Counter Surveillance Devices (CS)d

Report: Too few officials knew of surveillance

(CS)d — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:54:27 +0000

By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer Pamela Hess, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Not enough relevant officials were aware of the size and depth of an unprecedented surveillance program started under President George W. Bush, let alone signed off on it, a team of federal inspectors general found.

The Bush White House pulled in a great quantity of information far beyond the warrantless wiretapping previously acknowledged, the IGs reported. They questioned the legal basis for the effort but shielded almost all details on grounds they’re still too secret to reveal.

The report, mandated by Congress last year and delivered to lawmakers Friday, also says it’s unclear how much valuable intelligence the program has yielded.

On the subject of oversight, the report particularly criticizes John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general who wrote legal memos defending the policy. His boss, Attorney General John Ashcroft, was not aware until March 2004 of the exact nature of the intelligence operations beyond wiretapping that he had been approving for the previous two and a half years, the report says.

The report, compiled by five inspectors general, refers to “unprecedented collection activities” by U.S. intelligence agencies under an executive order signed by Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Just what those activities involved remains classified, but the IGs pointedly say that any continued use of the secret programs must be “carefully monitored.”

Most of the intelligence leads generated under what was known as the “President’s Surveillance Program” did not have any connection to terrorism, the report said. But FBI agents told the authors that the “mere possibility of the leads producing useful information made investigating the leads worthwhile.”

The inspectors general interviewed more than 200 people inside and outside the government, but five former Bush administration officials refused to be questioned. They were Ashcroft, Yoo, former CIA Director George Tenet, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and David Addington, an aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney.

According to the report, Addington could personally decide who in the administration was “read into” — allowed access to — the classified program.

The only piece of the intelligence-gathering operation acknowledged by the Bush White House was the wiretapping-without-warrants effort. The administration acknowledged in 2005 that it had allowed the National Security Agency to intercept international communications that passed through U.S. cables without seeking court orders.

Although the report documents Bush administration policies, its fallout could be a problem for the Obama administration if it inherited any or all of the still-classified operations.

Bush brought the warrantless wiretapping program under the authority of a secret court in 2006, and Congress authorized most of the intercepts in a 2008 electronic surveillance law. The fate of the remaining and still classified aspects of the wider surveillance program is not clear from the report.

The report’s revelations came the same day that House Democrats said that CIA Director Leon Panetta had ordered one 8-year-old classified program shut down after learning lawmakers had never been apprised of its existence.

The IG report said that Bush signed off on both the warrantless wiretapping and other top-secret operations shortly after Sept. 11 in a single presidential authorization. All the programs were periodically reauthorized, but except for the acknowledged wiretapping, they “remain highly classified.”

Former Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made a terse reference to other classified programs in an August 2007 letter to Congress. But Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said that when she had asked Gonzales two years earlier if the government was conducting any other undisclosed intelligence activities, he denied it.

Robert Bork Jr., Gonzales’ spokesman, said, “It has clearly been determined that he did not intend to mislead anyone.”

In the wake of the new report, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt, renewed his call Friday for a formal nonpartisan inquiry into the government’s information-gathering programs.

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden — the primary architect of the program — told the report’s authors that the surveillance was “extremely valuable” in preventing further al-Qaida attacks. Hayden said the operations amounted to an “early warning system” allowing top officials to make critical judgments and carefully allocate national security resources to counter threats.

Information gathered by the secret program played a limited role in the FBI’s overall counterterrorism efforts, according to the report. Very few CIA analysts even knew about the program and therefore were unable to fully exploit it in their counterterrorism work, the report said.

The report questioned the legal advice used by Bush to set up the program, pinpointing omissions and questionable legal memos written by Yoo, in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. The Justice Department withdrew the memos years ago.

The report says Yoo’s analysis approving the program ignored a law designed to restrict the government’s authority to conduct electronic surveillance during wartime, and did so without fully notifying Congress. And it said flaws in Yoo’s memos later presented “a serious impediment” to recertifying the program.

