Texas constable admits ordering bugging

chron.com

DALLAS (AP) — A small-town Texas constable told the FBI he secretly bugged other officials' offices after they were accused of illegally forcing motorists to forfeit their cash, according to a search warrant affidavit.

The affidavit, based on interviews conducted by FBI agents and Texas Rangers, quotes Shelby CountyConstable Fred Walker as saying he authorized the installation of hidden surveillance cameras and digital recorders even though he didn't have legal authority. It also includes a statement from a witness who claims Walker helped organize a scheme to sell drugs seized from suspects.

It's just another chapter in a longtime drama in Tenaha, a town of 1,160 near the Louisiana border, where seizures of cash from motorists stopped for traffic violations along U.S. Highway 59 — a well-known drug route that runs from the U.S.-Mexico border to Canada — have led to lawsuits and a federal criminal investigation.

Walker, 53, was Tenaha's city marshal at the time the alleged bugging occurred. He was elected constable in 2010.

In a brief phone interview, Walker said he knew nothing about the affidavit, filed in U.S. District Court in Lufkin on Feb. 6. When asked if he arranged to have offices bugged, he hung up.

Walker's attorney, Bassey Akpaffiong of Houston, said prosecutors have told him to expect an indictment. Akpaffiong said Walker was never involved in selling drugs and never told the FBI he authorized the installation of secret listening devices.

Malcolm Bales, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, declined to comment.

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DARPA-Funded Hacker's Tiny $50 Spy Computer Hides In Offices, Drops From Drones

forbes.com

Even more embarrassing than a student discovering your GPS tracking device on his car, as the FBI found out last year, is having to ask him to give the expensive piece of equipment back.

So security researcher Brendan O’Connor is trying a different approach to spy hardware: building a sensor-equipped surveillance-capable computer that’s so cheap it can be sacrificed after one use, with off-the-shelf parts that anyone can buy and assemble for less than fifty dollars.

At the Shmoocon security conference Friday in Washington D.C., O’Connor plans to present the F-BOMB, or Falling or Ballistically-launched Object that Makes Backdoors. Built from just the hardware in a commercially-available PogoPlug mini-computer, a few tiny antennae, eight gigabytes of flash memory and some 3D-printed plastic casing, the F-BOMB serves as 3.5 by 4 by 1 inch spy computer. And O’Connor has designed the cheap gadgets to dropped from a drone, plugged inconspicuously into a wall socket, thrown over a barrier, or otherwise put into irretrievable positions to quietly collect data and send it back to the owner over any available Wifi network. With PogoPlugs currently on sale at Amazon for $25, O’Connor built his prototypes with gear that added up to just $46 each.

“If some target is surrounded by bad men with guns, you don’t want to have to retrieve this, but you also don’t want to have to pay four or five hundred dollars for every use,” says O’Connor. “The idea is that it’s as close to free as possible. So you can throw a bunch of these sensors at a target and get away with losing a couple nodes in the process.”

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Olive Branch Man Caught Peeping with 'Spy Pen'

myfoxmemphis.com

OLIVE BRANCH, Miss. - An Olive Branch man is accused of using a hidden camera to videotape a woman in the shower, and she's not the only victim.

Sam Allen Nuckolls of Olive Branch was a recent house guest of a woman and her husband who live in Gosnell, Arkansas. According to the woman, she had noticed that when she went to take a shower, her house guest had several items laid out on a bathroom counter, including a pen.

On closer inspection, it turned out to be a lot more than an ink pen. It's sold by the name "Video Spy Pen," and it can shoot HD video and audio or high resolution still pictures. It even writes, just in case someone gets suspicious. However, a small flashing light on the side of the pen shows that it is recording. If you open the pen, you will see the USB input device that plugs into a computer for downloading.

That's what tipped off this victim.

She said she left the bath room, then Nuckolls re-entered the bathroom and took his belongings, including the spy pen. Later, when Nuckolls left her home, the woman took the suspicious pen, plugged it into her computer and saw the video that had been recorded in her bathroom.

