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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McAfee reveals ‘Shady RAT’ espionage ring

c4isrjournal.com

The massive cyber espionage operation disclosed by the security company McAfee began with its 2009 discovery of a suspicious command-and-control server.

The server contained logs showing the Internet Protocol addresses for the firewalls and email gateways of dozens of companies and organizations around the world.

Intruders possibly working for a “state actor” used this server to steal secrets from at least 72 victims in 14 countries, according to McAfee’s new report, “Revealed: Operation Shady RAT.” Rat is the cyber industry’s term for the remote access tools used by the intruders.

McAfee will not say which country it suspects might be behind the intrusions or provide details about the server, except to say it was located in a Western country and that the IP logs were acquired legally.

After the 2009 discovery, the company began quietly notifying law enforcement agencies and signing nondisclosure agreements with some of the victims. McAfee said it has briefed foreign governments, congressional staff members and White House officials.

Because of countermeasures, the Shady RAT intruders have adjusted their tactics, but their operation is “still going on today,” McAfee’s Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president for threat research, said in a teleconference with reporters in August.

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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.

Espionage Research Institute (ERI) 2011 Conference

Espionage Research Institute (ERI) 2011 Conference

The 2011 ERI Conference brought together a group of leading edge counterintelligence practitioners that respond to crisis situations and espionage incidents from both foreign and domestic threats.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept 18, 2011 - The 2011 ERI Conference brought a group of these counterespionage agents out of the shadows for a brief moment to share information with their brethren. The threats levied against corporations from either electronic surveillance (bugs) or the latest threats from malware (Advance Persistent Threats) require these specialists to keep abreast of the latest threats. Adhering to ERI’s motto: "The Biggest Mistake That We Can Make Would Be To Miss The Changes", and their membership meets annually to ensure they remain aware of the changes in the espionage industry and can effectively detect threats.

This year’s keynote address from Jarrett Kolthoff, CEO – SpearTip, a former U.S. Counterintelligence Agent, addressed the threats levied against corporations from both foreign and domestic competitors. Mr. Kolthoff provided insight on how many corporations are responding to these incidents and are holding the rogue employee and/or competitor accountable for their actions.

Other presenters at the conference brought some of their latest technology, such as the OSCOR GREEN from Research Electronics International (REI) The OSCOR Green was designed for commercial applications to detect illicit eavesdropping signals, perform site surveys for communications systems, conduct radio frequency (RF) emissions analysis, and investigate misuse of the RF spectrum.

AIR Patrol Corp, shared their latest in cellular detection technology.

Global TSCM Corp brought their latest technology and gave a TSCM products demo.

Professional Development TSCM Group Inc., presented on the Kestrel TSCM ^TM Professional Software a Canadian designed and developed TSCM total RF collection and analysis solution; scalable to address all operational threat levels.

Walleye Technologies, Inc. presented their new portable microwave imaging device for a wide variety of applications that require handheld imaging and microwave capabilities.

Other notable presentations from ERI members and TSCM Specialists included:

"The Future of TSCM" by Steve Whitehead, of Eavesdropping Detection Solutions. Gauteng, South Africa.

"GSM & Hybird Cellular Threats" by Jason Dibley & James Williams of QCC Interscan Ltd. London UK.

"TSCM" Inside Out" by Julian Claxton of Jayde Consulting Pty Ltd. Sydney, Australia

"Computer Security" by Dr. Gordon Mitchell of Future Focus, Inc. Washington State. USA.

"TSCM Challenges Today" by Ed Steinmetz of Steinmetz Associates. Philadelphia, Penn.

"Power Line Analysis using a SDR" by Michael Dever of Dever Clark & Associates of Canberra, Australia.

"Security Podcast Resources and building a network VoIP Tap" by Charles Patterson of Patterson Communications. Tarrytown, NY.

