Bugging Equipment

A search of several Mexican lawmakers’ offices turned up recording equipment, leading legislators to believe they have been spied on for years, a congressman said Wednesday.

Congressman Armando Rios said security personnel found microphones and other devices that seemed to have been installed years ago.

“Some of the equipment has newer technology, but other devices are from a long time ago, which leads us to believe they were installed years ago,” said Rios, a member of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD.

Offices of key committees and of several lawmakers from different political parties were bugged.

Congress president Guadalupe Acosta, also of the PRD, has filed a complaint with federal prosecutors, who have opened an investigation.

Acosta wouldn’t identify the lawmakers who were being spied on or who he thinks was behind the espionage. Rios blamed the government of President Felipe Calderon, who belongs to the conservative National Action Party, or PAN. Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire denied Rios’ accusations and said the government has done nothing illegal.

Mexico’s main intelligence agency allegedly spied on the government’s political opponents during the 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

After PAN candidate Vicente Fox won the 2000 presidential election, he announced that the agency, the Center for National Security and Investigation, would no longer spy on political opponents. However, in 2008, under Calderon, the agency hired a private company to monitor the activities of legislators.

Legislators complained they were being spied on but the government said it was simply collecting public information.

Several secretly recorded telephone conversations of government officials or politicians have been made public in Mexico in the last few years.

In 2006, the former governor of Puebla state, Mario Marin, was implicated in a revenge plot against a journalist after Mexican news media released a recorded telephone conversation. In it, he allegedly speaks with a businessman about punishing Lydia Cacho, who had written a book that accuses one of their acquaintances of being a child molester.

In 2010, a radio station broadcast a telephone conversation between then federal lawmaker Cesar Godoy and alleged drug trafficker Servando Gomez, known as “La Tuta.” In it, Godoy and Gomez express support for each other and discuss bribing a reporter.

Shortly after the recording was released, Godoy, who is now a fugitive, was charged with aiding drug trafficking and money laundering.

Sources: blogspot.com, philstar.com

Portrait of the Rahmfather

Who sent me The Rahmfather? I want to know. Please.

This is the question of Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass. If you know the answer, let him or us know.

The mysterious portrait was in his office when he showed up for work one recent morning – a large framed movie-style poster of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel as some Jewish Al Pacino - and the words, “JOHN FRANCIS KASS’S The Rahmfather.” (sic). Then follows the phrase “All the power on Earth can’t change Chicago.”

It is a strikingly handsome Rahmfather, thoughtful, pensive, his chin propped on his left hand, a hawk at rest. The Rahmfather is in a dark suit, conservative tie, his Chicago flag lapel pin right where it belongs, and that steel-gray hair slightly spiky, just like Pacino’s in “The Godfather: Part III.”

Oh yeah, and the eyes. The eyes follow you wherever you go.

John said that over the years his readers have sent him some amazing treasures but nothing is as cool as The Rahmfather.

“Oh, my God,” said an aide of Rahm’s when he sent a photo. “He’s really going to want this.”

“Yeah, I know he’s going to want it. He’s going to want it bad. But tell him he can’t have it. He can send his buddy Jimmy DeLeo over with a box of cannoli and I’d say no. Rahm could put my head in a vise and still I wouldn’t give it to him.”

“This is really good work,” said Scott Stantis, the Tribune’s editorial cartoonist and John’s friend. Scott did a little “Antiques Roadshow” for John. “This was done by a pro,” said Stantis.

But who? All John knew was that a few weeks ago, it was dropped off by a nondescript person at the Tribune Tower.

Even stranger is the painting was addressed to: “JKFC John Kass Fan Club, 211 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 4250.”

But there is no fan club at this address. There is also no Suite 4250 in that building. There are only 41 floors in the building.

“Maybe it was a joke?” asked another. The Rahmfather may be many things, but he’s not a jester. An editor reminded John of what a wise columnist often says: In Chicago, when it comes to City Hall or the Outfit, there are no such things as coincidences.

John asked the editor, “Should I sweep it for bugs? Could this be a Trojan Rahm? The editor replied, “It’s up to you, but I would.”

That’s all Kass had to hear. Having the Rahmfather hanging on the wall behind him, peering over his shoulder as he is talking on the phone, he couldn’t take the chance.

So he drove the painting over to the U-Spy Store, 2406 W. Fullerton, to have it examined by counterintelligence experts.

Kass writes: Waiting for him were Emil Pressman, the experienced operations boss, white-haired, pale, thin, hard eyes, every inch the seasoned pro, and Theresa Cheriachangel, a young investigator brandishing a radio frequency wand.

Emil’s eyes widened when he saw the Rahmfather, but quickly he got down to work, running his fingers over the frame, looking for faults, cracks, someplace to hide a recording device. Theresa ran her electronic wand over it, searching for radio signals. She ran other tests as well.

Theresa handles the countermeasure services for MSI Detective Services, which owns the U-Spy Store.

The following conversation then took place between John Kass and Emil:

“You care for this poster, no?” asked Emil, sounding like Sir Laurence Olivier playing an Eastern European spymaster. “You like it, yes? You will keep it in your office, yes?” Yes, Emil. Where are you from? “Chicago,” said Emil. No. Before. “Odessa,” said Emil. KGB? He laughed without sound.

“There are no recording devices in this,” he said. “But it is nice work.”

John Kass ended his article with:

Yes, it’s nice work. Excellent work. But who did it? Rahm? Someone else? Who?

