Unlock your phone! Now!
The feds can insist. You might go to jail for 10 years
You are using Whatsapp because you like to know your communication with your friends is strictly private and cannot be intercepted? As it is encrypted, you are safe? The government told you they've given up trying to get backdoors into secure apps. And anything else in any other kinds if devices. On your PC you have the best firewall and AV and your PGP keeps things safe. No one can get in and least of course the pesky government spies and Dutton's servants.
Fail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200.
Everyone's friend Peter Dutton
The government has introduced The Assistance and Access Bill 2018 for "consultation" (bullshit) and you've got three weeks to express your views about that by emailing AssistanceBill.Consultation@homeaffairs.gov.au. Read all about it here and here and here.
Basically it means the Dutton's servants, ASIO, feds, police and just about every Tom, Dick and Harry that calls himself "law enforcement" will be able to read your messages before you send them and after you receive replies. It will be able to hack your phone and any device, make changes, spy, download stuff and upload hacking tools and even follow you on GPS. How? By asking foreign and domestic communications providers, device manufacturers, component manufacturers, application providers, and traditional telecommunications carriers and carriage service providers. And if anyone does not comply, well they'll fine you 10 million and then you will still have to modify/create anything they ask of you so that unimpeded access to your stuff is possible. And if anyone tells anyone what's happening, well they're down the shit creek too. You of course will be totally unaware anything has happened.
What? You have nothing to hide, huh? Ah well that's OK then. As long as we have honest government, coppers and spies, you'll be safe, but it has amply been demonstrated over the years there are crooks and abusers in all agencies and at all levels of government. Just how sure are you they you were not targeted by mistake? Or you were targeted by some bad people or person? Well, you'll never know what hit you when they come to take you away.
What can you do? The pollies won't do much except maybe for the Greens or some independents, but as usual Labor will help the libs to slide the new laws through the parliament, no worries. Get on to you local member. Complain, warn him you won't vote for him and neither will your mum or her dogs and cats. There's strength in numbers!
Alternatively, just sit back like most Australians and do nothing and if some agency in the USA acting on some new law brought on by that nutjob Trump wants to get you arrested, well that can be done too under the new law. In other words, you are also subject to arrest and prosecution under some criminal law in some foreign country. And if you refuse to unlock your phone for the feds, then off you go to jail for 10 years.
We support whistleblowers
(Copied from Getup website, which we support)
In 2004 the Howard Government illegally bugged the offices of the fledgling East Timorese government. Why? To swindle the impoverished nation out of its valuable natural resources during critical negotiations. The Turnbull Government has authorised criminal prosecution against a former intelligences officer, known only as Witness K, who exposed illegal spying by the Howard Government. Now unless we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Witness K and their lawyer Bernard Collaery, who has also been charged, they could both spend years in prison for standing up for what's right.
HealthEngine doctor appointment booking system sharing patient data
HealthEngine and its doctor appointment booking system has been sharing patient private information with law firms with the flimsiest pretense of patient consent has been discovered by an ABC's investigation. It turns out firms like Slater & Gordon was getting a daily list of prospective customers from the system which they then used to call and push their services on to new patients. Not only that, but HealthEngine has been sharing patient info with other services providers including price comparison websites. We are talking about 1.5 mill monthly users. Who owns this gem? Well, Tesltra and Seven West Media are among them. "In our doctor we trust". Yeah.
[ Political statement ]
Peter Dutton: "I've got every child out of detention" - ABC News 23 November 2017
Nauru 27 May 2018
Google spying on you?
OK so we all heard about naughty Facebook spying on you. And now we hear Google/Android is spying on you much more than Facebook. I love Google and I love Android OS, but hang on, everything you search, visit, click, download, watch etc is logged by Google. And it's really your fault because you didn't go over all your privacy settings. If you knew how.
Well the other day I found this story on USA Today and this led me to the right area of my Google account where I was able to grab all the stuff collected about me. Nearly 3 GB of stuff downloaded. And then I carefully blocked all the stuff I don't want Google to log on my computer and on my Android device.
OK wait for it, here's the most stunning part: being privacy obsessed, I always make sure that GPS and location is turned off on my mobile. In the 18 months since I got my current phone I might have had GPS or location turned on a total of 15 days. No more. Yet Google has logged my location thousands of time. The downloaded data shows me everywhere I've been. What date, what time, what was at the location? Click it and I can see the Street View pics of the places. Everything is logged!
That's not all folks: My mike on the phone was switched on seemingly at random times and audio was recorded. Most of it just noises, like me clunking the dishes, getting into the car and starting the engine etc. But why? How? I didn't ask my phone to keep monitoring me.
