Pastor Arrested for Hidden Cameras in Women’s Restroom

By Andrew Chow, JD at FindLaw.com

A fallen air freshener and a Superman mouse pad led to an Indiana pastor’s fall from grace. Robert Lyzenga, 55, is accused of hiding cameras inside women’s toilet stalls at his church, the Lafayette Journal and Courier reports.

A female church member exposed the pastor’s secret after an air freshener in a toilet stall fell to the floor, revealing a camera inside. She found two other fake air fresheners in adjacent stalls, one of which also contained a camera, according to an affidavit obtained by The Smoking Gun.

When investigators checked the cameras’ contents, they found video of two women and a girl using the restroom. But the cameras had also captured other images that led detectives to the pastor’s door.

The hidden cameras contained video clips of someone setting up the cameras in some sort of office. So sheriff’s deputies went back to the church, where Pastor Robert Lyzenga offered to show them around.

Lyzenga led investigators to several church offices, but none matched what was seen in the video. Deputies then asked to see Lyzenga’s office, which made the pastor “very nervous,” the affidavit said.

Lo and behold, Lyzenga’s office allegedly matched the one seen in the hidden camera video. The pastor’s pencil cup and a Superman mouse pad were dead giveaways, investigators said.

Lyzenga was arrested on suspicion of voyeurism and released after posting bond the same day, according to the Journal and Courier. If he’s formally charged with felony voyeurism and convicted, Lyzenga could face up to three years in prison.

After Pastor Robert Lyzenga’s arrest for the hidden cameras, he was suspended from his church, which he’s led since 2002. Lyzenga is a father of three and has been married for 30 years, The Smoking Gun reports.

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/tagblogsfindlawcom2012-legallyweird-idUS349590267620120517

Accused panties thief now charged in mall up-skirting incident

A Montgomery County man, arrested earlier this year for stealing the underwear of a woman he was allegedly stalking, was charged this week with using a hidden camera to film up the skirt of another woman at the King of Prussia Plaza.

Kornwell Chan, of Dresher, was spotted at the Plaza near Lord Taylor on Sunday, May 13, by an undercover officer who noted Chan’s resemblance to a suspect wanted in a up-skirting incident at the nearby J.C. Penney in September 2011, said Risa Vetri Ferman, the Montgomery County District Attorney.

Upper Merion police officers stopped Chan inside the mall and discovered he was carrying a bag with a camera secreted inside it.

Officers reviewed the footagewhich showed Chan following a woman at Penney’s and placing the hidden camera under her skirt, showing her underwear, Ferman said.

Chan, charged Wendesday with invasion of privacy and related counts, was ordered to be held on $500,000 bail.

Chan was previously charged in January with counts of burglary, criminal trespass, stalking and related counts in a separate incident. Chan allegedly had aggressively pursued met a woman at the Oreland train station. After the woman sought ways to avoid him, he broke into her house stealing only her bras and panties. While inside the house he turned all the family photographs of her face-down with the exception of her portrait.

A preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge William I. Maruszczak is set for 10 a.m. at 485 South Henderson Road in King of Prussia.

Article source: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120517_Accused_panties_thief_now_charged_in_mall_up-skirting_incident.html

‘Mobile Spy’ app may be open to, yep, spying

The irony is too significant to ignore: A smartphone app that enables customers to spy on others’ phones may itself be vulnerable to attackers looking to spy on them.

The surveillance app, called “Mobile Spy,” is designed to let its customers monitor the information, including text messages, GPS location and call logs, of other phones installed with the app. That private info is then uploaded to the app user’s account and can be viewed in any Web browser, either on a computer or phone.

Unfortunately for those doing the watching, Mobile Spy contains several security vulnerabilities that allow an attacker to inject malicious code into the target’s phone, via SMS message, and hijack their spy session, according to researchers at Vulnerability Lab, who disclosed the flaws.

Because the developers of Mobile Spy say it is available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone, the presence of a security glitch makes it a top target for exploitation.

To make things even more confusing, there are at least five separate Android apps in the Google Play store called “Mobile Spy,” and none of them seem to be the one about which Vulnerability Lab issued its warning. Nor is there any app in the iTunes App Store by that name.

The Mobile Spy website states that iPhones must be jailbroken in order to install Mobile Spy, and hints that Android versions will need to be “side-loaded” from a PC. Usage licenses run from $50 for three months to $100 for a full year.

Anyone who jailbreaks an iPhone or sideloads Android apps is running a big security risk. And from the looks of the “Mobile Spy” apps that are in the official Google Play store, you probably shouldn’t install them either.

