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Was anyone else bugged during the 80s

for Faggus and anyone else who has never looked into Phreaking before just look using google or look here it's all quite simple if not all done before long ago. Not that I would ever encourage this type of activity. I take no responsibility for what anyone does with the information gained from the links above.

There - covered my ass!:hah:
 
St Clair,

"Who is monitoring the people monitoring us?"

Only the people that are selected to do so. That's the problem!

As for being bugged on the phone-we all are. It's called "phrase regocnition". And it's real time on both the internet and the the phone lines.

Much easier to use in today's increasinlgy digital era then old wire set ups plugged into phone exchanges.

The real question is-What do you do when you have the info to prove the Big Brother scenario? No-one wants to knw. It's outside of their conditioned reflex!

Blaggy
 
Toffeenose said:
dunno if you can count it as bugging but i've recently been getting widow boxes appearing asking if i want the microphone on mt computer activated. since it's in a uni computer lab it doesn't have one attached.
could be a lazy hacker.
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This is probably the latest version of the Flash plugin, which can allow advertisers to access your webcam and microphone, which is really not on. Next time you get an annoying flash advert (the ones that float around the screen, animating or playing music) right click on it to see the microphone/webcam options.
 
Glad I don't have a webcam or microphone attached to my PC :)
 
I have a question. Besides the 'Don't say anything on the phone you wouldn't shout from the rooftops or mountain tops or whatever' what other advice do you all have for someone expecting to be under government surveillance?

I don't believe I've ever been surveilled in the past, but it seems pretty much inevitable for my future.


As far as phone phreaking goes, that's a fun subject. It's more difficult to do the things you used to be able to do, but always still possible. I never made it too far - for fear of incarceration, but I did discover some very interesting stuff. Being in university helps a great deal. Use a war-dialer to expose every possible number in an exchange. I did this in college for pretty much all the local exchanges (with impunity, since I was hidden behind a nice archaic PBX) and discovered interesting patterns in the exchanges. Also discovered a disproportionate number of lines which provided connections to federal government computers in the area. Never did solve that one, and didn't particularly want to try.
 
Piscez - "Is phone tapping really this common in Britain? You guys don't seemed to perturbed. Is it legal?"

Get used to it. This is what the British are like. We're used to the Government f*cking us over.

We're almost as bad as the French at letting forces roll right over us, too.

Frightened little bunnies. They're far too comfortable too ever give a crap about anything, ever again. It's sad.

St. Clair - "If they are monitoring me then they are catching me smoking cannabis and watching copied videos. This means that they are actually much more tolerant than the "conspiricist theorists" would have us believe"

Yeah. I always think it must have been weird to be a Stazi agent watching people jerk off to dungeon porn. ;)

Why were your parents commies anyway? Don't they know how f*cked up all that dictatorial sh*t is?

"I am innocent and have nothing to fear." Yeah, well, that doesn't always help.

I don't care about bugging, it's the latest attack techniques that p*ss me off, like.

"Who is monitoring the people monitoring us?" [/b]NO ONE. No one will admit this goes on so it can be completely illegal.[/b]

My idea is to 'legalise' these black operations so there can be some control over their illegality.

MS: edited.
 
I don't know if this is pertinent or not, but there's been a long standing theory proposed in my regular that the local police have a dossier of photos of everyone who goes in there more than once a week ....
 
I didn't see taras comment before about the Flash plugin.

Last time I had a webcam installed it altered my Windows registry in a funny way!

For those who don't know, the Windows registry is a core place where lots of vital system data is kept. It has a hierarchical structure, like folders.

The top, highest, registry datum had been changed to 'Webcam'. Knowing programmer humour as I do, this is like saying that this PC had just become an open window.

Flash is also known as Shockwave. 'If Only We Could Fly' by Limp Bizkit has the lyrics 'downloading the Shockwave!'.

At that time the latest news was that the FBI had admitted to having a virus that would log every keystroke of a computer. I remember wondering if there was a link, or if not, how much Limp Bizkit had been payed for this product placement.

These issues will always haunt us until we legalise secrets.

While it's secret that there are secrets, there are some very illegal things being done.
 
MuscularSpasm said:
Why were your parents commies anyway? Don't they know how f*cked up all that dictatorial sh*t is?
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Erm, yes and thats why they were communists.