Did you? Imagine the field day warring partners can have accessing each other's Google data. Many boys and girls know each other's passwords. They'll get the download and presto, all the incriminating evidence is there! "hey honey, what were you doing the other day at..."
You gotta love Google. Or not.
More wisdom from Mike Evans
Thanks again to Mike from ASA for more useful discussions for people that want to become private eyes or want to better understand what PIs do.
...and some more informative videos
Adding to the video list from the other day, Mike Evans from ASA has provided us some more interesting videos for folks who want to become private eyes!
- FAQ 7 How do I become a Licensed PI in Australia?
- FAQ 8 I want to do team surveillance is that possible? Yes if you become a police officer, no if you want to be a licensed PI.
- FAQ 9 How do I apply to the Victorian Police to become a Licensed PI in Victoria?
- FAQ 10 "#Me too" Investigations can I do those?
- FAQ 11 Do ridiculous Claims ever get up? This one did Ouch!
- FAQ 12 Which Certificate do I use to apply to become a PI in Victoria?
Mike Evans to the rescue
In these informative Youtube videos licensed private investigator Mike Evans from ASA answers some common FAQs about the civil investigation industry. Mike has been a licensed PI since 1994 and has conducted investigations in Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and New south Wales.
- FAQ 1 Do I need to be licensed in every state or territory?
- FAQ 2 What is the Difference between Certificate IV in Government investigation and Certificate IV in Investigative Services?
- FAQ 3 Should I carry a Private Investigator Badge?
- FAQ 4 How many PIs are there in Australia?
- FAQ 5 What mistakes should I avoid to ensure I am professional and my career is long lasting? Don't join a Victorian Sewing Circle! Warning not PC!
- FAQ 6 Are Social Media investigator sewing circles that bad? Yes!
Check on child care centres
The Australian government now publishes a list of services that have been sanctioned under section 200 and/or suspended under section 201A of New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999. Information on sanctions is be available to the public via these registers.
Psst. Postal codes
Trace the location of any country's postal code
Came across this incredible series of databases of postal codes. Sure, easy enough to work out Australian post codes for you, but what about Thailand, Urugay or Lithuania? Download the data by country. Includes geographic coords for every post code. http://download.geonames.org/export/zip/. Alternatively use the GUI but you need to know the code and can't get an overview http://www.geonames.org/postal-codes/
Want a rsms457 visa?
(Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme 457)
Well if you do and you discover this website offering to help you - http://www.rsms457.com/ - you might as well read this latest investigative article at Brisbane Times. Just in case!
TrumpiLeaks
Most Australians don't have much good to say about Donald Trump. Michael Moore the American filmmaker makes no secret of his dislike for the orange man (also known as moron) and has created a website for whistleblowers specifically to garner any evidence that will assist the early demise of orange man (also known as moron). The website TrumpiLeaks is at https://michaelmoore.com/TrumpiLeaks/ and anyone from any walk of life including govt agencies, military, showbiz can pretty safely supply their morsels to Mr Moore via this site. The ultimate objective is of course to rid the planet of this fruity orange man and save us from this man's infantile nastiness and bullying, undermining peace and diplomacy and adult-like behaviour among normal people.
Proof again
Why you can't trust anyone with your data
Equifax is a credit reporting agency and it holds the credit history and personal information of some 800 million people around the world. A treasure-trove of data just waiting to be hacked. Well the company has finally confirmed that the personal info of some 143 million people has been stolen. And wait for it, Equifax owns Equifax Australia, formerly Veda. The company thus holds the credit history and personal information of hundreds of thousands of Australians. Maybe you or me.
The company just announced that they were hacked between May and July! But hey, they only announced it two months late. And now they say trust us, we have taken all necessary measures... ah, OK. Therefore the company's assurances that there is no evidence "yet" its Australian customers are affected has to be taken with more than a grain of salt.
In desparation the company has offered to give you free access to your data to check it https://www.equifax.com.au/contact. You could call them to arrange 138 332 (Australia)Of course that's no guarantee your personal details have not been sold on the dark net in the mean time. And they'll let you sign up to a free alert when ever anything is changed with your info. That sounds to me like a company that wants all the help it can get to keep robbers out. So think carefully next time you give someone permission to get personal information from you.
Advanced Surveillance Workshop
The question is, are you tough enough? This course is for the pros (or those who can pretend to be!). This course is coming up in October in Sydney. We have always had only the best feedback about this one. The most advanced. You'll be taught stuff your competitors have not even heard about. For info go here.
