She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy

FB-I said "Be careful his bowtie is really a wi-fi"
Next time you flip open your laptop as you wait for a flight or work at a coffee shop, beware, says the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The person next to you may be stealing your personal bank account information, address book and other files from your computer.

The agency warned earlier this week that the information on your computers may not be protected when using some of the 68,000 Wi-Fi hot spots, or local wireless Internet connections, around the country.

"Odds are there's a hacker nearby, with his own laptop, attempting to 'eavesdrop' on your computer to obtain personal data that will provide access to your money or even to your company's sensitive information," the FBI said in a advisory on its Web site.

Think that's bad, the FBI goes further to warn that if a hacker hooks into your computer, you are also connecting to his computer. That means you could be unknowingly downloading viruses and worms.

Protect yourself:
• Update the security protection on your computer with current versions of operating systems, web browsers, firewalls and antivirus and anti-spyware software.
• When tapped into a Wi-Fi network, don't conduct financial transactions or use e- mail and instant messaging.
• Change the default setting on your laptop so you have to manually select the Wi-Fi network you connect to.
• Turn off your laptop's Wi-Fi capabilities when you're not using them. (more)
Clients... Ask us to demonstrate this during our next eavesdropping detection audit.

Wi-Fi FBI Spy Cry

How do hackers grab your personal data out of thin air? Supervisory Special Agent Donna Peterson of our Cyber Division said one of the most common types of attack is this: a bogus but legitimate-looking Wi-Fi network with a strong signal is strategically set up in a known hot spot...and the hacker waits for nearby laptops to connect to it. At that point, your computer—and all your sensitive information, including user ID, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.—basically belongs to the hacker. The intruder can mine your computer for valuable data, direct you to phony webpages that look like ones you frequent, and record your every keystroke.

“Another thing to remember,” said Agent Peterson, “is that the connection between your laptop and the attacker's laptop runs both ways: while he's taking info from you, you may be unknowingly downloading viruses, worms, and other malware from him.”

What can you do to protect yourself?
Agent’s Peterson’s best advice is, don’t connect to an unknown Wi-Fi network. But if you have to, there are some precautions you can take to decrease the threat:
• Make sure your laptop security is up to date, with current versions of your operating system, web browser, firewalls, and antivirus and anti-spyware software.
• Don't conduct financial transactions or use applications like e-mail and instant messaging.
Change the default setting on your laptop so you have to manually select the Wi-Fi network you’re connecting to.
• Turn off your laptop's Wi-Fi capabilities when you're not using them.
(more) (How to Protect Your Computer)

Wiretap Laws Morph With Technology

Excellent article detailing how legal wiretapping in the United States was forced to grow with technology.

In the old days, everyone was linked to a lug nut... (everyone's telephone) ended up in the basement of the telephone company's switching station. There, the wire emerged, pegged to a rack by a single copper lug nut. Acres of racks lined the walls, each holding rows and columns of lug nuts and their wires, neatly stacked atop each other...

And then it all went sideways.

At the same time that the phone companies were preparing for the transition to digital, the use of cellphones -- which were inherently harder to tap because they used phone lines differently than analog devices -- mushroomed. ...Electronic surveillance, once such a dependable, relatively easy craft, was becoming inordinately difficult. (more)

Security and Spying With Nanotechnology as Tiny Spy Dust Chips Track Your Movements

Nox Defense has released an invisible perimeter defense technology, which combines high-resolution video pictures and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, sometimes referred to as "spy chips", to track assets and people in real time. The system allows security officers to see a theft or intrusion as it happens, and track a stolen object even if concealed inside a briefcase, under a jacket, or stuffed inside a sock. The FBI is among early adopters of the Nox Intelligent Perimeter Defense system, though has not released details how it will use the system. (more)

"Boss, this suspect gets a lot of email."

The FBI revealed that human error led to surveillance of an entire email network back in 2006, rather than the single email address approved by the secretive court which approves domestic wiretaps and other forms of e-surveillance...

The ISP involved allegedly misinterpreted a warrant for one email address to be a warrant for - ahem - the entire network. (more)

FBI Releases Bulger Wiretaps

Investigators have released audio recordings of one of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" fugitives, hoping people will recognize James "Whitey" Bulger by his unique voice. ...Robert and Arthur smile.

Spy vs Spy - The DC Tunnel

March 5, 2001 - Russia's Foreign Ministry has demanded details of a secret tunnel allegedly built underneath the Soviet Embassy in Washington for eavesdropping.

