From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Fri Mar 23, 2001 8:24am Subject: Psychiatrist A psychiatrist is doing rounds in his asylum with a couple of students. They look in on one patient and the psychiatrist says to his students, "Sometimes this fellow thinks he's a temptress in a Bizet opera, but today, as you can see from his goose stepping, he thinks he's the World War II head of the Nazi Luftwaffe. What condition do you think he's suffering from?" The first student replies, "Is he a paranoid schizophrenic with a multiple personality disorder?" The second student says, "No, I think he just doesn't know whether he's Carmen or Goering." -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= 2793 From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Fri Mar 23, 2001 8:25am Subject: Some Things to Ponder! Birthdays are good for you: the more you have the longer you live. How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on. I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them. If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy? If Wal-Mart is lowering prices every day, how come nothing in the store is free yet? You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person. Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once. Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened. We could learn a lot from crayons:some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors ...but they all have to learn to live in the same box. Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. Happiness comes through doors you didn't even know you left open -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= 2794 From: Robert G. Ferrell Date: Fri Mar 23, 2001 8:39am Subject: Re: Psychiatrist >The second student says, "No, I think he just doesn't know >whether he's Carmen or Goering." Ugh. Reminds me of something from James Thurber (I'm paraphrasing because I don't remember the exact Horace quote he used): If you prefer "I think, therefore I am" to "Tear thyself from delay," you are putting Descartes before Horace. ;-) Cheers, RGF Robert G. Ferrell, CISSP Information Systems Security Officer National Business Center U. S. Dept. of the Interior Robert_G_Ferrell@n... ======================================== Who goeth without humor goeth unarmed. ======================================== 2795 From: Steven Fustero Date: Fri Mar 23, 2001 10:25am Subject: Re: Psychiatrist > >The second student says, "No, I think he just doesn't know > >whether he's Carmen or Goering." > > Ugh. Reminds me of something from James Thurber (I'm paraphrasing because > I don't remember the exact Horace quote he used): > > If you prefer "I think, therefore I am" to "Tear thyself > from delay," you are putting Descartes before Horace. > Sort of reminds me of the baseball joke about: "The beer that Milt Famey Walk us" SJF IACSP iacsp@e... > ;-) > > Cheers, > > RGF > > Robert G. Ferrell, CISSP > Information Systems Security Officer > National Business Center > U. S. Dept. of the Interior > Robert_G_Ferrell@n... > ======================================== > Who goeth without humor goeth unarmed. > ======================================== > > > ======================================================== > TSCM-L Technical Security Mailing List > "In a multitude of counselors there is strength" > > To subscribe to the TSCM-L mailing list visit: > http://www.onelist.com/community/TSCM-L > > or email your subscription request to: > subTSCM-L@t... > =================================================== TSKS > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ -- ----------------------------------------------------- Click here for Free Video!! http://www.gohip.com/free_video/ 2796 From: Miguel Puchol Date: Fri Mar 23, 2001 10:09am Subject: RE: computer controlled TSCM equipment Andy, I have to say that here in Spain all subscriber lines, the local loop, runs on cable with 4 conductors, plus a steel guide to make it more resistant to mechanical damage. Lines only take two, even ISDN & DSL, so the other two can be used in many ways to get information out of a building. Also, it's very common that when someone gets a second line fitted, the telcos will lay another 4-way cable, thus leaving two unused pairs... Now we also have an electric company that wants to enable the power lines running into people's homes to act as high-speed data lines (2Mbps), and they should be getting permits very soon - I cannot imagine though how you can keep things minimally private in this scenario. With normal lines, at least you know that your cable goes straight (usually) to the switch, but with powerlines, you are sharing the medium with all your neighbourhood. Happy hunting! Mike > -----Mensaje original----- > De: A Grudko [mailto:agrudko@i...] > Enviado el: jueves, 22 de marzo de 2001 20:11 > Para: TSCM-L@yahoogroups.com > Asunto: Re: [TSCM-L] computer controlled TSCM equipment > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng > > > > >Selectable Multi cable combining > > > Please explain > > Just about every 'phone we encounter these days uses 2 wires. > Wax on, wax off; data in, data off. > > So why are there 4 conductors? > > A decade (or was it millenium) ago many local PBX (Private Branch > Exchange) > extensions/lines used 4 - 16 (really old mechanical pushbutton > phones - like > 20 years back!!) cables to connect to the PABX (Private Automatic Branch > Exchange) or line. > > Don't laugh, but when I arrived in Africa in 1979 we still had many manual > exchanges operated by 2 pin 8mm plugs hand pluged by an operator with a > headset linking calls locally and to the outside world. > > We even had a TV soap opera, based on the goossipy interception of calls, > called 'Nommer Assebleif' (apologies for local spelling errors) meaning > 'Number Please'. > > In my early '80's TLAs we built in two 10 way wafer switches and > a heck of a > lot of croc clip terminated cables. Seriesed in were 1.5 v and 9 v > switchable supplies with reversable polarity (to drive EC Mikes). Testing > all combinations of 5 pairs called for 10 x 10 x 3 (300) manual > cable tests. > Clients bitched that we were wasting time (their money...). > > Even today, most phones have 4 pin connectors, but only use 2. Why? Spares > just in case. > > What more could a spy ask for. > > Sidetone. > > Sidetone? > > Every phone - even digital - has sidetone - it's that squirt of your mike > audio that joins the other person's audio at the earpiece and makes the > handset earpiece sound 'natural'. > > So the earpierce carries both sides of the conversation. The > buggist plucks > this up at the PCB connector in the instrument and sends it down the 2 > unused cables that the manufacturer has kindly supplied as 'spares'. > > From there the buggist's imagination rules as to how he gets the audio out > of the building. > > > Andy Grudko. D.P.M., Grad I.S, (S.A.) > CEO - Grudko Wilson Associates (SA) (Pty) Ltd - Crime investigation & > intelligence > Johannesburg - Cape Town - Durban - Pretoria - UK - US - Canada - > Australia - Israel - Bosnia. Agents in 41 countries - www.grudko.com - (+27 11) 465 9673 - 465 1487 (Fax) - Est. 1981 GIN (Charter), SACI (Pres), WAD, CALI, SASFed, SASA, SAMLF, SCIP (Past SA Chairman), UKPIN, AFIO (OS), IWWA, PRETrust, IPA, AmChamCom "When you need it done right - first time" ======================================================== TSCM-L Technical Security Mailing List "In a multitude of counselors there is strength" To subscribe to the TSCM-L mailing list visit: http://www.onelist.com/community/TSCM-L or email your subscription request to: subTSCM-L@t... =================================================== TSKS Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 2797 From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Fri Mar 23, 2001 10:25am Subject: Dinner with the Parents A girl asks her boyfriend to come over Friday night and have dinner with her parents. This being a big event, the girl tells her boyfriend that after dinner, she would like to go out and "do it" for the first time. Well, the boy is ecstatic, but he has never done it before, so he takes a trip to the pharmacist to get some protection. The pharmacist helps the boy for about an hour. He tells the boy everything there is to know about protection and "doing it". At the register, the pharmacist asks the boy how many he'd like to buy; a 3-pack, a 10-pack, or a family pack. The boy insists on the family pack because he thinks he will be very busy, it being his first time and all. That night, the boy shows up at the girl's parent's house and meets his girlfriend at the door. She greets him, saying "Oh I'm so excited for you to meet my parents, come on in." The boy goes inside and is taken to the dinner table where the girl's parents are seated. The boy quickly offers to say grace and bows his head. A minute passes, and the boy is still deep in prayer with his head down. Ten minutes pass and still no movement from the boy. Finally, after 20 minutes with his head down, the girlfriend leans over and whispers to her boyfriend, "I had no idea you were so religious." The boy turns and whispers back, "I had no idea your father was a pharmacist." -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= 2798 From: Jake Bozeman Date: Fri Mar 23, 2001 9:40am Subject: Self Contained TSCM System I am a software developer and systems integrator with 18 yrs experience in automation systems. Much of my experience is in building custom systems with integrated OEM cards. All of the specifications I've seen here, and more, can be incorporated into a tool case system. I would be willing to build a system to specifications in conjunction with a TSCM expert. For a highly qualified TSCM expert I would build the system and code the software for free if you would provide the hardware. For this to be a worthwhile proposition the TSCM expert must be a leader in their field. Most of the analog/digital component cards are very inexpensive as are wintel mother boards. The most expensive item would be a flat screen monitor with sufficient resolution and refresh rate required to run an osilliscope window. All other business issues are open... Anyone interested please contact me at jake.bozeman@l.... 2799 From: Date: Fri Mar 23, 2001 9:58pm Subject: Spy case prompts polygraphs for 500 in FBI - Post Spy case prompts polygraphs for 500 in FBI - Post WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - Some 500 FBI employees with access to intelligence information will be given lie detector tests beginning next week in the first security reform stemming from the arrest of alleged spy Robert Hanssen, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. The newspaper cited officials as saying the 500 employees who will face the first polygraph tests of their careers include about 150 top managers at FBI headquarters in Washington, special agents in charge of regional offices and any others with access to sensitive intelligence material. FBI Director Louis Freeh has also ordered reviews of all "sensitive investigations" to determine if other agents have accessed information outside their normal duties, the Post said, citing a memo sent to FBI employees last week. