Security Scrapbook - Espionage & Privacy News of the Week.
November 30, 2003
To: Clients, colleagues and friends.
Subject: Espionage & Privacy News of the Week.
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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 -- Frankenstonian Bugs
SPECIAL SECTION -- More International Bugging News
SPECIAL SECTION -- More 'Just Interesting' Stuff ===================================================
SPECIAL SECTION -- Frankenstonian Bugs
Eyatolauso... Tehran -- The Minister of Post, Telegraph and Telephone Ahmad Motamedi said that eavesdropping should not be considered as something secret or confidential and it should be treated through legal means as in other countries. http://tinyurl.com/x52r
And the last place on Earth without wiretaps is... oops, never mind. Bangladesh Moves Toward Legalizing Phone Tapping... A parliamentary committee has endorsed legislation that would allow Bangladesh's intelligence agencies to intercept phone calls and e-mails for national security purposes. http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_6185.html
So, pass a law... Kenya - Fear is spreading among Members of Parliament and some cabinet ministers that government agents are trailing vocal critics and illegally tapping private telephone conversations. And intelligence and telecommunications sources warn that circumstances are ripe for eavesdropping on private communications. http://www.eastandard.net/reports/rep191003014.htm
Join the club... Yugoslavia - An investigating judge of the Podgorica District Court last night claimed she has evidence of being bugged and followed by Montenegro’s state security service. http://www.b92.net/english/news/index
SPECIAL SECTION -- More International Bugging News
Microscopic cameras?!?! Now, that's small!!! Scotland - Office staff are being urged to be vigilant amid claims that company bosses are launching covert surveillance operations to spy on them at work. Employment lawyers are warning of a steep rise in the number of firms prepared to eavesdrop in the workplace, using a range of bugging devices and microscopic cameras. ... Privacy International, a watchdog on government and corporate surveillance, estimates that more than 200,000 bugging devices and covert cameras are sold every year. http://www.news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1299642003
Some days it just doesn't pay to spy... Reports of a bugging incident carried out by MI5, British security services, appeared in the recent edition of The Sunday Times. It started off well... It is reported that British spy agency infiltrated the (Pakistani) High Commission, stole codes and schemed to plant listening devices besides stealing classified documents. It is further claimed that the MI5 took detailed plans and photographs of the mission before working out how to plant bugs in the telephone system and inside the closed-circuit television camera in the office of a diplomat. These claims became known when the agent decided to approach the media. http://tinyurl.com/x573 But, you just can't get good spy help these days... A former MI5 agent, who blew the whistle on an attempt to bug the Pakistani high commission, has fled to the Continent and is threatening to reveal more about the aborted spying operation. According to a report published in The Sunday Times, he claims to have a dossier of evidence - including documents and photographs - revealing details about MI5’s espionage techniques and what information it was trying to obtain about Pakistan. http://tinyurl.com/x5ai And then people have the nerve to get upset with you! Pakistan has warned the UK that its continued silence over the alleged bugging of Islamabad’s high commission in London by a British spy agency may affect bilateral cooperation. ... The spying operation, it is claimed was authorised by David Blunkett, Home Secretary of Britain, took place in complicity with a private construction firm, which was given the contract last year to renovate the High Commission buildings. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031201/ Probably mad because they can't get good spy help either... Meanwhile, the Pakistan government, has launched a high level probe to determine why the trained officials of Pakistani security agencies who had been visiting London for "routine periodical sweeping of the Pakistani mission for debugging" failed to uncover the intelligence gadgets installed by British intelligence services in the high commission. http://tinyurl.com/x5uj
Speaking of troubles getting spy help... Gun spiked. Police charged a former British intelligence employee with breaking state secrecy laws Thursday, after she was linked to the disclosure of a memo in which U.S. officials allegedly asked for British help in eavesdropping on U.N. envoys. Katharine Gun, 29, who worked as a translator for the Government Communications Headquarters, was arrested in March after a British newspaper published the memo... http://tinyurl.com/x5y8
Radio Irony South Africa - Someone has been listening in on Radio Pretoria — but the station's not sure who. On Tuesday Radio Pretoria staff discovered microphones the size of one rand coins hidden in their studios and offices in Magalieskruin, Pretoria. ... The radio station had decided not to report the bugging to the police. http://iafrica.com/news/sa/84050.htm