I cant be arsed with it personally and will refuse to get involved in the discussions round the table. I have always believed that one cannot dictate communism. Its a contradiction.

Those who have employed the principles have attempted to do so in a dictatorial manner. The fault lies with mistaken humans and not with communist theory which aims for zero dictators.

You cannot suddenly tell a nation of people to put down their amenities and take to the field with no agricultural skill. Nor can you sudenly inform your people that they must adopt a whole new set of social rules and etiquete.

If you do, then you get drout, famine, starvation, rebelions and a very bad reputation across the world.

These are a few of my complaints but I do not confuse them with the written theory of communist formulae.

The way we used to live was a form of primative communism.

In fact theirs was more accurate and advanced as far as successfull communist survival is concerned.

Mao and stalin are an embaressment to the ideals of true textbook communism.

Socialist Scotland is far more in tune with social advantage and positive steps towards a decent future for the masses. It has been developing slowly and steadily to the point where people actually entertain socialist view without really knowing it.

It is perhaps because of the level of poverty and sympathy for our common man in Scotland.

Socialist russia and china were up there own arse.

All the good things that we strive for in our future are covered within communist ideology. Housing for the poor, Health services, emergency services, agriculture, hygien, environmental care, loss of racism, sexism, and other descriminatory isms, social inclusion, racial integration, love, communality, etc, etc....

Blah, blah....hoots toots!

P.S I am not a socialist like my parents but I do appreciate the true sentiments of the idea. I dont perticulary enjoy spouting this stuff but I feel it to be true and realistic.
 
carole said:
Never been bugged, to my knowledge, but I used to have letters from Dutch friends regularly opened by Customs & Excise . . .
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Which reminds me of a FOAF tale from when I was at Uni. A FOAF received a postcard from a penpal/friend in Denmark. Apparently the postcard was some kind of a pornographic image, and the addressee supposedly received a letter from Customs saying "We'll let you have it if you can prove it's art."
 
I doubt anyone needed to bug members of the British Communist Party since most of them were in the pay of MI5 anyway. Apparently there were complaints within MI5 that so much of their budget went on payments to CPGB informants.
 
Blagarse Yank said:
As for being bugged on the phone-we all are. It's called "phrase regocnition". And it's real time on both the internet and the the phone lines.
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Isn't this what Echelon does? I believe it can cover most if not all the world with listening stations in UK, US, Oz, Japan, ... ?
 
Mike P said:
I doubt anyone needed to bug members of the British Communist Party since most of them were in the pay of MI5 anyway.
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None of the members that I knew, and certainly not my parents, were helping MI5
Apparently there were complaints within MI5 that so much of their budget went on payments to CPGB informants.
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Trust me....MI5 still tap and bug its employees....especially informants....who can never be trusted by any organisation.

Erm......employing an informant to infiltrate the organisation is a form of surveilance. It is also an easy way to actaully plant physical bugs.
 
St.Clair said:
None of the members that I knew, and certainly not my parents, were helping MI5
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I wasn't trying to imply that your parents were helping MI5. As for the others, if they were informers would they tell you?
 
Perhaps not but they were close friends before and after.

Dont misunderstand me........I do realise that the party was full of informants but none that I knew. I have to trust my own judgement or I would be lost.

And yes, perhaps some of the more distant members that I met were indeed informants.

I also understand your point that bugs and taps may have been deemed unneccessary because of the level of inteligence gathering from the informants.

However, I am afraid that there is no doubt that they used both and many more forms of surveillance. There is also no doubt that we were tapped.
 
A friend of mine who for legal reasons remains nameless, says that the best money he ever spent was on a couple of bugging devices and a phone bug/recorder to, He used them on his Fiancee whom he had suspicions about but who was pressuring him to buy a house together, buy me a car, get married soonest etc. Generally taking him to the cleaners, anyway to cut to the chase. He discovers that every shift he works this Fireman is coming round and boffing his fiancee and the visits to mummy in the car on a Sunday end up with alot of male gesticulations and "squishy noises" in the car.
He thinks he saved himself an awfull lot of heartache and money.

But then again he is a scheming little weasel.
 
BBC Radio Programme

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/beingbugged.shtml

Listen to it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/rams/beingbugged.ram (real audio)

Bugging is big business. Now that technology can give us ever more sophisticated listening devices, the temptation to spy on others is growing. Gareth Mitchell looks at the individuals, methods and technologies behind modern surveillance and finds out what it is like to be bugged.

