Entries Tagged "espionage"

Page 17 of 19

Spying in Football

The New England Patriots, one of the two or three best teams in the last five years, have been accused of stealing signals from the other team.

The “Game Operations Manual” states that “no video recording devices of any kind are permitted to be in use in the coaches’ booth, on the field, or in the locker room during the game.” The manual states that “all video shooting locations must be enclosed on all sides with a roof overhead.” NFL security officials confiscated a camera and videotape from a New England video assistant on the Patriots’ sideline when it was suspected he was recording the Jets’ defensive signals. Taping any signals is prohibited. The toughest part usually is finding evidence to support an allegation.

I remember when the NFL changed the rules to allow a radio link from the quarterback’s helmet to the sidelines. A smart team could not only eavesdrop on the other team, but selectively jam the signal when it would be most critical. The rules said that if one team’s radio link didn’t work, the other team had to turn its off, but that’s a minor consideration if you know it’s coming.

Funny parody.

EDITED TO ADD (9/15): The team and coach both have been fined.

And this is a really good conversation on the topic.

EDITED TO ADD (9/18): Ed Felten comments.

Posted on September 13, 2007 at 7:10 AM • View Comments

Pentagon Hacked by Chinese Military

The story seems to have started yesterday in the Financial Times, and is now spreading.

Not enough details to know what’s really going on, though. From the FT:

The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network in June in the most successful cyber attack on the US defence department, say American officials.

The Pentagon acknowledged shutting down part of a computer system serving the office of Robert Gates, defence secretary, but declined to say who it believed was behind the attack.

Current and former officials have told the Financial Times an internal investigation has revealed that the incursion came from the People’s Liberation Army.

One senior US official said the Pentagon had pinpointed the exact origins of the attack. Another person familiar with the event said there was a “very high level of confidence…trending towards total certainty” that the PLA was responsible. The defence ministry in Beijing declined to comment on Monday.

EDITED TO ADD (9/13): Another good commentary.

Posted on September 4, 2007 at 10:44 AM • View Comments

Rudyard Kipling As a Security Author

A review of Kim:

Kipling packed a great deal of information and concept into his stories, and in “Kim” we find The Great Game: espionage and spying. Within the first twenty pages we have authentication by something you have, denial of service, impersonation, stealth, masquerade, role- based authorization (with ad hoc authentication by something you know), eavesdropping, and trust based on data integrity. Later on we get contingency planning against theft and cryptography with key changes.

The book is out of copyright, so you can read it online.

Posted on December 29, 2006 at 2:11 PM • View Comments

More on the HP Board Spying Scandal

Two weeks ago I wrote about a spying scandal involving the HP board. There’s more:

A secret investigation of news leaks at Hewlett-Packard was more elaborate than previously reported, and almost from the start involved the illicit gathering of private phone records and direct surveillance of board members and journalists, according to people briefed on the company’s review of the operation.

Given this, I predict a real investigation into the incident:

Those briefed on the company’s review of the operation say detectives tried to plant software on at least one journalist’s computer that would enable messages to be traced, and also followed directors and possibly a journalist in an attempt to identify a leaker on the board.

I’m amazed there isn’t more outcry. Pretexting, planting Trojans…this is the sort of thing that would get a “hacker” immediately arrested. But if the chairman of the HP board does it, suddenly it’s a gray area.

EDITED TO ADD (9/20): More info.

Posted on September 18, 2006 at 2:48 PM • View Comments

Digital Snooping for the Masses

Interesting article from The New York Times:

Flip open your husband’s cellphone and scroll down the log of calls received. Glance over your teenager’s shoulder at his screenful of instant messages. Type in a girlfriend’s password and rifle through her e-mail.

There was a time when unearthing someone’s private thoughts and deeds required sliding a hand beneath a mattress, fishing out a diary and hurriedly skimming its pages. The process was tactile, deliberate and fraught with anxiety: Will I be caught? Is this ethical? What will it do to my relationship with my child or partner?

But digital technology has made uncovering secrets such a painless, antiseptic process that the boundary delineating what is permissible in a relationship appears to be shifting.

In interviews and on blogs across the Web, people report that they snoop and spy on others “friends, family, colleagues” unencumbered by anxiety or guilt.

Posted on September 8, 2006 at 12:39 PM • View Comments

Spying on the HP Board

Fascinating story.

Basically, the chairman of Hewlett-Packard, annoyed at leaks, hired investigators to track down the phone records (including home and cell) of the other HP board members. One board member resigned because of this. The leaker has refused to resign, although he has been outed.

Note that the article says that the investigators used “pretexting,” which is illegal.

The entire episode—beyond its impact on the boardroom of a $100 billion company, Dunn’s ability to continue as chairwoman and the possibility of civil lawsuits claiming privacy invasions and fraudulent misrepresentations—raises questions about corporate surveillance in a digital age. Audio and visual surveillance capabilities keep advancing, both in their ability to collect and analyze data. The Web helps distribute that data efficiently and effortlessly. But what happens when these advances outstrip the
ability of companies (and, for that matter, governments) to reach consensus on ethical limits? How far will companies go to obtain information they seek for competitive gain or better management?

The HP case specifically also sheds another spotlight on the questionable tactics used by security consultants to obtain personal information. HP acknowledged in an internal e-mail sent from its outside counsel to Perkins that it got the paper trail it needed to link the director-leaker to CNET through a controversial practice called “pretexting”; NEWSWEEK obtained a copy of that e-mail. That practice, according to the Federal Trade Commission, involves using “false pretenses” to get another individual’s personal nonpublic information: telephone records, bank and credit-card account numbers, Social Security number and the like.

EDITED TO ADD (9/8): Good commentary.

EDITED TO ADD (9/12): HP Chairman Patricia Dunn was fired.

Posted on September 7, 2006 at 1:47 PM • View Comments

1 … 15 16 17 18 19

Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.