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced March 1 that the FBI would expand the use of polygraph tests and would more closely audit access to computers and other information. Ashcroft said that he and Freeh had agreed on the interim measures after the February arrest of Hanssen, a 25-year FBI veteran and counter-intelligence expert. Hanssen has been accused of spying for Moscow since 1985 in exchange for $1.4 million in money and diamonds. He allegedly gave Moscow secrets that included names of double agents and U.S. electronic surveillance methods, revelations that severely damaged national security, U.S. officials said. The FBI in the mid-1990s started giving polygraphs to new hires and agents working on highly-sensitive cases. But Hanssen and other long-time agents were never tested. 2800 From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Sun Mar 25, 2001 7:23am Subject: Trade Secrets - Is America's top-secret spy tradecraft still secure? Trade Secrets - Is America's top-secret spy tradecraft still secure? Miniature cameras placed in the headlights of vehicles of known Russian spies, to record their movements. Homing devices, and an extensive system of transmitters, to track them as they traveled throughout New York City. Slivers of metal and fiber optics, embedded in window seals and furniture, to serve as supersensitive listening equipment. Now, these surveillance techniques, among the best practiced by U.S. counterintelligence, may be lost. ABCNEWS has learned that suspected Russian spy Robert Hanssen was in a position to reveal the techniques, called tradecraft, to his Russian and Soviet handlers, when he worked for the FBI in New York from 1985 to 1987. At that time, Hanssen was a counterintelligence agent, supervising a squad targeting Soviet spies in the home town of the United Nations and international finance, the prime domestic location for American espionage efforts against the Russians. "Hanssen would have had access and knowledge of all of the techniques that would be used against the Soviets," said Harry Brandon, who once oversaw the FBI's counterintelligence program. "I would assume everything is gone. Assume the worst," he said. Secrets from the Playbook Among the secrets that Hanssen may have revealed is the location of a supersecret counterintelligence center in New York known as MEGAHUT. That knowledge would allow the Russians to closely monitor undercover FBI operations. He might have also revealed a large scale real estate program maintained by the United States, that bought properties in expensive areas throughout New York City so they could be used for surveillance. Other secrets from the tradecraft playbook include an FBI system for photographing passengers coming in from Russia - to monitor for incoming spies. FBI officials are now reviewing failed covert operations from the period Hanssen was in New York, trying to see if the failures were because their tradecraft playbook had been given to the Russians. But the electronic snooping war continues to evolve, with more sophisticated devices that are increasingly difficult to detect. One new development is the airborne microphone. "Having no metallic content whatsoever makes it immune from X-rays," said surveillance consultant Martin Kaiser. "It makes it immune from known wire detection processes so it's really the ideal microphone." 'Exceptionally Strong' Evidence Meanwhile, a federal judge recently ordered Hanssen to stay in jail on the grounds that the government's evidence against him was "exceptionally strong." Hanssen was arrested Feb. 18, charged with selling secrets to Russia and the Soviet Union since 1985, including the names of double agents and U.S. surveillance methods. The counts against him say he "compromised numerous FBI counterintelligence investigative techniques, sources, methods and operations, and operational practices and activities targeted against" Soviet and Russian agents in the U.S. He faces life in prison or death if convicted. His lawyers have said he is planning to plead not guilty. Copyright © 2001 ABC News Internet Ventures. Click here for Terms of Use & Privacy Policy & Internet Safety Information applicable to the site. -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= 2801 From: A Grudko Date: Sat Mar 24, 2001 10:26am Subject: Re: 'Shower spy camera' doctor let off ----- Original Message ----- > Dr Michael Shiew, 27, formally resigned as a junior doctor at St George's > hospital, Tooting, this month after police found what they said was a spy > camera set up to beam pictures to a video recorder in a bedroom at Brighton > General Hospital, where he was on a training course. > A confiscated video cassette did not show anybody using the shower block. A > six-week investigation yielded insufficient evidence to charge him, the > Crown Prosecution Service says. The General Medical Council has said it may > look at the case if Dr Shiew's alleged actions breached its disciplinary > procedures. An interesting TechLaw precident? - if true.... >A London doctor who was arrested after allegedly putting a spy camera in a shampoo bottle to video nurses showering will not face criminal charges. I'm trying to get my thoughts round this. A spy camera in a shampoo bottle ? 3 options: 1. One off oportunistic drop - complete unit, cam., tx, batteries (must be low power/range, dropped 06:00 ish to hope for any fun), antenna (must be omni-directional, VP). -----or was it steam powered?-----and from which end???? 2. Regular visitor - 2 identical units, swapped daily when batteries flat, 'till discovered 3. Few hours access - shampoo bottle contained cam. - hard wired to tx, psu, ant (possibly 'beam' ) All options assume conditions where the bottle won't be touched. Given 3 above I'd have gone for concealment in a fixture; not that I have any interest in showering women........ Presumably the police ascertained that: the camera was transmitting (implied by 'beam') the suspect's VCR's receiver was tuned to the camera output through a broadcast band TX frq. or that the VCR was connected to a RX if the TX was outside of broadcast frequencies Of course, many of today's TVs and VCRs have auto tune facilities. Joe Public hits a button and every usable local signal is loaded into their equipment's memory. So if the TX was on a commercial frequency and the VCR had the frequency in memory it proves nothing as probably dozens of other TVs/VCRs within range could have innocently received the signal in an urban area. If it was a case of non-standard TX/RX equipment (implying criminal oportunity and means, nailing the suspect), why would video taping be an essential evidential element to prosicute - he could have been getting his jollies watching live 'Shower TV'. * If the accused was in fact responsible for the planting of the equipment, there should be other evidence (DNA, fingerprints, witnesses, surveillance CCTV, access control, proof of purchase of equipment, other voyeristic material on site, prior arrests, peer testimony etc). The quoted article is written with the normal journalistic disregard for evidence (newspapers sell stories, not facts). "set up to beam pictures to a video recorder in a bedroom at Brighton" Do journalists know the technical differences between 'beam' and 'broadcast' and their limitations? Doubtfull. Why was the suspect identified as such? See * above. "A confiscated video cassette did not show anybody using the shower block. " But did it show the shower block? Was it blank? Was it Lethal Weapon 2? This is why they are low paid journalists, not high paid lawyers. Bylines, not facts. If I was an intelligent pervert (as against just being a pervert) I'd simply study to become a gynaecologist,,,,, but that is part of the complex human condition. Incedentally, my free personal showercam can be viewed at www.wet-hairy-fat-bald-pertvert-bloke.com (joke). Andy Grudko. D.P.M., Grad I.S, (S.A.) CEO - Grudko Wilson Associates (SA) (Pty) Ltd - Crime investigation & intelligence Johannesburg - Cape Town - Durban - Pretoria - UK - US - Canada - Australia - Israel - Bosnia. Agents in 41 countries - www.grudko.com - (+27 11) 465 9673 - 465 1487 (Fax) - Est. 1981 GIN (Charter), SACI (Pres), WAD, CALI, SASFed, SASA, SAMLF, SCIP (Past SA Chairman), UKPIN, AFIO (OS), IWWA, PRETrust, IPA, AmChamCom "When you need it done right - first time" 2802 From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 10:49am Subject: Putin holds the aces in spy games Putin holds the aces in spy games http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/03/25/stifgnusa02003.html? Tony Allen-Mills, Washington and Mark Franchetti, Moscow Blair warns Putin over Russian spies in Britain FOR ONCE, there was no media circus as President George W Bush stepped from his limousine in the woods of northern Virginia last week. Television cameras are rarely welcome at the Langley headquarters of the CIA, where Bush had gone to praise America's spies for their "vital contribution to our nation's security". Although he had come to thank the "dedicated and daring" agents who provide him with his breakfast intelligence briefings - "I see your product every morning at 8 o'clock sharp," he said - Bush must also have known that he was about to make their jobs a great deal harder. The day after his visit he ordered the expulsion of 50 Russian diplomats accused of spying for Moscow. Nobody in Washington had the slightest doubt that President Vladimir Putin would retaliate in kind. Sure enough, by the end of last week the Kremlin had let it be known that an equal number of American diplomats would soon be packing their bags. "We have time to think, to carefully pick," gloated Sergei Ivanov, the secretary of Putin's national security council. Moscow, he said, intended to expel the diplomats "who are most precious to the Americans". The question being asked in the Washington and Moscow intelligence communities last week, though, was: who stands to lose most from Bush's plunge back to cold war-style espionage confrontation - the Kremlin or the CIA? The arrest earlier this year of Robert Hanssen, a senior FBI special agent who spent 15 years selling secrets to Moscow, has not only provoked the biggest purge since President Ronald Reagan booted out 80 Russians in 1986; it has also raised serious doubts about Bush's foreign policy judgment, the future of the relationship between former superpower adversaries and America's ability to protect its military and economic secrets from hostile foreign scrutiny. In a throwback to the cold war age of espionage obsession, counterintelligence agents in Moscow and Washington were yesterday reported to be searching for spies who are believed still to be operating. After scrutinising thousands of pages of evidence collected from computer disks and other sources following Hanssen's arrest in February, American officials have reportedly concluded that at least one other spy for Russia remains undetected in a key American government post. According to tomorrow's edition of US News and World Report magazine, a former CIA official is quoted as saying: "There's a massive mole hunt going on." A similar operation is under way in the ranks of the SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence agency that replaced the KGB. Sources in Moscow claimed that it had not yet identified the man or woman who betrayed Hanssen's identity to the Americans. Until now it has been widely assumed that American authorities learnt about Hanssen during debriefings of Sergei Tretyakov, a Russian diplomat to the United Nations who defected last October. "If that were the case, the first thing the SVR would have done after it realised Tretyakov had defected would have been