With growing use of the internet and mobile phone telephony, most children are now are now fully plugged in to the world of instant communication, but with that also comes potential hazards. It provides a growing opportunity for paedophiles to groom kids more easily than ever before. To counter such threats, a new mobile phone app called Child Defence has been designed that recognises the differences in the patterns of communication between children, and adults that pretend to be children. (more…)

Latest news shows not at all. Everybody knows there are various spy softwares available for listening in on mobile telephonic conversations, but usually these have to be installed and come at a great expense, making it impractical. However, security researchers, Karsten Nohl and Sylvain Munaut have demonstrated that open source software along with four cheap phones can enable eavesdropping on any GSM phone.

At the recent Chaos Computer Club Congress in Berlin the duo showed how they had developed the toolkit which helps them listen in to any conversation. And this is not only verbal calls, but also any data. They took the audience through the whole process. They could get hold of the phone’s unique id and intercept the data while on its way to the base station from the phone used. (more…)

Sticky fingers now has a new, more literal, meaning. A security firm, G4S Cash Solutions, has invented a cash box that will spray all the money inside with glue, if it is broken into. Cash boxes are notoriously easy to steal and can be opened without much problem either. Currently a dye is being used to spray the money with colour if the cash box is forced open.

While the dyed notes can be used to track criminals, the notes can still be used in machines and in other ways. However, if the money becomes totally unusable, perhaps it would deter robbers from committing crimes. (more…)

Ever wondered some of the spy gadgets used by early secret agents? This video shows some of the early devices that were used by agents of MI6. Looking at these gadgets, one thing that is clear is that we have come a long way in the development of surveillance gadgets. These type of gadgets are no longer the privilege of secret agents as there are now much more advanced products than these available to the general pubic, but of course the products available to the secret service today is much more advanced still than those available to consumers.

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About three years ago, News of the World was embroiled in an alleged phone hacking scandal, which led to the sacking of News of the World’s royal editor Clive Goodman and his subsequent incarceration after a court case. Both the Guardian and The New York Times now say that this was only the tip of an iceberg, leading to a call by former deputy PM John Prescott to call for reopening inquiries into the matter. He also said that he would take legal action to force the police to tell him if his phone had one of those hacked into. (more…)

There is increasing news coverage of India in the UK thanks to its booming economy, but with greater prosperity there is sometimes rise in activity that some might regard an unwanted side effect – espionage and surveillance – both at personal and corporate level that people perhaps wouldn’t have been subjected to otherwise, as this video shows. (more…)

The figures say it all – there has been a 16 percent increase in phishing attacks over last year records show. As criminals get more and more sophisticated, they find it easier to spy on people’s computers and get hold of banking passwords and other details.

And despite all the anti-virus software and despite the fact that people have been warned time and again, they still fall prey to phishing attacks. The fraudsters send emails to customers purportedly from the bank, directing them to a site which looks like a legitimate bank site and asks them to verify their details either for security purposes or because data has been lost or because the bank wants to update its records. (more…)

Body scanners currently in use in many airports, particularly in Britain, have come a under a great deal of flak for various reasons. These scanners offer a complete body scan, more than many people would like. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said that using these scanners could break the privacy, race relations and discrimination laws in UK. (more…)