Dan Gordon Spy Club » Spy Gadgets

Getting Trashed

Agent Zero — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 20:08:04 +0000

The Renew ad company has been using technology embedded in trash cans to measure Wi-Fi signals emitted by Smartphones to follow Internet users across the Web and into the physical world. Looking like normal recycling bins, with a display screen showing news updates and advertisements; they are located near St. Paul’s Cathedral and Liverpool Street Station in London. The data was being gathered by 12 reinforced, shoulder-height pods that were first tested in May. The technology being used to “cookie the street” captured Smartphone’s’ serial numbers and analyzed signal strength to follow people up and down the street.
Opening up new potential for social and commercial interactions, the trash cans join other everyday objects, including toilets and televisions that are manufactured with the ability to send and receive data. The technology also expands the world of surveillance.
After finding out about the project from the media; The City of London Corporation, which is responsible for the city’s historic “square mile” has insisted that Renew pull the plug on the program, and referred it to Britain’s data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which said it would investigate. Big Brother Watch questions “how such a blatant attack on people’s privacy was able to occur?”
Having had secretly harvested personal data, Renew’s “smart bins” are now under investigation, in possible violation of EU law.

Laser Leaks

Agent Zero — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 18:31:19 +0000

The GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) in the UK, demanded the return or the destruction of the Guardians’ Snowden files. They were acting on behalf of the British government, citing that the use of lasers by foreign agents could monitor conversations in the room.
The Guardian had secured the files by insuring that they were never connected to the internet and that they were disconnected from networks. This did not allay the concerns of the GCHQ. Claiming that a laser would be able to pick up a conversation’s vibration by bouncing off a window in the room or relaying off an object as innocuous as a plastic cup; the GCHQ insisted that the files should not exist in the London offices. Rather than hand over the computer drives; the Guardian chose to smash them.
In reality, “laser spying” has been used by the US against Russian embassies for years. A high-quality laser can fire a beam of invisible light for up to half a mile. Supposedly a “laser microphone” was used to relay vibrations in Abbottabad which were then relayed to a voice recognition system. The technology was used to confirm the location of Osama bin Laden.
Even though laser technology could reveal the number of people in a room, and sometimes even determine their identity; it does not reveal what is actually being said. There are much simpler technologies for that; including planting the traditional “bug”. In fact, the penetration of a laser beam into a room can easily be blocked by something as simple as a closed window curtain. Another issue is precision positioning.
According to the Guardian “The principle of laser spying is comparatively simple. The conversation inside a room moves the air; the air moves the windows. A laser beam aimed at the window will shift slightly in wavelength as the window moves. By tracking that shift, the movement of the window can be inferred – yielding the original conversation.
Lee Marks , a director at Spymaster says: “Laser spying is about the most difficult way of listening to what’s going on in a room… you have to get it exactly at right angles. It has to bounce off and right back to you.”

In addition to the US usage of “laser spying” against the Russians, Nasa technology that has previously been used to detect faint radio signals from space, is now being used to eavesdrop on a room where the curtains are blocking the windows. Using a “horn antenna” this “microwave” technology can blast a wave of energy that is between 30GHZ and !00Ghz through a building wall. If people are speaking inside a room, any flimsy surface, such as clothing will be vibrating, and cause a modulation of the radio beam as it reflects from the surface. It is then amplified and analyzed.

Simpler systems using the planted bug can also use a laser beam to transmit conversations. Such a device was found in the offices of Trinidad & Tobagos’s director of public prosecutions this year.