to alert Hanssen and freeze all contact with him," said Marina Latysheva, an expert on Russian intelligence. Instead, Hanssen maintained contact with his Russian handlers in Washington until days before his arrest. As late as February 12 - six days before his arrest - FBI agents found a package of $50,000 in used $100 bills at a so-called dead drop site where Russian diplomats left messages for Hanssen. "The SVR must have a mole inside its ranks," said a former Russian intelligence officer. "The service will now be doing everything it can to track him down." At stake is a commodity that both sides continue to regard as crucial to their respective national interests. "Sound intelligence is still critically important to America's national security," Bush told the CIA last week. But some Washington sources believe that America's ability to gather that intelligence may be damaged more than Moscow's in the wake of the Hanssen affair. Since the collapse of communism, several American academics have questioned the basis of espionage operations in a world of fast-changing technology where a skilled computer operator can obtain volumes of classified information with a few clicks of a mouse. "The central question about spying today is whether it is still necessary," Loch K Johnson, a Georgia political scientist, wrote in the influential journal Foreign Policy last year. The most spectacular recent example of the collapsing value of traditional espionage techniques proved to be Hanssen's betrayal of the spy tunnel built under the Soviet embassy - now the Russian embassy - in Washington. For more than a decade American agents ran what they believed was an invaluable listening operation. It now appears that the Russians learnt about the tunnel years ago and may have fed the Americans all manner of deliberate disinformation. At the same time, intelligence sources said, both sides have powerful reasons for continuing to seek each other's secrets. America's global technological superiority remains a magnet for intensive military and industrial espionage by Russia and many other states. "They are very interested in continuing to obtain militarily significant technologies," said Herbert Baker Spring, a defence expert at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. Although the level of Russian diplomatic spying in America declined sharply in the early 1990s, intelligence sources say it began to pick up in 1993 and has recently returned to cold war levels. Hanssen's exposure offered Bush the opportunity to send a message to Moscow in much the same way he had sent one to Saddam Hussein, when he bombed Baghdad within a few days of entering the White House. "This is somewhat more than just a routine tit-for-tat," said Baker Spring. "It signals a sterner policy towards Moscow in the sense that significant problems in the relationship are not going to be papered over, or in the worst cases ignored." In American eyes, China is steadily replacing Russia as a more dangerous military threat and last week's disclosure that a senior Beijing officer had defected to Washington hinted at an intelligence war being waged on a new front line. However, America still requires significant intelligence about Russia's nuclear arsenal and its weapons sales around the world. Bush also needs to know at his breakfast CIA briefings what Russia has succeeded in learning about American military plans for such controversial programmes as the "son of star wars" anti-missile shield. Ivanov, an old KGB friend of Putin's, accused Washington last week of attempting to turn Russia into "a scarecrow figure . . . a focus of evil, trading in missiles and nuclear weapons right and left, and spying across the world". Many conservative Republicans see that picture as entirely accurate. Yet several American sources have suggested the CIA will be hurt more than the SVR if Russia goes ahead with its threat to be selective in its promised expulsions. American officials noted last week that the head of the SVR station in Washington had been spared expulsion as a signal that Washington did not seek to precipitate a lasting crisis. Putin may not prove so accommodating, and the reckoning in intelligence circles last week was that the heavyweight Russian spy operation in America could afford to lose 50 agents more comfortably than the CIA can do without key operatives in Moscow. "We've underestimated our enemies," said a former Justice Department spy prosecutor. "Russia has a vacuum cleaner mentality when it comes to sucking up intelligence from potential adversaries, particularly the United States, and that continues today . . . it's going to take a long time before we can rebuild from this." -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= 2803 From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 10:50am Subject: Rules of the Espionage Game Still Apply: Get Caught and You Go Home NEWS ANALYSIS Rules of the Espionage Game Still Apply: Get Caught and You Go Home http://www.iht.com/articles/14524.html James Risen New York Times Service WASHINGTON Retaliatory measures now under way between Washington and Moscow fit neatly into the long-established rules of the espionage game that the two sides have played by ever since their spies first went out "into the cold" to do silent battle. . President George W. Bush's decision to expel four Russian diplomats immediately, and demand that Moscow withdraw 46 others by July 1, is the largest such action since 1986, and it is far more aggressive than any such action taken by the United States since the collapse of the Soviet Union. . Russian officials, complaining that the Bush administration is trying to turn back the clock to a Cold War mentality, quickly retaliated in kind. . But the actions followed the general rule that both the United States and the Soviet Union, and now Russia, have always accepted: that when one side gets caught running a spy on the other's turf, some intelligence officers serving under cover as diplomats have to go home. . It matters not that the spy in question might have volunteered to betray his country without much persuasion from his professional handlers. The rule of thumb in the intelligence world is simple: Get caught and you go home. . This explains why the Bush administration targeted for immediate expulsion the Russian intelligence officers who the United States believes were directly involved in handling the case of the FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen, arrested last month on charges that he spied for Moscow for more than 15 years. . Still, another rule of the game is that there is something approaching professional courtesy in the espionage world. Intelligence officers, whether Americans from the CIA or Russians from the FSB, the successor to the KGB, almost never face serious harm themselves, even when they get caught red-handed. . Sometimes an intelligence officer will be arrested after the spy being handled has been unmasked. But because professional case officers almost always work under diplomatic cover and have diplomatic immunity, they are quickly released. . While the agents whom they have been handling face either long prison terms or even possible execution by their government, the worst that the foreign intelligence officers usually face is a public outing and a declaration by the opposing government that they are persona non grata, and that they must quickly leave. . At the end of one the most important spy operations run by the CIA against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, for example, a Soviet scientist, Adolf Tolkachev, was arrested in 1985. After Mr. Tolkachev's arrest and interrogation, the KGB lured a CIA officer, Paul Stombaugh, out for what he believed was a meeting with Mr. Tolkachev. When Mr. Stombaugh arrived at the meeting site, the KGB sprang its trap and arrested him. He was quickly released; the sole purpose of the KGB ambush had been to "out" an American and briefly weaken the CIA's operations in Moscow. . An ironclad rule of the game is that when one side orders the expulsion of intelligence officers as a result of an espionage case, the other country orders the expulsion of an similar number of intelligence officers - even if they have not been caught in a spy case themselves. . After the 1994 arrest of a CIA officer, Aldrich Ames, on charges of spying for Moscow, the Clinton administration ordered the expulsion of one Russian, the Washington rezident, or station chief. In response, the Russians ordered the expulsion of the CIA's station chief in Moscow. . Mr. Bush's move appears to have the added component of using the Hanssen case as a pretext for a broad move to reduce the Russian intelligence presence in the United States, which American officials complain has crept back up to Cold War levels. . In the latter stages of the Cold War the CIA and KGB even opened a regular channel of communications to make certain that the two agencies were working from the same informal play book. . With Cold War tensions running high during the Reagan administration, senior KGB officials approached their CIA counterparts and proposed the creation of a special communications line between the spy agencies. . After fits and starts, the "Gavrilov Channel" - named by the KGB after a 19th century Russian poet - led to secret meetings between senior CIA and KGB officials at neutral sites like Vienna and Helsinki. . For years, "Gavrilov" meetings enabled American and Soviet intelligence officials to make sure that both the CIA and the KGB understood the state of play in the espionage world. . Yet, new realities have intruded as the Bush administration has moved against the Russians. After the end of the Cold War, the CIA and the FSB began a formal liaison relationship - a dramatic expansion of "Gavrilov" style meetings - while the FBI opened an office in Moscow and officials began meeting with their Russian counterparts as well. . The two sides meet frequently to discuss issues on which they believe they can cooperate, like counterterrorism and counternarcotics programs. The official liaison programs have added a new and rather awkward layer to the spy-versus-spy relationship. . On Thursday, for instance, a U.S. official noted that the FSB's chief of station in Washington was not among those being declared persona non grata. . That Russian official's position is openly declared to the United States, and he is involved in liaison relations. . Despite its dramatic expulsion order and tough words to Moscow, the Bush administration apparently believes it would be counterproductive to expel him. -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= 2804 From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 11:11am Subject: Water and Coke - Interesting Facts Water and Coke - Interesting Facts WATER We all know that water is important but I've never seen it written down like this before. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half world pop.) In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%. One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day? ================================================= COKE No wonder coke tastes soooo good: 1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident. 2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days. 3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china. 