Security Scrapbook - Espionage & Privacy News of the Week.
August 30, 2004 ===================================================
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 -- When Good Corporations Go Bad
SPECIAL SECTION -- More SpyCam & Bugging News
SPECIAL SECTION -- PI Tools
SPECIAL SECTION -- Birds & Bees ===================================================
SPECIAL SECTION -- Security Director News
So you got a "No Spy Pledge" letter. What's that all about?!?! From the ACLU web site... "Official monitoring of individuals in our society is on the rise, and it is not a matter of government alone. More and more information is being gathered by corporations and other private-sector institutions, and fed to or seized by security agencies. This trend will not stop unless individuals demand changes, not only in how information is gathered and handled by the government, but also by the private sector. On this site, the ACLU seeks to help individuals who are concerned about this trend to take action..." (Link to 'No Spy Pledge' form letter addressed to specific corporations. See if your company is listed.) http://www.aclu.org/privatize/
Cautionary Tale #843 - or, why you don't look good in cross-hairs. Decades ago, the biggest danger to U.S. national security came from the Soviet Union, said 60-year-old David Szady, the FBI's top spy catcher and assistant director of counterintelligence. Now, he warned, some of the worst threats involve economic espionage from dozens of enemy and ally nations spying quietly on U.S. companies and swiping technology and trade secrets. ... Economic spying by foreign industries and governments — such as China, South Korea, India, Pakistan, France, Israel, Japan and others — has increased in recent years and is costing U.S. firms billions of dollars, say Szady and other experts. (This should this remind us of John O'Neill - ex-FBI, WTC Security Director. We've been warned by "the best," ...again.) http://tinyurl.com/5hjl6
Read this if any of your security systems use Wi-Fi (802.11b) An electronic invisibility cloak generated by nothing more than an off-the-shelf PDA would allow intruders to elude wireless security cameras using vulnerabilities in the most common wireless technologies. ... The vulnerability is "trivial" to exploit and only took 30 minutes to master, says Associate Professor Mark Looi, deputy head of QUT's School of Software Engineering and Data Communications. ... "Any organisation that continues to use the standard wireless technology, 802.11b, to operate critical infrastructure could be considered negligent," Looi says. http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/17/
Cautionary tale #844 - WANTED by the DEA ...their laptop back. Federal investigators are frantically trying to determine what happened to a missing laptop computer that contains sensitive data on as many as 100 Drug Enforcement Administration investigations around the country, including a wealth of information about many of the agency's confidential informants...
(Now the Dilbert part.)
The auditor told police the laptop had been stolen from the trunk of his car while he was at a bookstore coffee shop in suburban Washington. But when investigators confronted the auditor last week and questioned his account, the auditor changed his story, saying he had accidentally damaged the computer—then destroyed it and threw it away in a dumpster to avoid embarrassment. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5092991/site/newsweek
From Kevin's address book... Need to get moving with CTPAT? Ron Jaspan wants to help. Contact him, and stop humming, "I've Grown A-Customs to Delays." ronaldj@njai.us
(Stinkin' feat.)
Finish Line Accuses Foot Locker of Spying Athletic shoe retailer Finish Line Inc. has accused a larger competitor in a federal lawsuit of stealing its employees in a corporate spying scheme. http://asia.news.yahoo.com/040521/ap/d82n2v083.html
From the 'Shoe-on-the-Other-Foot Department'...
Folcroft Borough Police Department Bugged PA - The DA's office is trying to figure out who planted the recording device inside the police department, what they were looking for and why. Tiny pin holes, wires were coming out of them. These mark the spots where investigators discovered and dismantled an elaborate network of hidden cameras and recording devices. ... A few months ago the police chief decided to put the rumors about the police department being bugged to rest, so he hired a private investigator to sweep the building. http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/052004_nw_folcroftcameras.html
I've got mail!
...your mail! CEO charged with stealing rival's voice mail. Dmitry Shubov, 31, founder of LegalMatch.com resigned after indictment alleges he intercepted messages to Irvine-based Casepost... http://www.casepost.com/pressroom/palidanlegalforums.php
As if that weren't bad enough... Sophos has warned computer users about a worm that has the capability to use webcams to spy on them in their home or workplace. http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/articles/webcam.html
Whereupon, Singh sung and left the building ...and the country. India - Singh’s phones were tapped and a spy camera was fitted in his office at RAW headquarters. The spy-cam showed Singh photocopying top-secret documents... http://sify.com/news/othernews/fullstory.php?id=13485065
Wright's wrong leisure affair... MI - Curtis Wright, 57, is charged with three counts of felony eavesdropping accusing the former head of Holland's Leisure and Cultural Affairs division of using a hidden camera to watch young women while they changed clothes. He invited the women to the Civic Center to pose for photographs dressed in formal gowns, telling the women the photos were for a non-existent fundraiser, police said. http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/052604/loc_052604017.html
"Maybe you’ll get a replacement, There’s plenty like me to be found..." MI - The Bay County Road Commission finance director accused of spying on his employees with a hidden audio recorder in March was charged Wednesday with a felony eavesdropping charge. Clarke D. Foco, 56, was arraigned before Bay County District Judge Scott J. Newcombe. http://tinyurl.com/5yxcz
And the salon owner is stucco... IN- A $50,000 judgment was awarded Monday to a Cement City woman who was videotaped nude with a hidden camera inside a tanning room at the former Rock-N-Nails Salon in Adrian. http://www.lenconnect.com/
"Nobody ever listens to us kids..." NY - School phones and radios bugged. ... Five high-ranking officials with the Lakeland school district were aware of a scheme to secretly record telephone and radio conversations of employees with an eavesdropping system... http://www.nynews.com/newsroom/081904/b0119lakeland.html
[Insert your own headline here] A former Hooters restaurant general manager was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for secretly videotaping job applicants changing into uniforms. http://www.nbc4.tv/entertainment/3677221/detail.html
Ex-FBI Agent Robert Parisien, 56, Dies Boston - Robert Parisien, an FBI agent who planted the bugs that yielded the first recording of a Mafia induction ceremony, has died while scuba diving. He was 56. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/
PI Tool #439 - Grab the cell phone tolls and see who's zoomin' whom... Visual PI - Case & Investigation Management - Creates Time Lines, Association Charts; connects the dots. http://www.paisleysys.com/Products/Intros/Visual%20PI.htm
PI Tool #440 - FlySpyBot (FutureWatch item) The latest mini flying robot has been unveiled by Seiko Epson in Japan. Weighing in at 12.3g, the FR-II is wireless, has Bluetooth and its own battery on board, and takes and sends images. The helicopter robot, which is lighter than a can of pop, could be used in surveillance operations. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3579232.stm
PI Tool #441 - Cheap Caller ID / Dialed Number Recorder "Are certain people using your phone for something they shouldn't be? If they are, you'll know about it. Phone Manager Plus, an easy-to-use device that tracks and stores data on the last 2,000 incoming or outgoing calls, including time of day and call duration." (Think this is being used against you? Call us. We'll find it.) http://www.smarthome.com/5144.html
PI Tool #443 - Cheap Wireless Notebooks on sale today at Office Max You have enough money in your wallet right now to buy two of them! http://tinyurl.com/68rcf
Animal Espionage Trick #021 - "Uzzbay. Ollowfay emay. Uzzbay." (Secret bee talk.)
...some species of bees exploit chemical clues left by other bee species to guide their kin to food provides evidence that eavesdropping may be an evolutionary driving force behind some bees' ability to conceal communication inside the hive, using a form of animal language to encode food location. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040616065114.htm
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