Hunt for Red October Operation

Agent Zero — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:10:47 +0000

Last October, experts at Kaspersky; a Moscow based cyber-security company, claimed to have discovered a major global malware system that has attacked and compromised the computers of sensitive institutions including research centers, defense installations, diplomatic consulates, and government agencies in 39 countries for the past 5 years. Their released report about Red October, aka Rocra, hints that the programmers are Russian.
John Bumgarner, research director for US Cyber Consequences Unit suspects Russia or China. The author of “Inside Cyber Warfare”, Jeffrey Carr thinks that the virus was the work of the foreign intelligence service of a NATO or EU country spying on Russian embassies.
Initially targeting embassies around the world, the origin of the program as well as motives of the attackers is still unknown. The new virus usually infects computers through an email attachment that mimics ordinary business correspondence.
Due to the syntax and choice of words, it has become evident that the Rocra malware modules were created by Russian speaking operatives. However, currently there is no evidence linking the malware attacks with a nation-state sponsored attack.
Not only does the malware target traditional workstations; it can garner information from mobile devices, steal configuration data from routers and Cisco switches, as well as deleted files from removable disk drives. Like an ever expanding universe, the hackers use the stolen information exfiltrated from infected networks to infiltrate into additional systems, and have compiled and used the passwords to gain access to an ever increasing amount of data
Apparently, the main purpose of the operation seems to be the gathering of classified information as well as geopolitical influence. According to Sergei Karaganov, honorary chairman of the Moscow based think tank Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, such cyber-espionage is increasingly common. Russia and other countries have tried to create international protocols to combat it. He also suggested that “On the other hand, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of this being an ingenious trick on the part of Kaspersky Lab to boost their trade.”

The Buzz on Insect Drones

Agent Zero — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 21:52:24 +0000

A plethora of articles are in the headlines these days on the CIA’s and the Army’s use of drones to strike terrorist targets in Pakistan. The question is, what else are they used for? The answer: for high-tech surveillance. It has already been released to the public that the U.S. has tiny remote-controlled vehicles based on the natural structure of insects. These micro air vehicles (MAVs) are based on the physics of how insects fly. Separately, the US Air Force has revealed it is developing “lethal mini-drones” with a structure based on Leonardo da Vinci’s blueprints for his Ornithopter flying machine. They state these mini-drones will be ready for usage in 2015.

Public concern arose in 2007 when flying objects hovering above anti-war protesters were reported. Although entomologists claimed that they were actually dragonflies, the U.S. government was accused of secretly developing robotic insect spies. The fact that officials denied the accusations did not end the suspicions. Retired US Air Force Colonel Tom Ehrhard, an expert on unmanned aerial craft, was quoted in the London Daily Telegraph saying, “America can be pretty sneaky.”

In 2008, the US Air Force did unveil undetectable insect-sized spies “as tiny as bumblebees” that they said are capable of flying into buildings to photograph, record, and even attack insurgents and terrorists. With the U.S. military’s record for keeping its technology action to itself, the question remains as to what the reality is regarding the use of lethal mini-drone

Spy Technology Takes Flight

Agent Zero — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:16:32 +0000

By Daria Carmon

A new age of spy-plane technology is being ushered in, with several large technology companies unveiling and testing new plane designs. AeroVironment Inc, a company based in Monrovia, California, recently tested an experimental plane whose wingspan is almost the size of Boeing 747. The $30 million plane, called the Global Observer, uses liquid hydrogen for fuel. It is built to fly for a week at a time at an altitude of 65,000 feet, putting it out of range of most modern antiaircraft missiles. As a reconnaissance plane, it can survey nearly 280,000 square miles in one shot, making it a cheaper and more effective alternative than spy satellites. The plane is also able to relay communications between military units and spot missiles as they are launched, much like a satellite.

Not to be outdone, Northrop Grumman has built a bat-winged drone capable of carrying laser-guided bombs. The X-47B drone, developed under a contract with the US Navy, can also be launched from an aircraft carrier. These drones are not controlled remotely by a human pilot, like current combat models are. Instead, a pilot designates a flight path and launches the plane, while a computer program guides it along the path and back home.

Boeing has also developed a new spy plane – the Phantom Ray. This drone is built to slip behind enemy lines and target their radar installations, knocking out the systems to pave the way for fighter and bomber planes to enter the area.

All three of these planes, being tested at Edwards Air Force Base, represent major advances from the more than 7,000 Predator and Reaper drones that are a major player in the U.S. military’s current campaign in Afghanistan. The older drones lack jet engines and the ability to evade enemy radar, making them easy targets for antiaircraft missiles. The new remotely piloted planes have the speed and cloaking capabilities needed to avoid the missiles.

Was Stuxnet an Israeli Attack on Iran?