4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola. 5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion. 6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes. 7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, Remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy. 8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, And run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield. FYI: 1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its Ph is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. 2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials. 3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years! Still Want To Drink Up????????? -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= 2805 From: Miguel Puchol Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 11:18am Subject: RE: Water and Coke - Interesting Facts Very informative! Now....what if I switch to Pepsi? :-) Mike > -----Mensaje original----- > De: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng [mailto:jmatk@t...] > Enviado el: lunes, 26 de marzo de 2001 19:11 > Para: TSCM-L Mailing List > Asunto: [TSCM-L] Water and Coke - Interesting Facts > > > > Water and Coke - Interesting Facts > > 2806 From: Robert G. Ferrell Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 11:19am Subject: Re: Water and Coke - Interesting Facts >1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its Ph is 2.8. It will >dissolve a nail in about 4 days. >Still Want To Drink Up????????? Since the homeostatic pH of a normal stomach is 1.5 - 1.7, this fails to impress me. The second half of this article is pure FUD. Cheers, RGF Robert G. Ferrell, CISSP Information Systems Security Officer National Business Center U. S. Dept. of the Interior Robert_G_Ferrell@n... ======================================== Who goeth without humor goeth unarmed. ======================================== 2807 From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 11:45am Subject: Lie tests could stop spies or careers Lie tests could stop spies or careers http://www.detnews.com/2001/nation/0103/24/a04-203082.htm In wake of Hanssen espionage case, FBI expands polygraph use By Dan Eggen / The Washington Post WASHINGTON -- It seemed like a routine polygraph screening. Mark Mallah and other members of an FBI counterintelligence unit in New York were hooked up to lie detector machines and quizzed about drug use, contacts with foreigners and other subjects deemed vital to their roles in protecting national security. The test turned out to be anything but ordinary for Mallah. The 10-year FBI agent said he was accused of being deceptive on the exam, prompting a suspension from his job and a full-scale investigation that included 24-hour surveillance and interrogations of family and friends. When he was finally cleared and reinstated 19 months later, Mallah said, he quit. "I didn't have any desire to work for an organization that would do that to me," said Mallah, who left the FBI in 1996 and now practices law in San Francisco. "They never produced any evidence or came forward with anything, but the polygraph still undermined my career. ... I was effectively ruined." In the wake of charges that veteran agent Robert Hanssen had spied for Moscow since 1985, the FBI is embroiled in a debate over how far to expand its use of polygraph tests of employees with access to sensitive information. Hanssen never took a lie detector test during his 25 years with the bureau. Some analysts and lawmakers argue that more aggressive use of the devices might have stopped him much earlier. Skeptics say allegations such as Mallah's underscore the danger in relying too heavily on polygraph devices, which aren't considered reliable enough to be used in court. Atty, Gen. John Ashcroft said earlier this month that the FBI will expand polygraph use on some FBI employees because of "the very important consequences of breaches" in national security. But he conceded that "the polygraph is not a sure way," estimating an error rate of about 15 percent. Critics argue that such "false positives" can derail careers; even proponents concede that 2 percent to 5 percent of the tests are probably inaccurate. At the FBI, about a fifth of job applicants fail pre-employment lie detector tests, according to a report to Congress. Few get a second chance, and most are denied jobs, officials said. Polygraph machines, which measure respiration, blood pressure and other physical changes, can be defeated. Aldrich Ames, convicted of espionage in 1994, passed two polygraph exams while spying for Moscow, although investigators later faulted one of the tests as "deficient." Some Web sites brag that people can learn to beat the tests in a matter of hours. Others disagree, arguing that the machines serve as a deterrent at least, and can provide crucial clues in intelligence cases. At the FBI, polygraphs have been mandatory for new employees since 1994, and administered to some agents like Mallah because they have access to sensitive information about a secret program or criminal case. -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= 2808 From: Steve Uhrig Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 11:02am Subject: Re: Putin holds the aces in spy games Once upon a midnight dreary, James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng pondered, weak and weary: > The day after his visit he ordered the expulsion of 50 Russian > diplomats accused of spying for Moscow. Nobody in Washington had > the slightest doubt that President Vladimir Putin would retaliate > in kind. Sure enough, by the end of last week the Kremlin had let > it be known that an equal number of American diplomats would soon > be packing their bags. > The question being asked in the Washington and Moscow > intelligence communities last week, though, was: who stands > to lose most from Bush's plunge back to cold war-style > espionage confrontation - the Kremlin or the CIA? The U.S. stands to lose more. The Russians have far more assets in the U.S. than the U.S. has in Russia. 50 expulsions from each would be a far greater percentage of U.S. intelligence personnel in Russia than Russians in the U.S. Steve ******************************************************************* Steve Uhrig, SWS Security, Maryland (USA) Mfrs of electronic surveillance equip mailto:Steve@s... website http://www.swssec.com tel +1+410-879-4035, fax +1+410-836-1190 "In God we trust, all others we monitor" ******************************************************************* 2809 From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 11:46am Subject: Corporate India sleepless over spying Corporate India sleepless over spying http://www.indian-express.com/ie/daily/20010326/ibu26018.html SANJAY SARDANA NEW DELHI, MAR 25: Corporate espionage is spreading rapidly in India, adversely affecting or threatening to affect businesses. As many as 72 per cent of the respondents covered in India Fraud Survey Report 2001 of global consultancy firm KPMG said corporate espionage has already affected or could affect their businesses. The survey covered 120 corporates. Consumer product segment accounted for the maximum number of frauds in terms of percentage. As many as 89 per cent of respondents from this sector said they suffered a fraud, followed by the hospitality (67 per cent) and the retail (50 per cent) industry. However, the actual number of frauds was the highest in the manufacturing sector followed by consumer products and financial services sector. Almost 46 per cent of the corporate frauds were committed by employees, 13 per cent by suppliers and another 12 per cent by service providers, says the survey.Women are fast catching up with men. The percentage of female fraudsters has risen to 11 per cent from 8 per cent since the last survey conducted in 2000. However, the profile of the typical fraudster continues to be the same as last year. It's usually a male aged between 26-40 years, earning between Rs 1 lakh-Rs 2.5 lakh and having spent between two to five years in the organisation.Respondents cited expense accounts (35 per cent), secret commissions (26 per cent) and false invoices (23 per cent) as the most expensive types of frauds. The other types of frauds include counterfeiting, forged cheques and loan documents, transportation contracts, bogus claims, fake mail transfers, and disappearance of customers. Close to 50 per cent of the respondents have experienced fraud of one form or the other in their organisations. Of these, close to 65 per cent of the organisations could quantify their losses to the tune of Rs 94 million, while the balance 36 per cent were unaware of the amount of loss suffered by them on account of frauds. The survey aimed at determining the outlook of the senior management towards various aspects of frauds, their experiences with frauds and steps taken by them. The questionnaire concentrated on issues like e-frauds, corporate espionage, experience and prevention of frauds, internal/external investigations, investigations by police/regulatory agencies and profile of the fraudster.More than 51 per cent of the respondents felt that internal methods like internal auditor reviews and internal controls (42 percent) are more effective tools to detect frauds than external methods. Corporates prefer internal investigations to external ones, as close to 86 per cent of the respondents adopted the internal method for investigation into frauds. An analysis of the areas of losses for the three major lines of businesses (categorised by the highest number of actual incidents), that is, consumer products, manufacturing and financial services, shows that misappropriation of funds and false financial statements were the largest area of loss in the financial services sector. But it was much lower in case of manufacturing and consumer product segments. Other major fraud-prone areas in the financial services sector were ATMs and credit cards. Copyright C 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= 2810 From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 11:51am Subject: Spies come in from the cold, go on exhibit Spies come in from the cold, go on exhibit http://www.sunspot.net/features/arts/bal-as.spy25mar25.story?coll=bal%2Dsociety%2Dutility Visitors may spy, with their own eyes, the trappings and tales of undercover operatives. By Ellen Gamerman Sun National Staff Originally published March 25, 2001 WASHINGTON - Once a week in the late 1960s, after each installment of the TV spy adventure series, "Mission: Impossible," the phones would start ringing around Central Intelligence Agency headquarters. "You'd see a guy peel off his face on the show and people all over the CIA community would call Monday morning and say, 'Can we do that?' " recalls Jonna Hiestand Mendez, who was building espionage gadgetry in the CIA's Office of Technical Service at the time. "They also tended to like the electronic communications on the show - everything from talking into your lapel to your ring to your watch to your shoe." Few seem more fascinated by spy stories than spies themselves. Now, after years in the shadows, they have finally figured out how to make a public tribute to their profession. In an unlikely pairing, former spooks have spent the last two years teaming with museum experts to assemble the new International Spy Museum, a sprawling celebration of agents and their trade set to open a year from now in downtown Washington. At a time when this city seems to be crawling with intrigue - the arrest of FBI agent and suspected spy Robert