Her house guest was arrested by Gosnell police. He admitted he had set up the spy cam pen and also admitted he had done it before in Olive Branch, Mississippi, and even gave names of the victims.

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Man Charged With Unlawfully Video Taping Woman at Counseling Center

lakeridge.patch.com

A custodian at the Healing Hearts Counseling Center in Occoquan has been arrested for allegedly video taping a woman three times with a hidden camera while she was in the shower at the center.

On Oct. 25, a staff member at the center reported to police that she discovered a video camera hidden in one of the facility's showers. When police investigated after 10 p.m. that evening, they found that custodian Americo Rudolpho Rodriguez-Zabalbeascoa had allegedly hidden the camera and taped the 37-year-old Alexandria woman three times. 

Rodriguez-Zabalbeascoa, 53, of Woodbridge, has been arrested and charged with three counts of unlawful taping. His court date is unavailable. He is being held without bond.

Illinois Wiretapping Law Reaching A Boiling Point

pixiq.com

Illinois police officers have to be the most smug cops in the nation knowing they have the power to arrest citizens on felony charges for recording them in public while they themselves have every right to record citizens.

That smugness is very evident in the latest case to emerge from the Land of Lincoln.

Watch the below video, and read more here...

Wagner students discover hidden camera; JROTC instructor accused

kens5.com

A Wagner High School Junior ROTC instructor has been accused of taking inappropriate photos of students.

The Junior ROTC instructor was placed on administrative leave after a recording device was found in a supply room where students sometimes change their clothing.

They say one of the female students was actually recorded doing just that. Her family has been notified, and if they choose to press criminal charges, it's possible the instructor could face legal punishment.

Officials at Judson ISD say the recording device was discovered by other students at Wagner High School. Those students turned it over to the proper authorities.

"It's a small recording device, and they actually thought that it was a flash drive. It looks very similar to that. When they discovered there were some questionable images, some video images, they immediately turned it over to their ROTC instructor, who then turned it over to the principal at Wagner," says Judson ISD spokesperson Aubrey Chancellor.

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Simon Cowell admits 'The X Factor' uses hidden cameras to expose contestants

examiner.com

"The X Factor" U.S. is inevitably getting compared to "American Idol," but Simon Cowell (who is an executive producer/judge on "The X Factor" U.S.) says that his show is doing something that "American Idol" doesn't do: use hidden cameras to expose contestants' true personalities.

In an exclusive Q&A with ReelzChannel, Cowell was interviewed by his older half-brother Tony Cowell, who is ReelzChannel's special "X Factor" U.S. correspondent. Simon said in part two of the interview (which aired on September 29, 2011):

"We put cameras in all the makeup mirrors, and we didn't tell them [the contestants]. I've worked with contestants who, on camera, are the nicest, most beautiful people you'd ever meet. [With the] cameras off, they are absolute horrors. On this show, you see everything. Otherwise, it's not real."

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5-year-old girl finds hidden camera in a D.C. Starbucks bathroom

dailymail.co.uk

A five-year-old girl walked out of Starbucks with more than just a hot chocolate after having discovered a hidden camera in the coffee shop's unisex bathroom.

The girl's family is now suing the coffee chain for damages after she and her father were taped while using the toilet in a D.C. Starbucks.

William Yockey and his family were visiting the capital in late August from their home in Norfolk, Virginia.

His daughter discovered a video camera hidden underneath the sink that was pointed towards the toilet. Yockey determined that the camera was on and recording, then notified the police.

The camera was taken by police for further investigation, and no suspects have been named.

Because so little is known about the camera- including who put it there and when- this lawsuit could theoretically be opened up to include anyone else who used the restroom at that Starbucks.