Agent Zero — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:56:54 +0000

Referred to as a ‘worm,’ Stuxnet is malware, or a computer virus, which was discovered in June 2010 by a Belarus security firm, though it was likely unleashed the previous June. Its purpose is to disrupt industrial processes and infrastructure, and the worm’s sophistication and targeting have many speculating that it was created by Israeli intelligence to delay Iran’s nuclear development.

The worm operates by infecting SCADA systems (that monitor and control industrial processes), reprogramming critical systemic elements and hiding these changes. It exploits no fewer than four Microsoft software vulnerabilities (way more than the standard one, if any) and is originally transferred by means of a USB memory stick/flash drive. Half a megabyte in size and written in more than one programming language, the worm is unusually large and sophisticated.

Various computer experts and analysts who have studied the worm intensely since it was detected four months ago have commented on Stuxnet’s unmatched sophistication, agreeing that the team behind it likely had the financial backing and support of a very technically advanced nation state. The first known worm designed to attack real-world infrastructure (think power stations, water plants, industrial units), the malware has been called out and out “scary.” Technical journals like PC World, Computerworld and CNET all seem to be in agreement that this is not the work of private computer geeks or rogue hackers. One expert told Wired magazine, that the code for Stuxnet would have literally taken many months if not years to write.

So why the leap from technically advanced nation state to Israel v. Iran? First, the majority of the computers affected by the worm, and the only servers known to have been severely damaged by it, are located in Iran. Iran happens to be the site of some extremely controversial, i.e. nuclear, industrial processes. Although Iran claims that its nuclear development is for civil purposes only, Iran’s President, Ahmadinejad, isn’t exactly shy about his beliefs that the Holocaust didn’t occur and that Israel should not exist. Israel, on the other hand, has the perfect mix of technical advancement, intelligence expertise and justified apprehension to want to throw a major spanner in Iran’s steadily progressing nuclear works.

According to Debkafile, US and UN nuclear watchdogs have reported since August a slowdown in Iranian nuclear enrichment due to technical difficulties. Apparently at the centrifuge facility in Natanz alone, three thousand centrifuges are out of commission. Natanz, in addition to the Bushehr nuclear plant, are both on the list of speculated Stuxnet targets.

There is no hard evidence to date regarding the origin and specific industrial target of Stuxnet. In addition to infecting Iranian computers, it seems to have wormed its way into German, Indian and Indonesian computers as well. Then again, if the Israel v. Iran speculations are true, a few false leads are to be expected…

Spy drone data compromised

Agent Zero — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:27:22 +0000

The U.S. military has known for about a year that the live video feeds generated by the spy Predator drones in Iraq and Afghanistan are being intercepted by insurgents. Some think the U.S. didn’t bother to encrypt the data because officials underestimated their enemy’s sophistication.

There’s no evidence that the militants also figured out how to block or scramble the data en route to the U.S., from where many of the drones are computer-controlled and -operated. Now it’s too late for that next step, as the U.S. plans to encrypt all its drones, whose air strikes play a large — if somewhat controversial — role in the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

So how did the insurgents do it? Check out this video from the Associated Press to find out more:

BlackBerry Spy is Out

Agent Zero — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:29:46 +0000

It’s been possible to spy on the iPhone, as well as Windows Mobile and Symbian OS smart phones for quite some time now, but what about all those BlackBerry users? Not to worry, Retina-X Studios LLC has just released BlackBerry-specific spy software if you’re looking to remotely monitor, er, just about every aspect of someone’s BlackBerry.

Of course, if you’re a BlackBerry user, better be careful who’s got access to your device!

The software comes from the same company that has enabled spying on most other business phones (as well as personal computers), and as with the others, it runs in the background, stealthily collecting text message and phone call logs even once these records have been deleted from the phone. The program also taps into the BlackBerry’s GPS system to alert the spy of the device’s whereabouts at 15 minute intervals.

And how do you – the spy – get to check up on all this gathered data? Just through your standard ol’ web browser…

N. Korea accuses U.S. and S. Korea of aerial espionage

Agent Zero — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:22:52 +0000

The state-run Korean Central News Agency recently issued a government statement saying that the U.S. and South Korea have conducted 180 spy flights over North Korea’s airspace in the month of July, Bloomberg reports.