Philip Hanssen, the disclosure of a U.S. spy tunnel under the Russian embassy, the U.S. government's ouster of more than 50 Russian diplomats this past week under suspicion of espionage and Russia's ensuing expulsion of American diplomats in Moscow - the museum taps a secret network that experts say has only grown in recent decades. The end of the Cold War has not diminished the craft of espionage, intelligence officials assert, but it has created a changing landscape that relies more heavily on the trade than ever. Cash-strapped nations want to steal a rival's high-priced defense technology, superpowers try to collect intelligence in an age of international terrorism and, sometimes, even countries that call themselves friends spy just for spying's sake. The intelligence officers that the spy museum aims to honor are traitors in some countries, heroes in others. The collection, though, will attempt to view them dispassionately, apart from their ideologies. Here, they are simply masters of their profession, people who turned snooping into an art form. While some former agents cringe at the idea of gum-snapping tourists horning in on their clandestine realm, others look at the museum as the memorial they never had. Finally, the world can know how hard it is to remember which fake name to sign on a document. "Among the leagues of retired spies around the world, you often hear their frustration - the preamble to so many of their stories is, 'If people only knew,' " says H. Keith Melton, a military historian who will provide the museum artifacts from his 6,000-piece, invitation-only spycraft collection in South Florida. "What the International Spy Museum will do is give a glimpse at some of these stories that heretofore have gone untold." The story of the museum begins with a millionaire broadcasting executive named Milton Maltz. Fascinated by the idea that every other FedEx deliveryman in Washington could be a double-agent - and that spy stories exist everywhere from the Bible to the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs - Maltz decided to build a museum in the heart of spy country devoted to the tales of the centuries-old spy trade. "It will be," he predicted, "the secret history of history." Maltz's preoccupation with espionage began when he was in the U.S. Navy in the Korean War, assigned to the super-secret National Security Agency. Later he founded Malrite Communications Group Inc., an operator of big-market radio and TV stations, and a related firm that is building the $30 million for-profit museum. "I think most people are fascinated by this circumspect group of individuals who risk their lives," says Maltz, 71, now retired and living in South Florida. "It's like that old saying: Nothing is as it seems." The five-building interactive complex, a block from FBI headquarters, is likely to mix typical sunscreen-and-sneakers Washington tourists with a far more mysterious set of onlookers. "Oh, I think a lot of our visitors will be spies - I have no doubt," says Dennis Barrie, director of the spy museum project who oversaw the creation of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. "Spies are fascinated with how the story is told and how they're presented." The museum, which includes CIA agents among its top advisers but is not sanctioned by the agency, will not reveal top-secret material. Still, so much tradecraft has been declassified over the years that organizers say this project easily will become the world's largest museum devoted to the history of espionage when it opens in spring, 2002. Today, museum researchers are traveling the globe for items like surreptitious entry kits and mechanical-pencil firing devices. Former KGB and CIA agents are consulting on everything from robot cameras to evasion techniques. The staff is videotaping interviews with dozens of spies, including some still behind prison bars, for an oral history. Some strange bedfellows, like gurus in the art of gift-shop layout and experts who understand stealth assassinations, are working to turn a sometimes brutal trade into a tourist-friendly experience. Among the items in the collection so far: "The Kiss of Death" (a KGB lipstick tube that, when twisted, fires a single bullet), a World War II Enigma machine (used to encipher and decipher messages by the Germans, ultimately decoded by the Allies in a coup that helped them win the war), a display of microdots (a reduction of a page of text to less than one millimeter in size) and an array of fake warts and eyeballs used to conceal classified information. The exhibits will examine the interplay between popular culture and the spy world. Former spies recall how Russian KGB technicians brought sketch books to James Bond movies because they thought actual American spies were using the futuristic gadgets. The stories made for chuckles at the CIA, but often art did inspire reality. "Looking at reality and fiction, we've often wondered out loud which really came first," says Carlos Davis, a 20-year CIA veteran who led the agency's fine arts commission. The collection, along with celebrating unsung spies, attempts to debunk the myths of the intelligence world. First in its sights: Mata Hari, a World War I spy and sensual dancer whose seductive techniques as a spy are legendary. The exhibit, though, will dismiss her as an overblown flirt made into a legend by a French firing squad. Helping assemble the collection is a band of former spies, including Oleg Kalugin, a retired major general in the Soviet KGB who has admitted to a bureaucratic role in the murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov with a poison-tipped umbrella on a London bridge in 1978. Working beside Kalugin is Tony Mendez, a 25-year CIA veteran who spied undercover during the Cold War and became famous for deftly changing identities. The museum skates delicately around the idea that it is glorifying a profession that has resorted to violence to obtain information. Anticipating critics, organizers are focusing on the more cerebral side of intelligence work and excluding simulated gunfire games from the museum's interactive exhibits. The museum draws some inspiration from commercially successful Disney-style playgrounds - the three-floor space will include interactive spy games, a giant gift shop, a swanky restaurant and catchy exhibits with names such as "Cloak and Dagger," "Dragons and Snakes" and "Wilderness of Mirrors." Still, the museum's creators also hope to tell the definitive history of spying, from the Trojan Horse to the Hanssen saga. Spying, long dubbed the world's second-oldest profession, is traced to its roots. In this country, that includes the tale of George Washington, who sent a cadre of women across the Delaware to locate the munitions and barracks of British troops before his famous attack. A section of the museum called "Celebrity Spies" will list others whose exploits are little-known, such as these World War II sleuths: Singer Josephine Baker (a spy for the French Resistance), Hollywood filmmaker John Ford (head of the field photographic unit of the CIA predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services) and chef Julia Child (an agent in India and China with the OSS). The gallery's organizers realize that since so much modern spy information is top confidential, the newest exhibits may tell only part of the story - though with spies tattling on each other all over Washington, they also hope to update the stories as new secrets are revealed. With each passing day, the project's researchers learn how the artifacts they will put under museum glass are not just relics from a bygone era: As the latest headlines illustrate, age-old tricks of spycraft are still very alive. After visiting this realm of intrigue, the museum's planners promise, no idling phone truck on the street will look innocent. No chalk mark on the pavement will appear random. And no stranger next door will ever seem above suspicion again. Copyright C 2001, The Baltimore Sun -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= 2811 From: Ray Van Staden Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 9:36am Subject: SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE? Could members of the group comment on the following article which appeared in the Media in South Africa over the weekend. Has this journalist been taken for a ride ? Taking into consideration in South Africa we only have GSM. THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT - South Africa March 24 2001 Watch it, somebody's listening to your cell By Jeremy Gordin Got a person in your life whose existence you have managed to keep secret from your spouse because you make your covert arrangements by cellular phone only? Better start thinking again about your mode of communication. A South African company known as Strategic Digital Technologies, based in Selby, Johannesburg, has, together with a Norwegian company called Scandec, manufactured what they say is the first machine capable of passively monitoring cellular telephone conversations. "Passive" is the operative word. Until now it has been possible to tap cellphone conversations, and apparently law enforcement agencies, secret services and the like are doing it the world over. Totally passive to the airtime network But such tapping - "active" monitoring of a cellular conversation by creating a stronger signal than the nearest base station - creates a "black hole" that immediately becomes evident in the control room of the service provider, say Clint Nassif and Bruce de Kock, managing director and group operations director respectively of Strategic Digital Technologies. "Our machine, the Delta III, is, as we say in the trade, totally passive to the airtime network, service providers or any other organisation, and thus maintains the optimum confidentiality of the operator," said De Kock. What this means in simple English is that the Delta III is the first machine that is able to tap cellular telephones while keeping the existence and whereabouts of the tapper secret. Neither Nassif nor De Kock denies having been involved "some time ago" with intelligence agencies and in the investigation of organised crime. Both vehemently deny, however, that Strategic Digital Technologies is a front for the national intelligence agency or the secret service. "We worked, via our Norwegian partners, with a number of former KGB experts in this field; we don't deny this," said De Kock, "which is probably why people are saying negative things about us. 