Present and former U.S. officials told CNN the tunnel -- under what is now the Russian Embassy -- was built by American intelligence services and packed with millions of dollars worth of sophisticated equipment. (more)

Wanted by the FBI: spy busters

Curious about how the FBI operates?
If you can pass a background and are 21 or over, a six-week course awaits you. (more)

FED-up Telcos Zap Taps

Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.

A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said.

In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation "was halted due to untimely payment," the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies. (more)

...and then John McClane told me to say..."

"Lie Die Hard" director John McTiernan was granted bail and released on a $50,000 bond Monday, pending an appeal of his guilty plea for allegedly lying to the FBI about his knowledge of celebrity PI Anthony Pellicano's alleged illegal wiretapping operation.

Tiernan, 56, pleaded guilty in April 2006 to making a false statement to federal investigators. He later recanted his guilty plea, claiming he was jet-lagged and under the influence of alcohol and prescription medications when he made the statements to the FBI.

He also said he was given bad advice by his then-attorney. (more)

Meanwhile... 755,000 on Terrorist Watch List

A former FBI agent who pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship and then improperly accessing sensitive computer information about Hizbollah was working until about a year ago as a CIA spy assigned to Middle East operations, Newsweek has learned.

The stunning case of Nada Nadim Prouty, a 37-year-old Lebanese native who is related to a suspected Hizbollah money launderer, appears to raise a nightmarish question for U.S. intelligence agencies: Could one of the world's most notorious terrorist groups have infiltrated the U.S. government?

"I'm beginning to think it's possible that Hizbollah put a mole in our government," said Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism chief under Presidents Clinton and, until 2002, Bush. "It's mind-blowing."

(more) (755,000 Report)

Feds Kill 250,000 Zombies With One Shot

Remember our cautionary tale 'Zombie Computers From Planet Earth' from last month? We knew it would move from cautionary tale to documented disaster. But, we never expected this...

"Security Consultant Admits to Hijacking PCs to Use in Crimes"
Los Angeles Times

A Los Angeles man entrusted with making personal computers safer has admitted to hacking into them to create a rogue network of as many as a quarter-million PCs, which he used to steal money and identities.

Federal prosecutors Friday said that John Kenneth Schiefer, a 26-year-old computer security consultant, used an army of hijacked computers, known as a "botnet," to carry out a variety of schemes to rip off unsuspecting consumers and corporations.

Schiefer agreed to plead guilty to four felony charges in connection with the case and faces up to 60 years in prison and a $1.75-million fine, according to court documents filed Friday in federal court in Los Angeles.

Schiefer, who on the Internet went by the handles "acidstorm," "acid" and "storm," is the first person to be accused under federal wiretapping law of operating a botnet, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Krause in Los Angeles.

In all, the federal indictment includes four counts of accessing protected computers to commit fraud, disclosing illegally intercepted electronic communications, wire fraud and bank fraud. Federal authorities said they were still trying to identify victims and the scope of their losses. (more)

Bookmark this directory of real and trusted Security Consultants - IAPSC.org

Studs Puts Taps into Perspective

The Wiretap This Time
By STUDS TERKEL - Op-Ed Contributor
The New York Times
Published: October 29, 2007
Chicago

EARLIER this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the White House agreed to allow the executive branch to conduct dragnet interceptions of the electronic communications of people in the United States. They also agreed to “immunize” American telephone companies from lawsuits charging that after 9/11 some companies collaborated with the government to violate the Constitution and existing federal law. I am a plaintiff in one of those lawsuits, and I hope Congress thinks carefully before denying me, and millions of other Americans, our day in court.

During my lifetime, there has been a sea change in the way that politically active Americans view their relationship with government. In 1920, during my youth, I recall... (more) or (more)

Spybuster's Tip #103 - Spot the Spy

Joe Navarro is an ex-FBI agent. His job was spotting spies. His weapon... he reads body language. These days, Joe writes and teaches poker players how to win.

He can help you spot deceit in your business as well.

Joe says...
"Poker players lie all the time. They pretend they are strong when they are weak or weak when they are strong. The truth is they can all be read. You can have a poker face, but I've yet to see someone with a poker body."

"When you are feeling good _ or have a monster hand _ your body will manifest what it feels. You get happy feet. Your feet begin to bounce up and down like a kid going to Disney World. We squint at things we don't like. ... The involuntary nonverbal mannerisms dictated by the brain will always betray the strength or weakness of a player's hand."

"If your boss asks at a meeting, `Who is not pulling their weight?', the shoulders will rise on those who are not confident. It's called `The Turtle Effect.' You are trying to hide your head inside your shoulders. On the contrary, a person whose fingertips meet like a church steeple with the thumb pointed up indicates a winning hand."

