[ 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.
Store and Forward Bugs
Store and Forward Bugs are Child’s Play
What if a TSCM sweep conducted the night prior to an important meeting detected no suspicious transmissions and the real time monitoring also indicated no suspect communications? Does that mean no eavesdropping took place? Not necessarily… Audio and or video data could have been recorded and scheduled to be transmitted at a later date. This eavesdropping technique is often termed as Store and Forward Bugging.
The concept of ‘Store and Forward’ bugs is not new; however, such devices are (thankfully) generally not readily available over the counter at the local ‘Spy’ shop or EBay, they can be expensive and in our research, sometimes restricted to law enforcement..
West Papua
We support West Papua freedom. Freedom and independence from Indonesian brutality and oppresion.
You might have heard that a West Papua supporter displayed a West Papua flag the other day on the roof of the Indon consul general's premises in Melbourne. You might also have seen on the news that the Indon military has suspended all military cooperation with Australia after some Indonesian soldiers on training in WA were exposed to West Papua freedom material. Can you believe it? The Indonesians slapping us over the wrists and suspend training? Hey guys, we are funding your brutal and corrupt military! So that you continue in West Papua and more efficiently kill and brutalise locals. And then, wow, Indonesia’s foreign minister "urges" Australian authorities to act against the protester who hoisted a West Papuan flag.
Of course our govt via our foreign minister and that woman, what's her name, the defence minister, promptly climb up the backsides of the Indon government to assure them we are all hunky-dory with their deal and their so-called sovereignity of West Paupa. Says something about Australia supporting human rights, right? But hang on, did you know this has been going on for more than 40 years? West Papuans have been abused and displaced and killed and we, and the world, has stood by with our collective heads in the sand?
Check this info out and speak up! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/benny-wenda/indonesias-brutal-crackdo_b_10244572.html | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papua_conflict | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsONXIMGatw | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbbndM9U4Fs
And while you're at it, get a T-shirt to support independence for West Papua.
Walls have ears... and so do watches
As someone once wrote, “With the introduction of the Internet of Things, comes the Internet of Evil Things” and this is also apparent with BYO devices, including smart watches, to the work place. In the modern world of corporate espionage and IP theft, corporate security protocols should include regular Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) during which sweep teams survey for surreptitious listening / recording / transmitting devices (in their various forms) and hidden cameras, particularly within the executive suite of offices and board rooms. Typically, if a board..
Justice. Finally.
Mum always said you must not rejoice in another's suffering. Sorry mum, but I can't help it - hurray! And good riddance to bad rubbish. Eddie Obeid the corrup politician will have that snide smirk wiped off his face as he spends the next three years in prison. He will have plenty of time to contemplate his shrinking fortune and further charges that are pending against him. Never know, might get lucky and get another three years!
You can be infected by a banner ad PNG image
Turns out that some big news media sites were running ad banner capable of infecting your computer with a variety of nasty stuff. You didn't have to do anything except view the web page that displayed the ad. This exploit is capable of concealing maliscious code within the image and it triggered a series of events to retrieve some bad Flash code which got fed into your browser and before you could say what's going on, you were infected and your internet banking, etc etc was exposed to bad people. The problem is, you didn't actually become aware anything happened until your bank balance shrunk.
All this just by visiting a legitimate major media website? Yes. If you are a little bit technicall minded you should have an interesting read of it here.
The new investigateway.com.au
Finally after a long time of neglect we have our new site up and running! What a relief! Hundreds of hours of work, but we are pleased with the outcome. We hope you will find the new site useful now that all dead links have been removed and lots of new rources added. And finally you can use the site on your mobile or any other display. Google will like us better too.
Specifically, we have updated the investigation resources area and also all of the PI agencies both in Australia and around the world. Don't forget, you can get listed free of charge.
Track'n'Watch
ASSI International has released TracknWatch a new tracking method that allows you to use "Watchers" who can stream video specifically to you. This might be about events or accidents or the weather or crime scenes across the globe.
Have a look at http://tracknwatch.com and you can become a watcher. If someone needs your service to see something, such as a real estate auction or house inspection, they engage you. The watcher attends the location and via a mobile phone streams live video and audio to you.
DuckDuckGo
You know, don't you, that Google etc etc track you and log every search you run. And then the government etc can look up to see what and when you searched. DuckDuckGo does not keep logs, does not track you.
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