Posts Tagged ‘eavesdropping detection tools’

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Piers Morgan Accused of Knowledge of Phone Hacking at Daily Mirror

By Dawn in Celebrity, Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, eavesdropping, Hacking, invasion of privacy, MSI Detective Services, Private Investigator, testimony, witness statement at December 21st, 2011 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

It appears that Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World paper is not the only publication being accused of phone hacking. Now, Piers Morgan, former Editor of the Daily Mirror, is in the hot seat for the same offense.

Phone hacking was widespread at the Daily Mirror newspaper when Piers Morgan was editor of the paper, a former employee testified Wednesday, stopping just short of saying Morgan definitely knew about it.

James Hipwell said that he “cannot prove” that Morgan knew about illegal eavesdropping, but that it was “very unlikely he did not know what was going on.”

Phone hacking “happened every day” at the Mirror’s show business desk in late 1999, Hipwell told the Leveson Inquiry, a wide-ranging government-backed investigation of British press ethics and practices.

The Leveson Inquiry was prompted by public and political outrage at the revelation that another tabloid, Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, hacked into the phone of a missing teenage girl who later turned out to have been murdered.

Morgan, who now hosts the CNN talk show “Piers Morgan Tonight,” testified the previous day that he did not believe phone hacking had taken place when he was editor of the tabloid.

Speaking by video link, Morgan tenaciously defended himself against accusations that he knew more about phone hacking than he has admitted in the past.

Piers was questioned about a story based on a voice message Paul McCartney left for his then-wife Mills, trying to make up after a quarrel and singing to her. Morgan refused to say who played the message for him or where, but admitted that he believed it was a voice mail. Read the full article »

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FBI Taps Cell Phone Mic as Eavesdropping Tool

By Dawn in Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, eavesdropping, Hacking, invasion of privacy, MSI Detective Services, Privacy, taps at October 17th, 2011 | No comments

The FBI has used a form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone’s microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. The technique is called a “roving bug,” and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.

The U.S. Commerce Department’s security office warned that “a cellular telephone can be turned into a microphone and transmitter for the purpose of listening to conversations in the vicinity of the phone.”

Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI or a hacker and activate the microphone–all without the owner knowing it happened.

Someone wrote in to ask us if a device known as a BlackBerry security plug  (also variously known as a “pin”, “nib”, or “dongle”) could provide protection against this threat. I haven’t been able to find the answer to this question. If you know, please feel free to comment.

I can tell you that our MSI Detective Services offers electronic countermeasure sweeps of cell phones and our U-Spy Store sells countersurveillance equipment. To find out more, visit either http://www.detectiveservices.com/services/debugging/ or view our countersurveillance products at http://www.uspystore.com/counter-surveillance.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Spy Games Come to New York for UN General Assembly

By Dawn in Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, eavesdropping, MSI Detective Services, Politics, taps at October 6th, 2011 | No comments

When Iran’s president accused the U.S. at the United Nations General Assembly last year of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, American diplomats were not caught flat-footed by the tirade.

Even before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad finished his incendiary rant, U.S. diplomats marched out of the cavernous U.N. hall in protest and were ready with a written statement condemning his comments.

It was as if the U.S. knew exactly what Ahmadinejad intended to say.

The walkout hinted at one of the well-known but seldom spoken truths about the United Nations: The international organization, which was founded in the name of peace and security, is also a hotbed of spying and clandestine operations, where someone might very well be listening to your conversations and monitoring your emails — or perhaps reading your speeches in advance.

The start of the General Assembly each year is the Super Bowl of the U.N. spy games.

Foreign leaders descend upon New York with entourages of aides and security officers. Many have not been dispatched to practice diplomacy. They are intelligence officers, and they’ve come instead to recruit agents in hotels and quiet cafes around the city. In their line of work, trickery and deception trump political niceties.

While the diplomats inside the United Nations are often making headlines, FBI agents are chasing spies around the city. Justice Department lawyers are asking judges to approve wiretaps. And the CIA is searching for foreigners who might be persuaded to commit treason.

It’s one of the most sophisticated intelligence-gathering operations in the U.S. and involves one of the FBI’s most extensive electronic surveillance programs, according to former U.S. intelligence officials speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Read more@ msnbc

 

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News Corp to be Sued in US for Hacking

By Dawn in Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, eavesdropping, Hacking, invasion of privacy, MSI Detective Services, Privacy at September 30th, 2011 | No comments

A group of British phone-hacking victims plan to ask U.S. courts to look into possible “corrupt practices” at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The move could broaden the scope of a scandal that has shaken the mogul’s international media empire.

British attorney Mark Lewis told The Associated Press that he had retained American lawyer Norman Siegel, who represents the families of many of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, to take on News Corp. in the United States. Thus far, Siegel has stated that no immediate action is planned and that he has only been asked “to explore whether there’s legal options that can be brought.”

Lewis revealed few details of his planned legal action, though he did say the case being pursued was not related to rumors that Sept. 11 victims were hacked by reporters at the News of the World tabloid, which was shut down by News Corp. in July.

The now-defunct tabloid is accused of systematically intercepting private voice mail of Britons in the public eye, including, most notoriously, a teenage murder victim whose family Lewis now represents. Britain has been inflamed by allegations that the News of the World hacked people’s phones in its quest for scoops.

The scandal has spurred outrage on the other side of the Atlantic as well, particularly after the Daily Mirror, a rival to Murdoch’s The Sun, alleged that Sept. 11 victims may have been among the News of the World’s targets.

No evidence to support the claim has yet been produced, and News Corp. has dismissed it as “anonymous speculation.”
Read more@ msnbc
 

 

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