More like 'Night of the Living Dead' if you ask us... Australia - Primelife founder Ted Sent said he felt like he was in a "western movie" taking his seat on the board at the annual meeting yesterday. ...they sacked Mr. Sent for alleged breaches of his employment contract. There have also been claims of boardroom telephone bugging. (You fire them and they just keep coming back.) http://finance.news.com.au/common/story_page/
Just blame it on some yasuo... A former Takefuji Corp. employee arrested last week on suspicion of tapping the phone of a freelance journalist had earlier admitted to bugging the phones of others. Kazuhiro Nakagawa, 42, has testified that he bugged the phones of five other people, including former workers of the consumer loan firm. ... Before Friday's arrest over the wiretapping case, Nakagawa had told investigators that he had bugged the journalist's phone at the request of Takefuji Chairman Yasuo Takei. http://tinyurl.com/x581
Ah, come on... invent "Tap Waiting" A US court has decided that the FBI was wrong to eavesdrop on conversations inside a car via its on-board computer - but not out of concern for privacy... The FBI and other police agencies may not eavesdrop on conversations inside automobiles equipped with OnStar or similar dashboard computing systems, a federal appeals court ruled. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that the FBI is not legally entitled to remotely activate the system and secretly use it to snoop on passengers, because doing so would render it inoperable during an emergency. http://tinyurl.com/x58w
...thus proving, "The Truth is Out There." The chairman and chief executive of Qualcomm Inc., a U.S. wireless technology giant that developed and holds various licenses for code division multiple access (CDMA) technology for mobile telecommunications, admitted the technological possibility of wiretapping phone calls made via CDMA mobile systems. Qualcomm chairman Irwin Jacobs, in a recent interview with Yonhap News Agency at the company headquarters in San Diego, said it could be possible to wiretap CDMA mobile phone calls as there is no way to completely block wiretapping threats of intercepted wireless conversations. http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/
Out of the wok and into the frying pan... A human rights activist freed from a Chinese prison after the U.S. government interceded on her behalf pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally selling American high-tech items with potential military uses to China. http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031126/D7V2IG8G0.html
SPECIAL SECTION -- More 'Just Interesting' Stuff
Spies R Them ...experts say there are a number of products on the market at varying prices that make it is easy to eavesdrop on a colleague or a spouse. "You can go to Toys R Us and get a wireless baby monitor and stick it in a ceiling, and it works just fine. Maybe will cost you 30 bucks," said Kevin D. Murray, president of Murray Associates counterespionage consultants in Oldwick, N.J. "Nowadays, anybody that wants to know something has the tools to do it," Murray said. "So we're up against more people these days." http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/6976880.htm
Bug Testimonials From Kids... Hear what girls are saying about Bug Em! ... Cheerleading Queen, a thirteen year-old kid from CA says... "Buy this now! You don't know how many times I find out what my so-called friends are really saying behind my back with this bug! You can find out who your real friends are with it!" http://www.girltech.com/bow-tique/bt_bug_em.cfm http://www.girltech.com/bow-tique/bt_becomments.html
...and this stops the picture being taken, how? Alarmed at the use of camera phones to catch individuals in compromising situations, South Korea has ordered manufacturers to ensure that all new handsets emit a beep whenever a picture is taken. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/
Interesting bug sales bitccc, errr pitch... "This item is just WRONG!!! We shouldn't even be selling it. But, we had to. We love this thing, evil as it is. But, hopefully, you have better ethics than we do. Do us a favor. Teach us a lesson. DON'T BUY THIS THING. So, what is it we don't want you to purchase?
THE BUG 'EM EAVESDROPPING CALCULATOR" http://www.stupid.com/stat/BUGD.html
I am still waiting to see my square inch of land in Alaska. "You Can Own Land on the Moon! The UN Outer Space Treaty of 1967 stipulated that no government could own extraterrestrial property. However, it neglected to mention individuals and corporations." (Deeds to one square inch of land in Alaska were issued by Ralston-Purina in a cereal box. The moon will cost you. My deed... long since lost.) http://www.buyitnsave.com/?cni=606&cnp=42 (Moon deeds) http://home.teleport.com/~jrolsen/premiums/preston.html (photo of Alaska deed) http://home.teleport.com/~jrolsen/premiums/deed.html (Alaska deed story)
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