Yoo insisted that the president’s wiretapping program had only to comply with Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure — but the report said Yoo ignored the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which had previously overseen federal national security surveillance.

House Democrats are pressing for legislation that would expand congressional access to secret intelligence briefings, but the White House has threatened to veto it.

4 Steps Security Can Take to Prevent Kidnapping

(CS)d — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:50:11 +0000

By Joan Goodchild , CSO , 04/08/2009

As the economic crisis continues to heat up, Chris Falkenberg believes the potential for kidnapping will, too.

“The biggest risk for kidnapping of adults is among people in the financial services business,” said Falkenberg, president of Insite Security, a New York-based consultancy that offers security services and analysis. “Particularly those who have a great deal of publicity about their wealth and their business success.” (Learn tips for what to do if you are abducted in ‘How to Act if You’re Kidnapped’)

Kidnappers are motivated by money, and potential victims are the people who make the most, said Falkenberg, who noted that executive compensation is easier than ever find thanks to SEC disclosure rules (Read ‘Six Things You Need to Know About Executive Protection’).

Assessing an organization’s risk for a potential executive or staff abduction involves several factors. While executives may be more at risk in the United States, in many other countries, all employees face danger, especially if the country is impoverished (Read ‘Employee Safety in Global Hotspots’).

Falkenberg, a former Special Agent in the U.S. Secret Service, outlines preventative measures companies can consider to minimize kidnapping risk.

Establish a counter-surveillance program

Every kidnapping is preceded by a planning stage, according to Falkenberg. An organization with an effective counter-surveillance program has good shot at intervening or detecting a threat, increasing security and motivating potential kidnappers to go elsewhere.

Counter surveillance, according to Falkenberg, basically takes the regular security guard position and “turns it inside out.” In addition to having personnel manning the gate, a counter-surveillance program has personnel who are watching to see who is watching others.

A good program could include a team that conducts surveillance at a facility, residence, or any given location, and keeps tabs on who is watching the target. This means looking for people who might be walking back in forth frequently in front of a location, taking video or photographs, counting footsteps to determine the measurements of a given location.

“Anything someone is doing from a public area to gain information which could be used in a crime and detecting who is doing that,” said Falkenberg to describe the kind of intelligence that should be gathered.

A counter-surveillance program might also use CCTV infrastructure in a proactive way, he said.

“CCTV is primarily utilized in the forensic capacity, once a crime has occurred,” said Falkenberg. “But a counter-surveillance team can use all of the intelligent video in a proactive means, particularly if you have the ability to identify cars and license plates to keep an eye out for who seems to be in your perimeter, collecting information about scheduling, comings and goings, and transportation routes.”

Utilize GPS

Falkenberg recommends companies put in place technology to be able to receive GPS transmissions from cell phones or emergency GPS transmitters. While this technology may only go so far because the device will likely be taken from the victim, in some scenarios, it could still aid in rescue. And as technology advances, GPS will become even more useful.

“There is some technology coming out in which you can program a cell phone to send out a distress signal,” said Faulkner. “What we are using with some clients is a handheld GPS transmitter which you can essentially use as a portable panic button. It triangulates to where it transmits. That can be used for a security department to learn where a kidnapping has occurred.”

Train employees on how to behave

As Falkenberg pointed out before, kidnappings are planned events. Kidnappers don’t often consider what they will do if the victim takes some drastic action to thwart the abduction.

“It’s really infrequent, in the history of kidnapping, if victim runs away, or if they make a u-turn, that kidnappers will actually pursue a victim and kidnap in a static environment.”

When an event takes place, victims find themselves forced into vehicles with commands shouted at them like “Get in the car! We are going to kill you!” While this is terrifying, it is actually much easier to turn the situation to your advantage at that point than it is once you are incarcerated, said Falkenberg.

But this kind of reaction to threats is not second nature to people, said Falkenberg. It is something that has to be learned. He recommends talking with employees about what to do if threatened and rehearsing it. It is important, he said, for people to feel comfortable that if there is a kidnapping, they can react, have some muscle memory of how to react, and have some confidence that it is the correct step.

