FBI Bugging Embassies in 1940
Old—but recently released—document discussing the bugging of the Russian embassy in 1940. The document also mentions bugging the embassies of France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Entries Tagged "France"
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Stealing Money from a Safe with a Vacuum
The burglars broke into their latest store near Paris and drilled a hole in the “pneumatic tube” that siphons money from the checkout to the strong-room.
They then sucked rolls of cash totalling £60,000 from the safe without even having to break its lock.
I like attacks that bypass the defender’s threat model.
More on the French Bank Hack
A year ago, I blogged about a bank hack at the center of a French national scandal.
Well, the case has taken an interesting turn. Law enforcement experts managed to retrieve incriminating evidence from the hard disk of senior intelligence General Rondot after about a year of work.
Wouldn’t we all like to know the technical details of both the data shredding and forensic technologies?
The French Government Bans BlackBerries
The French government wants to ban BlackBerry e-mail devices, because of worries of eavesdropping by U.S. intelligence.
Paris Bank Hack at Center of National Scandal
From Wired News:
Among the falsified evidence produced by the conspirators before the fraud unraveled were confidential bank records originating with the Clearstream bank in Luxembourg, which were expertly modified to make it appear that some French politicians had secretly established offshore bank accounts to receive bribes. The falsified records were then sent to investigators, with enough authentic account information left in to make them appear credible.
How the French Spy on Their Citizens
Interesting article on how the French utilize domestic spying as a counterterrorism tool:
In the French system, an investigating judge is the equivalent of an empowered U.S. prosecutor. The judge is in charge of a secret probe, through which he or she can file charges, order wiretaps, and issue warrants and subpoenas. The conclusions of the judge are then transmitted to the prosecutor’s office, which decides whether to send the case to trial. The antiterrorist magistrates have even broader powers than their peers. For instance, they can request the assistance of the police and intelligence services, order the preventive detention of suspects for six days without charge, and justify keeping someone behind bars for several years pending an investigation. In addition, they have an international mandate when a French national is involved in a terrorist act, be it as a perpetrator or as a victim. As a result, France today has a pool of specialized judges and investigators adept at dismantling and prosecuting terrorist networks.
France Makes Finding Security Bugs Illegal
From CNet:
Researchers who reverse-engineer software to discover programming flaws can no longer legally publish their findings in France, after a court fined a security expert on Tuesday.
Edited to add:
Seems like the case did not center around the publication of the bug, but the use of pirated software.
How Not to Test Airport Security
If this were fiction, no one would believe it. From MSNBC:
Four days after police at Charles de Gaulle Airport slipped some plastic explosives into a random passenger’s bag as part of an exercise for sniffer dogs, it is still missing—and authorities are stumped and embarrassed.
It’s perfectly reasonable to plant an explosive-filled suitcase in an airport in order to test security. It is not okay to plant it in someone’s bag without his knowledge and permission. (The explosive residue could remain on the suitcase long after the test, and might be picked up by one of those trace mass spectrometers that detects the chemical residue associated with bombs.) But if you are going to plant plastic explosives in the suitcase of some innocent passenger, shouldn’t you at least write down which suitcase it was?
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.