Cell Phone Tracking v. Right to Privacy - To be Decided

A secretive technology which lets police locate and track people through their cellphones in alleged violation of the US constitution will be challenged in a potential landmark court case... The American Civil Liberties Union hopes to rein in the little known but widespread "stingray" surveillance devices which it claims violate the fourth amendment and the right to privacy.The group will urge a federal court in Arizona to disregard evidence...

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Digital Cameras Easily Turned into Spying Devices

Newer cameras increasingly sport built-in Wi-Fi capabilities or allow users to add SD cards to achieve them in order to be able to upload and share photos and videos as soon as they take them.But, as proven by Daniel Mende and Pascal Turbing, security researchers... these capabilities also have security flaws that can be easily exploited for turning these cameras into spying devices. Mende and Turbing chose to compromise Canon's EOS-1D X DSLR camera...

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Range Wars Redux - Animal Welfare Group Drones v. Cattlemen

Australia - Farming bodies have criticized an animal welfare group's plan to use a drone to film farming practices on properties around Australia, with one saying the drone would be shot down.Animal Liberation has purchased a surveillance drone equipped with a powerful camera. The group says the drone can film from as low as 10 metres above the ground to gather potential evidence of animal abuse.Click to enlargeSpokesman Mark Pearson says the practice...

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How to Have Safe Specs - Just Say No

Amidst rising concerns about cyber spying and a House Intelligence Committee report last October, Sprint and Softbank have said they will not use any equipment from China-based Huawei Technologies.The two companies are preparing for a merger, which is being overseen by the US government. The government has asked only to be informed when these two companies buy new equipment and where they buy it. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who leads the House...

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Putin on the Quits

Russian President Vladimir Putin jokingly told members of the All-Russia People's Front, a political movement he started, that he's stopped eavesdropping since he left the KGB, because it's not a nice thing to do, Russia’s RIA reported on Friday. (more) (rimsh...

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Better Eyes for Flying Robots - A Runaway Hit

New systems could improve the vision of micro aerial vehicles. Aerial robotics research has brought us flapping hummingbirds, seagulls, bumblebees, and dragonflies. But if these robots are to do anything more than bear a passing resemblance to their animal models, there is one thing they’ll definitely need: better vision.
In February, at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, two teams presented new work (PDF)...

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FutureWatch Update - Skype Tapping

When we last left Skype...Was Skype reworked by Microsoft to make it easier to wiretap?Hey kids, we bought and fixed Skype just for you!In today's episode... Since its acquisition of Skype in May 2011, Microsoft has added a legitimate monitoring technology to Skype, says Maksim Emm, Executive Director of Peak Systems. Now any user can be switched to a special mode in which encryption keys will be generated on a server rather than the user's...

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Security Director Tip of the Month - More Secure Conferencing Calling

Over the years, you have read many posts here about organizations being victimized by eavesdroppers on their conference calls. I am expecting you will see fewer in years to come...CrowdCall, a specialized conference-calling app available for iOS and Android smartphones and the web. Instead of scheduling a dial-in line, e-mailing all parties involved and then hoping everyone calls at the appointed time, CrowdCall's interface lets users choose...

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Cell Phone Fingerprinting - GPS Tells WHO You Are

Can you be identified only by where you take your phone? Yes, according to a new study, which finds it's not very hard at all. While most of us are free to go wherever we want, our daily and weekly movement patterns are pretty predictable. We go to work, to school, to church, to our neighborhood gym, grocery store or coffee shop, and we come home -- all quietly tracked by the GPS in our phone.Click to enlarge.And with nothing more than this anonymous...

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Hello Federal! Give Me No Second Hand

Despite the pervasiveness of law enforcement surveillance of digital communication, the FBI still has a difficult time monitoring Gmail, Google Voice, and Dropbox in real time. But that may change soon, because the bureau says it has made gaining more powers to wiretap all forms of Internet conversation and cloud storage a “top priority” this year.Last week, during a talk for the American Bar Association in Washington, D.C., FBI general counsel...

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Bugged Van, Other Man, "I'll kill him"... "Just kidding."

A 44-year-old Howell man is facing felony charges after allegedly installing an eavesdropping device in his wife's van in an attempt to catch her in an extramarital affair.Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte said Friday that the case came to police attention when the 48-year-old woman's alleged boyfriend, 21, called to ask if installing such devices is illegal. He told police that he felt his privacy had been violated after learning that the device captured him and the wife being "passionate," the sheriff said.Bezotte said the defendant allegedly...

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Zombie Privacy Bills Struggle to Become Laws

Just two days after new legislative reform on e-mail privacy was re-introduced in Congress, another privacy bill was brought back from years past.On Thursday, three members of the House (two Republicans and a Democrat) and two bipartisan senators introduced the GPS Act, which would require law enforcement to obtain a probable cause-driven warrant before accessing a suspect’s geolocation information. The bill had originally been introduced nearly...

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From the Security Scrapbook Archives - 2003

Here is what the Security Scrapbook looked like 10 years ago... (Some links are now dead.)"They're GR-R-REAT!®"When the CIA's secret gadget-makers invented a listening device for the Asian jungles, they disguised it so the enemy wouldn't be tempted to pick it up and examine it: The device looked like tiger droppings. The guise worked. ... The CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology is celebrating its 40th anniversary by revealing a few dozen of its secrets for a new museum inside its headquarters near Washington. Keith Melton, a leading...

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World's Smallest Video Cameras

Typical applications are medical endoscopy, dental imaging, surgical robots, guide wire visualization, intubation equipment visualization, disposable equipment ...and some spy applications to be sure. (more) P.S. The one on the coin is a 3-D came...