Glenn Whidden, President of ERI and a former CIA officer, created ERI in an effort to bring together TSCM specialists, security practitioners, businessmen and corporate security executives to share information about hostile global espionage activity directed against business and industry. This year’s event was chaired by J.D. LeaSure, President/CEO of ComSec LLC, which resulted in another tremendous success in bringing together this international consortium of "spy hunters". J.D. will also Chair next year’s event at ERI's Annual Membership Conference (To Be Announced). The conference will continue to highlight current and emerging threats, detection methods and effective countermeasures.

Each year, U.S. businesses lose billions of dollars to Corporate Espionage, Industrial Espionage and Economic Espionage. ERI's membership consists of a small, exclusive group of global Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) and Cyber Counterintelligence experts whose private businesses are tasked with detecting and neutralizing the threats against your corporation.

For more information please contact ERI Conference chairman, J. D. LeaSure at: jd.leasure@espionageresearchinstitute.org or Ph: 703-910-3330

The Espionage Research Institute is dedicated to collecting and promulgating information on hostile espionage activity, which is done through the process of accepting, screening and editing reports of hostile activity as they are received from ERI Associates and its Advisors.

http://www.espionageresearchinstitute.org

ASIO chief spooked by cyber spies

smh.com.au

THE advent of cyber espionage is serving only to reinvigorate the craft of espionage, making such spying easier than ever, the ASIO chief, David Irvine, said.

Mr Irvine told a national security conference in Canberra last night that espionage, which has taken a back seat to terrorism since the attacks of September 11, 2001, was alive and well.

''Foreign powers will continue to attempt to acquire sensitive political, commercial, military and other information from a variety of sources and means,'' he said.

Mr Irvine has been increasingly vocal on the subject of the cyber threat.

The declaration by Mr Irvine also comes as the government releases a public discussion paper designed to inform next year's cyber white paper - Australia's first attempt at an overarching cyber security strategy.

Recent incidents such as the leaking of more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks and the intrusion into the parliamentary email system - believed to be by Chinese spies - have underscored the threat.

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How hackers find their targets

experian.com

The rash of large-scale data breaches in the news this year begs many questions, one of which is this: how do hackers select their victims?

The answer: research.

Hackers do their homework; in fact, an actual hack typically takes place only after many hours of first studying the target.

Here’s an inside look at a hacker in action:

1. Using search queries through such resources as Google and job sites, the hacker creates an initial map of the target’s vulnerabilities. For example, job sites can offer a wealth of information such as hardware and software platform usage, including specific versions and its use within the enterprise.
2. The hacker fills out the map with a complete intelligence database on your company, perhaps using public sources such as government databases, financial filings and court records. Attackers want to understand such details as how much you spend on security each year, other breaches you’ve suffered, and whether you’re using LDAP or federated authentication systems.
3. The hacker tries to identify the person in charge of your security efforts. As they research your Chief Security Officer or Chief Intelligence Security Officer (who they report to, conferences attended, talks given, media interviews, etc.) hackers can get a sense of whether this person is a political player or a security architect, and can infer the target’s philosophical stance on security and where they’re spending time and attention within the enterprise.

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Double-O Who? Meet history's unsung spies

telegraph.co.uk

Ask most people to name a spy and they will say James Bond. If they are a little more cerebral they might say George Smiley, the spymaster who, having been immortalised by Sir Alec Guinness on the small screen, this Friday comes to the big screen in one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the autumn. In the latest version of John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Gary Oldman is taking on the role of Smiley, with a supporting cast that includes John Hurt and Colin Firth.

But back to our question, which was name a spy. Such is the potency of literature that most people have long since blurred in their imaginations the difference between fictional spies and real-life ones. This is partly because some of the best spy novels were written by former spies, notably Ian Fleming, Graham Greene and, of course, John le Carré.