North Korea refers to this campaign as a massive mobilization of aerial espionage, and according to their calculations, almost 70% of the flights were made by the U.S. with spy planes built by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. North Korea did force some of the planes out of its territory with warplanes.

News of increased monitoring of North Korea does not come as a huge surprise. On June 12, the UN Security Council voted to up surveillance of the country, as it had been engaging in nuclear and long-range missile testing despite vocal opposition from the international community.

image courtesy of theepochtimes.com

UAE tries to spy via BlackBerrys

Agent Zero — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:56:38 +0000

BlackBerry users in the UAE recently found out that a regular software update they were encouraged to download by the state-controlled service provider Etisalat was really a spy program that once installed, would give the government access to all sorts of private data – email, text, as well as contact and personal details stored on the machines.

Many of the BlackBerry users in that part of the world, which encompasses the swiftly growing Dubai, are businessmen who use their BlackBerrys to conduct confidential communications and transactions all the time. The scandal has left over half of Etisalat users with the intention of canceling their contracts with their nosy provider (we wonder why not all of them?).

The spyware would not have been discovered were it not for poor planning on the spies’ part. Most people were very eager to get the upgrade – we all do this. New version of Firefox? New iTunes? We download the upgrades without thinking twice. Because there was such a flood of people accessing the new software simultaneously, the servers were overwhelmed, which somehow caused an unusually fast depletion of BlackBerry batteries across the area.

A few of the more technology-inclined users started to scratch under the surface and discovered that their upgrades weren’t exactly kosher. It turns out the spyware was developed by an American company called SS8, which markets ‘lawful interception’ – that’s a very loose application of lawful, Etisalat.

The Canadian company that makes BlackBerry says they have had absolutely nothing to do with the scandalous app. Their statement did confirm Etisalat’s plans to bug BlackBerrys with the purpose of having private communications conveyed to a central server.

Was the purpose of the mass invasion of privacy Big-Brother-like? Or was it just a way to get information from a few suspicious fellows already under some sort of investigation without setting off any alarm bells?

Either way, the botched spying attempt has set off all sorts of alarms – exactly the sort of thing that will worry international businesses looking to stake a claim in Dubai.

Need a light?

Agent Zero — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:47:03 +0000

So you won’t be able to pick up a girl outside a bar by offering to light her cigarette with this lighter, but you may be able to pick up some incriminating evidence for later. Covering all the stops, this generic-looking plastic lighter is a camera/videocamera/USB stick in one. Don’t get too hooked on the neon yellow/pink color combo, as it varies and you’ll have no idea what you’re getting until it hits your mailbox.

Vital stats: Images and film recorded in color, and there’s a little switch to help you flick between the two modes. One press of a button to start recording and to stop. When you plug it into your PC via the USB drive capability, you’ll be charging the Li-ion battery as well.

Plus:

Image resolution: 1280 x 1024 pixel, JPEG file format
Video resolution: 640 x 480 pixel, AVI file format
Built-in 4GB memory
Yours for $49.00

Things we’re a little skeptical about: First off, it’s a little too bright – anything that bright is going to draw unnecessary attention to itself. Second, what if someone actually turns to you, cigarette dangling in mouth, and motions to your lighter (that you of course, have out for the clicking). Er, sorry mate, it doesn’t work…just carrying it around cos it looks pretty?

If you can talk your way out of that one, then go for it.

Pics courtesy of www.gadget.brando.com.hk

Spy plane to patrol Canadian border

Agent Zero — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:29:48 +0000

The U.S. is going to start monitoring the U.S.-Canadian border with an unmanned plane, just like the drones they’ve been employing to keep a watchful eye on the U.S.-Mexican border for the last 5 years.

The Predator B surveillance craft hovers up to 50,000-feet in the air for up to 18 hours at a time. It captures video and infrared data for anything within a 25-mile radius. That’s some pretty broad coverage – drug and cigarette smugglers beware!

The Predator will seek its prey along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway, an area that has traditionally seen high drug and cig traffic. The aircraft’s remote controllers will be based at the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum in New York.