Want to know more?
Joe's website
A list of common spy personality traits.
Joe teaches at the World Series of Poker Academy


What Every BODY is Saying:
An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People
(due out in April, 2008)

Workplace Eavesdropping - Hidden Voice Recorder

AL - A hidden recording device was found at a Valley college. The interim president (Lavell Thrasher) of Snead State Community College in Boaz contacted the FBI after a mini-cassette tape recorder was found attached to the underside of a desk. ...

The device was found in the maintenance director's office, who apparently didn't know about it. Employee evaluations have recently been taking place in that office. This incident is still under investigation.

Thrasher doesn't know how long it will take to get to the bottom of it. (more)

This bugging device was found by accident.
Everyone should be so lucky.
Security directors who don't depend on luck call us.

SpyCam Story #384 - Lawrence County (update)

AL - Casting new light on a rural spy mystery, Lawrence County commissioners placed two employees on leave amid allegations they were responsible for a hidden camera that was found inside a courthouse meeting room.

Commissioner Alma Whitlow said county administrators Linda Harville and Karen Harrison didn't deny placing a hidden monitoring system in the commission office without members' knowledge.

The motive behind the bugging was unclear. No charges have been filed.

FBI agents interviewed Harville, Harrison, and four commissioners earlier this month. Aside from the hidden camera, agents seized items including video cassettes, cables and a receiver. (more)

SpyCam Story #382 - Lawrence County (update)

Hidden camera found in Lawrence County meeting room

AL - A spy gadget that sounds like something out of a James Bond movie [groan] is raising questions in a rural Alabama county.

A crowd of residents filled the Lawrence County Commission's meeting room Monday to learn more about an FBI probe that uncovered surveillance equipment that reportedly was used to record what went on inside a private office in a courthouse annex.

The FBI confiscated the bug on Sept. 13, and commissioners said they became aware of the investigation only when agents arrived. They did not reveal how agents learned of the equipment.

County attorney Cecil Caine said the bugging system apparently was installed by a previous administration, and county records showed the clock radio was purchased at the Alabama Spy Shop in Madison in 2004.

Lawrence County Commission Chairman Bradley Cross said Monday the assistant county administrator, Karen Harrison, might have installed the hidden camera to prove she and possibly others weren't viewing pornography on computers. [roll eyes]

"I think that was the reason why it was bugged. That's my thinking," Cross said. "I can't be sure, but that's my opinion. I don't know what was on it." (more)

SpyCam Story #376 - Cross's Word Puzzle

AL - The origin of an FBI investigation of Lawrence County Commission offices, including the seizure of an apparent bugging system, could remain a mystery for months or longer.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Harwell G. Davis III placed the search warrant proceeding under seal Tuesday, prohibiting public access to the affidavit, the search warrant and the return of the search warrant. ...

FBI agents seized a clock radio purchased from the Alabama Spy Shop from the commission office. Agents seized the following items from Assistant County Administrator Karen Harrison's office: seven video cassettes, a digital display 12-channel receiver, one power supply, audio visual cables, coaxial cables and a receipt and purchase order from Alabama Spy Shop.

The bugging system had reportedly been in place since 2004.

Cross said he didn't know about the bugging system or why someone would install it. (more)

Point, Click, TAP! - How the FBI does it...

The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The surveillance system, called DCSNet, for Digital Collection System Network, connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is far more intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure than observers suspected.

...the surveillance systems let FBI agents play back recordings even as they are being captured (like TiVo), create master wiretap files, send digital recordings to translators, track the rough location of targets in real time using cell-tower information, and even stream intercepts outward to mobile surveillance vans. (more)

Cable Cabal Capitulates

Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs), the cable industries research and development consortium, has released the specifications needed for the minions of law and order to "wiretap" cable broadband user's activities on the web. (more)

The Family that Spies Together, Stays Together

Three family members of a Chinese-American engineer convicted last month of spying for China have agreed to plead guilty to charges stemming from an investigation into the transfer of submarine technology.

A jury found Chi Mak guilty of conspiring to violate export laws, operating as a Chinese agent in America, and lying to the FBI. Mak's brother and sister in law, Tai Wang Mak and Fuk Li, and their son, Billy Mak, were set to go on trial today in Santa Ana, Calif. (more)

Quote of the Day

"Anything you use on a daily basis that requires research, they're trying to steal," said Ray Morrow, special agent in charge of the FBI's Pittsburgh division...