So let us phrase the question more clearly. Name a real-life spy… Most people will go with the big three: Philby, Burgess and Maclean. Others that pole-vault to mind are Anthony Blunt, George Blake, Dame Stella Rimington, Mata Hari, Eddie Chapman (Agent Zig-Zag), and Peter “Spycatcher” Wright. Those wishing to put the vaulting bar a little higher might also name Guy Liddell, Oleg Gordievsky, Vera Atkins, Melita Norwood, the atomic spy Klaus Fuchs, Richard Sorge and that notorious Soviet spy Harold Wilson.

But what do all these real-life spies have in common?

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Hackers steal SSL certificates for CIA, MI6, Mossad

pinewswire.net

The tally of digital certificates stolen from a Dutch company in July has exploded to more than 500, including ones for intelligence services like the CIA, the UK’s MI6 and Israel’s Mossad, a Mozilla developer said on Sunday.

The confirmed count of fraudulently-issued SSL (secure socket layer) certificates now stands at 531, said Gervase Markham, a Mozilla developer who is part of the team that has been working to modify Firefox to blocks all sites signed with the purloined certificates.

Among the affected domains, said Markham, are those for the CIA, MI6, Mossad, Microsoft, Yahoo, Skype, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft’s Windows Update service.

“Now that someone (presumably from Iran) has obtained a legit HTTPS cert for CIA.gov, I wonder if the US gov will pay attention to this mess,” Christopher Soghoian, a Washington DC-based researcher noted for his work on online privacy, said in a tweet Saturday. Soghoian was referring to assumptions by many experts that Iranian hackers, perhaps supported by that country’s government, were behind the attack.

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Administration Wiretaps Israeli Embassy

foxnews.com

Leak Offers Look at Efforts by U.S. to Spy on Israel
By SCOTT SHANE, New York Times

WASHINGTON — When Shamai K. Leibowitz, an F.B.I. translator, was sentenced to 20 months in prison last year for leaking classified information to a blogger, prosecutors revealed little about the case. They identified the blogger in court papers only as “Recipient A.” After Mr. Leibowitz pleaded guilty, even the judge said he did not know exactly what Mr. Leibowitz had disclosed.

“All I know is that it’s a serious case,” Judge Alexander Williams Jr., of United States District Court in Maryland, said at the sentencing in May 2010. “I don’t know what was divulged other than some documents, and how it compromised things, I have no idea.”

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Julian Assange faces arrest in Australia over unredacted WikiLeaks cables

guardian.co.uk



Julian Assange could face prosecution in Australia after publishing sensitive information about government officials amongst the 251,000 unredacted cables released this week.

WikiLeaks published its entire cache of US diplomatic cables without redactions to protect those named within, a move condemned by all five of the whistleblowing website's original media partners.

Australia's attorney general, Robert McClelland, confirmed in a statement on Friday that the new cable release identified at least one individual within the country's intelligence service. He added it is a criminal offence in the country to publish any information which could lead to the identification of an intelligence officer.

"I am aware of at least one cable in which an ASIO officer is purported to have been identified," he said. "ASIO and other Government agencies officers are working through the material to see the extent of the impact on Australian interests.

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Former Akamai employee pleads guilty in espionage case

masshightech.com



A Brookline man who worked in the finance department at Akamai Technologies Inc. has pleaded guilty to foreign economic espionage as part of an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston.



According to U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, Elliot Doxer, 43, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper to one count of economic espionage for providing trade secrets to an undercover federal agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer. According to Ortiz, this was only the eighth prosecution in the U.S. under the charge of foreign economic espionage.



As part of the plea agreement, a charge of wire fraud was dismissed. Doxer, facing a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, will be sentenced on Nov. 30.



Doxer stipulated to a statement of fact that in 2006 he emailed the Israeli consulate in Boston saying that as an employee in Akamai’s finance department he was willing to provide information that might help Israel, and later saying that he wanted to help “our homeland in our war against our enemies.