“It is a great challenge to train people to think effectively during emergencies,” said Falkenberg. “But it is very important because you have a real chance in the beginning to terminate the situation. If you can, you are much better off than getting in the car, or the van, where the realm of outcomes becomes worse.”

Falkenberg also recommends companies train employees about how to act as hostages in the event that they are abducted. Tips include touching everything in sight to leave lots of fingerprints and talking to the kidnappers so they see you as a human, not an object. Falkenberg recommends mentioning family, children, and other personal facts that may aid in getting them to see you as a person.

Consider families, too

“It’s one thing to kidnap the president of a company,” said Falkenberg. “Who knows what will happen? But if it involves the president’s kid? That situation has to be resolved immediately and the kidnappers know it. It is a far greater danger.”

Potential vulnerabilities don’t stop with the executive. Companies need to consider the family component of protection for executives, said Falkenberg. A crisis management and continuity plan for the family outside the office is key.

However, the family component can’t really be addressed with the same techniques used for employees because families are not going to tolerate the kind of protection that c-level executives tolerate at work. Also, it is just not cost effective. But Falkenberg believes there are several ways an organization can improve security for the executive and his/her family outside of work by leveraging existing resources. Training family about potential dangers and how to behave if someone attempts to abduct them is essential. But so is training of household staff members.

“Many executive have a household staff. They can be trained in the tools and skills of counter surveillance,” said Falkenberg. “They may have more information about the comings and goings than the family, particularly because some executives have multiple homes.”

Corporate Counter-Surveillance

(CS)d — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:46:46 +0000

The Daily Mail reported on a new phenomenon where Corporate executives are turning to 007-style counter surveillance techniques for inspiration as competition heats up as a result of the credit crunch. Counter surveillance refers to measures adopted to prevent surveillance, such as sweeping for listening devices or bugs; counter surveillance employs a set of counter measures to reduce the risk of being spied on. And although counter-surveillance is common in the world of espionage and politics with anti-terrorist measures for example, the use of counter-surveillance techniques in the boardroom is becoming increasingly common.

Counter Surveillance: Bond in the Boardroom

The escalating credit crunch means job losses are looming as business becomes more competitive; getting the upper hand on a competitor can literally mean make or break a business. In such a context, it’s little wonder that employees are more concerned about counter surveillance measures. Spy equipment retailers have reported a boom in sales of counter surveillance and spy gadgets as credit-crunched executives take measures to safeguard their business.

Counter Surveillance: Desperate Times

As the economy worsens, counter surveillance gadgets and spy accessories are being built into tailored suits to cater to the executive market. Shirts with buttons fitted with minuscule video recording devices, or counter surveillance mobile phones are being snapped up to prevent rivals from eaves-dropping and stealing important deals. According to the Daily Mail the counter surveillance gadgets and spy accessories “would look more at home on James Bond.”

Counter Surveillance: The Competitive Edge

But as the old saying goes, knowledge is power, and having effective surveillance and counter surveillance measures in place can give businesses a much-needed competitive edge. The global credit crunch is pushing some businesses to look at ways of protecting their assets or getting the edge on their competitors - and counter surveillance equipment is a necessary part of their armour. Counter surveillance mobile phones can encrypt signals to prevent eavesdropping or rivals listening in. Intelligence and security are important for those doing business in more unstable countries - and as well as counter surveillance and spy equipment, sales of wrist watches containing radiation detectors are also increasing amongst those doing business in Eastern Europe

The Wire Trap

(CS)d — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:28:55 +0000

Crime and detective shows seem to rule the networks. Our love of crime seems insatiable. And where there’s a crime show, there’s a plotline revolving around audio surveillance, phone taps, wire taps or spy equipment. Whether it’s the much-lauded The Wire or more accessible TV shows such as CSI or even British crime dramas from way back when like Dempsey and Makepeace, audio surveillance has always played a dramatic role in cracking crime

Audio surveillance: Catching the criminals

Anyone who has watched any popular crime show will have seen the scenes that involve an undercover detective being wired up with sensitive audio surveillance equipment in an attempt to catch on tape evidence that can be used in a court of law. And according to the TV series The Wire, it isn’t just in fictional detective shows where audio surveillance techniques are used. The Wire is written by a mixture of renowned crime authors such as George Pelecanos and former crime reporters, such as the producer and creator, David Simon. It prides itself for being a true reflection of policing the streets of Baltimore. And many of the big undercover detective plots revolve and depend on audio surveillance.