The first unmanned surveillance aircraft used on the northern border was launched in February, from the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota.

pics courtesy of wired.com and darkgovernment.com

Israel develops spying snake

Agent Zero — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:12:29 +0000

Although robotic serpents are not a brand-new idea, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been developing a robot spy snake capable of recording both video and audio across a variety of battlefield terrains.

The robot is about 6.5 feet long and covered with camouflage (though if examined from close range, it’s not going to fool anyone). To make it, researchers studied the movements of live snakes, so as to make the mechanical version’s movements as realistic as possible. Controllable by laptop, the spying serpent uses its flexible joints to slither around and squeeze through caves, tunnels, pipes, crevices and buildings, all the while sending images back to the base. It can also hoist itself up, snake-charmer style, to view over obstructions to its line of vision.

When it officially joins the ranks of the IDF’s techie gadgets, the robot should be able to help in rescuing people hidden within collapsed buildings. On the flip side, the extra functionality that’s still being worked on is the ability for the snake to carry and place explosives.

The development of the spy gadget was based on a project carried out by the Ben-Gurion University in Israel, which created not only a robotic snake, but also a robotic feline that can scale walls and a canine robot that responds to people’s movements.

What the IDF snake cannot do is glide through water, which is a feature of the 2005 Japanese serpent robot developed by the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Cuban spies shock unsuspecting neighbors

Agent Zero — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:02:07 +0000

On Thursday, June 4, a retired State Department analyst with top secret security clearance and his wife were arrested by FBI agents on charges of fraud, conspiracy and acting as agents of a foreign government.

Walter Kendall Myers (72) and Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers (71), accused of spying for Cuba, may just be the next big spy scandal to hit Washington, DC. When they’re not in custody, the Myerses live in a rather verdant part of Northwest Washington, and their neighbors – interviewed recently by ABC News – are shocked and dismayed.

Walter Myers’s pedigree is impressive; the great grandson of Alexander Graham Bell and grandson of Gilbert Grosvenor (a long-time editor-in-chief of National Geographic), Walter completed undergrad at Brown and a masters and PhD at Johns Hopkins, where he taught while working for the government. It is believed that the couple, despite Walter’s impressive American pedigree, has been spying for Cuba for thirty years, using such methods as a Sony shortwave radio (seized from their abode), encrypted emails, water-soluble paper and the exchange of grocery carts at the supermarket to transmit information.

According to the FBI affidavit, Walter Myers met with an undercover agent on April 15 and allegedly reported on his upcoming trip to Cuba, saying “our idea is to sail home.” Home to Cuba?

Ana Belen Montes – once an analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency – was arrested in 2001 and sentenced to 25 years in prison for being a Cuban spy. Court documents indicate that the Myerses helped Cuban intelligence to confirm the intel they received from Montes. The Complaint alleges that the Myerses were aware of this duplication and verification process, and Gwendolyn is quoted to have called it “terrific.”

Apparently the couple met with Fidel Castro in January 1995 – a clandestine meeting the notion of which Castro has declared “ridiculous.” The two also, it seems, met with Cuban agents in other countries. They pleaded not guilty to the charges at the arraignment, and are due in federal court tomorrow, where a judge will determine whether they should be released or held in custody until the trial.

image courtesy of www.dawn.com

Night vision without the carrots

Agent Zero — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:51:42 +0000

Apparently eating lots of carrots helps you see better in the dark, but if you’re looking for a more immediate option, you’ll want to check out these Eyeclops night vision goggles from Washington, DC’s International Spy Museum store. Be sure to check out the user reviews!

Just like the night vision specs used by the military and special operations, this gadget uses infrared LEDs to shine a wide beam of light as far as 50 feet in front of you. The light, of course, is not detectable to human eyes, but it allows for a monochrome image of what’s lurking in the shadows to show on the single-eye viewfinder.

The gadget’s not exactly small – 7″ x 10″ x 12″ – and does require 5 AA batteries to function for about 3 hours. Batteries aren’t included in the $90 price tag, but we recommend investing in the rechargeable kind, otherwise your after-dark sleuthing could end up costing you a pretty penny. The head band is fully adjustable, so no worries about your goggles falling off or cutting off blood circulation. Phew.

image courtesy of spymuseumstore.org