America has no friends when it comes to the research that gives its companies, universities and government a competitive edge. Countries all over the world _ including friends and allies _ would like to have that research, and they would love to get it for free. ... While private companies have long been aware of economic espionage, it's largely new territory for universities. (more)

VoIP eavesdropping rules face mounting challenge

New US rules forcing ISPs and universities to rewire their networks for FBI surveillance of email and Web browsing are being challenged in court.

Telecommunications firms, non-profit organisations and educators are asking the US Court of Appeals in Washington DC to overturn the controversial rules, which dramatically extend the sweep of an 11-year-old surveillance law designed to guarantee police the ability to eavesdrop on telephone calls. (more)

I got your phone, and I am coming for your computer... maybe.

Trouble ahead for those wanting to monitor Internet-based calls

The telecommunications world was a much simpler place in 1994, when the U.S. Congress passed a landmark wiretapping law. At the time, the statute was meant to take advantage of the new fact that instead of doing wiretaps the old-fashioned way—by walking into a local phone company office with a warrant and some alligator clips—law enforcement officers now could conduct a wiretap centrally on a carrier's network by duplicating a phone call digitally and directing the copy to police headquarters.

Starting on 14 May, the 1994 law, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), will also apply to some voice over Internet Protocol providers, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has asked that it eventually be extended to all Internet-based communications. The wiretapping statute was originally designed for traditional telephone companies, which use circuit switching to create a dedicated channel for each phone call. But today, using Internet telephony, almost anyone can be a telecommunications carrier, including Google, Skype, Vonage, and Yahoo, to name just four companies that didn't exist in 1994. (more)

Pellicano lawyers act to shift case's focus

LA - Defense attorneys for Anthony Pellicano have asked prosecutors for documents they say will show that authorities first investigated the Hollywood private eye for allegedly audiotaping an FBI agent.

The government has said the long-running probe stemmed from a threat against a Los Angeles Times reporter investigating organized crime in Hollywood. But months before the threat, agents went to the sleuth's office to search for a recording of law enforcement personnel, according to a federal subpoena.

The defense requests signal an effort to shift the focus of the case from celebrity wiretapping to claims of government misconduct. (more)

China Edging US in Espionage

Washington, DC - Chinese espionage directed against the United States has met with "total success for China" and "total failure" for America's own intelligence operations, said an author and reporter on national security issues.

Counter-intelligence operations have allowed the Chinese to block and manipulate U.S. electronic eavesdropping operations while the theft of U.S. technology has helped accelerate Beijing's military ambitions, Bill Gertz said Friday at a gathering of the Defense Forum Foundation on Capitol Hill. ...

For legal reasons, espionage cases are very difficult to prosecute unless someone is caught "red-handed," Gertz observed. Consequently, U.S. government officials must often settle for circumstantial evidence that translates into lesser charges. ...

One of the most sensational cases detailed in Gertz's new book involves Katrina Leung, a Los Angeles businesswoman, who secretly remained loyal to China while working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Leung is one of the many spies who got away, thanks in part to a "botched" FBI investigation, Gertz said.

U.S. officials believe Leung is responsible for compromising an electronic eavesdropping program that involved the planting of bugs on a Boeing airliner China was purchasing in 2000 for Jiang Zemin, who was the communist leader at that time.

The prosecution of Leung proved difficult because she had "intimate relations" with two FBI agents who were responsible for intelligence operations involving China, Gertz said. Consequently the espionage charges against Leung "went away." (more)

WPP Mob Guy Who Was FBI Bug Man Now Icy

Mafia soldier Angelo "Sonny" Mercurio, who helped the FBI land the first-ever bugging of a mob induction ceremony, has died (at 70) in Little Rock, Ark., where he lived in the federal witness-protection program, relatives said yesterday. (more)

Calling Major Bowes (update)

WV - The Hinton City Council is still waiting to find out if federal investigators will look into potential wiretapping at Hinton City Hall.

Several letters were sent to federal, state and county prosecutors asking to investigate the claim. A tape was found inside the Hinton Police Department and turned over to the West Virginia State Police.

One letter sent to the FBI office in Beckley says the integrity of the tape may have been compromised. The council unanimously approved an investigation into alleged wiretapping on December 28th, 2006. (more)

FBI Investigates Alleged Wiretapping

WV - The FBI is looking into whether wiretapping went on at Hinton City Hall.

State Police say they turned a tape over to the FBI. Hinton Police Chief Thomas Peal says the tape was found at the police station, which is inside City Hall.

The federal investigation is underway to find out how the tape got there and what is on it.

On Thursday, the Hinton City Council voted unanimously to call for an investigation into whether City Hall is being wiretapped. (more)