Hudson Woman Charged With Felony in Alleged Eavesdropping Incident

hudson-wi.patch

A Hudson woman has been charged with a felony in an alleged eavesdropping incident at the St. Croix County Government Center on May 2, 2011.

Patt A. Colten of Hudson was formally charged on Friday, Sept. 30, with intercepting wire/electronic communication, a Class H felony. Her initial appearance was Oct. 27 and she posted a $1,000 signature bond.

The charge stems from a May 2 incident at the St. Croix County Government Center in which two individuals allege that Colten was listening to and recording a conversation they were having with an attorney in one of the building's conference rooms, according to the criminal complaint.

Colten and the two complainants have been involved in a property dispute over their lot boundaries for at least two years, and on May 2, all three of them were in court for a pretrial conference with Judge Edward Vlack. After the conference, the complainants met with an attorney in a conference room just outside the courtroom to discuss the case's developments. That's when Colten allegedly eavesdropped on their conversation, according to the criminal complaint.

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Mirage device to be used in espionage?

(CBS News)  

You don't have to be in the hot desert or on a long road in the summer to see an optical phenomenon - also known as a mirage - thanks to new scientific innovations.

Straight out of sci-fi novel, researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas have come up with a device that makes objects disappear using the mirage effect, a cool optical illusion that is often portrayed in classic, American western movies.

So how does it work? This device uses an optical phenomenon, in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky, according to the IOP (Institute of Physics blog).

"The most common example of a mirage is when an observer appears to see pools of water on the ground. This occurs because the air near the ground is a lot warmer than the air higher up, causing lights rays to bend upward towards the viewer's eye rather than bounce off the surface," explains the IOP.

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – 2011 Trailer

An espionage thriller set around the Cold War. Ex MI6 George Smiley is forced out of retirement to unearth a Soviet agent within “The Circus.” It hits theaters on November 11th and I must say after peeping the trailer I’m eagerly anticipating its arrival. Watch this, and See for yourself.

Electronic skin tattoo has medical, gaming, spy uses

breitbart.com

A hair-thin electronic patch that adheres to the skin like a temporary tattoo could transform medical sensing, computer gaming and even spy operations, according to a US study published Thursday.

The micro-electronics technology, called an epidermal electronic system (EES), was developed by an international team of researchers from the United States, China and Singapore, and is described in the journal Science.

"It's a technology that blurs the distinction between electronics and biology," said co-author John Rogers, a professor in materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"Our goal was to develop an electronic technology that could integrate with the skin in a way that is mechanically and physiologically invisible to the user."

The patch could be used instead of bulky electrodes to monitor brain, heart and muscle tissue activity and when placed on the throat it allowed users to operate a voice-activated video game with better than 90 percent accuracy.

"This type of device might provide utility for those who suffer from certain diseases of the larynx," said Rogers. "It could also form the basis of a sub-vocal communication capability, suitable for covert or other uses."

The wireless device is nearly weightless and requires so little power it can fuel itself with miniature solar collectors or by picking up stray or transmitted electromagnetic radiation, the study said.

Less than 50-microns thick -- slightly thinner than a human hair -- the devices are able to adhere to the skin without glue or sticky material.

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Flying Drone Can Crack Wi-Fi Networks, Snoop On Cell Phones

forbes.com

How do one ex-Air Force official and one former airplane hobby shop owner, both of whom happen to have decades of experience as network security contractors for the military, spend their weekends? Building a flying, unmanned, automated password-cracking, Wi-Fi-sniffing, cell-phone eavesdropping spy drone, of course.

At the Black Hat and Defcon security conferences in Las Vegas next week, Mike Tassey and Richard Perkins plan to show the crowd of hackers a year’s worth of progress on their Wireless Aerial Surveillace Platform, or WASP, the second year Tassey and Perkins have displayed the 14-pound, six-foot long, six-foot wingspan unmanned aerial vehicle. The WASP, built from a retired Army target drone converted from a gasoline engine to electric batteries, is equipped with an HD camera, a cigarette-pack sized on-board Linux computer packed with network-hacking tools including the BackTrack testing toolset and a custom-built 340 million word dictionary for brute-force guessing of passwords, and eleven antennae.

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The Last Bugs of the Nixon White House

wired.com

One morning in early March 1971, Army counterintelligence agent Dave Mann was going through the overnight files when his eyes landed on something unexpected: a report that a routine, nighttime sweep for bugs along the Pentagon’s power-packed E-Ring had found unexplained – and unencrypted — signals emanating from offices in the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Someone, it seemed, was eavesdropping on the top brass.

Mann was no stranger to bugs. It was a busy time for eavesdroppers and bug-finders, starting with the constant Spy vs. Spy games with Russian spies. But the Nixon years, he and everyone else would soon discover, had extended such clandestine ops into new territory: bugging not just the Democrats, but people within its own ranks. Eventually, most of the Watergate-era eavesdropping schemes were revealed to the public, including the bombshell that Nixon was bugging himself. But the bugs Dave Mann discovered in the E-Ring in March 1971 — and another batch like it — have remained buried all these years. Until now.

