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An official watchdog in Germany has told parents to destroy a talking doll called Cayla because its smart technology can reveal personal data. The warning was issued by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), which oversees telecommunications. Researchers say hackers can use an unsecure bluetooth device embedded in the toy to listen and talk to the child playing with it. But the UK Toy Retailers Association said Cayla "offers no special risk". In a statement sent to the BBC, the TRA also said "there is no reason for alarm". The Vivid Toy group, which distributes My Friend Cayla, has previously said...

The Russian spy case that exploded into public view this week was preceded by nearly a decade of cat-and-mouse activities with the FBI, according to court documents and an interview with a senior U.S. official familiar with the case.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday criticized the arrests of suspects in an alleged Russian spy ring, saying U.S. law-enforcement authorities "went out of control." He voiced hope that the scandal would not harm relations between the two countries. Russia's Foreign Ministry acknowledged that some of the suspects are Russian citizens. It called on American authorities to give them access to lawyers and Russian consular officials, and to take into account the "positive character" of U.S.-Russian ties in treating the case. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday announced the arrests of 10 alleged deep-cover Russian agents, saying...

Israeli top spy, Meir Dagan, is stepping down. According to local TV station Channel 2, Dagan, who was appointed as head of Mossad in 2002, requested to continue another year in the role, but was refused by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sources tell Fox News that the main reason for Netanyahu’s decision is the international criticism following the January assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, which was widely believed to be carried out by Mossad agents using forged foreign passports. Israel never responded to the allegations made by Dubai Police regarding the case. According to the report, Dagan...

Would you be prepared to cross-dress? And kill a guest in an adjacent hotel room? If the answer to these questions is a resounding “yes”, and you can also act, enjoy luxury international travel with a twist and can carry off a convincing Irish or Australian accent, then the job could be yours. The Israeli spy agency Mossad may be the target of international reproach since it allegedly killed the Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel this month, but at home emerging details of the operation have generated Mossad mania. It has never been more popular in Israel,...

Despite regional hostility and suspicion, for over four decades agents from Israel?s intelligence community − special units and the Mossad − have had no trouble penetrating Arab capitals. There have been dozens of assassination missions, from the 1979 killing of Ali Hassan Salameh in Beirut to Imad Mughniyeh's assassination in 2008 (which Israel never claimed responsibility for) and other successful intelligence operations attributed to Israel. There have also been a few failures, such as the botched hit on Hamas politburo head Khaled Meshal in Amman in 1997. The most important lesson to be learned from the assassination in Dubai is...

Global media reports about Israeli secret service's involvement in Dubai assassination create unprecedented hype, increasing applications for jobs within spy agency........ The Mossad website has become extremely popular in recent weeks, particularly its job openings page, through which one can apply for a position with the agency. Global media reports on Mossad's alleged involvement in the assassination of the Hamas commander has led to a soaring number of civilian applicants who wish to join the secret service.The agency, which did not post any new job openings for over six months, posted a statement on February 12 "almost a month after...

The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned. Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of terrorist cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures. The exclusive story will appear in this Friday's Haaretz Magazine, and Yousef's memoir, "Son...

At the threshold of my career as a journalist in Paris I was once the unwitting victim of a classic Mossad honey trap. Little did I know that Patricia Roxborough, the girl who pursued me and made sure she was the object of my desire, was a trained assassin of the feared Israeli intelligence service. We met, by chance, through friends in 1969. I was an impressionable 21-year-old learning the ropes of being a foreign correspondent in the French capital. Roxborough said she was a Canadian freelance news photographer. She was tall, beautiful and intelligent and her flashing eyes hinted...

Single-handedly, this intense miniature bull of a man, a son of Russian survivors of the holocaust, may be keeping the Middle East a safer place. Dagan leads the most effective and mysterious intelligence agency in the world, Israel's Mossad, which has that reputation because of him. This weekend, the official Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram, wrote an unusual story praising Dagan's accomplishments. ..." He is credited with putting its Iran's nuclear program well behind schedule by several years.

The Government Is Monitoring Facebook And Twitter By Noel Sheppard Created 2009-12-14 11:59 "The government is increasingly monitoring Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for tax delinquents, copyright infringers and political protesters." So ominously began an editorial [1] in Sunday's New York Times. Those with accounts at such websites should pay attention, for according to the Times, and other sources, Big Brother is watching you: The Wall Street Journal reported this summer that state revenue agents have been searching for tax scofflaws by mining information on MySpace and Facebook. In October, the F.B.I. searched the New York home of...

Posted in ubiwar Tagged intelligence, terrorism SNIPPET: "Friends of this blog and others, Palantir Technologies, are profiled in a new article by Siobhan Gorman in the Wall Street Journal, How Team of Geeks Cracked Spy Trade: From a Silicon Valley office strewn with bean-bag chairs, a group of twenty-something software engineers is building an unlikely following of terrorist hunters at US spy agencies."

WASHINGTON -- The next Air Force spy craft is likely to be a giant, unmanned dirigible that can remain aloft at high altitudes, keeping an unblinking watch on vehicles, planes and even people. The dirigible is the brainchild of the Air Force and the Pentagon's research arm, which together will spend $400 million to develop a prototype that could pave the way for a fleet of spy airships, military officials said Thursday. The plans represent the final stage of work to develop agiant airborne radar system capable of providing ground operators with intricate detail over vast expanses, even if the...

The chess set designed to help POWs escape Last updated at 07:42am on 30th November 2006 They may look like worn pieces of an old cardboard chess set, but these little discs contain a prisoner of war escape kit. When prized open a white bishop from the 'Ajax Chessmen' reveals a tiny compass hidden inside. And a silk map is believed to still be concealed in the cardboard tube. Even the innocent handwritten message on the tube which contained the 32 pieces chess pieces is in code. The chessmen sets were sent to POW camps throughout World War II by...

Possible Media Blackout on Russian UFO Sighting? Written By: James L. Choron Posted: 4/21/2003 From: James L. Choron [mailto:kommissar@mtu-net.ru] Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2003 11:25 AM To: Milo Subject: URGENT... URGENT... URGENT... POST TO ALL POSSIBLE POINTS Milo, Read this thoroughly, every word is true. Pass this along to any and all points possible. This story is going to be seriously covered up in the States... I repeat... read this thoroughly. I do not have the slightest idea what this was, my assumption is that it is NOT extraplanetary in origin... This is the copy-ready story on the initial, very...