Audio surveillance unveils intricate web

Unlike most routine crime dramas, the audio surveillance techniques in The Wire start off as being seemingly straightforward – a story of cops trying to crack the drug dealers. But the audio surveillance techniques are far more complex and reveal a fascinating insight into the city’s underworld. The use of the spy equipment reveals how ‘good’ and ‘bad’ is never straightforward, how poverty impacts on crime and the intertwined lives of all sectors of society from the politicians, police to the drug dealers and addicts.

The Wire inspired by audio surveillance techniques

The very name of the TV series reveals how integral audio surveillance is for detectives. And as The Wire was created by a former crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun and used collaborators such as Ed Burns, a former homicide detective in Baltimore, as well as crime authors who are renowned for spending time with Baltimore detectives to get their stories real, it’s clear the use of audio surveillance doesn’t just belong in the fictional world to create plot lines and drama. As one journalist noted in an interview with David Simon and Ed Burns of The Wire, walking around Baltimore feels like a TV set: “It looks and seems so much like The Wire I tell my hosts that I feel like I’m watching television. ‘The problem,’ says Ed Burns, ‘is it’s real.’ ‘All too real,’ adds David Simon with a sad smile and a slight shake of the head.”

Professional Pocket Bug Detector – PRO5000D

(CS)d — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:25:52 +0000

Designed solely for the location and detection of covert transmitters the PRO5000D will detect virtually any radio transmitting ‘bugging’ device. It uses the latest surface mount technology to provide very high sensitivity across a wide frequency to ensure detection and location of even the weakest radio signals. VHF, UHF and Microwave transmitters will all be detected by the PRO5000D; in fact anything that transmits a radio signal between 0 and 5000 MHz(5 GHz).
Such devices include miniature room bugs, mains powered bugs, telephone bugs, video transmitters, mobile telephones, walkie-talkies etc. A 10 LED bargraph display indicates signal strength along with an audio Geiger click, enabling you to pin point the transmitter precisely. If you wish to check for transmitters without alerting others the PRO5000D can be set to vibrate mode. If any signals are detected the unit will vibrate silently, allowing you to keep it concealed on your person, in a jacket pocket, for example.

Once you have located a suspect signal using the PRO5000D by simply attaching the supplied headphones you can use the ‘Demodulation’ facility to identify whether the suspect device is transmitting any audio such as that from a bugging device microphone or a telephone bug transmitter.

Telephone Surveillance Abusing Anti-Terror Laws

(CS)d — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:12:49 +0000

If you thought every time you picked up the telephone and spoke to your sister, mom or best friend, it was your business; or that every time you called to book an appointment or searched for something of interest in Google it was private: think again. Telephone surveillance and the use of spy equipment has increased dramatically according to watchdogs and human rights groups. The reason for the increased use of spy equipment has been blamed on anti-terror laws that are being stretched beyond the remit they were intended for. Telephone surveillance and internet use is being monitored by councils, police and other officials. Figures state that in 2007 there were 519,260 requests from such bodies to communication providers to access information. The Daily Mail reports that our private data is being monitored, with 1,400 ’spying operations’ being launched every day.

Telephone Surveillance: A Question of National Security?

Telephone surveillance isn’t just in the form of phone tapping and using high tech spy equipment to bug telephone conversations – in fact this kind of telephone surveillance tends to be restricted to police or intelligence services. But telephone surveillance in the form of our phone bills being raked over or the websites we visit being monitored is part of the low level intrusion UK residents now seem victim to. And it isn’t terrorism plots, drug rings, gun smuggling or international spying that’s triggered the step up in telephone surveillance and use of spy equipment – it’s issues such as dog fouling and fly-tipping. One couple was profiled in the Mail saying they were spied on for weeks by their council to check they were living in the right school catchment area.