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Apple Doesn't Spy, Vows to Fix Spying

thestreet.com
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Apple(AAPL_) denied, confessed to and then said it will change its iPhone tracking practices that have created a swirl of outcry about potential privacy invasion.

In classic Apple fashion, the company issued a press release Wednesday consisting of 10 questions the company asked itself. In addition to the 10 answers, the company said it is preparing a software update that changes the way it collects data about iPhone locations.

First came the denial.

"Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so," said the release.

Next came the explanation.

The short version: Apparently Apple doesn't track iPhones -- it collects the data from WiFi and cell tower antennas that track iPhones.

The long version: In order to find your location faster, Apple said it uses a database of antennas in a given area. This ready cache of antenna info can quickly pinpoint you on a map -- that's a lot faster than if you had to wait only for a GPS satellite report.

While Apple says this offers fast, accurate and secure location services, "users are confused" because the company has "not provided enough education about these issues to date."

So it's not your fault for being confused and angered about location snooping. It's Apple's -- among others' -- fault for not explaining how awesome the system is.

Apple also blamed bugs in the system.

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Self-wiping hard drives from Toshiba

net-security.org
Toshiba announces a family of self-encrypting hard disk drives (HDDs) engineered to automatically invalidate protected data when connected to an unknown host. The new Toshiba Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) models enable OEMs to configure different data invalidation options that align with various end-user scenarios.

Designed to address the increasing need for IT departments to comply with privacy laws and regulations governing data security, the drives are ideally suited for PC, copier and multi-function printer, and point-of-sale systems used in government, financial, medical, or similar environments with an acute need to protect sensitive information.

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On The Internet, No One Watches The Wiretappers

Note: Heads up, this just in from our friend "Mike"...JDL
forbes.com
When Twitter revealed in January that it had received a Department of Justice order to hand over information on three users associated with WikiLeaks, the real surprise wasn’t that an Internet company had been asked to secretly spill user data for a criminal investigation. It was that, for once, the firm didn’t kept quiet about it.

Chris Soghoian, a privacy researcher at Indiana University and the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, has been following that Twitter case closely as a potentially precedent-shaping test for how and when the government can nab users’ online information. And now he’s released a paper that puts the case in context, outlining just how little Americans are told about the extent of government surveillance on the Internet.

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Competitive Intelligence: How to Spot a Liar

inc.com

"Deception detection" experts—often former CIA agents—are used by banks and hedge funds to assess the honesty of CEOs. In his recent book, Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy, Eamon Javers shares some tricks of the trade:

1. Fidgeting
Aside from true sociopaths, people aren't natural liars, and saying one thing while thinking something else can actually cause physical discomfort. That's what causes people to squirm.

2. Weasel Words
Expected to, probably, basically, should be... These kinds of qualifiers crop up when someone is trying to obscure doubts or worries.

3. Detour Phrases
Think, As I said before. Liars try to circumvent a direct answer by referencing past answers to different questions.

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Lawsuit Filed Over Listening Devices

wytv.com
A lawsuit involving two dozen plaintiffs and 18 defendants has been filed over alleged illegal wiretapping at the Newton Falls Police Department.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court by an attorney with the Fraternal Order of Police on behalf of employees, mostly police officers, and citizens of Newton Falls. Defendants include current and former city officials who "have approved the expenditures for the installation and upkeep of the illegal wiretapping system."

The lawsuit claims oral communications were illicitly recorded by hidden microphones placed in public and private areas of the police department. The suit alleges that former Police Chief Robert Carlson had the devices installed and intercepted conversations during contract talks to negotiate less beneficial contracts.

The new chief, John Kuivila, has said he found the devices in May of 2009.

Carlson, who is now retired, said he never intercepted any conversations and said he has done nothing wrong.

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US dragging its feet on wiretapping rules

presstv.ir
Citing the need to protect intellectual property and consumer information like the emails that were leaked in this week's massive Epsilon hack, the Senate Judiciary Committee called a hearing Wednesday to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

Committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) emphasized that while amending the law and taking the time to define privacy took time, that is time that U.S. cyber security remains vulnerable.

"It's thousands of attacks a minute, not thousands of attacks a day," he said. "It's a necessary process, but it's one that's not without peril and it's not one without cost."

However, ECPA, more familiarly known as the wiretapping law, will probably not see a change in the immediate future. The Judiciary Committee called a hearing for the same reasons last year, and the process has been languishing since then. Without an official position from President Obama's administration, the amendment process will not move forward. Raw Story

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DOJ To Congress: We Shouldn’t Need A Warrant To Snoop Through Gmail

For years, privacy advocacy groups have been trying to make sure digital data has the same kinds of search and seizure protections that physical documents have. In recent times, even some major companies like Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and AT&T (NYSE: T) have joined together in the Digital Due Process coalition, which wants to modernize the nation’s out-of-date wiretapping laws. Those corporations want law enforcement agents to get a warrant issued by a judge before they are able to tap into sources of data stored in the cloud, such as web email. It’s been an uphill fight—to say the least—and today, the Department of Justice took a position that’s going to make their quest even harder.