'We worked with a number of former KGB experts' "As far as Delta III is concerned, we are business people with a legitimate product that we want to market," said De Kock. This week De Kock demonstrated Delta III to The Sunday Independent at a "safe house" somewhere in Gauteng. Tapping and recording a "real time" conversation on cellular phones between De Kock and another person, chosen at random, worked perfectly. The likely price for Delta III will be about $400 000 (about R3,2-million), according to De Kock. But price is not the only reason you need not worry too much about those sweet nothings you whisper over your cellular phone to someone who's not supposed to exist: Delta III will be available only to government and law enforcement agencies --- From the desk of Raymond van Staden Van Staden and Associates cc P.O. Box 1150 Amanzimtoti 4125 South Africa Tel: +27 (0)31 916-1262 Fax: +27 (0)31 916-1263 Email: raymond@v... Internet: http://www.vanstaden.co.za [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 2812 From: Robert G. Ferrell Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 0:28pm Subject: Re: SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE? But such tapping - "active" monitoring of a cellular conversation by creating a>stronger signal than the nearest base station - creates a "black hole" that immediately becomes evident in the control room of the service provider, say Clint Nassif and Bruce de Kock, managing director and group operations director respectively of Strategic Digital Technologies. Ya lost me right here. I routinely pick up cell phone conversations on my scanner, despite the fact that I'd really rather not listen to Billy Bob telling Darlene how come he's gonna be late gettin' home tonight. I'm relatively certain that this is an entirely passive process. Cheers, RGF Robert G. Ferrell, CISSP Information Systems Security Officer National Business Center U. S. Dept. of the Interior Robert_G_Ferrell@n... ======================================== Who goeth without humor goeth unarmed. ======================================== 2813 From: John Titterton Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 1:07pm Subject: RE: SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE? Conversations off a GSM network????? - must get one of those scanners! JT -----Original Message----- From: Robert G. Ferrell [mailto:rferrell@r...] Sent: 26 March 2001 20:29 To: TSCM-L@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [TSCM-L] SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE? But such tapping - "active" monitoring of a cellular conversation by creating a>stronger signal than the nearest base station - creates a "black hole" that immediately becomes evident in the control room of the service provider, say Clint Nassif and Bruce de Kock, managing director and group operations director respectively of Strategic Digital Technologies. Ya lost me right here. I routinely pick up cell phone conversations on my scanner, despite the fact that I'd really rather not listen to Billy Bob telling Darlene how come he's gonna be late gettin' home tonight. I'm relatively certain that this is an entirely passive process. Cheers, RGF 2814 From: Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 10:39am Subject: new number Toll Free (866)477-9246 works in the US only 2815 From: Miguel Puchol Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 5:01pm Subject: RE: SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE? It should be possible to (relatively) easily monitor conversations 'passively' in a GSM network, provided the following: - There is no encryption used between the cell and the phone (although the algorithm used in GSM is notoriously weak). - The phone/cell do not use frequency hopping - the rate is very high, if you look at it on your SA the signal moves within 1MHz many times per second. To sync with this is very difficult. - You have the right codecs to retrieve the audio - not difficult to obtain, as every phone has one :-) These factors only make it more difficult, but not impossible. I think it's much easier to monitor a control channel (which are not encrypted) to catch SMS messages, and call details, than calls themselves. Nowadays, as criminals know that either or both sides of the conversation could be tapped, use SMS messaging extensively, a substitute for the pagers they used, until these could be easily monitored too. I would, however, stay well away from any such 'miracle machines' that are advertised in this almost-spammish way, even if they claim 'for gov hands only' (thanks James!) All the best, Mike > -----Mensaje original----- > De: John Titterton [mailto:jt@i...] > Enviado el: lunes, 26 de marzo de 2001 21:08 > Para: TSCM-L@yahoogroups.com > Asunto: RE: [TSCM-L] SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE? > > > Conversations off a GSM network????? - must get one of those scanners! > > JT > > -----Original Message----- > From: Robert G. Ferrell [mailto:rferrell@r...] > Sent: 26 March 2001 20:29 > To: TSCM-L@yahoogroups.com > Subject: Re: [TSCM-L] SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE? > > > But such tapping - "active" monitoring of a cellular conversation by > creating > a>stronger signal than the nearest base station - creates a "black hole" > that > immediately becomes evident in the control room of the service > provider, say > Clint Nassif and Bruce de Kock, managing director and group operations > director > respectively of Strategic Digital Technologies. > > Ya lost me right here. I routinely pick up cell phone conversations on my > scanner, despite the fact that I'd really rather not listen to Billy Bob > telling Darlene how come he's gonna be late gettin' home tonight. I'm > relatively certain that this is an entirely passive process. > > Cheers, > > RGF > > > > > > ======================================================== > TSCM-L Technical Security Mailing List > "In a multitude of counselors there is strength" > > To subscribe to the TSCM-L mailing list visit: > http://www.onelist.com/community/TSCM-L > > or email your subscription request to: > subTSCM-L@t... > =================================================== TSKS > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > > 2816 From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 6:36pm Subject: USA vs Abraham Abdallah - COMPLAINT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : COMPLAINT -V- : VIOLATION OF 18 U.S.C. : 1341, 1343 ABRAHAM ABDALLAH, DEFENDANT. : COUNTY OF OFFENSE : NEW YORK -------------------------------------------X SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, ss.: J. ALEXANDER PICKETT, BEING DULY SWORN, DEPOSES AND SAYS THAT HE IS A SPECIAL AGENT WITH THE UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, ASSIGNED TO THE NEW YORK ELECTRONIC CRIMES TASK FORCE AND CHARGES AS FOLLOWS: COUNT ONE FROM IN OR ABOUT SEPTEMBER 2000, UP TO AND INCLUDING IN OR ABOUT MARCH 2001, IN THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK AND ELSEWHERE, ABRAHAM ABDALLAH, THE DEFENDANT, HAVING DEVISED AND INTENDING TO DEVISE A SCHEME AND ARTIFICE TO DEFRAUD, AND FOR OBTAINING MONEY AND PROPERTY BY MEANS OF FALSE AND FRAUDULENT PRETENSES, REPRESENTATIONS AND PROMISES, UNLAWFULLY, WILLFULLY AND KNOWINGLY TRANSMITTED AND CAUSED TO BE TRANSMITTED BY MEANS OF WIRE, RADIO AND TELEVISION COMMUNICATION IN INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE, WRITINGS, SIGNS, SIGNALS, PICTURES, AND SOUNDS FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXECUTING SUCH SCHEME AND ARTIFICE, AND THEREBY DID AFFECT A FINANCIAL INSTITUTION, TO WIT, ABDALLAH ATTEMPTED, BY MEANS OF TELEPHONE CALLS, ELECTRONIC MAIL MESSAGES, FACSIMILES, AND BANK WIRE TRANSACTIONS, TO CAUSE AMOUNTS TOTALING APPROXIMATELY $22 MILLION TO BE WITHDRAWN FROM LEGITIMATE ACCOUNTS HELD BY OTHERS, SOME OF WHICH WERE LOCATED AT FEDERALLY INSURED FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, AND ATTEMPTED TO CAUSE THOSE FUNDS TO BE DEPOSITED INTO FRAUDULENT ACCOUNTS CREATED BY HIM. (TITLE 18, UNITED STATES CODE, SECTION 1343.) COUNT TWO FROM IN OR ABOUT SEPTEMBER 2000, UP TO AND INCLUDING IN OR ABOUT MARCH 2001, IN THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK AND ELSEWHERE, ABRAHAM ABDALLAH, THE DEFENDANT, HAVING DEVISED AND INTENDING TO DEVISE A SCHEME AND ARTIFICE TO DEFRAUD, AND FOR OBTAINING MONEY AND PROPERTY BY MEANS OF FALSE AND FRAUDULENT PRETENSES, REPRESENTATIONS AND PROMISES, AND TO SELL, DISPOSE OF, LOAN, EXCHANGE, ALTER, GIVE AWAY, DISTRIBUTE, SUPPLY, AND FURNISH AND PROCURE FOR UNLAWFUL USE COUNTERFEIT AND SPURIOUS OBLIGATIONS, SECURITIES AND OTHER ARTICLES, AND ANYTHING REPRESENTED TO BE INTIMATED AND HELD OUT TO BE SUCH COUNTERFEIT AND SPURIOUS ARTICLE, FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXECUTING SUCH SCHEME AND ARTIFICE AND ATTEMPTING SO TO DO, UNLAWFULLY, WILLFULLY AND KNOWINGLY PLACED IN A POST OFFICE AND AUTHORIZED DEPOSITORY FOR MAIL MATTER, MATTERS AND THINGS WHATEVER TO BE SENT AND DELIVERED BY THE POSTAL SERVICE, AND DEPOSITED AND CAUSED TO BE DEPOSITED MATTERS AND THINGS WHATEVER TO BE SENT AND DELIVERED BY A PRIVATE AND COMMERCIAL INTERSTATE CARRIERS, TOOK AND RECEIVED THEREFROM, SUCH MATTERS AND THINGS, AND KNOWINGLY CAUSED TO BE DELIVERED BY MAIL AND SUCH CARRIER ACCORDING TO THE DIRECTION THEREON, AND AT THE PLACE AT WHICH IT IS DIRECTED TO BE DELIVERED BY THE PERSON TO WHOM IT IS ADDRESSED, MATTERS AND THINGS, TO ANOTHER PERSON, WHO HAD NOT AUTHORIZED THE MAILING OF THOSE CHECKS, TO BE MAILED TO A LOCATION IN MANHATTAN. (TITLE 18, UNITED STATES CODE, SECTION 1341.) THE BASES FOR MY KNOWLEDGE AND THE FOREGOING CHARGE ARE, IN PART, AS FOLLOWS: 1. I AM A SPECIAL AGENT WITH THE UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE ("USSS") AND CURRENTLY ASSIGNED TO THE NEW YORK ELECTRONIC CRIMES TASK FORCE. I HAVE INVESTIGATED THE ABOVE CAPTIONED CASE, HAVE SPOKEN WITH OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS AND OTHER INDIVIDUALS, AND HAVE REVIEWED VARIOUS DOCUMENTS, INCLUDING REPORTS PREPARED BY OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS AND WITNESSES. BECAUSE THIS AFFIDAVIT IS BEING SUBMITTED FOR A LIMITED PURPOSE, I HAVE NOT INCLUDED DETAILS OF EVERY ASPECT OF THIS INVESTIGATION WHERE CONVERSATIONS OR STATEMENTS ARE RELATED HEREIN, THEY ARE RELATED IN SUBSTANCE AND IN PART. 2. ON OR ABOUT FEBRUARY 7, 2001, I WAS CONTACTED BY AN INVESTIGATOR HIRED BY A CORPORATION LOCATED IN CALIFORNIA TO INVESTIGATE A POSSIBLE SPANKING OF THE CEO OF THAT CORPORATION ("CEO"). THAT INVESTIGATOR INFORMED ME OF THE FOLLOWING: A. ON OR ABOUT DECEMBER 19, 2000, A NEW ON-LINE ACCOUNT WAS OPENED AT MERRILL LYNCH IN MANHATTAN ("MERRILL") IN THE NAME OF CEO1 ("MERRILL ACCOUNT OF CEO1"). THIS ACCOUNT WAS OPENED USING CORRECT INFORMATION CONCERNING CEO1'S NAME, DATE OF BIRTH, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, AND LINE OF CREDIT HELD AT WELLS FARGO BANK ("WELLS FARGO ACCOUNT"), THE DEPOSITS OF WHICH ARE INSURED BY THE FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION. CEO1 HELD OTHER ACCOUNTS AT MERRILL BUT HAD NOT AUTHORIZED THE OPENING OF THIS PARTICULAR ACCOUNT. THE NEWLY OPENED ACCOUNT WAS AUTOMATICALLY LINKED TO OTHER ACCOUNTS HELD BY CEO1 AT MERRILL. THE PERSON WHO OPENED THE MERRILL ACCOUNT OF CEO1 PROVIDED THE FOLLOWING CONTACT INFORMATION: AN ADDRESS LOCATED ON THIRD AVENUE IN MANHATTAN, TWO PHONE NUMBERS LOCATED IN CALIFORNIA, AND AN ELECTRONIC MAIL ADDRESS ("E-MAIL ADDRESS1"). B. ON OR ABOUT DECEMBER 20, 2000, WELLS FARGO RECEIVED A PHONE CALL FROM A PERSON IDENTIFYING HIMSELF AS CE01. THAT PERSON STATED THAT HE WAS IN NEW YORK AND DIRECTED THAT $4 MILLION BE TRANSFERRED FROM THE WELLS FARGO ACCOUNT INTO THE NEWLY CREATED MERRILL ACCOUNT CE01. THE CALLER PROVIDED THE CORRECT ACCOUNT NUMBER FOR EACH ACCOUNT AND STATED THAT HE COULD BE REACHED AT A TELEPHONE NUMBER IN NEW YORK. SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THAT TELEPHONE NUMBER WAS ASSIGNED TO A WIRELESS PHONE THAT WAS BILLED TO AN ADDRESS IN MANHATTAN, AND THAT IT WAS NOT REGISTERED TO CEO1. WHEN THE WELLS FARGO CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENT CALLED THAT PHONE, THE PERSON WHO ANSWERED IDENTIFIED HIMSELF AS CEO1. BECAUSE THE MERRILL ACCOUNT OF CEO1, WHICH WAS PROVIDED TO WELLS FARGO BY THE PERSON ORDERING THE $4 MILLION TRANSFER, WAS NOT AN ACCOUNT INTO WHICH CEO1 TYPICALLY WIRED FUNDS, WELLS FARGO INVESTIGATED THE MATTER AND LEARNED THAT CEO1 HAD NOT AUTHORIZED THE TRANSFER. WELLS FARGO THEREFORE REFUSED TO TRANSFER THE $4 MILLION. 