Archive for the ‘Security’ Category

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Police: ‘Blond Bandit’ May Have Struck Again

By Dawn in Burlary, Crime, Investigations, MSI Detective Services, Police Records, Private Investigator, robbery, Safety, Security, Violence at November 29th, 2011 | No comments

A so-called “blond bandit” suspected of multiple heists in Virginia has been linked to another crime, this one a carjacking on Thanksgiving Day in Maryland.

Stephanie Lynn Schwab, 26, described as a 5’3” white female with blond hair and green eyes, earned her nickname after being named in connection with an earlier carjacking and two bank robberies, all of which took place between Nov. 18 and Nov. 21, according to Virginia’s Inside.Nova.com.

In Thursday’s incident, Baltimore County police say Schwab asked a woman for a ride from the parking lot of a Safeway supermarket to a Shoppers Food Warehouse. But when the victim stopped her car, Schwab allegedly displayed a knife and told her to keep driving.

The victim asked a nearby man for help, at which point the suspect attempted to climb into the driver’s seat. The victim tried to grab the knife from Schwab and was cut on the hand, officials said. Schwab then fled on foot, police said.

Schwab is also wanted in an armed carjacking on Nov. 19 of a silver 2003 Acura.

In that incident, a 59-year-old woman had offered the suspect a ride from the parking lot of Neiman Marcus at the Tysons Corner shopping center in Virginia. They left together in the Acura, but at a nearby intersection, the suspect showed a knife and told the victim to get out of the car. That victim was left at the intersection. The Acura was found on Friday. Detectives connected Schwab to the crime and have obtained a warrant for her arrest.

Schwab also has been linked to a Nov. 18 bank robbery in Prince William County, Va. She may have been involved in another bank robbery Nov. 22, at a BB&T in Springfield, Va.

She was last seen Thursday, running eastbound on Route 40 towards Baltimore City. She has no known connection to that area, and may be staying in a motel, waiting for a chance to commandeer a getaway car reported WBALTV.com. Police are asking drivers to use caution, as the suspect may approach vehicles asking for a ride.

Former gang member
Schwab, of Manassas, Va., is a former member of the MS-13 gang, according to court records. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that she joined the group after running away from home at the age of 12. She reportedly had a fellow gang member’s child three years later, and is now a mother of two. In 2005, Schwab testified against MS-13 members in a murder trial.

Police don’t know what prompted the recent robbery spree. This woman has initiated several investigations.

Anyone with information is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-307-2020 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 866-7-LOCKUP (866-756-2587). To text a tip to Metro Crime Stoppers, send to “CRIMES” (274637), then enter the message starting with “MCS,” or e-mail a tip to www.metrocrimestoppers.org.

Those contacting Metro Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and might be eligible for a cash reward of up to $2,000.

Read story@ msnbc

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Police Tracking Your Every Move With License Plate Readers

By Dawn in gps tracker, invasion of privacy, Investigations, MSI Detective Services, Police Records, Privacy, Security at November 28th, 2011 | No comments

Privacy vs. personal freedom. The blurring of online and offline privacy. Concerns that we are becoming a  “surveillance society.” How much of your personal freedoms are you willing to sacrifice to give the police and government the tools they can use to catch criminals? It is a very tough question because it seems the answer depends on whether the use of those tools, such as surveillance cameras or online tracking, are properly used or whether they get abused. For me, the line is crossed when companies or social sites capture my personal information and store it in databases. However, if I or a member of my family were a victim of a crime and it was caught on a surveillance camera, I would be glad if it led to the investigation and capture of the criminal.

The Washington Post is reporting that police in D.C. are beefing up their areas covered by license plate cameras. More than 250 cameras in D.C. and its suburbs are constantly hard at work, grabbing license plate numbers and sticking them into databases. The police aren’t exactly doing this quietly, but it’s being done with “virtually no public debate.”

The highest concentration of these plate readers in the entire nation exists in D.C. (one reader per square mile), so that means that District police are building the biggest location database based on license plates in the whole country.

First, these are apparently different types of cameras than the cameras cities have been affixing near stoplights and other places to catch people running red lights or speeding – the “here’s a ticket 2 weeks later in the mail” cameras.

These plate readers cost about $20,000 each and can snatch images of numbers and letters on cars traveling nearly 150 mph and across four lanes of traffic. These plate readers in D.C. take 1,800 images per minute, every one of which is stored in a database. Read the full article »

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Global Market Soars for Electronic Communicat​ions Surveillan​ce Products

By Dawn in Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, eavesdropping, Hacking, invasion of privacy, MSI Detective Services, Privacy, Security, Technology at November 22nd, 2011 | No comments

This story is reminiscent of arms trading where governments and companies sell their weapons to other countries in the name of “good intentions” but then turn a blind eye to the misuse of their sales. Now new weapons are being marketed and sold around the world. These weapons are hacking tools that enable governments to break into people’s computers and cellphones and “massive intercept” gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country. These hacking tools are ”falling” into the wrong hands or being misused (to spy on citizens).

Companies making and selling this gear say it is intended to catch criminals and is available only to governments and law enforcement. They say they obey export laws and aren’t responsible for how the tools are used. There goes that blind eye.

Documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal open a rare window into a new global market for the off-the-shelf surveillance technology. More than 200 marketing documents, spanning 36 companies were obtained from those who attended a secretive surveillance conference held near Washington, D.C., last month. TeleStrategies holds ISS (Intelligence Support Systems) World conferences world-wide. The one near Washington, D.C., caters mainly to U.S., Canadian, Caribbean and Latin American authorities. The annual conference in Dubai has long served as a chance for Middle Eastern nations to meet companies hawking surveillance gear.

The Journal uncovered an Internet surveillance center installed by a French firm in Libya and reported that software made by Britain’s Gamma International UK Ltd., had been used in Egypt to intercept dissidents’ Skype conversations. In October, a U.S. company that makes Internet-filtering gear acknowledged to the Journal that its devices were being used in Syria. Read the full article »

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Chinese Counterfeit Parts Found in U.S. Weapons

By Dawn in Investigations, MSI Detective Services, Politics, scam, Security, Technology at November 15th, 2011 | No comments

We are all familiar with the influx of knockoff designer goods being sent to the U.S. and the crackdown on the criminal rings who are smuggling these goods into the U.S. Although this problem hurts our economy and supports slave labor, it is not as frightening as the recent discovery that counterfeit parts are being used in our weapons.

A months-long congressional probe found at least 1,800 cases of counterfeit electronics in U.S. weapons, with the total number of suspect parts exceeding 1 million.

The results of the investigation, conducted by the Senate Armed Services Committee, were recently presented at a hearing where senators grilled defense contractors about lapses in monitoring their parts supply chain.

In more than 70 percent of the cases in which investigators traced parts back to their source, the trail led to China. And nearly 20 percent of the remainder were traced to Britain and Canada — resale points for counterfeit Chinese parts, Senate staffers said. Read the full article »

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