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47451130/ns/technology_and_science-security/

Russian Spy’s Chanel Bag Featured Hidden Wi-Fi Transmitter!

The bag, still in FBI custody, is expected to join a bevy of other Chapman goodies going on display as part of an exhibition about spies and their gadgets – including Chapman’s – opening in New York.

“If she had been here another six months, Anna Chapman could have become the most dangerous spy in American history,” said spy-book author and former CIA operative H. Keith Melton, who is curating the exhibition.

“She could access anyone,” he said.

Melton believes Chapman was well on her way to severely compromising US business interests until she foolishly handed off her Toshiba laptop – chock full of sensitive information – to an FBI informant posing as a Russian agent.

The laptop’s hand-off came during a meeting at a Manhattan Starbucks the day before she was taken into custody in June 2010, when she complained the computer did not work properly and the “Russian” agent – who told her his name was “Roman” – offered to have it fixed at the Russian consulate.

Melton owns or gained access to most of the hundreds of pieces of spy paraphernalia on display in the exhibit – including one titled “Anna Chapman’s Laptop.”

He described the Russian as so friendly, personable and beautiful that her mission of gaining access to wealthy or influential American businessmen was a snap.

After gaining their trust, the modern-day Mata Hari would hand off information about the men to her handlers, who would then decide if their businesses were worth targeting for espionage to help boost Russia’s efforts to become a global economic powerhouse.

Article Source: http://www.news.com.au/technology/hey-buddy-you-wanna-see-anna-chapmans-gizmos/story-e6frfro0-1226360491019

Smartphone Interception Threats – Hacking!

The security threat to mobiles has just stepped up.

Phone crashing regularly? Strange SMS bothering you for an update or a juicy link? It’s time to wise up to mobile malware.

Security experts have shown that iPhones and Android phones are vulnerable to the same type of “drive-by” attacks that have long plagued PC users.

A team of researchers infected a Google Android smartphone on Wednesday, live, in front of a packed audience of computer security buffs to prove how mobile malware is now on the cusp of the big time, after so many years of unfulfilled predictions.

Grabbed: a screenshot of the researchers’ Command Control server shows a person with an infected phone traveling around Washigton DC. The blue P pin shows where he placed a phone call. Clicking on this icon would play the recording.

George Kurtz, co-author of Hacking Exposed, former McAfee security champion and now at the helm of CrowdStrike alongside former McAfee leading researcher Dmitri Alperovitch, demonstrated how the team designed a smartphone remote access tool (RAT) and eavesdrop operation.

They then set about buying the necessary items to make it happen, later coding, then executing the attack on their demo phone.

“We believe we are here today and on the cusp of what we’re going to see in the future. If you think of what a smartphone has the capability to do, it’s the ultimate spying tool. Always powered on, always connected, travels around with us at all times,” Kurtz began.

“If you haven’t figured out privacy is dead, this is going to do it for you.”

The scenario was a competitor wanting to intercept calls and text messages on Kurtz’s phone and the attack was Webkit-based. Webkit is a tool used by Apple, Google and RIM to render HTML websites in Safari, Chrome and Android, and the latest versions of the BlackBerry, respectively.

The team bought 20 Webkit vulnerabilities – or bugs – in the underground for $US1400, spent approximately $US14,000 developing the malware code (“weaponisation phase”) and engineering root access, as well as building their own command and control centre to be able to harvest the fruits of their exploits.

The attack followed several steps: the first was a text message delivered to the smartphone appearing to come from the mobile carrier requesting a system update via a link. Once clicked, the drive-by link delivered the first part of the malware to the phone to elevate access (root) privilege, then cause it to crash.

It then automatically rebooted, executing the second part of the malware and hijacking the phone’s communications.

When Kurtz made a call to Alperovitch, the audience could hear the live conversation – as well as what was said before the call connected. On the command and control centre’s screen, a map positioned Kurtz and Alperovitch’s locations, the start of transmission, and the text of a subsequent text message Alperovitch sent Kurtz.

They said the attack did not require a phone be jailbroken and would work on any of the devices using Webkit – although this particular code was customised for the Adroid 2.2 (Froyo) version.

Kurtz told Fairfax Media such an attack would be possible on the iPhone because of the root access obtained via the browser vulnerability.

“We would have to get code execution via the browser, then escalate our privilege to root and totally bypass the app store [as we did] with Android.

“This is the point we are making: drive-by attacks will hit the phone just like the PCs,” he said.

But he said he didn’t want the audience to develop a bout of paranoia.

“The sky is not falling, these are very targeted attacks.”

Article source: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/it-pro/security-it/use-a-smartphone-you-may-want-to-read-this-20120301-1u4jh.html