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Engineers convicted in Goodyear corporate espionage case

tyrepress.com



A US federal judge has sentenced two former Wyko engineers to four years probation and 150 hours of community service after they were convicted of convicted of stealing trade secrets from Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in a corporate espionage case that first surfaced in 2009.



According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, federal prosecutors had wanted US district court judge Thomas W. Phillips to give Clark Alan Roberts and Sean Edward Howley at least 10 months in prison, but their lack of previous convictions and “ample” family and community support reportedly won out.



A jury found Roberts and Howley each guilty in December on 10-counts alleging they conspired to steal and use trade secrets. Roberts and Howley, who were employees of Wyko Tire Technology Inc. at the time, had been accused of visiting Goodyear’s Topeka, Kansas plant in 2007 so Howley could use his camera phone to take pictures OTR tyre production procedures.



During the trial Tom Frey, a consultant for Goodyear and a former Goodyear manager, had estimated it cost $520,000 to develop the design drawings for the equipment the defendants were convicted of photographing and that Goodyear made $17 million in 2007 from the sale of tyres that machine produces. However Judge Phillips rejected Frey as a witness and noted that he was not employed by Goodyear and had not produced documentation to verify these figures.



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Raleigh Spy Conference: The Spies Among Us...

raleighspyconference.com



Note: What are you waiting for? Stop by, It should be a blast! JDL

Wednesday August 24-26

5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

Pre-Registration Reception 18 Seaboard restaurant gallery space, 18 Seaboard Avenue off Peace Street near downtown Raleigh. Tel: 919-861-4318 www.18seaboard.com

The Raleigh Spy Conference is known nationally for providing the general public direct access to intelligence officers, operatives and scholars in an informal atmosphere. Attendees have the opportunity to speak with and mix socially with conference speakers during the event.



"In Washington, it's difficult for the public to comprehend important intelligence and terrorism issues since everything is partisan and politically charged. Outside Washington, there are few voices for the public to hear, and those heard are often wrong or media-driven. Few are able to explain to the public what really has happened, and is happening, in intelligence, counterterrorism and national security - important issues, which, throughout history, have spelled the survival or loss of this or other nations. The annual Raleigh Spy Conference is a rare opportunity to hear it straight, with an unusual 'insider's' perspective and knowledge. Each year this conference opens that door to share remarkable insights and stellar speakers with the public. If one claims a scintilla of world-affairs knowledge, it cannot be true unless the annual Raleigh Spy Conference is on your calendar."



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The Espionage Act: Why Tom Drake was indicted

(CBS News)

Nearly two years before 9/11, America's largest intelligence agency was tracking three of the Al Qaeda hijackers. But that information, obtained by the National Security agency, wasn't analyzed in a way that could uncover the plot.

Inside the super-secret NSA, several analysts and managers believed that the agency had a powerful tool that might've had a chance to head off 9/11, but it wasn't used.

As Scott Pelley first reported in May, one of those agency insiders was Thomas Drake, who thought that taxpayer money was being wasted on useless intelligence gathering projects while promising technology was ignored.

Drake tried to get the word out but, as a result, he was charged under the Espionage Act and accused of betraying his country. Drake says that the only thing he betrayed was NSA mismanagement that undermined national security.

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Cyber-Espionage Against U.S. Firms More Widespread than Previously Thought

nationaldefensemagazine.org



That foreign adversaries are using computer network vulnerabilities to steal military data from the U.S. government and its contractors is well known and hardly surprising.



Nations for centuries have long sought to steal such secrets from one another and spy-craft has simply moved into cyberspace.



However, the unveiling of a massive cyber-espionage network in August goes well beyond the unwritten rules that informally govern nations when it comes to the theft of technical data or insights into the minds of leaders and their intentions, said Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at network security firm, McAfee.



Alperovitch analyzed one command-and-control server that had been used to spread malware for five years before McAfee exposed it.



“Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators,” he wrote in a blog.



Examining the logs to determine who the victims were, and how long the intrusion lasted before it was detected, Alperovitch found 30 different industries on the list.



