions #128 - "That's right. Sorry." Boeing Co. took out full-page ads in several newspapers Monday to acknowledge that some of its employees used privileged documents from rival aerospace company Lockheed Martin to win a $1.88 billion federal rocket contract. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35695-2003
Global Corporate Espionage Trend #332
Organized Crime and E$pionage Industrial espionage, involving the accessing of sensitive company information by sophisticated mafia-type syndicates, is emerging as a sinister new threat in the wake of escalating computer theft in South Africa. ... Ian Colls, a Pinetown-based businessman who has undertaken an extensive investigation into computer theft, said that South African companies were still "very naive" when it came to the threat of industrial espionage and that valuable and highly sensitive information was being given to syndicates "on a plate". http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=499&fArticleId=167246
Spy Alert #821 - Wireless Keyboard Spy
See what someone is typing on their computer for up to 50 feet away! Just plug adapter in between keyboard and CPU of computer. Place receiver box within 50 feet of transmitter and the receiver box will receive and store up to 32 MegaBytes of keystrokes on a removable media card! Item # 378 "Space Key." (Yes, we check for these too.) http://www.surveillancecam.com/special.asp
Don't count on the law to protect you... A federal district court in Cleveland, Ohio, imposed a $500 fine and 150 hours of community service on Japanese researcher Hiroaki Serizawa, who had been accused of stealing genetic materials from a U.S. laboratory in July 1999. Serizawa is one of two Japanese researchers federal prosecutors in Ohio indicted in May 2001 on charges of stealing genetic materials on Alzheimer's disease from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20030529069
Snooze And Lose
Every alarm clock has a snooze alarm. How often do you hit the button to grab a few more winks of sleep? And how many times do you suddenly bolt awake, realizing you've hit it one too many times? There's a chilling parallel here with information security. While the number of corporate breaches and incidences of viruses has risen for years, far too many organizations kept hitting the snooze button... http://www.optimizemag.com/issue/012/gap.htm
Top 75 Network Security Tools
One interesting item on the list... AirSnort: 802.11 WEP Encryption Cracking Tool http://www.insecure.org/tools.html
Safety Tip # 843 - Free Hurricane Season Data Sheet & Poster
Hurricane season has begun... The 2003 Hurricane Season Data Sheet and Poster is now available. This invaluable resource can be printed and posted in workplaces, schools or handed out to those who can benefit. http://www.emergencyemail.org/hurricane2003.pdf
NEW Spybuster teacups... Murray Associates' clients receive limited-edition, English bone china teacups - a time honored tradition since 1986. We are pleased to announce the tradition continues with the fifth cup in the series... The "101" Badge cup. See the entire cup collection here. Many clients have all five. http://www.spybusters.com/Spybuster_Coffee_Cups.html
How many paper reporting forms do you need to make electronic? Collect data fast. Merge it fast. Analyze it fast. Archive it fast.
No paper. Use common PDAs and UpLynx software. Cool. http://www.uplynx.com/pda_101.htm
Summer beach reading for the security overachiever... - Compilation of State and Federal Privacy Laws
More than 600 laws described and cited. "Essential for libraries"
- Directory of Privacy Professionals
With 600 key names and addresses
- Social Security Numbers, Uses and Abuses
- The Law of Privacy Explained
The legal basics in 52 pages
All these titles, many more, and THE cornerstone privacy newsletter (since 1974), Privacy Journal. http://www.privacyjournal.net/
SPECIAL SECTION -- Eavesdropping & Privacy News
Quote of the Week... WI - Brown County Executive Carol Kelso confirmed Friday that she approved the hiring of a private investigative firm to look into how one of her confidential conversations became county office scuttlebutt. “We had a security breach, and we took measures to take care of it,” Kelso said Friday. (Discussing eavesdropping detection inspections openly is a deterrent to future attacks, and is a morale booster for employees.) http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/
...thus giving a whole new meaning to "Live on tape." A Pentagon project to develop a digital super diary that records heartbeats, travel, Internet chats, everything a person does, also could provide private companies with powerful software to analyze behavior. That has privacy experts worried.
Known as LifeLog, the project aims to capture and analyze a multimedia record of everywhere a subject goes and everything he or she sees, hears, reads, says and touches. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has solicited bids and hopes to award four 18-month contracts beginning this summer.