Gareth Mitchell goes underground with a team of surveillance specialists to learn the tricks of the trade when it comes to planting - and finding - bugs. And he reveals the surprise finding that there’s no privacy law in the UK to protect us from prying eyes and ears.

Surveillance is no longer the preserve of the secret intelligence services. You only have to flick through the classified advertisements at the back of the newspaper to find a private investigator happy to spy on someone on your behalf. In Being Bugged Gareth spends the afternoon with Marie Louise from Answers Investigations on the trail of an estranged wife, but rapidly finds that much of a private investigators life is more hum drum than high glamour.

He also goes on the trail of the equipment used in eavesdropping and discovers that for the right money, anyone can walk into a spy shop and fill their basket with the very latest high-tech bugging equipment. In the programme, Gareth meets Michael Marks, manager of Spymaster in central London, which offers off the shelf surveillance devices hidden in everything from alarm clocks to a computer mouse.

On the other side of the equation, Gareth also spends the evening with a team of former special-forces personnel from Genric, a security consultancy based in Hereford, who offer counter surveillance services. As more and more businesses become aware of the need to protect their information, counter surveillance sweeps are becoming more common place. In the semi-darkness, nothing looks out of place, but the team from Genric soon sweep the room and sniff out the hidden devices. Using high tech equipment they detect a bug hidden in a board rubber, uncover a tap on the phone and show Gareth a tiny microphone that could be transmitting their words hundreds of meters down the street.

Events like this are becoming more common place in the corporate world, but as Gareth finds out, anyone can be bugged or find themselves the subject of covert surveillance. In Being Bugged, JohnWadham of the civil rights group, Liberty, calls for more effective privacy legislation in the UK. As the law stands, it’s illegal to tap someone’s phone but not illegal to plant a listening device in their home or office. “Mary” – not her real name – claims she was put under surveillance by her husband. Telephone taps, bugs and car tails became an everyday part of her life. Unable to stop these intrusion into her privacy by law, she sought the advice of a counter surveillance expert to finally put a stop to the surveillance.

Gareth also meets the families of soldiers who died under mysterious circumstances at the Deepcut barracks in Surrey. Since launching a campaign to find out what happened to their relatives, the Deepcut families say that they’ve been bugged. They’ve heard strange clicks and whispering voices on the ‘phone, detected listening devices in their living rooms and even encountered smartly dressed men in pin-striped suits with no shoes on hanging around their porch in the middle of the night.

Being Bugged delves into these secret worlds and asks whether the surveillance industry is making a killing out of our paranoia and what the implications are for our personal privacy?
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On a lighter note, our secretary tried to send an email about a painting titled "Nude Study" to a Mrs Fetish and had it stopped by IT, who demanded the Keeper confirm the validity of the message before letting it go. :p
 
Muscular Spasm writes:
Get used to it. This is what the British are like. We're used to the Government f*cking us over.
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I was always led to believe that
1) the security services are almost entirely autonomous;
2) the Govt of the day doesn't have 100% control over them.
3) Especially not a Socialist one because
4) The security services are by nature Conservative/Right Wing and have Old Establishment interests at heart. They see Labour as naturally subversive.
???????
I come from a forces family and work for the MOD myself. I've heard banter along these lines from my dad and from colleagues from time to time. Gossip maybe. Who knows
I've heard too that spooks read every email that contains the word "b*mb" and "expl*sion"

A few years back the lady who taught us at college was a magistrate and a devoted Socialist and the ex wife of a highish ranking police officer. She claimed to have heard clicks etc whenever she picked up the phone. At the time I thought she was rather flattering herself that she was that important but if what certain people on this board say is true, bugging is more common than we realise. Scary stuff.
But one must wonder exactly how much surveillance personnel there is in this country if it's as widespread as claimed. It's like all the cctv footage out there, millions of hours but no time to watch it.
 
As J.W. pointed out earlier, there are two kinds of surveillance, one which is made obvious such as phone clicks, shadowy figures following you etc, which is to intimidate you or cause stepped - up action on your part (increase encryption, avoidance and the like) thus making you a worthwhile target, and the other -surveillance which is covert and not so easily detectable.
A friend of mine had a radio bug attached to his phone, which he found and destroyed. But who placed it we don't know, though I can guess!
Bugs are big business, and anyone can simply go and buy the equipment as mentioned on the thread. One can even buy simple but very effective gear from Maplins and related stores. Also, you can buy the detecting gear too, so if you feel paranoid buy a sweeper and check out your place!:D
 
Bomb, capitalist western pig, nuke, bush, blair, boeing, new york, parliment, pentagon, washington, uranuim, plutonium, anthrax, chemical, anfo, A.N.F.O, kill, paradise, virgin, martyr, revenge, jihad.

