The Schizo Illinois Eavesdropping Law

There was major development Tuesday in the fight over the state's controversial eavesdropping law. A court decision now allows citizens to record the audio of police officers on the job in public.

Citizens can legally record video of police officers doing their jobs on the public way, as long as you don't interfere, but the Illinois Eavesdropping Act does not permit you to record audio.

If you do, you're still subject to arrest and criminal charges, even though two state court judges in Illinois have declared the law unconstitutional.

It remains a law on the books without clarity though a new agreement just approved by a federal court judge will change things in Cook County. (more)

Weird.

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RFID Tracks Jewelry Popularity

Interesting application of RFID technology.

RFID smart shelves can help retailers analyze market demand. 

Beyond sales reports, retailers want to understand which items had the highest shopper interest. For example, while one jewelry item is picked up 100 times and sold 90 time, another jewelry item is picked up 100 times but only sold 10 times. Retail statistics monitoring shopper behavior cannot be accurately counted by man.

However, the RFID Jewelry Smart Shelf Solution developed by Alpha Solutions enables retailers to clearly see data on which types of jewelry are picked up frequently. From the data obtained, discount promotions and programs can be made for the jewelry types that are having trouble selling.

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There is a Magazine for Everything... Even Penetration Testing

Kamil Sobieraj, editor of PenTest Magazine introduced me to his publication this week. It was an eye-opener. If you have anything to do with protecting information, you will find this as interesting as I did... 

 PenTest Magazine is a weekly downloadable IT security magazine, devoted exclusively to penetration testing. It features articles by penetration testing specialists and enthusiasts, experts in vulnerability assessment and management. All aspects of pen testing, from theory to practice, from methodologies and standards to tools and real-life solutions are covered.

48 issues per year (4 issues in a month).

A different title is published every week of the month:
• PenTest Regular – 1st Monday
• Auditing & Standards PenTest – 2nd Monday
• PenTest Extra – 3rd Monday
• Web App Pentesting – 4th Monday

...about 200 pages of content per month.

Each issue contains...
• News
• Tools testing and reviews
• Articles – advanced technical articles showing techniques in practice
• Book review
• Interviews with IT security experts
(more)

Nice to know there is a smart way to keep up with the bad guys.

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Campaign Headquarters Bugged - FBI Investigating

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused opponents Tuesday of bugging his headquarters and asked for an FBI investigation after a recording from an internal campaign meeting surfaced in a magazine report.

The 12-minute audiotape released by Mother Jones magazine reveals McConnell and his campaign staff at a Feb. 2 meeting lampooning actress Ashley Judd — then a potential Senate candidate — and comparing her to “a haystack of needles” because of her potential political liabilities. Judd has since decided not to run.



“We’ve always said the left will stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Nixonian tactics to bug campaign headquarters is above and beyond,” campaign manager Jesse Benton said in a statement. (more)

UPDATE: "It is our understanding that the tape was not the product of a Watergate-style bugging operation. We cannot comment beyond that." – David Corn, Editor, Mother Jones (more)

Note: More than one person is heard speaking on the tapes (above is just an excerpt). Based on this, (and room echoes) the FBI will be able to figure out the location of the microphone. Hope everyone remembers where they were sitting.

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Shodan - The Scary Search Engine

Cautionary Tale...
Unlike Google, which crawls the Web looking for websites, Shodan navigates the Internet's back channels. It's a kind of "dark" Google, looking for the servers, webcams, printers, routers and all the other stuff that is connected to and makes up the Internet...

It's stunning what can be found with a simple search on Shodan. Countless traffic lights, security cameras, home automation devices and heating systems are connected to the Internet and easy to spot.

Shodan searchers have found control systems for a water park, a gas station, a hotel wine cooler and a crematorium. Cybersecurity researchers have even located command and control systems for nuclear power plants and a particle-accelerating cyclotron by using Shodan.

What's really noteworthy about Shodan's ability to find all of this -- and what makes Shodan so scary -- is that very few of those devices have any kind of security built into them. (more)

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Free - Computer Security Tools Book

"Open Source Security Tools: A Practical Guide to Security Applications"

Few frontline system administrators can afford to spend all day worrying about security. But in this age of widespread virus infections, worms, and digital attacks, no one can afford to neglect network defenses.

Written with the harried IT manager in mind, Open Source Security Tools is a practical, hands-on introduction to open source security tools. Seasoned security expert Tony Howlett has reviewed the overwhelming assortment of these free and low-cost solutions to provide you with the “best of breed” for all major areas of information security.

By Tony Howlett. Published by Prentice Hall. Part of the Bruce Perens' Open Source Series.

Offered Free by: informIT

A 600-page PDF, written in 2004, which still contains useful information.

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Son Bugs Mom (yawn)... with a Wiretap!

UK - Police have arrested a Lincoln man on suspicion that he bugged his 90-year-old mother’s phone. 

Richard Stamler, 59, was arrested Thursday night for unlawful interception of communications, a felony, Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood said.

Stamler’s sister called police March 28 to say she found a recording device in the basement of her mother’s home that had been connected to the phone line, Flood said.

The woman played the tape, Flood said, and recognized her brother’s voice reciting date information. The device was set to record any time someone in the house picked up a phone. (more)

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