Pentagon contracting documents give a sense of the project's scope. Cameras and microphones would capture what the user sees or hears; sensors would record what he or she feels. Global positioning satellite sensors would log every movement. Biomedical sensors would monitor vital signs. E-mails, instant messages, Web-based transactions, telephone calls and voicemails would be stored. Mail and faxes would be scanned. Links to every radio and television broadcast heard and every newspaper, magazine, book, Web site or database seen would be recorded. http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030603/D7RE6MK80.html Now watch this... http://www.markfiore.com/animation/tia.html
"Stop listening to me!"
whooosssh, THWack*!* In a fit of rage, former first lady Hillary Clinton threw a book at a Secret Service agent, hitting him in the back as he was driving her here in a limousine during the 1996 campaign, former Secret Service officers and agents tell WorldNetDaily. She accused the plainclothes agent of "eavesdropping" on her conversation with another passenger in the back seat of the limo, the agents say. The missile she hurled was a painful message for him to mind his own business. "The book hit him in the back, and it wasn't lobbed – she was angry," said a retired uniformed Secret Service officer familiar with the incident. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32956
Some Bot inventors are inspired, and some are ...motivated! "This could be the robot of the future," says Ed Heller, a researcher on the Sandia project. Taking up only a quarter of a cubic inch, Sandia's microbot rides on two track wheels powered by three watch batteries, and glides forward at a snail's pace of 20 in. a minute. ...future versions could be outfitted with anything from chemical sniffers to a miniaturized camera or microphone. ... They could even be pressed into duty as mechanical spies that wait until their target opens his safe to take out secret papers, then climb up behind him to quickly snap a photo before scurrying back to their insect-size hiding place. "You might have to worry about what's sitting under your desk," Heller jokes. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/extreme_machines/2003/6/robot/
On your way to the Spy Museum... Sneak into the Spy Club in Baltimore. It features KGB and Cold War antiquities, overstuffed leather sofas, nook and cranny hide-aways and late-night dancing. 'Spy Martinis' are $5.00 between 7-10 PM. When you feel 'them' closing in... hit the oxygen bar. http://www.citypaper.com/2003-02-12/barscars.html
Summer fun... Do this search on eBay - "Don't know anything" (phrase)
50% of the sellers use this as a cop-out phrase... but the other 50% really don't know what they've got. This is where some of the real hidden treasures lay. http://tinyurl.com/eb2s
Our 2003 Shock & Awe Award goes to... Matt Ford, who is building a 737 flight simulator in his garage with his friend, James Price. http://www.737sim.com/Updates.htm
...and then dance on the ceiling...
A new material covered with nanoscopic hairs that mimic those found on geckos' feet could allow people to walk up to sheer surfaces and across ceilings, say researchers. (New York City subway platforms are covered with goop that does the same thing.) http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993785
Sun Jun 1, 2003
Subject: 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 -- The Songs of Surveillance
SPECIAL SECTION -- SpyCam News
SPECIAL SECTION -- Must See TV
SPECIAL SECTION -- For Clownhead fans ===================================================
SPECIAL SECTION -- Security Director News (budget building bullets)
Biz-e-Bodyism 101... Corporate spies come in many guises, but they all have one thing in common: They want to use your company's secrets for competitive gain. This is a five-step guide to how they operate... http://www.csoonline.com/read/050103/snooping.html
Quote of the Week...
"Of course I knew it was wrong." - Jayson T. Blair
(recently fired New York Times Reporter)
At first, members of the bureau liked the personable student. But he soon alienated them by hanging around their offices, quizzing them on their stories or eavesdropping on their phone conversations. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/
Bugs & Spy-der Repellent Corporate espionage strategies range from illegal to merely sleazy. In most cases, the best defense is employee awareness.
- How a Rival Could Snoop...
- Can the Law Help?...
- How to Plug the Hole... http://www.csoonline.com/read/050103/snooping
Internal Affairs... The most damaging penetrations to an enterprise's security system often come with help from the inside. Gartner suggests ways for enterprises to keep a lid on sensitive information that could make the business vulnerable to an attack. ... "Watch how your business process changes over time. Do your security policies keep up with these changes? Monitoring doesn't have to be expensive - it needs to be consistent and constant." (Hey, we do that for our clients too!) http://www.csoonline.com/analyst/report400.html http://www.gartner.com
Corruption + Business = Commercial Espionage So how, exactly, should the CSO of a global business go about evaluating the threat of doing business in different parts of the world without feeling like a xenophobe? Look no further than the Corruption Perceptions Index published each year by Transparency International, says Harvard Business School professor Ashish Nanda. "It's almost become a science where we can predict: The more corrupt the society and the greater the overall business activity in that society, the more active commercial espionage will be," he says. http://www.csoonline.com/read/050103/snooping http://www.transparency.org/
Inadvertent Bug-Find #1. Film at jedenáct...