According to a report from CNET, a DOJ lawyer told a Senate committee that if cops are required to get a search warrant to tap into email stored online, it could have an “adverse impact” on investigations. “Speed is essential,” he said. “If Congress slows down the process, this would have real-life consequences, particularly where human life is involved.”

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Hidden Camera Found In School Locker Room

kctv5.com

EFFINGHAM, Kan. -- Police said a group of eighth-grade girls discovered a video camera rolling at Atchison County Junior-Senior High School in Effingham.Students and parents throughout the district said they are embarrassed, angry and scared. They are worried about what kind of images exist and who might have seen them.Residents said Effingham is a typical small town where everyone knows each other and word travels fast. And that only serves to heighten the uneasy feeling among students, they said."Was I in that video and has anybody seen it?" Principal Mark Preut asked, voicing the concerns of the students.Kendra Myers works at Effingham's only sit-down restaurant and has a niece at the junior high."I think the first thing that comes to everybody's minds, parents, children, everything is the Internet, like is this all over the Internet?" Myers said.Preut said everything that could contain exploitative images went straight to Kansas City's Regional Crime Lab. So even local, law enforcement don't know what was captured or how far it went.

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Bugged cuckoo clock scandal rocks government

swissinfo.ch

The Swiss government has been accused of hiding surveillance systems in cuckoo clocks and then giving them as official gifts to at least 30 embassies.

The foreign ministry has yet to comment officially on the claims, made in United States diplomatic cables released last week by the WikiLeaks whistle-blowing website.

The alleged bugging came to light in cables sent in September 2006 from the US embassy in Bern to the US State Department.

In it, an unnamed official expressed security concerns about the cuckoo clock – a pendulum-driven “Chalet” model with music box – which had been presented to the ambassador the previous month as part of Swiss National Day celebrations.

“The latest addition to the living room is proving to be a good conversation piece, but I’m not sure we should be holding conversations around it,” the official wrote on September 14.

“The bird came out at midnight yesterday and I swear something flashed.”

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NY judge questions husband-wife calls on wiretaps

kgw.com

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge demanded the government explain itself Wednesday for eavesdropping on phone calls between an insider trading defendant and his wife in a case that was celebrated for its use of wiretaps.

U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in Manhattan ruled in favor of the government's right to wiretap insider trading suspects, but drew the line at the private chats between a husband and wife, saying it was the only area where he believed some suppression of the evidence might be warranted. He was the second judge to rule in favor of wiretap evidence in insider trading cases.

Sullivan ordered the government to respond in writing to claims by a lawyer for defendant Craig Drimal that 13 percent of his time on phones involved chats with his wife, including "deeply personal conversations about private marital matters." Drimal has pleaded not guilty.

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Feds Warrantlessly Tracking Americans’ Credit Cards in Real Time

wired

Federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking Americans in real-time using credit cards, loyalty cards and travel reservations without getting a court order, a new document released under a government sunshine request shows.

The document, obtained by security researcher Christopher Soghoian, explains how so-called “Hotwatch” orders allow for real-time tracking of individuals in a criminal investigation via credit card companies, rental car agencies, calling cards, and even grocery store loyalty programs. The revelation sheds a little more light on the Justice Department’s increasing power and willingness to surveil Americans with little to no judicial or Congressional oversight.

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Government reports violations of limits on spying aimed at U.S. citizens

washingtonpost.com

The federal government has repeatedly violated legal limits governing the surveillance of U.S. citizens, according to previously secret internal documents obtained through a court battle by the American Civil Liberties Union.

In releasing 900 pages of documents, U.S. government agencies refused to say how many Americans' telephone, e-mail or other communications have been intercepted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - or FISA - Amendments Act of 2008, or to discuss any specific abuses, the ACLU said. Most of the documents were heavily redacted.

However, semiannual internal oversight reports by the offices of the attorney general and director of national intelligence identify ongoing breaches of legal requirements that limit when Americans are targeted and minimize the amount of data collected.

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Google in trouble, acknowledges spying on passwords, emails of users

topinews.com
Things could not have gone worse for the search engine major Google as it has finally acknowledged that it was spying on the emails and passwords of the users across Britain. This is definitely a major security breach and as is to be expected, Google is having a hard time giving proper explanation.

However, Google has already apologized for the reported incident and claimed that it has unwittingly downloaded personal data from wireless networks when its vehicles were driving down residential roads for taking photos for its Street View project. Most of the data, as the company informed, is fragmentary but in a few cases, web addresses, emails and even passwords of users were captured. However, Alan Eustace, Google’s Vice-President of engineering and research said that they were quick to delete those data and thereby they had managed to overcome a serious security related crisis.

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Hotel room security defeated by a piece of wire

This video clip is pretty alarming - it shows how easy it is for a stranger to enter your hotel room, using nothing more than a piece of wire. As you can see in the clip, the wire goes under the door, and is used to open the door from the inside. In all my years of staying in hotels, I never realized how simple it could be.