Ché is a popular monthly men’s magazine in Belgium. Every month the magazine features six whole pages dedicated to the latest gadgets. In their recent May 2010 issue, they featured our Flashlight Hidden Camcorder as one of their favorite gadgets of the month.
We’ve seen one too many ATM scams pop up in the news over the course of the past year, but this latest scam is especially disturbing because it involves a bank employee. In Charlette, North Carolina a member of the IT Staff at a Bank of America branch ended up installing malware onto the bank’s ATM machines. It has been discovered that he used the malware to make fraudulent withdrawals over the course of a seven-month period.
Many suspect that Rodney Reed Caverly, 37, used malware code that originated in Russia and the Ukraine. The code which was discovered last year, was used in 20+ ATMs overseas, is designed to capture pins and bank card magstripe data, and it also allows thieves to instruct the machine to eject whatever cash still inside of it.
During the past few years GPS tracking has become a very popular method of monitoring endangered species in the wild. Now, GPS tracking devices are being used to track the movements of two of the rarest birds on the planet – both whooping cranes. [...]
It’s not everyday that the Wyoming Highway Patrol and the NYPD get to work together, but thanks to a GPS tracking device, the two teams were able to work together to catch thieves embroiled in a major heist..
First the NYPD contact the Wyoming troopers to let them know to keep a watch out for a stolen rental car. Fortunately the rental company had installed a GPS tracking device inside of the vehicle, so the NYPD was able to determine which region the car was in, which is why they contacted the Wyoming Highway Patrol. As a result, the Wyoming Highway Patrol was able to quickly spot the car this past monday night. The suspects in the car were immediately arrested and troops managed to find $37,000 in stolen jewelry, laptop computers, iPods and digital cameras in the car.
(Via Q2 KTVQ)
This certainly isn’t the first time that Facebook has been used to catch a crook, and we’re pretty sure that it won’t be the last.
After two men broke into a head shop in Boston, the store owner posted a surveillance video of the break-in on the store’s Facebook page. One of the thieves can be seen in the video stealing a $4K glass tube.
Within a few days, the video had 6,000 views and the store’s online community managed to recognize one of the thieves. The police made an arrest soon after. Meanwhile, the police are still working on identifying the second suspect.
(Via Technorati Lifestyle)
The Public Security Ministry in the State of Israel has announced that they will be setting up CCTV systems in many of Israel’s cities. These surveillance systems will be part of the City Without Violence program which has the goal of deterring criminals, terrorists, and making it easier for Israeli authorities to more efficiently track down these criminals.
The cameras will be mounted in industrial zones, residential neighborhoods, schools, major intersections, and parks, but the Ministry spokesman promises that the CCTV systems will not adversely affect individual people’s privacy.
This new surveillance network initiative is part of a 5 point plan that Prime Minister Netanyahu started last year in order to reduce violence. The plan also includes limiting alcohol sales at night, harsher penalties for violent crime, and anti-violence education in schools.
(Via Israel National News)
According to anti-virus and security firm, Sophos, 8000 iPhone and Android smartphones were recently hacked to form a botnet. By downloading an app called WeatherFist, unsuspecting users with jailbroken phones became vulnerable. Fortunately, in this case the botnet was not actually harmful. Instead, it was created by two researchers at TippingPoint Digital Vaccine Labs as a proof of concept experiment to prove how easy it is for these smartphones to be exploited, and just how weak the security is for third party app stores.
Moral of the story – research an app before you insist on downloading and installing it from any of these third party app stores.
(Via Download Squad)
In New York, Assemblyman Felix Ortiz is working hard to enact a new bill that would protect domestic violence victims by requiring any person with an order of protection issued against them to wear a GPS tracking device. The family of Erika Delia took to the steps of CIty Hall with Ortiz to express their support of such a bill.
In 2007, Erika Delia was murdered by her ex-boyfriend who she had previously had a restraining order on. And just recently a woman in Flushing was murdered by a man who she had multiple restraining orders against. [...]
This week Boston police unveiled their new high tech real time surveillance center. This fusion center will provide officers with data from surveillance video footage, data from gunshot detection technology and resources in real time so that law enforcement can rush to the scene of a crime.
The Real Time Crime Center is being staffed by detectives and five civilian analysts whose jobs include monitoring video from city surveillance cameras, monitoring alerts from the gunshot detection system ShotSpotter, monitoring radio communications, and using mapping technology and other databases. The center monitors a total of 84 cameras that are located by city evacuation routes, and the center can also access surveillance images on Transportation Department cameras. [...]
Have you ever taken a taxi ride and suspected that the meter was going faster than it should be? You’re suspicions might have been correct if you were ever a passenger of Wasim Khalid Cheema. The Brooklyn taxi driver is said to have hacked his taxi meter in order to routinely charge his passengers double the fare. It’s estimated that his meter hack stole a total of $40k during a 6 month period.
“(Cheema) has a pattern of deceiving passengers in a manner which is clearly against the best interests of the public,” a city administrative law judge wrote in a decision against him last month. “Members of the riding public must be able to trust that taxicab drivers will … be honest.”
Taxi cab driver, Wasim Khalid Cheema
After passengers complained, investigators used the GPS tracking technology installed in all NYC taxi meters to determine that Cheema was actually charging riders the rate reserved for trips to Nassau and Westchester counties.
(Via AMNY)
Todd Morris
In an articled called, “The Road to Reinvention,” Business Week recently spotlighted the careers of three successful businessman. Our CEO, Todd Morris is one of them. Check out the full article here.
Agent has developed a concept football called CTRUS. This transparent football uses GPS tracking technology combined with an RFID chip to make it easier to identify close calls over the goal line or the side line. A high-tech football (or soccer ball for U.S. folks) like this one could have easily avoided the controversy surrounding Thierry Henry’s handball goal against Ireland.
The reality is that the technology for such a football is already available, so this isn’t that much of a futuristic concept at all. Not to mention, that this isn’t the first instance where we’ve seen GPS tracking being used to make a sport more efficient. Just last month gps trackers were used at Super Bowl 44. At this rate, we’re confident that within the next few years we’ll be seeing GPS tracking implemented in many creative and strategic ways for many different kinds of sports.
(Via GizmoWatch)
Dick DeBartolo featured the Key Chain Camera Spy Camcorder on his recent Daily Giz Wiz podcast. The Daily Giz Wiz is a popular audio podcast on the TWiT Netcast network with Leo Laporte. [...]
The New York Times recently picked up our story about how sales for surveillance tools at BrickHouse Security has spiked nearly 2.5 times in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day. In addition to the New York Times, the Dallas Morning News also wrote an interesting article about the business of tracking cheaters, where they talked about how Valentine’s Day is a super busy season for the company.