An eavesdropping device was discovered in the office of the chairman of the agricultural co-operative Racetice in the Chomutov district. The bug was hidden in an extension adapter plugged into the wall. The eavesdropping device was discovered accidentally. The employees managed to tune into the current conversation in the office on their radio. The chairman nor the police doesn't know how long the device was in operation. http://www.prima-televize.cz/tvarchiv/video/?video=888
Inadvertent-Bug Find #2. Film at 23-hundred GMT. Instead of landing instructions, aircraft approaching Britain's Luton airport heard the squealing of tiny infant Freya Spratley broadcast over their radios. Authorities worked 12 hours to track the frequency and determined that a baby monitor at mother Lisa Spratley's house, located near the airport, was broadcasting her baby's cries to the cockpits of approaching planes, the BBC reported on Monday. ... The company that made the baby monitor supplied the Spratleys with a new one. http://news.excite.com/odd/article/
Grand Spam Slam of the Week... Subject: We PAY YOU FOR NEW & USED Magnetic Tape and Cartridges. (picture of a girl standing next to a pile of computer boxes.)
Copy: " STOP! Don't Trash Your Tape! We Buy it ALL - NEW OR USED. CASH-IN your Surplus Tapes and Data Cartridges! We Even Pay the SHIPPING! SELL TO US! - Trust Keith Harris - SD Pacific, Inc. *5 Item Minimum per Shipment." http://www.sdemail.net/ Think...
Why would someone pay you for your storage media?
SPECIAL SECTION -- The Songs of Surveillance
The coyotes wail
Along the trail
Deep in the heart of Texas... The U.S. Department of Homeland Security refused to turn over tapes of its conversations with the Texas law enforcement officers who sought the federal agency's assistance to track down Democratic legislators. ... The Texas Department of Public Safety ordered destroyed all records and photos gathered in its search for Democratic state representatives... http://www.rcfp.org/news/2003/0523theusd.html http://www.janbrett.com/piggybacks/song.htm
Bee Bonnet Blues...
More than a dozen reporters received letters notifying them that law enforcement officials had tapped California murder suspect Scott Peterson's phone before he was arrested and may have monitored calls between Peterson and the reporters, according to news reports. ...calls between Peterson and reporters from NBC and The Modesto Bee had been intercepted. http://www.rcfp.org/news/2003/0514author.html
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud.
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd... Unmanned aerial drones similar to ones used in the war on Iraq could be patrolling the U.S. border by the end of the year to help stem illegal immigration and increase security, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Thursday. "We are very serious in looking at UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) for both border applications, land and sea," Ridge told the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi http://www.mattsmusicpage.com/rollingstones/lgetoff.htm
Listen,
Do you want to know a secret,
Do you promise not to tell, whoa oh, oh. "In 2002, no federal wiretap reports indicated that encryption was encountered. State and local jurisdictions reported that encryption was encountered in 16 wiretaps terminated in 2002; however, in none of these cases was encryption reported to have prevented law enforcement officials from obtaining the plain text of communications intercepted." http://www.uscourts.gov/wiretap02/2002wttxt.pdf http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/9814/secret.html
But you gotta stand trial
Because all the while
I can see for miles and miles... Cellphone maker Nokia is launching a camera that can snap a high-resolution picture and send it to a picture-messaging phone or PC when prompted by a text message. It sounds harmless enough. ... Unlike the grainy pictures taken by today's picture phones, the £300 ($494. USD) Nokia Observation Camera snaps high-resolution images of 640 by 480 pixels. ... Infrared imaging lets the camera see in the dark, and a microphone can even eavesdrop on speech. The camera works on all the GSM frequency bands and can be used in most countries around the world. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993725 http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,4879,4654,00.html http://www.leoslyrics.com/listlyrics.php?id=4948
We're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
We're not gonna take it anymore... A motorists' group claims to have vandalised hundreds of speed cameras across Britain, and says it's behind a string of recent attacks in one county. Motorists Against Detection (MAD) - which claims to have 200 members - says it carried out around six attacks in Norfolk, where cameras were set alight and vandalised. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_785552.html? http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/bentley/565/twisteds.html
SPECIAL SECTION -- SpyCam News
The Hole-In-The-Wall Gang AZ - Two 18-year-old Valley Union High School students are under investigation by the Cochise County Sheriff's Department for allegedly drilling a hole in the wall between the school's boys and girls locker rooms and videotaping at least two female students. Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Department, confirmed that the case is under investigation and that the initial report will not be complete until next week. ... Capas said she did not know what the students did with the videotapes. http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/local/5_23_03locker_room.html
The Hole-In-The-O-Zone Gang NY - A lawyer accused of bribery has become the chief witness against a Brooklyn judge who was caught on videotape fixing divorce cases in exchange for cigars and other gifts, a prosecutor said Thursday. ... After another judge authorized the use of video eavesdropping, investigators recorded Siminovsky meeting Garson in his chambers and plying him with the cigars and cash, a criminal complaint said. http://www.wnbc.com/news/2223069/detail.html
The Hole-In-The-Head Gang NEW YORK - A party ship cruising around Manhattan on Thursday night was forced to dock after a crew member found wiring that he feared might be attached to an explosive device. The device, found in a bathroom on the ship, turned out to be a videocamera, said police who boarded the vessel to investigate. ... A disc jockey who had been hired to work a private party on the cruise was questioned by police but not arrested. http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/05/23/boat.scare/
...and we never saw if he got to first base. A wanted man has been detained after his parole officer spotted him kissing his girlfriend in a live crowd shot displayed on the scoreboard at a baseball game. David Horton and his parole officer attended the same game when the smooching couple were caught by the "Kiss Cam" at the Cincinnati Reds' Great American Ball Park. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_786051.html?