3. DURING THE COURSE OF MY INVESTIGATION, I REVIEWED A REPORT PREPARED BY AN INVESTIGATOR AT FIDELITY INVESTMENTS ("FIDELITY"). IN MARCH 2001, I CONFIRMED WITH AN INVESTIGATOR AT FIDELITY THAT THAT REPORT WAS ACCURATE. THAT REPORT INFORMED ME OF THE FOLLOWING: A. ON OR ABOUT SEPTEMBER 11, 2000, A PERSON IDENTIFYING HIMSELF AS THE CEO OF A CORPORATION LOCATED IN MANHATTAN "(CEO2") PLACED A TELEPHONE CALL TO FIDELITY AND REQUESTED THAT FIDELITY LIQUIDATE $1.5 MILLION FROM SEVERAL SPECIFIC INVESTMENT ACCOUNTS HELD BY CEO2. (ONE OF THOSE ACCOUNTS IS HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE "FIDELITY ACCOUNT OF CEO2.") THE CALLER FURTHER REQUESTED THAT THE $1.5 MILLION BE WIRED TO A BANK ACCOUNT AT ANZ BANK LOCATED IN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. THE CALLER REQUESTED THAT FIDELITY SEND THE FORMS NECESSARY TO EFFECT THESE TRANSACTIONS BY ELECTRONIC MAIL TO AN E-MAIL ADDRESS ("E-MAIL ADDRESS 2") THAT HE PROVIDED. B. ON OR ABOUT SEPTEMBER 14, 2000, AN INDIVIDUAL IDENTIFYING HIMSELF AS CEO2 CALLED FIDELITY AND AGAIN REQUESTED THAT FIDELITY WIRE $1.5 MILLION FROM THE FIDELITY ACCOUNT OF CEO2 AND ANOTHER FIDELITY ACCOUNT TO AN ACCOUNT AT ANZ BANK IN AUSTRALIA. THE CALLER REQUESTED THAT FIDELITY SEND CERTAIN FORMS REQUIRING HIS SIGNATURE TO A FACSIMILE NUMBER LOCATED IN MANHATTAN. FIDELITY FAXED THE FORMS TO THAT MANHATTAN NUMBER. THE CALLER ALSO PROVIDED A PHONE NUMBER AT WHICH HE COULD BE REACHED. SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THAT PHONE NUMBER WAS ASSIGNED TO A WIRELESS PHONE AND BILLED TO AND ADDRESS IN NEW YORK CITY. C. FIDELITY SUBSEQUENTLY DETERMINED THAT CEO2 HAD NOT AUTHORIZED THE REQUESTED TRANSFER OF $1.5 MILLION. FIDELITY REFUSED TO WIRE THE FUNDS, PLACED RESTRICTIONS ONTO THE ACCOUNTS, AND ASSIGNED NEW ACCOUNT NUMBERS TO THE ACCOUNTS. FIDELITY ALSO LEARNED FROM ANZ BANK THAT THE ACCOUNT INTO WHICH THE FUNDS WERE TO BE WIRED WAS CREATED BY AN APPLICATION SENT OVER THE INTERNET THAT PROVIDED A ZIP CODE IN MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE THAT WAS INCORRECT. D. ON OR ABUT OCTOBER 16, 2000, A PERSON IDENTIFYING HIMSELF AS CEO2 CONTACTED FIDELITY. HE REQUESTED THAT THE ADDRESS ASSOCIATED WITH ONE OF THE NEW FIDELITY ACCOUNTS OF CEO2 BE CHANGED TO AN ADDRESS ON LEXINGTON AVENUE IN MANHATTAN. HE FURTHER REQUESTED THAT NEW BLANK CHECKS ASSOCIATED WITH THAT ACCOUNT BE SENT TO THAT ADDRESS AND PROVIDED A CONTACT TELEPHONE NUMBER LOCATED IN MANHATTAN (THE "212 PHONE NUMBER"). FIDELITY MAILED THE CHECKS TO THE LEXINGTON AVENUE ADDRESS. HOWEVER, THE REAL CEO2 LEARNED OF THIS REQUEST, TRAVELED TO THE LEXINGTON AVENUE ADDRESS, AND PERSONALLY RETRIEVED THE CHECKS THAT WERE LOCATED IN THE MAIL ROOM OF THAT LOCATION. 4. IN OR ABOUT FEBRUARY 2001, ANOTHER SPECIAL AGENT OF THE USSS ("SA1") INFORMED ME THAT HE HAD LEARNED FROM A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ISSUER OF THE 212 PHONE NUMBER THAT THAT NUMBER IS A "VIRTUAL" PHONE NUMBER, WHICH CAN ONLY BE USED TO RECEIVE VOICE NAIL AND FACSIMILES, AND THAT THE SUBSCRIBER TO THE 212 PHONE NUMBER HAD PAID FOR IT USING A CREDIT CARD. SA1 FURTHER INFORMED ME THAT THE CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT USED TO PAY FOR THE 212 PHONE NUMBER HAD BEEN SUBJECT TO FRAUD. 5. IN OR ABOUT MARCH 2001, I REVIEWED A SECOND REPORT PREPARED BY AN INVESTIGATOR AT FIDELITY. SHORTLY AFTER MY REVIEW OF THE REPORT, AN INVESTIGATOR AT FIDELITY CONFIRMED THAT THE INFORMATION IN THE REPORT WAS ACCURATE. THAT REPORT INFORMED ME OF THE FOLLOWING: A. IN OR ABOUT OCTOBER 2000, AND INDIVIDUAL CLAIMING TO BE THE PRESIDENT OF A CORPORATION ("CORPORATION 1") MAILED AND APPLICATION TO FIDELITY IN ORDER TO OPEN AN ACCOUNT IN THE NAME OF CORPORATION 1 (THE "FIDELITY ACCOUNT OF CORPORATION 1"). THE APPLICATION STATED THAT THE ADDRESS OF CORPORATION 1 WAS A PARTICULAR ADDRESS ON PARK AVENUE IN MANHATTAN (THE "PARK AVENUE ADDRESS") AND THAT THE TELEPHONE NUMBER OF THE PRESIDENT OF CORPORATION 1 WAS THE 212 PHONE NUMBER. (AS DISCUSSED IN PARAGRAPH 3 (D) ABOVE, THE 212 PHONE NUMBER HAD BEEN PROVIDED TO FIDELITY IN CONNECTION WITH A FRAUDULENT FIDELITY ACCOUNT OPENED IN THE NAME OF CE02). THE APPLICATION FURTHER PROVIDED EMAIL ADDRESS 1 FOR THE PRESIDENT OF CORPORATION 1. (AS DISCUSSED IN CONNECTION WITH THE MERRILL ACCOUNT OF CEO1). PURSUANT TO THIS APPLICATION, FIDELITY OPENED AND ACCOUNT IN THE NAME OF CORPORATION 1. B. ON OR ABOUT NOVEMBER 17, 2000, FIDELITY RECEIVED A CHECK IN THE AMOUNT OF $6.5 MILLION ISSUED FROM A SEPARATE ACCOUNT OF CORPORATION 1 OPENED AT UNION BANK IN IRVINE, CALIFORNIA. THE CHECK WAS FOR DEPOSIT INTO THE FIDELITY ACCOUNT OF CORPORATION 1. FIDELITY SUBSEQUENTLY CONTACTED THE CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER OF CORPORATION 1 AND LEARNED THAT THE $6.5 MILLION CHECK WAS AN ALTERED VERSION OF A CHECK ORIGINALLY ISSUED BY CORPORATION 1 IN THE AMOUNT OF $30. ACCORDINGLY, FIDELITY DID NOT DEPOSIT THE CHECK. C. ON OR ABOUT NOVEMBER 21, 2000, A PERSON CLAIMING TO BE THE PRESIDENT OF CORPORATION 1 PLACED A TELEPHONE CALL TO FIDELITY. THAT PERSON INQUIRED WHEN THE $6.5 MILLION DESCRIBED IN THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH WOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR WITHDRAWAL. THAT PERSON STATED THAT HE COULD BE REACHED AT THE 212 PHONE NUMBER IF ANY ISSUES AROSE CONCERNING THE $6.5 MILLION CHECK. 6. IN OR ABOUT MARCH 2001, I SPOKE TO A FRAUD INVESTIGATOR AT MERRILL CONCERNING A FRAUDULENT ACCOUNT OPENED AT MERRILL IN THE NAME OF AN INVESTOR ("INVESTOR") LOCATED IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA. THAT INVESTIGATOR INFORMED ME OF THE FOLLOWING: A. ON OR ABOUT DECEMBER 23, 2000, A PERSON OPENED AN ON-LINE ACCOUNT AT MERRILL USING THE INVESTOR'S NAME, CORRECT SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND CORRECT ADDRESS, AND WAS ASSIGNED AN ACCOUNT NUMBER ("INVESTOR'S FRAUDULENT MERRILL ACCOUNT"). A MANHATTAN PHONE NUMBER WAS SUPPLIED AS THE CONTACT NUMBER FOR THIS ACCOUNT. THE INVESTOR ALSO HAD SEVERAL LEGITIMATE MERRILL ACCOUNTS ("INVESTOR'S LEGITIMATE MERRILL ACCOUNTS") AT THAT TIME. B. ON OR ABOUT JANUARY 2, 2001, THE MERRILL INVESTIGATOR DISCOVERED THAT THE MOTHER'S MAIDEN NAME AND PLACE OF BIRTH PROVIDED FOR THE INVESTOR'S FRAUDULENT MERRILL ACCOUNT WERE INCORRECT. MERRILL CLOSED THAT ACCOUNT. C. ON OR ABOUT JANUARY 11, 2001, A PERSON IDENTIFYING HIMSELF AS THE INVESTOR CALLED MERRILL AND INQUIRED ABOUT A $10 MILLION CHECK THAT THE CALLER EXPECTED TO BE DEPOSITED INTO THE INVESTOR'S FRAUDULENT MERRILL ACCOUNT. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE MERRILL INVESTIGATOR DETERMINED THAT A $10 MILLION CHECK ISSUED BY FLEET BANK HAD BEEN MAILED TO MERRILL FOR DEPOSIT INTO THE ACCOUNT. THE MERRILL INVESTIGATOR CONTACTED A PERSON AT FLEET BANK, WHO INFORMED HIM THAT COLORATION OF THE CHECK WAS NOT THAT OF FLEET CHECKS AND CERTAIN NUMBERS ON THE ACCOUNT WERE OUT OF SEQUENCE, THEREBY INDICATING THAT IT WAS A COUNTERFEIT CHECK. 7. IN OR ABOUT FEBRUARY AND MARCH 2001, SA1 INFORMED ME OF THE FOLLOWING: A. FROM IN OR ABOUT DECEMBER 2000 THROUGH IN OR ABOUT MARCH 2001, SA1 WAS INVESTIGATING FRAUD CONCERNING VARIOUS CREDIT CARD ACCOUNTS. MERCHANTS HAD INFORMED SA1 THAT THE 212 PHONE NUMBER HAD BEEN PROVIDED AS CALL BACK NUMBER IN CONNECTION WITH MANY ORDERS FOR MERCHANDISE THAT HAD BEEN PAID FOR USING UNAUTHORIZED CREDIT CARD NUMBERS. B. IN OR ABOUT JANUARY 2001, A MERCHANT LOCATED IN TEXAS (THE "MERCHANT") INFORMED SA1 THAT A PERSON HAD ORDERED CERTAIN CREDIT CARD READING MACHINES AND THAT THE PERSON HAD USED UNAUTHORIZED CREDIT CARD NUMBERS TO MAKE THE PURCHASE. THE PERSON PLACING THE ORDER HAD REQUESTED THAT THE MACHINES BE DELIVERED TO LOCATIONS IN BROOKLYN. THE MERCHANT ALSO STATED THAT THE PERSON ORDERING THOSE MACHINES HAD PROVIDED THE 212 PHONE NUMBER AS A CONTACT PHONE NUMBER. C. ON OR ABOUT MARCH 2, 2001, THE MERCHANT INFORMED SA1 THAT A PERSON USING THE NAME OF THE CEO OF AN INVESTMENT BANK LOCATED IN MANHATTAN ("CEO4") HAD ORDERED SOFTWARE FOR CREDIT CARD READING MACHINES OVER THE TELEPHONE USING A CREDIT CARD NUMBER. THE MERCHANT STATED THAT THE PERSON HAD ORIGINALLY REQUESTED A QUANTITY OF SOFTWARE THAT WAS SUSPICIOUS BECAUSE IT WAS FAR MORE THAN MOST REQUESTS THE MERCHANT RECEIVED. SA1 DETERMINED THAT THE CREDIT CARD NUMBER USED TO ORDER THAT SOFTWARE WAS NOT ISSUED TO CEO4 AND INFORMED THE MERCHANT OF THAT FACT. THE MERCHANT STATED THAT A PACKAGE (THE "PACKAGE") CONTAINING THE CONTRACTS FOR THE SALE OF SOFTWARE WOULD BE DELIVERED BY UNITED PARCEL SERVICE ("UPS") UNDER THE NAME OF CEO4 TO AND ADDRESSES LOCATED IN MANHATTAN. THE MERCHANT ALSO PROVIDED A SPECIFIC UPS TRACKING NUMBER FOR THAT PACKAGE. D. ON OR ABOUT MARCH 2, 2001, SA1 INFORMED A DETECTIVE WITH THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT ("NYPD") THAT THE PACKAGE REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH WAS SCHEDULED TO BE DELIVERED TO A SPECIFIC ADDRESS IN MANHATTAN UNDER THE NAME OF CEO4. THAT DETECTIVE DIRECTED UPS TO HOLD THE PACKAGE AT ITS DISTRIBUTION LOCATION IN THE BRONX. ON OR ABOUT MARCH 5, 2001, SA1 SPOKE TO A REPRESENTATIVE OF UPS WHO CONFIRMED THAT A PACKAGE BEARING THE TRACKING NUMBER REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH WAS AT THE BRONX LOCATION. ON OR ABOUT MARCH 7, 2001, A MESSENGER PICKED UP THE PACKAGE AND WAS QUESTIONED BY NYPD DETECTIVES. THE MESSENGER INFORMED THE DETECTIVES THAT HE HAD BEEN DIRECTED TO DELIVER THE PACKAGE TO A LOCATION IN BROOKLYN. A DETECTIVE THEN POSED AS A MESSENGER AND DELIVERED THE PACKAGE TO A PERSON IN BROOKLYN. THAT PERSON THEN CONTACTED ABRAHAM ABDALLAH, THE DEFENDANT, WHO WAS ARRESTED WHEN HE ARRIVED TO PICK UP THE PACKAGE. 8. ON OR ABOUT MARCH 8, 2001, AN NYPD DETECTIVE INFORMED ME THAT ABRAHAM ABDALLAH, THE DEFENDANT, HAD IN HIS CUSTODY AT THE TIME OF HIS ARREST VARIOUS DOCUMENTS AND OTHER ITEMS. I HAVE REVIEWED THE MATERIALS IN ABDALLAH'S POSSESSION AT THE TIME OF HIS ARREST. THEY INCLUDED, AMONG OTHER THINGS, THE FOLLOWING: A. A COPY OF THE OCTOBER 9, 2000 ISSUE OF FORBES MAGAZINE THAT CONTAINS AN ARTICLE ENTITLED "THE 400 RICHEST PEOPLE IN AMERICA" (WHICH INCLUDES INFORMATION ABOUT CEO1 AND THE INVESTOR) AND HANDWRITTEN NOTES LISTING THE SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS, ADDRESSES, INVESTMENT ACCOUNTS, AND OTHER INFORMATION ABOUT MANY INDIVIDUALS LISTED IN THE MAGAZINE, AS WELL AS THE ACCOUNT NUMBER OF THE WELLS FARGO ACCOUNT OF CEO1, THE INVESTOR'S SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND ADDRESS, AND THE ACCOUNT NUMBER OF ONE OF THE INVESTOR'S LEGITIMATE MERRILL ACCOUNTS; B. NUMEROUS SEPARATE LISTS THAT INCLUDE E-MAIL ADDRESS 1, THE NAMES OF CEO1, CEO2, CEO4 AND THE INVESTOR, THE ACCOUNT NUMBER OF MERRILL ACCOUNT OF CEO1, THE PHONE NUMBER PROVIDED AS THE CONTACT NUMBER FOR THE INVESTOR'S FRAUDULENT MERRILL ACCOUNT, AND THE ACCOUNT NUMBERS FOR THE INVESTOR'S LEGITIMATE AND FRAUDULENT MERRILL ACCOUNTS; C. LISTS CONTAINING CREDIT CARD NUMBERS OF AND OTHER INFORMATION FOR HUNDREDS OF INDIVIDUALS, NUMEROUS PHONE NUMBERS AND ADDRESSES, AND THE ADDRESS TO WHICH THE PACKAGE WAS ADDRESSED THAT RESULT DIN THE ARREST OF ABRAHAM ABDALLAH, THE DEFENDANT; D. A PIECE OF NOTEBOOK PAPER THAT LISTS SEVEN HANDWRITTEN STEPS BEGINNING WITH "OPEN THE FIDELITY ACCOUNT...."; E. VARIOUS FEDERAL EXPRESS AIR BILLS ADDRESSED TO THE PARK AVENUE ADDRESS; F. NUMEROUS CREDIT CARDS PURPORTEDLY ISSUED TO ABRAHAM ABDALLAH, THE DEFENDANT, AND OTHERS; G. AN INK STAMP OF THE NAME OF CEO4'S CORPORATION; H. DOCUMENTS PURPORTING TO BE SENT BY CORPORATION 1; I. A NOTARY STAMP; AND J. TWO WIRELESS TELEPHONES. 