Telephone Surveillance by Local Councils Raises Privacy Fears

It’s thought this high level of spying and intrusion is happening due to councils ‘abusing’ anti-terror laws. Telephone surveillance and internet monitoring can feel like a huge intrusion and infringement on human rights – especially if the spy equipment and investigation is not pertaining to any terrorism fears, but relatively minor offenses. Although many people may justify spying or intercept requests such as telephone surveillance from bodies such as the police or security services as a matter of national security, over 1,700 intercept requests were made by local councils in 2007.

SK-12A Phone Scrambler Video Jammer

(CS)d — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:58:15 +0000

The SK-12A Tri-Band Mini-Phone scrambler is the most sophisticated Digital Cellular Mobile Phone Scrambler out there in the market. It can form an electromagnetic protection field around the user, thus preventing data and transmission leakage, as well as cut out noise. Also doubles to disrupt camera frequency and transmission around the user.

What’s Buggin’ Morris?

(CS)d — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:19:32 +0000

According to a report in the Telegraph, the CIA decided to think outside the box when hostilities with Russia were at their peak during the Cold War in the 1960’s. CIA operatives decided to use cats fitted with bugging devices in order to try and uncover the deepest and darkest secrets of the Kremlin and to prevent espionage against them. The Telegraph relies upon recently declassified documents to bring to light the CIA’s unusual approach of feline bugging devices.

Bugging Devices - Kremlin Cat Flap

In what was a fairly unprecedented move in spy circles, the CIA decided to implement the use of cats as a form of eavesdropping device during the height of the Cold War in the 1960’s. According to the report in the Telegraph, the CIA believed that the cats deemed worthy of being fitted with bugging devices, could be used to listen to secret conversations from park benches, window sills and dustbins. The crude technological ability of bugging devices at the time was not good news for the cats that were chosen for the top secret missions. Speaking to the Telegraph, former CIA officer, Victor Marchetti, states “They slit the cat open, put batteries in him and wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna. They made a monstrosity. They tested him and tested him. They found he would walk off the job when he got hungry, so they put another wire in to override that.” So, understandably, cats weren’t lining up round the block to be fitted with the bugging devices.

Bugging Devices - Accident Waiting To Happen

Unfortunately, the CIA’s decision to fit cats with bugging devices was a fairly unmitigated disaster and can scarcely have got off to a worse start. The first trial run of the spy cat was a financial faux pas to say the least. Speaking to the Telegraph, Victor Marchetti stated, “They took it out to a park and put him out of the van, and a taxi comes and runs him over. There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead.” Bugging devices have come a long way since the Cold War as technologically capabilities have improved dramatically which, no doubt, will come as a relief to members of the feline community.

VideoTek Finder

(CS)d — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:14:55 +0000

VideoTek Wireless Camera Hunter Locks Onto Any Wireless Video Transmission - and Diplays on Its Own Built In Screen.

The 2.5″ color TFT high resolution monitor displays the video image while the LCD window shows the exact frequency of transmission. Automatically scans all the commonly used video frequencies in less than 5 seconds and “locks-in” on any video camera transmitter and sounds an audible alert tone. Selectable antenna sensitivity allows “lock-in” on sources up to 500 of feet away (depending on power of source transmitter). Durable all metal case, comes in two sizes as shown.

New Generation Sweeptek

(CS)d — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:11:19 +0000

Detects All Types Of Hidden Video Cameras and Sweeps the Room for RF Bugs!

The new generation SweepTeK features the latest state-of-the-art advancements in countermeasures sweep functions as well as nano-tech portability. SweepTek detects and pinpoints any covert video camera (active or inactive) and both wired and wireless cameras. You can scan a room looking through the view finder and instantly find any video camera that’s hidden visually. SweepTek also detects RF bugs and wiretaps - two functions in one unit!