Gobstopper Wonkamobile... China has deployed a high-tech van loaded with monitoring equipment to police spitting in its war against SARS, the official Beijing Evening News said. The vehicle is equipped with three cameras and a big viewing monitor. It can transmit pictures to the city's sanitation department within seconds. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/05/30/sars.fight/
From those wonderful folks who brought you the Puritans... Under state law in Massachusetts, it is not a crime to take pictures of someone without their knowledge, even if they're nude. "There was no criminal law involved here," said Elizabeth Scheibel, Northwestern district attorney for the commonwealth of Massachusetts. "It is not against the law to photograph an adult without their consent or knowledge," she said. Scheibel said the criminal law in Massachusetts has a major loophole. While it is a crime to make audio recordings of an adult without their knowledge, someone can take all the pictures he wants without being arrested or prosecuted. http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/
SPECIAL SECTION -- Must See TV
If you don't check out anything else this issue... ":/Run,'' which can be seen through July and will be shown on RCN cable soon, takes place entirely from the perspective of surveillance cameras. The film's underlying premise is that a person's movements through the city can be completely tracked by existing surveillance cameras. The fictional plot line follows an innocent bystander who is forced to race through the city and complete a series of tasks. His every move is monitored by us (the audience), and a faceless, nameless villain who controls all the switches. ... Ben Cross, this week's "star," has been given 15 minutes to save his family. As usual, you will be able to follow all the action LIVE via video feeds from surveillance cameras throughout the city. Scoring is up to you, so set your monitors, grab your mouse, and enjoy the show. The game begins now... (high speed connection suggested) http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2460685 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/25/nyregion/
SPECIAL SECTION -- For Clownhead fans
Calling all spies, calling all spies... Verizon launched its new Verizon Wi-Fi Internet access service by activating 150 of a planned 1,000 transmission stations at pay phones throughout New York City. The service is available at no additional charge to Verizon Online customers who have Wi-Fi compatible laptop computers, PDAs or pocket PCs. http://www.wow-com.com/news/daily.cfm http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21529.html
Dick Tracy to Joe Jitsu
NTT DoCoMo put its recently announced wristwatch telephone on sale for the first time and the gadget proved to be a hot item. The phone went on sale via NTT DoCoMo's Web site on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. at a cost $318 including an accessory pack. The company sold 1,000 of the Wristomo devices, which is all of the initial batch it was offering for sale, in less than 20 minutes, said Masafumi Sera, a spokesperson for the Tokyo mobile operator. http://www.wristomo.com/
The Blue LatrineScreen of Death... Microsoft and its public relations firm have changed their story — again — about whether its United Kingdom division had been developing an Internet-enabled portable toilet. (Yes, it's true. It's iLoo!) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-05-14
No-Flack Jacket... Dubbed "exo-electric armor," the No-Contact Jacket looks like an ordinary fashionable women's coat. But an inner layer of conductive fiber carries a low-amp charge that delivers a nasty but non-lethal shock to anyone who messes with its wearer. http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58914,00.html http://www.no-contact.com/
Weird, huh? The Defense Department has awarded Worldcom Inc. a contract valued at about $20 million to install a limited cellular system in Baghdad to "facilitate communications between U.S. and Iraqi authorities." http://www.idg.net/ic_1317164_9715_1-5071.html
Harry Potter. Not showing at a theatre near them. Did you know... sorcery is illegal in the Solomon Islands?
Up to two months imprisonment or forty dollars fine. http://www.paclii.org/sb/legis/consol_act/pc2683.html
Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering? A group led by a university researcher has created a part mechanical, part biological robot that operates on the basis of the neural activity of rat brain cells grown in a dish. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html
Tired of Metallica?
Try listening to Sferics, Tweeks & Whistlers...
From Plate Tectonics to Particle Physics, Natural Radio is any electromagnetic energy which occurs in Nature. Such phenomena have been around since before we had the technology to detect them. Here are some examples... http://www.altair.org/natradio.htm
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