The lawsuit, which will be heard in D.C. Superior Court, claims that the daughter suffered 'permanent and continuing emotional pain and suffering, humiliation, embarrassment and great emotional distress'

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Hidden video cameras found in apartment

baynews9.com

A couple of tenants said they recently discovered hidden video cameras inside their Hillsborough County apartment.

"We understand that we have camera everywhere. In the bathroom, in our room," said tenant Vanya Samokovareva. "They looks like smoke detectors."

Samokovareva, 22, and her roommate, Ralitsa Dzhambazova, 23, are from Bulgaria. The women said they came to Tampa in May through a work-travel program.

"This is terrible. I never expect that this thing can happen to me or my friend," said Dzhambazova. "We just came here to spend one summer in the United States, to work here."

The tenants said they've been renting the Westchase area apartment for about two months and found the hidden video cameras last weekend. Samokovareva said they taped a piece of paper to block the view of the camera in their bathroom, aimed right at the shower.

"The bathroom and your room, this is the private place and you make, in the bathroom you take a shower, you make everything," she said. "This is, I'm sure that if there is a camera, this is the idea to show us somewhere naked and to show what we make in the bathroom."

The tenants said they followed the cables from the hidden camera in their bedroom underneath the carpet to a locked up closet. They broke the lock off and said they found that all the cameras were feeding into a closed circuit TV box connected to a Wi-Fi router.

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Power Cord Hidden Camera

The Desk Accessory You Didn't Know You Needed...

Connect Easily to a DVR and Leave on Your Desk for Completely Covert Recording...

Office theft and vandalism happen every day. The Power Cord Hidden Camera is an inconspicuous camera housed in a standard-looking power cord that sits on your desk and records everything that happens while you're gone. Its slim, sleek and discreet design doesn't draw any extra attention. The device looks like an ordinary charger or computer cable, so no one will think twice that it's anything other than a loose cable forgotten on your desk. If you suspect any wrongdoing to your property, or you work in an environment that makes you suspect that your belongings may be in danger, this is the device for you. Simply pair the camera with any of a number of portable DVRs, plug it in, and you're ready to start recording. And, with a built-in motion sensor, you'll only get the footage you need.

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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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Corporate espionage on the rise...

newsnet5.com

CLEVELAND - The threat of foreign espionage seemingly disappeared with the Cold War. But there is a new spy game in town.

"Now you're talking about economic espionage and that is one of the biggest threats to national security that we have," said Brad Beman, head of the counter intelligence unit for the Cleveland branch of the FBI.

Beman warns that today's spies are just as interested in the office computer as government secrets.

"Other countries that are not necessarily friendly to the United States are gaining out technology and gaining an edge potentially over us," Beman said.

Some of the most dangerous spies don’t work for foreign governments, but for local companies. Employees motivated by revenge, money or patriotism are betraying company secrets, according to the FBI.

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Bird Bond: 'Nano Hummingbird' Drone Takes Spying to the Sky

newsfeed.time.com

This drone gives new meaning to "bird watching."

Tech company AeroVironment has announced that the unmanned, “hummingbird–like” aircraft it's been working on since 2006 has achieved its prescribed goals. The Nano Hummingbird, developed for DARPA, the Pentagon's research arm, has both whimsy and espionage potential. Flying via remote control at something like 11 miles per hour, the drone wouldn't be able to keep up with the living and breathing hummingbird. But then, real hummingbirds don't have cameras. Check out the video below. More...

Art Professor to Remove "Third Eye" Camera From Head

Not everyone is cutout to be an "Eye Spy"...;)
nbcnewyork.com
Artist had a camera installed on the back of his head for a performance project

A New York City professor's controversial art project is becoming quite a headache - literally.

Wafaa Bilal, an assistant arts professor at New York University, needed to remove the camera he had installed into the back of his head earlier this month because his body rejected the foreign object.

One of the three titanium posts holding his "third eye" was removed by surgery this Friday, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports, forcing him to find other means to continue with his photography project for a museum in Qatar.