Govt aim to break your encryption
The challenges for law enforcement investigators
Looks a lot like smoke and mirrors. The recent government push to obtain legal powers to force Google, Facebook, WhatsApp and all and sundry to provide access to encrypted data stored or transmitted by the public seems to be a ploy. How can an Australian law force an American company to comply with Australian law? Suppose it can coerce them by threatening restriction to Australian consumers and users.
Notwithstanding the technical problems of accessing their users' encryption keys in order to share them, let's say the American companies agree to give Australian law enforcement agencies the desired access to protected data. What the average (informed) user could do is to start using a service in other countries. There's thousands of sources of software and data storage in countries around the world which do not comply with US or Australian requests or court orders. People could avoid Australian efforts by switching.
Your friendly local ISIS supporter could make an encrypted video call to his friends in Syria or Afghanistan using encrypted service in Myanmar and then clean out any left-overs on his smart phone. ASIO would taken posession of his device and find nothing incriminating. Totally defeats the governments law.
Here is an intelligent review of the situation by Andrew Keane Woods, Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law.
Trust your government? But do you trust criminals with decryption?
The decryption conversation
Here we go again, smart (LOL) politicians want to force Facebook, Google et-al to help them break encryption. Whilst their argument in favour is commendable, it's also plain stupid. First of all it is accepted by those who understand technology and mathematics that it's not possible for the companies to break the encryption of messages they handle for their users, stupid politicians (yes including Mrs Brandis) want to ignore two important realities: if government and messaging companies find a way to do it, then criminals and nasty people will too; second, government agencies have been known to occasionally (excuse the gross understatement) have crooked coppers and officials abuse their facilities for a variety of reasons.
Imagine, if Faceook technicians work out a way to enable police to access your WhatsApp messages, then what do you think the technician will say if some criminal syndicate offers him 10 million dollars to come over and provide the solution? Or, if some criminal warns the technicians he will kills each member of his wider family unless he cooperates.
The idea is stupid. Malcom and Mrs Brandis are being typical politicians (doh!). They ignore the reality that despite police in the UK having the law on their side insofar as access to private data is concerned, they cannot make the companies decrypt encryption.
Corporate Spying
is that visitor who you thought it is? Are you sure?
Do you take on face value everyone who comes to your offices? Whether employee or visitor, there is always risk of intellectual propertt theft and corporate espionage. Look at the five visitors above; the four on the left are visitors from a consulting firm signing in at front desk and waiting to meet their client. The woman on the right is waiting to meet her friend for coffee. Or are they?
Investigative Interviewing – Getting it right the first time
Friend of this website, Daren Jay, is not just a top bloke but also a seasoned trainer with a background in policing and training. He is a qualified Investigative Interviewing trainer having been trained by Kent Police in the UK as a specialist interviewer of vulnerable children and adults. He has interviewed 1000’s of victims of crime in relation to sexual offences, homicide and fraud/corruption offences in jurisdictions all over the world.
Daren is presently employed as a Senior Fraud and Corruption Investigator with the NSW Government and back in 2005 Daren qualified as a UK Home Office Tier 3 Video Interviewer enabling him to video interview adults, children and other vulnerable persons in relation to child abuse offences and other serious sexual offences. Now as Director of Interview Management Solutions (IMS), Daren now provides an Online Investigative Interviewing Course designed for PIs. And just because he thinks we are nice people, he allows our site visitors a 25% discount when you sign up for this outstanding online course. During sign-up just quote INVESTIGATEWAY2017’ to receive the...
CIA Hacking tools and procedures
Just when you thought your iPhone is the most secure mobile phone, the CIA goes and hacks it to listen, watch and track you. And they can do the same with others. And they can bypass anti-virus and firewalls on your Windows! And did you hear? They can listen and read your Whatsapp, Signal and Telegram messages despite totally secure encryption (they just pick you up before the stuff gets encrypted). Thousands of pages and millions lines of code have been released by Wikileaks. Now think about this, if the CIA can do it then then Russians can do it. And ASIS can do it and who knows, maybe even your state police can do it! LOL. TIme to get rid of mobile phones, computers and televisions. Oh, yes, they also can hack cars.
Spousebusters busted?
Private detective Brett Sutcliffe, 37, has failed to cover his own tracks after a run in the law that should have blacklisted him from the industry. The founder of PI agency Spousebusters has been operating without a licence after a conviction in 2008 for impersonating an Australian Federal Police officer and menacing an elderly woman in North Bondi. A Fairfax Media investigation has found that his attempts to have his licence re-instated have been rejected twice by the NSW Police yet he continues to run the nation-wide agency.
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