You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. As most of you in security now have access to the internet and e-mail, this will be the last mass mailing of The Hot Micx. Your cooperation and assistance would be appreciated in an effort to cut back on the time and cost involved in putting it out. Hard copies will still be available on a limited basis for those not having access to the internet by sending me a letter stating you require a hard copy of The Hot Micx. If you are on the internet, why not visit TSCI's site at http://www.amug.org/~dbugman/ and request (at the triangle) that you be added to the list (an e-mail to dbugman@amug.org will accomplish the same thing). I'll place you on a list to be notified when something new has been posted. As it stands now, new posts are made approximately once or twice a month, plus The Hot Micx as it is completed. I've also had extremely favorable comments with something else we've been doing lately. I'll introduced a subject (generally related to electronic surveillance or countermeasures and solicited comments from both technicians and security people. These comments are posted for further discussion. So far, we've had discussions pertaining to cellular phones (and related crashes of computer/telephone systems), carrier current systems, and a sweep done in a house subjected to a break in (and the subsequent investigation/ findings/recommendations). All in all, it has been interesting. As there are a few who are not interested in the technical dialog, I will be developing a list just for notification of the new postings. Let me know which you want to be on. Also, you can be added, moved or removed from any list at any time with not problem simply by sending an e-mail request. And two final items: please note that I am no longer accessible through AOL. I was using that account only for e-mail messages (which I could not access for approximately 2 weeks) so I canceled it, and I post notices from organizations seeking persons with specific skills related to security. I'm aware of at least 4 positions being filled as a result of postings in 1996. One man's word is no man's word; we should quietly hear both sides. The most recent item of interest was the interception of Mr. Newt Gingrich's cellular phone conversation in Florida. It sure would be interesting to be the investigator on that one. I wonder if anyone looked at the time and location of the conversation, how heavy was traffic, how much of the conversation was recorded, where was the scanner located, where was the cell phone and/or the relay station, etc. Wouldn't that make for interesting reading. Things may be entirely as they were stated, but what are the chances of intercepting that particular conversation and having a recorder on to record it at that exact moment? How long did they listen before they heard enough to let them know the conversation was worth recording? I wonder if these particular people record ALL scanned conversation or is they are selective in their choices? If any of you hears anything else pertaining to this, please let me know; I have a feeling everyone else out there would be interested as well. The average man's judgment is so poor, he runs a risk every time he uses it. I just went back over a few back issues of the Hot Micx looking for information I thought I had posted. I didn't see it so I'll post it now. While performing an examination of an executive office in Nevada, I detected a signal in the 900 MHz range of frequencies. What I finally found was a hands free wireless telephone communications system. As installed, it was on all the time and room audio was being transmitted. As a follow up, a few months ago, during my travels I stopped by a law enforcement facility to do a records check. I noted that personnel in this facility are now using these same type communications devices. I determined what the frequency of one of them was, took my handy dandy Tandy scanner and tuned it to that approximate frequency and did a scan. Guess what I found. The fact I was able to hear it for several hundred feet through several walls would go a long way toward converting the non believer. (Continuing the scan, both up and down, I found a rats nest of signals from that facility). Technology's great, but at what expense. One can endure sorrow alone, but it takes two to be glad. Dateline BOSTON (AP) September 17, 1996-- A county sheriff pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal influence-peddling charges in an agreement under which the government dropped other corruption charges. The government agreed to drop charges of misusing public facilities, illegally eavesdropping on his employees, and obstructing the course of a grand jury investigation. The sheriff and three aides were indicted in January, 1996. A fourth former aide cooperated with the government, telling prosecutors he picked up envelopes containing the gratuities. Under federal guidelines, the sheriff faces 12 to 18 months in federal prison, $3,000 to $30,000 in fines and a year's probation. Many a good newspaper story has been ruined by oververification. Dateline SAN FRANCISCO (AP) September 12, 1996 -- The CIA and other spy agencies have systematically tapped the phones of overseas Drug Enforcement Administration