Oligarch's yacht uses laser defenses against passive optical spying

Billionaire Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich is known for the measures he takes to protect his privacy. Like Michael Dell, the interiors of his homes and vehicles aren't photographed.

The Times reports that Abramovich's 170 meter yacht M/Y Eclipse, currently undergoing shakedown cruises, has been fitted with a state-of-the-art optics countermeasure system:

Infrared lasers detect the electronic light sensors in nearby cameras, known as charge-coupled devices. When the system detects such a device, it fires a focused beam of light at the camera, disrupting its ability to record a digital image.

Although this report says a digital camera's CCDs are detected, it seems likely that this is instead an active optics detector. An optics detector works by emitting a brief laser pulse and then waiting for any glint from reflected optics. In this case, the system then targets a laser on the hostile lenses, flooding them with light and rendering the viewing optics ineffective.

If this system indeed detects optics and not just camera CCDs, then all optics would be flared with laser light, including binoculars, telescopes, and film cameras lacking digital Charged-Coupled Devices.

Wired speculates on the legality of this system under British law:

UK photo magazine Amateur Photographer asked a London lawyer about the legalities of destroying photos from afar. Here’s what he said: "intermeddling with goods belonging to someone else, or altering their condition, is a trespass to goods and will entitle the photographer to claim compensation without having to prove loss."

Defense against optical surveillance isn't the Russian businessman's only concern: M/Y Eclipse is also fitted with armor plate, bullet-resistant glass and a missile defense system.

Defeat infrared surveillance cameras

A German arts group is publicizing a technique to defeat surveillance cameras that can see in the infrared range by overwhelming their arrays with infrared light from IR LEDs mounted on a headband or hat.

According to commenters, this technique would work best against low-light surveillance cameras with particular sensitivity in the infrared range, optimized for low-light situations.

Many cameras have sensitivity into the IR but wouldn't be so easily overwhelmed by the brighter infrared LEDs.

Security Insider claims this technique would only work intermittently against cheap CCTV cameras:

I can tell you that this may work for a second or two on cameras that have a cut filter (that's the real name for "IR sensitive" cameras), but all that is really going to happen is your face will get illuminated in between the frames that are actually "flared" out by the light. Also, you're more likely to be noticed doing this due to the motion detection alarms going off due to the large pixel change. You would be much better off with a laser, than an LED. We've been doing these type of tricks for years in the lab to try to trick the cameras. Anymore, its not the cameras you need to trick, but the intelligent video algorithms that are going to pick up on the anomaly and register it as an event. Oh, one more thing. Don't even try to attempt this during the daytime. Like another poster said, the cut filter doesn't activate until a timer either trips it (set on a schedule) or a preset low lux threshhold is met. (it gets dark). Even then many cameras these days have dynamic range circuits that will tame the bright spots and highlight the dark spots. Look up some Pelco, Panasonic, or Sony cctv specs for more info.

The Anonymity Experiment

A Popular Science writer spends a week staying anonymous in the digital age: paying cash, dodging surveillance cameras and using disposable cellphones.

Keep your smartphone in your sight

Another reason why your mobile smartphone shouldn't be out of your sight:

FlexiSPY Pro is tracking software that can be installed on a "smart" mobile phone by anyone who has access to the phone for a few minutes. After installation, it copies the smartphone's SMS text messages, call history and other data to FlexiSPY's server four times a day to be accessed by the party who installed the spyware. The phone's microphone can even be activated remotely so the smartphone can be used remotely as a passive bug.

I haven't tried the product, but Airscanner for Windows
Mobile claims to detect threat spyware programs such as Mobile-spy and FlexiSPY.

So far, this software can only be installed if someone has physical access to the Windows Mobile (or other type) smartphone. Regular cell phones that can't run third-party programs are not vulnerable to this backdoor software.

U.S. Mint Data Mining & Credit Card Privacy

This freetimes.com article on U.S. federal government surveillance mentions the U.S. Mint's credit card data mining program:

Unlike the NSA and Treasury spy programs, a U.S. Mint program that trawls through your credit card data when you make online purchases isn't aimed at terrorists. It was built to spy on ordinary Americans in an effort to "detect criminal activities or patterns" and "stop fraudulent activity involving stolen credit cards." Yet very little has ever been written or reported about it.

The article also mentions the DIA's purchase of Verity K2 Enterprise software to search the databases of other intelligence agencies, and IRS's Reveal, and others from the GAO report on government data mining.

The Value of Privacy

Cryptographer Bruce Schneier on the value of privacy:

Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he famously said, "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." Watch someone long enough, and you'll find something to arrest -- or just blackmail -- with. Privacy is important because without it, surveillance information will be abused: to peep, to sell to marketers and to spy on political enemies -- whoever they happen to be at the time.