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Criminals Spy Ops in Mexico

via a Blue Blaze irregular..."I thought this might interest you. The Mexican drug cartels continue to exploit and develop their SIGINT capabilities. The criminals who specialize in surveillance against the police are called "Hawks" or "Falcons" and generally perform both physical surveillance of patrol units and radio monitoring. This particular group was arrested for monitoring police radio calls and giving gang members early warning of significant...

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"Hey kids, hack it for your Uncle Sam!"

Bored with classes? Carnegie Mellon University and one of the government’s top spy agencies want to interest high school students in a game of computer hacking. Their goal with “Toaster Wars” is to cultivate the nation’s next generation of cyber warriors in offensive and defensive strategies. The free, online “high school hacking competition” is scheduled to run from April 26 to May 6, and any U.S. student or team in grades six through 12 can apply and participate. David Brumley, professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon, said...

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Casino CCTV Commandeered in $32 Million Sting

Australia - Thieves have infiltrated Crown casino's surveillance system to pull off a $32 million sting.A foreign high roller who was staying at Crown has been implicated in the rip-off, in which the venue's security cameras were used to spy for him.   (more) (as predicted)...

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Spy Camera Glasses - Austin Powers is Thrilled

Question Mark & the Mysterians may sue... from the manufacturer..."Ankaka launches Innovative Spy Camera Glasses Espionage. The high tech spy gadget manufacturer Ankaka is back!This time they bring people the Spy Camera Glasses espionage-spy-camera-sunglasses; Very stylish and comfortable to use, this latest make of high quality spy gadgets enables people to walk around with no worries as people spy on their subject..." (more) (video)CUT! Enough...

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Chinese Launch Espionage Investigation Against Coca-Cola

Chinese authorities have opened an espionage investigation against Coca-Cola Co. for allegedly making illegal maps of restricted areas in China, according to a South China Morning Post report Thursday. "What we can say for now is that many subsidiaries of Coca-Cola are involved and this happens in many provinces," the report quoted an unidentified Chinese official as saying, adding that the Ministry of State Security was involved in the probe. Among...

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Pwn Pad - Use it IT, Before it is used against IT

The folks at security tools company Pwnie Express have built a tablet that can bash the heck out of corporate networks. - Wired Magazine The Pwn Pad - a commercial grade penetration testing tablet which provides professionals an unprecedented ease of use in evaluating wired and wireless networks.The sleek form factor of the Pwn Pad makes it an ideal product choice when on the road or conducting a company or agency walk-through. This highspeed, lightweight...

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The Return of the Invisible Anythings

"We propose a method for removing marked dynamic objects from videos captured with a free-moving camera, so long as the objects occlude parts of the scene with a static background." Max Planck Institute for Informatics (more)Political propaganda videos will never look the same...(Supplementary video. Takes time to loa...

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The Ratters - men who spy on women through their webcams

The woman is visible from thousands of miles away on a hacker's computer.  The hacker has infected her machine with a remote administration tool (RAT) that gives him access to the woman's screen, to her webcam, to her files, to her microphone. He watches her and the baby through a small control window open on his Windows PC, then he decides to have a little fun... Women who have this done to them, especially when the spying escalates into blackmail,...

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Wiretapping - Silvio Berlusconi Sentenced to One Year in Prison... or not!

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was convicted in a wiretapping case in Milan Thursday and sentenced to a year in jail. The wiretapping charge — related to the 2006 battle for control of a major Italian bank — is one of three corruption rulings the hard-partying Berlusconi faces this month.A Milan court is also set to rule on charges he engaged a minor in prostitution, and an appeals tribunal will decide whether to uphold a four-year...

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The Pepsi Spycam

Enjoy it for the Spycam...

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Employee Bugs Boss - True Story

"Employee hid a recording device in supervisor's office. In addition, without authorization, Employee made copies of supervisor's negative comments about Employee that Employee located by conducting an  unauthorized search of the supervisor's office and briefcase. Employee provided the notes to lawyer in support of lawsuit against supervisor. Finally, Employee lied to investigators during the course of the administrative inquiry."Think this...

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Vatican Bugs

Last Month - An Italian news magazine, Panorama, claimed that Vatican authorities had conducted, and are still conducting, an extensive covert surveillance programme, tapping the phone calls and intercepting the emails of cardinals and bishops in the Curia, the governing body of the Catholic Church. (more)This Month - The Vatican has gone high tech to prevent leaks like in 2005 when German media outlets were able to report that Joseph Ratzinger was going to be elected as Pope. A Faraday cage is being put in place to jam any signals. A Faraday cage...

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Perkele - Android Malware Swipes SMS Messages

via Kreb's on Security...An explosion in malware targeting Android users is being fueled in part by a budding market for mobile malcode creation kits, as well as a brisk market for hijacked or fraudulent developer accounts at Google Play that can be used to disguise malware as legitimate apps for sale... Unsurprisingly, this particular entrepreneur also sells an Android SMS malware package that targets customers of Citibank, HSBC and ING, as...

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Super Secure Cell Phone

CryptoPhone 500 is a new configurable secure cell phone. Protection is based on...Click to enlarge.• End-to-end voice and message encryption: Secure end-to-end encrypted messaging and voice over IP. Works on any network, including 2G GSM, 3G/UMTS, and Wireless LAN. • Hardened operating system: It is the first mobile phone featuring GSMK's secure Android operating system, built from source code with granular security management. Permission enforcement...

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Barney Google 2013

Google Glass is the company's upcoming product that puts a computer on your face. Google is about to release the dorky-looking device and most likely it will be snapped up by the techie crowd. It is an innovative product that pushes live-blogging to the next level, and that will unleash a storm of concern never before seen caused by a mobile gadget. ...Rightly or wrongly there's already a concern about folks taking photos and videos in certain public...

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