9. ON OR ABOUT MARCH 8, 2001, A DETECTIVE INFORMED ME THAT AFTER HE ARRESTED ABRAHAM ABDALLAH, THE DEFENDANT, HE DETERMINED THE PHONE NUMBER OF ONE OF THE WIRELESS PHONES IN ABDALLAH'S POSSESSION BY DIALING A PHONE NUMBER UNDER INVESTIGATION AND HEARING IT RING IMMEDIATELY ON THE PHONE. 10. IN OR ABOUT MARCH 2001, I RECEIVED RECORDS FROM NEXTEL COMMUNICATIONS, THE ISSUER OF THE PHONE NUMBER DIALED BY THE DETECTIVE AS DESCRIBED IN THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH. THOSE RECORDS INDICATE THAT THE 212 PHONE NUMBER, A "VIRTUAL" VOICE MAIL BOX ASSOCIATED WITH SEVERAL OF THE TRANSACTIONS DESCRIBED ABOVE, WAS CALLED FORM THE WIRELESS PHONE IN THE CUSTODY OF ABRAHAM ABDALLAH, THE DEFENDANT, PRIOR TO HIS ARREST. 11. IN OR ABOUT MARCH 2001, A DETECTIVE WITH THE NYPD INFORMED ME OF THE FOLLOWING: AFTER THE ARREST OF ABRAHAM ABDALLAH, THE DETECTIVE INTERVIEWED A PERSON AT ABDALLAH'S RESIDENCE. THAT PERSON (THE "BROTHER") STATED THAT HE WAS ABDALLAH'S BROTHER, THAT HE OWNED THE BUILDING, AND THAT ABDALLAH LIVED IN THE BUILDING. THE BROTHER FURTHER STATED THAT ABDALLAH HAD USED A COMPUTER LOCATED AT THE BROTHER'S HOUSE, WHICH WAS LOCATED ON THE SAME STREET AS ABDALLAH'S RESIDENCE. THE BROTHER THEN WENT TO THAT RESIDENCE, RETRIEVED THE COMPUTER, AND CONSENTED TO THE DETECTIVE TAKING POSSESSION OF THE COMPUTER IN ORDER TO ANALYZE ITS CONTENTS. ANALYSIS OF THAT COMPUTER HAS REVEALED THAT E-MAIL ADDRESS 2, WHICH HAD BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH VARIOUS FRAUDULENT TRANSACTIONS DESCRIBED ABOVE (SEE PARAGRAPH 3(A), WAS STORED IN SEVERAL LOCATIONS ON THE HARD DRIVE OF THAT COMPUTER. WHEREFORE, DEPONENT PRAYS THAT A WARRANT BE ISSUED FOR THE ARREST OF ABRAHAM ABDULLAH, THE DEFENDANT, AND THAT HE BE ARRESTED AND IMPRISONED OR BAILED AS THE CASE MAY BE. J. ALEXANDER PICKETT SPECIAL AGENT UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE NEW YORK ELECTRONIC CRIMES TASK FORCE SWORN TO BEFORE ME THIS 22ND DAY OF MARCH, 2001 RONALD L. ELLIS UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK APPROVED: ____________________ JONATHAN R. STREETER ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY BEFORE: HONORABLE RONALD L ELLIS 01-MAG.0481 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK -------------------------------------------X -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 2817 From: Marcelrf Date: Mon Mar 26, 2001 2:35pm Subject: Re: SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE? Call Motorola they have had the technology for a while! John Titterton wrote: > Conversations off a GSM network????? - must get one of those scanners! > > JT > > -----Original Message----- > From: Robert G. Ferrell [mailto:rferrell@r...] > Sent: 26 March 2001 20:29 > To: TSCM-L@yahoogroups.com > Subject: Re: [TSCM-L] SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE? > > But such tapping - "active" monitoring of a cellular conversation by > creating > a>stronger signal than the nearest base station - creates a "black hole" > that > immediately becomes evident in the control room of the service provider, say > Clint Nassif and Bruce de Kock, managing director and group operations > director > respectively of Strategic Digital Technologies. > > Ya lost me right here. I routinely pick up cell phone conversations on my > scanner, despite the fact that I'd really rather not listen to Billy Bob > telling Darlene how come he's gonna be late gettin' home tonight. I'm > relatively certain that this is an entirely passive process. > > Cheers, > > RGF > > > ======================================================== > TSCM-L Technical Security Mailing List > "In a multitude of counselors there is strength" > > To subscribe to the TSCM-L mailing list visit: > http://www.onelist.com/community/TSCM-L > > or email your subscription request to: > subTSCM-L@t... > =================================================== TSKS > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ -- "NEXTEL1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL" Subscribe to Nextel1: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/NEXTEL1 2818 From: James M. Atkinson, Comm-Eng Date: Tue Mar 27, 2001 8:49am Subject: Pentagon bans wireless from sensitive areas [Moderators Note: ...It's about bloody time, personal electronics devices are one of the governments biggest vulnerabilities for exploitation, but because of the political ramifications of banning them everybody looks the other way. PDA's, cell phones, pagers, radios, and laptops have absolutely no business being brought into or near areas where classified things are done or discusses. -jma] Pentagon bans wireless from sensitive areas http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0326/web-pent-03-26-01.asp BY Bill Murray 03/26/2001 The Pentagon has begun prohibiting workers in classified meeting areas from using wireless devices unless they disable their transmission capabilities. Personnel cannot bring digital devices with wireless data transmission capabilities into Pentagon sensitive compartmented information facilities (SCIF) "unless the device's infrared port has been taped over by an opaque tape and its antenna has been removed/disconnected," wrote David O. Cooke, the Pentagon's director of administration and management. "It's a very good policy to have," said Alan Paller, research director at the SANS Institute in Bethesda, Md. "The reason a SCIF exists is to isolate" classified information, he said. The wireless policy exists for "the same reason you don't allow floppy diskettes to leave SCIFs. It's the same reason you don't allow tape recorders at the CIA." In a March 6 memo, Cooke said that his policy's success will depend largely on individuals voluntarily abiding by it. He also called the policy "an interim measure pending publication of a national policy," and that SCIF security managers should consider it a basic level of security protection. Part of the value of Cooke's wireless policy is that it reminds classified workers that they probably shouldn't bring wireless devices into SCIFs, Paller said. Users can't remove the antenna on many wireless devices, he said. The policy also gives the armed services a way to prosecute anyone who violates the policy, Paller said. The Defense Protective Service is implementing Cooke's memo, said Glenn Flood, a Pentagon spokesman. Since DPS handles physical security for the Pentagon, it is notifying organizations about the wireless policy, he said. It's up to each organization to report any violations of the wireless policy that occur. Part of the Pentagon's caution could have to do with the fact that wireless devices from companies such as Palm Inc. and Research in Motion Ltd. (maker of BlackBerry) have become more popular among the armed services' top officials. -- ======================================================================= Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - George Orwell ======================================================================= James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803 Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467 127 Eastern Avenue #291 http://www.tscm.com/ Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 jmatk@t... ======================================================================= The First, The Largest, The Most Popular, and The Most Complete TSCM, Technical Security, and Counterintelligence Site on the Internet. ======================================================================= 2819 From: Paolo Sfriso Date: Tue Mar 27, 2001 6:58am Subject: South African / Norwegian Device ??? ...Quote... Message: 16 Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 15:35:27 -0500 From: Marcelrf Subject: Re: SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE? Call Motorola they have had the technology for a while! ...Unquote... Are you sure ? Kindly let us have model name, description/tech. sheet, and price. Paul Sfriso Director GRUPPO S.I.T. Security, Investigations & Tecnology Quarto d'Altino, Venice ITALY phone +39 0422 828517 fax +39 0422 823224 24hr GSM cellphone +39 335 5257308 paulsfriso@t... www.grupposit.com 2820 From: David Alexander Date: Tue Mar 27, 2001 6:10am Subject: re: SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE? This article sounds highly dubious to me. It has been possible to monitor such communications for a long time with a standard listening device that has no transmit capability and must, by definition, be untraceable except by very short-range emissions. Cellphones and sites are not tight-beam, therefore the signal radiates. The supposed confidentiality on GSM is provided by an encryption system, but the security services insisted on there being a back door to the algorithm to make their lives easier. I think Ross Anderson at Cambridge University, England has written about this in detail. It's certainly public domain knowledge. David Alexander M.INSTIS Global client-server & Communications Manager Bookham Technology plc DDI: 01235 837823 David.Alexander@B... ======================================================================= This e-mail is intended for the person it is addressed to only. The information contained in it may be confidential and/or protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you must not make any use of this information, or copy or show it to any person. Please contact us immediately to tell us that you have received this e-mail, and return the original to us. Any use, forwarding, printing or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. No part of this message can be considered a request for goods or services. ======================================================================= Any questions about Bookham's E-Mail service should be directed to postmaster@b.... 2821 From: Ray Van Staden Date: Tue Mar 27, 2001 2:59am Subject: HAS ANY USED THIS DEVICE? The posting SOUTH AFRICAN / NORWEGIAN DEVICE ?, has reference to this posting. After this posting I received the following E-Mail: ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Bridges jamesabridge@e... To: Ray Van Staden Sent: 26 March 2001 08:56 Subject: GSM Interceptor FAO Ray Van Staden The article you read in the newspsper is correct, this equipment is real and in use. I know - I have seen it, used it and promote it. Regards Jim Bridges Scandec The problem is when I replied to Mr Bridges I got the following answer: ----- Original Message ----- From: "Postmaster" To: Sent: 27 March 2001 09:40 Subject: Nondeliverable mail > ------Transcript of session follows ------- > jamesabridge@e... > The user's email name is not found. > > The only reference I can find to Scandec is linked to the International film industry with the following address details: Scandec ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- PO Box 71, Sofiemyr, N-1412 Norway Tel: +47 6680 5960 Fax: +47 6680 5959 I accept that the technology exsists. With regards to the so called DELTA III Device, has anyone ever used it? If so what are the specifications. --- From the desk of Raymond van Staden Van Staden and Associates cc P.O. Box 1150 Amanzimtoti 4125 South Africa Tel: +27 (0)31 916-1262 Fax: +27 (0)31 916-1263 Email: raymond@v... Internet: http://www.vanstaden.co.za