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Former Akamai employee in Mass. to plead guilty to economic espionage

washingtonpost.com

BOSTON — A former employee of a website content delivery company has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of foreign economic espionage for providing company trade secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Elliot Doxer, 42, will admit to providing trade secrets from Cambridge-based Akamai Technologies Inc. over an 18-month period to the agent, whom he believed was an Israeli spy, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts said in a statement. A plea hearing is scheduled for Aug. 29.

Doxer’s attorney, Thomas J. Butters, did not return messages left after business hours Thursday.

Doxer, of Brookline, worked in Akamai’s finance department at the time he committed the alleged offenses. Prosecutors said he sent an email to the Israeli consulate in June 2006 and offered to provide any information he had access to in order to help that country in exchange for $3,000. Doxer said his main goal was “to help our homeland and our war against our enemies,” prosecutors said.

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Functional Fibers: fibers that can detect and produce sound

foxnews.com

An MIT investigator has announced a new milestone on the path to functional fibers: fibers that can detect and produce sound. Applications could include clothes that are themselves sensitive microphones, for capturing speech or monitoring bodily functions, and tiny filaments that could measure blood flow in capillaries or pressure in the brain.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2011/06/11/eyepoppers-best-science-photos-week/#ixzz1P6V4Jt14

Attacks on Sony, others show it's open hacking season

cnet.com
There seems to be a groundswell of hacking activity recently. From the Epsilon breach that touched dozens of major U.S. companies and their millions of customers, and RSA replacing its customers' SecurID tokens after attacks on several defense contractors to Sony sites getting pummeled by hackers on a regular basis--all within the last few months. What's going on?

"I truly don't think there's a higher instance of hacking right now. I think there's been a wave of media coverage," said Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer of BT and one of the most respected security experts around. "We saw the same thing with shark attacks. It's not that there are more shark attacks. It's that they made the news when people started looking for them." No one can really say if there are more attacks happening. Reports indicate that the number of breaches is rising every year, as can be expected. But those statistics are based only on incidents that are reported; there are untold numbers that happen all the time that no one knows about except the attacker and, eventually, the victim.

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West Valley computer thefts: random or industrial espionage?

deseretnews.com

WEST VALLEY CITY — Was it a simple break-in or industrial espionage? A heist in West Valley City may be one for the conspiracy theorists.

An engineering firm with military contracts had a half-dozen of its most critical computers stolen in a burglary sometime before the business opened Tuesday morning.

El Dorado Engineering creates equipment used to dispose of old munitions. The company has contracts with the U.S. military, NATO and Belgium, among others. It has secret military clearance.

All the computers stolen were critical to the business. Some were used for accounting. Others were utilized for engineering and had special capabilities to work with 3D programs.

“You lose so much information, because everybody’s work is on their computers,” company president Ralph Hayes said.

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Espionage Lessons Learned From Bond—James Bond

wsj.com

For "Carte Blanche," the newest James Bond novel, I soaked up a number of fascinating factoids about tradecraft—the subdued term for the techniques of espionage. My knowledge will have faded in a few years, but in the short term, I'm a bit of a spymaster. I thought I might share a few of the more useful tricks of the trade, in case you find yourself tapped (recruited) by a handler (the spy who supervises field agents) to help out the pros.

Apparently this happens quite frequently. At least according to Hollywood.

• To be a spy, you don't need to break into top-secret facilities, climb through air ducts and make your way through laser beam fields. Yes, agents do some of that acrobatic stuff, as well as sit in front of really neat high-def monitors, a la Jack Bauer in "24," while vacuuming up cellphone calls and emails. But a huge amount of "product," as intelligence is called, comes from open sources, information available to everyone, found in newspapers, on TV, in unclassified government, corporate and nonprofit reports and from observations in public. You can be sure that somebody in Russia's SVR, one of the KGB's successor agencies, is jotting down notes about this article even as you read it.

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