One of you knows the answer. And when I learn who did it, you know what’ll happen. I’ll just have to make them an offer they can’t refuse.

I hope John Kass learns one day who sent him this mysterious painting. Until then, it will be hanging over him – literally and figuratively.

Read story@ chicagotribune

Although the picture in this story shows a book for “dummies,” it would take some extremely intelligent people to stay one step ahead of the constant attacks being made on corporations by cyber-criminals. This book wouldn’t really help you very much. You might need a Master’s degree in computer programming at minimum.

Malware designed to damage computer systems is now being secreted into portable documents, commonly known as PDD, by cyber-criminals whose efforts usually are thwarted by antivirus software. Everyone should have antivirus software on their computers – that is Computer Protection 101.

These PDF attacks are said to be aimed at corporate and government institutions and according to Defense analysts cited in online commentaries. The attacks are part of sophisticated schemes aimed at extracting information from systems otherwise thought to be firewalled and secure.

Several corporate sources confirmed defense organizations were targeted in the attacks. The attacks not only appear to be well-funded, but they could come from an unknown country or corporate entity. This, of course, makes it harder to track down these cyber-criminals.

This latest cyber-threat became news after warnings came from the computer software company Symantec, along with comments from defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin and software provider Adobe that acknowledged the risk.

Cyber-criminals trying to take advantage of the alleged weakness in Adobe’s PDF reading and editing software use a well-known family of malware called Sykipot, Symantec said.

The attackers aim the malicious code at so called zero-day vulnerabilities. These are vulnerabilities that haven’t yet been reported by security experts or software makers. The attackers also hit PDF as a common business application hoping that many users wouldn’t have kept up with the latest security patches. This is another good reason to keep your software current with updates. Many of us are guilty of putting off our updates because we are rushed, working on open programs, or it’s a bad time to reboot our computers.

On Dec. 1, Symantec reported a high volume of e-mail carrying Sykipot malware aimed at Acrobat Reader and Acrobat editing software. The attackers sent the messages mostly to high-ranking executives who could have sensitive or strategic information on their computer networks.

Just to give you an idea of how sophisticated these attacks are: Commands can be sent to targeted computers to gather system and network information and determine whether a computer system is even was worth hacking into. The attackers were also able to customize commands to exfiltrate the information.

Symantec said cyber-attackers were behind a March 2010 attack on a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Adobe was apparently alerted to the risk by Lockheed Martin and the Defense Security Information Exchange (DSIE), a group of major defense contractors that share information about computer attacks.

DSIE includes companies that are part of the so-called the “Defense Industrial  Base.” It includes some of the largest U.S. defense contractors including Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Pratt and Whitney and Raytheon, Computerworld said.

Symantec published an image of a redacted email of the attack’s bait — the promise of a 2012 guide to policies on new contract awards — that it said was a sample of the pitches that tried to dupe recipients into opening the attached PDF document.

The Sykipot malware encrypts the stolen data after it has been retrieved from the victimized firm - while it is still stored on the company’s network and as it’s being transmitted to a hacker-controlled server.

Symantec said the same group of hackers who launched the attacks against IE6 and IE7 in 2010 were also responsible for Reader-based attacks since November.

Read story@ upi

St. Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook, IL

Recent court case rulings in Illinois regarding the constitutionality of Illinois’ eavesdropping law have placed this topic at the agenda forefront of some Illinois legislators and the ACLU.

Illinois’ eavesdropping law is one of the strictest in the country. The law makes it illegal to audio-record police without their consent, even when they’re working in public. Illinois is one of a handful of states in which it is illegal to record audio of public conversations without the permission of everyone involved.

Breaking this law carries a harsh penalty. It is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. This law has come under increased scrutiny in the last few years in courts throughout the state.

State Representative Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook has filed a bill that would allow people to audio-record a police officer working in public without the officer’s consent. In an interview last Thursday, Rep. Nekritz said, “I believe that the existing statute is a significant intrusion into First Amendment rights, so with the prosecutions and the court cases that have been reported about, it just seemed that this is a problem in need of a swift solution.”

Last August, a Cook County jury acquitted a woman who had recorded two Chicago police internal affairs investigators she believed were trying to dissuade her from filing a sexual harassment complaint against a patrol officer.

In another Cook County case, Chicago artist Chris Drew is facing trial for allegedly making an illegal audio recording of Chicago police during a 2009 arrest for selling art on a downtown street without a permit.

In September, a Crawford County judge ruled the law unconstitutional and dismissed eavesdropping charges against a man accused of recording police and court officials without their consent.

The latter ruling prompted Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to file notice that she will appeal directly to the state Supreme Court. Lisa Madigan said she wants to delay arguments until after a ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago regarding a suit against the law filed by the ACLU in 2010.

In support of the current law are officials from the Fraternal Order of Police in Chicago. They have said the union backs the current law because it prevents people from making baseless accusations against officers by recording them and then releasing snippets that don’t reveal the full context of the incident.

Rep. Nekritz proposed legislation, HB 3944, would allow a person to record a phone conversation with a business if the business says it may record the call, but she said police officers working in public should not consider their actions private.

Clearly, both sides make valid points in defending their arguments. However, given recent court rulings and the fact that Illinois is only one of a few states with this law on the books, it appears it may be difficult to defend its continued existence. Then again, Lisa Madigan has tremendous political clout. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

Read story@ chicagotribune