offices, according to a class action lawsuit agents filed Thursday in Washington. The lawsuit, which also names the National Security Agency and the State Department, seeks a court order barring those agencies from any further wiretapping. ``These agencies have a pattern and practice of eavesdropping on DEA agents' and employees' conversations while they are serving the government overseas,'' said the attorney . But legal experts say it could be a difficult lawsuit to win, especially since an employer -- in this case the government -- generally has a right to listen to employee conversation on office phones. It also doesn't help that national security was involved and that courts have held that U.S. citizens don't have constitutional rights overseas. I guess things have changed over the years; when I was with AFOSI it required either a court order or US Attorney General authorization to do a wiretap (here or abroad). It was also (to the best of my knowledge) determined that although the government was paying for the phone, lines and associated equipment, this did not give it blanket authority to do a wiretap. The user was still protected. Someone please correct my thinking if I'm wrong. Jests that give pains are no jests. Dateline WASHINGTON (Reuter)Thu, Aug 15, 1996 - The Central Intelligence Agency has claimed for the first time in a public report that the governments of France and Israel are extensively involved in economic espionage against the United States, two of at least a half dozen identified and includes China, Russia, Iran and Cuba. Japan and a number of other countries engage in economic collection, but we believe their efforts are mostly legal and involve seeking openly available material or hiring well-placed consultants,'' it said. Spokesmen for the French and Israeli embassies denied their governments were involved in economic spying against the United States. A March report on trends in intellectual property loss, coauthored by Richard Heffernan for the American Society for Industrial Security, said he was mildly surprised by the CIA decision not to list Japan among the alleged worst offenders. He said Japanese nationals ranked fifth overall in the ASIS survey of incidents of theft of intellectual property or proprietary secrets, after suspects believed to be of Chinese, Canadian, French and Indian nationality. Lots of people know a good thing the minute the other fellow sees it first. BOGOTA, Colombia, (Reuter) June 1996- The head of Colombia's state security police, who announced his ``irrevocable'' resignation this week amid a spy scandal involving the United States, said Thursday that he had changed his mind and would stay on. Marco Tulio Gutierrez, head of the Administrative Security Department (DAS),tendered his resignation amid allegations, which he denied, that the DAS had tapped U.S. embassy telephone lines and was spying on U.S. diplomats in Colombia. The allegations were echoed this week by the United States assistant secretary of state for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, who likened the atmosphere in Bogota to ``Moscow in the 60s.'' A Leftist senator played a series of taped telephone conversations on national television last year in which he said the Bogota station chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration could be heard talking to DEA officials in Washington. The authenticity of the tapes, in which the DEA officials spoke derisively of Colombians and of the political crisis facing President Ernesto Samper, was later confirmed by U.S. diplomats. The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. RISE of the TEMPEST by Sarah Ellerman Internet UnderGround Magazine June 1996 Edition The unmarked government van slows and stops. The agent inside puts down his coffee and starts in on the day's work: monitoring John Doe's computer, 10 blocks away. John is busy working on his Mac with the curtains pulled against the morning sunlight. The agent watches with great interest as John reads through the cryptography and privacy newsgroups, then downloads some fiction from alt.sex.stories. Everything that flashes by on John's monitor is videotaped for later review: the balance and payees of John's checking account, some decrypted e-mail that John assumed was private and an illegal copy of Adobe Photoshop. In everyday life, we usually manage to keep our transgressions secret, but when it comes to information flitting across our computer screens, there are no secrets, thanks to TEMPEST, (Transient Electromagnetic Pulse Emanation Surveillance Technology) a relatively new, obscure form of surveillance that's a threat to your privacy and your civil rights (actually TEMPEST has been around for about as long as I've been in TSCM -1972 to present). What it does is allow a simple scanning device to read the output from your monitor from up to one kilometer away (Van Eck principle, if memory serves me right). No one ever need enter your house to plant a bug or copy your floppies; it's non invasive and virtually undetectable. The above article is about 4 pages long and very interesting reading, even for the non technical types. I'll be glad to e-mail a copy to anyone who requests it. Until the next issue or the next visit on the internet, take care. Tim Johnson |