Posts Tagged ‘Security’

Man Gets 26-Year Jail Term for 17 Years of Stalking

By Dawn in harassment, Home Security, Investigations, MSI Detective Services, Private Investigator, Safety, Security, stalking, Stalking Cases at February 1st, 2012 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

This story sounds like a bad Lifetime movie – a suspense/drama thriller that goes beyond the norm of what “normal” people will do. I can’t imagine how this poor woman has lived out such a real nightmare for so many years.

A Seattle-area man was given a 26 1/2-year prison term for waging a 17-year campaign of harassment against a former classmate he met in middle school. Prosecutors are calling this the longest sentence for stalking in memory.

Shawn Moul, 31, passively accepted the sentence last week which came about six months after being convicted on two felony counts of stalking and 19 counts of violating anti-harassment orders.

Moul began stalking classmate Tracy Lundeen in 1994, shortly after Lundeen saw him at the school library struggling with his homework and offered to help him. Lundeen said Moul began following her and wrote her more than 100 letters, alternately threatening her and vowing to kill himself. He also contacted Lundeen’s family members, demanding that she contact him.

Moul has already served prison time for repeatedly violating a no-contact order, having been sentenced to eight years in prison in 2001. Apparently, eight years wasn’t enough to teach him a lesson because after his release, he again initiated contact through Lundeen’s sister. Read the full article »

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Alleged Abuser Claimed ‘Ghost’ Attacked His Wife

By Dawn in Crime, Investigations, MSI Detective Services, Violence at January 23rd, 2012 | No comments

 

 

 

 

A Wisconsin man charged with domestic abuse told police that a “ghost” had attacked his wife and was responsible for her injuries.

The weird story by Michael West, 41, did not provide much of a defense as police arrested him for strangulation, battery, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.

After responding to a report of a domestic dispute on Jan. 15, at the West residence in Fond du Lac, Wis., police found West’s wife crying and bleeding from the nose. Drops of blood stained areas of the kitchen and her Packers’ jersey.

The woman told police her husband repeatedly punched her in the face and attempted to strangle her “to the point that [her] vision went black and [she] felt like she was going to pass out,” the report said. In a criminal complaint, the victim says that when she tried to dial 911, her husband punched her in the face.

Police said West appeared intoxicated and was yelling and swearing at the two officers questioning him. The man claimed his wife had fallen several times, causing her to sustain injuries to her face and neck.

When pressed by a cop–who pointed to marks on the woman’s neck–the intoxicated West replied with slurred speech and shifted his story. “A ghost did it,” he said.

After a struggle, he was handcuffed and transported to the county lockup, where he remains in custody in lieu of $1000 bail.

His wife told police the fight was started over the impending foreclosure on their home.

Sources: MSNBC and The Smoking Gun

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Scientists Create World’s Tiniest Ear

By Dawn in Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, eavesdropping, invasion of privacy, Technology at January 17th, 2012 | No comments

 

 

 

 

Have you ever wondered what a virus sounds like? Or what noise a bacterium makes when it moves between hosts? If the answer is yes, you may soon get your chance to find out, thanks to the development of the world’s tiniest ear. The “nano-ear,” a microscopic particle of gold trapped by a laser beam, can detect sound a million times fainter than the threshold for human hearing.

Looking at this from a completely scientific perspective, this is exciting news. But with the advent of new technology, sometimes there are downsides – like when the technology gets into the wrong hands.

It’s still at the experimental stage, but this could lead to far more sensitive surveillance microphones in the future. The required laser beam could be carried by a difficult-to-detect optical fiber strand to the sensor.  Combined with DSP and advanced acoustic signal processing algorithms, this could represent a major security threat.

We already know that listening and viewing devices can be planted in homes and offices or people can carry audio listening devices on their clothing, etc. However, all of this requires a bit of work or being within a reasonable range of proximity to your target. Even then, the listening/recording quality may not be perfect. Can you imagine what a scary world this would be if people’s ears could be devised to be listening devices – not to mention with superb hearing capability? This sounds like some espionage Sci-Fi movie to me. Read the full article »

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The Security of Obama’s Blackberry – Much Ado About Nothing?

By Dawn in Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, eavesdropping, gps, gps tracker, Hacking, MSI Detective Services, Politics, Technology at January 11th, 2012 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

Much has been written about the security concerns of the President of the United States using a Blackberry – in particular about President Obama as he is more tech-savvy than previous Presidents.

I don’t claim to be an expert on how hackers do their thing, but I find it disturbing when journalists/media print or talk of the ways in which security can be breached. Why would we want to give the crazies of the world any tips on how to breach our national security? Exposing techniques for hacking or eavesdropping  on the President of the United States is quite irresponsible - whether you know what you are talking about or not. Even if there is a justified vulnerability concern, don’t publicize it!

Two such articles do just that (links provided at the end of this story). My head was spinning after reading about the various technologies, the proposed vulnerabilities written by non-security experts, and the comments written by readers explaining why/how it would be virtually impossible to hack into the President’s Blackberry.

Both stories seem more focused on concerns that carrying around a Blackberry places the President at risk because his location could be determined either via GPS tracking of his device or by hackers being able to hone in on which device belongs to the President by discovering the serial number (IMEI) of his device. Read the full article »

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