All bugging of others will cease for 24 hours as all security forces worldwide will be checking me out. Enjoy the break!
 
:D :D :D Thank god, I can switch off my sweepers, unplug the phone, take off me clothes, sprawl on the settee and with the help of some alcohol, hop through the porn channels and no-one will know! Ooops!;)
Sad! Why haven't I got a gig tonite?:(
 
Actually, piss taking aside, how many people do the spook security forces employ? If they sample a good proportion of all email and phone calls (and presumably all text like this message board) it must be huge, even if machines are doing most of the work.
Great thread, by the way, love the idea of security 'deliberately' cocking up to bring pressure and force a mistake.

Shows just how much the poor buggers hands are tied by rules.
 
back to the notion that emails containing key words (such as bomb, kill the president, etc.) is read by the security services, wasn't there a fad of creating 'spook mail' to waste the security services tme? this was done by putting as many of these key words as possible into the signature of a normally unoffensive email so MI5 types would have to spend all day reading about normal boring stuff. i think it's mentioned in bruce sterlings 'the hacker crackdown'. i'd need to check to be sure but can't as all my books are packed away in boxes at the moment.

we should start doing this with our sigs on this board. could be fun :D
 
I remember seeing a website suggestig doing that in about 96/97
 
Not Only Emails but Telephone conversations too can and are monitored for key words and have been since at least 1980. With the incredible increase of available Computing power I would imagine they can just about listen to all international lines all the time.
If you can actually get to a persons phone line you do not even need to Buy a "Bug". A Voice activated Microcassette as used at lectures can be connected to the line with very little interfacing to make a very good remote bug, As long as you can gain access to where you have spliced it in to retrieve it. (probably not allowed to do it though). Main problem with it is it can load the line a bit so If someone is looking for it they will find it. But you will never hear any "Clicks". Oh yes the Tape will run out of course.
And with a PC and a Sound card you could ....Etc etc
As for filling Bogus Emails with Bomb and other trigger words, Well I think the software they are using will be a bit too clever for that. Like in Search Engines.
If They want to find out all about you They will. Its just a matter of not making it worthwhile or at least appear worthwhile.
 
xeno said:
A Voice activated Microcassette as used at lectures can be connected to the line with very little interfacing to make a very good remote bug, As long as you can gain access to where you have spliced it in to retrieve it. (probably not allowed to do it though).
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Yeah you can get the connector at Maplin for under a tenner. Not that I would ever own or use one without full permission of the parties involved!
 
Ah, in the good old days all you needed was a linesman's set available from the govnt. war surplus shop for ten bob and two croc clips and you could tap and play havoc on any phone system ( not that I ever did it - of course). Now it seems it's even easier....
However I think it is still law that attaching unauthorised apparatus to a bt line is illegal, left over I suppose from when it was a govnt. dept. ie. the post office, also once responsible for detecting illegal radio transmission.
 
brian ellwood said:
However I think it is still law that attaching unauthorised apparatus to a bt line is illegal, left over I suppose from when it was a govnt. dept. ie. the post office, also once responsible for detecting illegal radio transmission.
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Yes, the packaging of such devices says on it something along the lines of "This product may not be used on communications systems in the United Kingdom". So why are they making/selling them? :)
 
taras said:
Yeah you can get the connector at Maplin for under a tenner. Not that I would ever own or use one without full permission of the parties involved!
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Thanks Taras Did not Realise Maplin did it, (Not into electronics anymore) the one I am thinking of Consists of 2 diodes accross the line, a resistor in series somewhere and also a capacitor in series with the line.
And the one I thought was really clever had Infra-RedLED and one chip and you actually dispensed with the Dictaphone and listened in accross the street. (The Receiver was a mite bit more Complicated than a dictaphone but this was 20 years ago, so it should be easy peasy now) The Led had to positioned visible of course but they are very small. I believe with good positioning,luck and weather and a good "receiver" you could get a range of over a mile at night.
 
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