"I'm determined to continue with it," Bilal told the Chronicle about "3rdi" which is described on his website as "a statement on surveillance, the mundane and the things we leave behind."

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North Hills Doctor Jailed for Potty Spy Cam

longislandpress.com

A North Hills cardiologist has been sentenced to 45 days in Nassau County jail for spying on patients and employees with a hidden camera in the bathroom of his Manhasset office.

Vincent Pacienza was convicted last June of unlawful surveillance, a felony. Pacienza surrendered his medical license and will serve five years probation after he is released.

Prosecutors said the 54-year-old ex-doctor told female employees he would be installing an air purifier in the restroom but the device, which faced the toilet, contained a hidden wireless camera with a direct video feed to a monitor underneath Pacienza’s desk.

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Jury Awards $476,200 Against IRS Agent for Serially Spying on Female Tenant

stockmarketsreview.com
Landlord has to pay $476,200 for spying on his young female tenants by means of a micro video camera hidden in a DVD player he provided with the rental.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, January 18, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- On January 13, 2011, a jury awarded damages of $476,200.00 against Kenneth Wayne Ryals, a landlord who had serially spied on his young female tenants by means of a micro video camera hidden in a DVD player he provided with the rental. Mr. Ryals, who is an Internal Revenue Service agent, had confessed to the Davie Police Department that he had watched Plaintiff for his viewing pleasure In response to discovery in the civil suit, Mr. Ryals repeatedly asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Further, despite the pendency of the lawsuit, Mr. Ryals willfully destroyed all the physical evidence in the case, eleven pieces of electronic equipment, including the spy cam that he had hidden in the plaintiffs bedroom.

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Women were taped while disrobing

wavy.com

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Two women who say they were taped by hidden cameras as they undressed at a southwestern Pennsylvania tanning salon have filed a federal lawsuit against the business and its owner.

According to the suit filed Monday, one of the women learned of the tapings in July when she discovered video of her disrobing at Sunkissed Tanning and Spa had been uploaded to pornographic websites.

The suit claims other women were also taped in various states of undress through a hole in the ceiling of the East Huntingdon tanning salon between 2005 and 2007.

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Eavesdropping Threat: CamBall rolls into the US

cg
Personal video camcorders have certainly come a long way since their introduction many years ago, and technologies in such devices have also progressed by leaps and bounds that High Definition recording capability was already achieved a few years back on a pocket-sized device. Well, what else can manufacturers do to up the ante? CamBall, as you can tell by its name, could very well be the next step of evolution for personal video camcorders. After all, it measures roughly the size of a mere golf ball (!) and yet is able shoot video virtually anytime, anywhere. Sure, it will not be able to do High Definition video recording, but that is all right considering the rather minuscule size of the device.

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iPod Shuffle Spy Camera

gadgetreview.com

Believe it or not this is a spy cam. Yup, it looks just like the recently released iPod Shuffle, so it should have no problems fitting it. To the right of the controls is a pinhole that contains a small camera that can capture 640×480 video. Unlike the actual Apple device this one contains an SD card slot and can play your favorite MP3s while you record all sorts of nefarious activities. The only downside is that the battery will last for just one hour when in full operation.

'Bug' found in deputy chief's office, but who planted it?

indystar.com
The angst and turmoil within the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department reached a new level Friday when it was revealed that someone -- and it's not clear who -- has been spying on a deputy police chief.An audio and video recording device -- a bug -- was found in the third-floor office of IMPD Deputy Chief William Benjamin after he ordered a sweep that was conducted Thursday night or Friday morning.

It was unclear what prompted Benjamin to request the sweep; Benjamin did not return a phone call from The Indianapolis Star. And it also remained a mystery who planted the bug -- though some were quick to insist they had nothing to do with it.Amid the disquiet already swirling in the department because of several internal investigations, Chief Paul Ciesielski immediately denied he was spying on one of his own -- before announcing yet another internal probe to get to the bottom of who had placed the device in Benjamin's office.

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