Smartphones with GPS can tag your pictures with the exact PIC location

Article Re Published By Popular Demand 

Originally Published January 20 2012 in Yahoo News

Author's comment:

Due to recent 2021 court cases, both criminal and civil, this subject is more relevant than ever. Follow the instructions given in the article and you will be able to edit the picture metadata. I just checked the Exif Tag Remover link in the article and is alive and working, January 2022.

By Cesar Ortiz

Smartphones GPS chips can tag your shared pictures with the precise location where your picture was taken. Most of the features comes as default "active" on smartphpones and digital cameras. This also applies to pictures taken with modern digital cameras who have GPS features built in. On older digital cameras, geotagging, as it is called, is also used but will provide mostly details of the camera who took the picture, information about the picture name assigned in your PC and date and time the photo was taken. Do you want to share that information with others?  If not, use one of the free geotagg or metadata  viewing software available to see what your camera is tagging in hidden form., I use the one from "Jeffrey's".

If you don't like the hidden information in the picture, remove the metadata or geotagg function from your digital stand alone camera by checking your user manual or vendor.On digital photos already taken, you can edit your picture using a Windows or Mac built in photo editor and remove the metada by hand or buy any of the many #metadata removing tools available in the web.  I use the EXIF Tag Remover Free Trial,  if you decide to buy is $19.95. Your pretty picture taken in your home and posted  in Twitter, Facebook and other social media may be telling the world where do you exactly live. Always assume that a picture you are "sharing" with friends can be intercepted and compromised by posting it somewhere by your friend.

Sadly, there are bad people that look for that type of information. If you comment the photo with "I will be away for such and such days" you are providing an invitation for a burglary. Please notice that disabling Location Services will affect any application that uses GPS. Personally, I don't disable the "Location" option in my devices, I just edit the pictures taken and remove the Geotagg info inserted by Location Services. To remove the  geotagging option or function, (to prevent the device from inserting the info in your picture at all times), on smart phones follow the steps below:
On the Iphone= Go to Settings, General, Location Service and turn off Geotagging.
On Android= Go to Options, Device, Location Settings, Location Services, select "Location Off".

On other smart phones the instructions to remove the geotagging function permanently are similar. Check with your phone provider.
(c) Cesar Ortiz

Technical Details in The MLB Baseball Players Signals Hacking 

By Cesar Ortiz (c)

November 24, 2019

The Mayor League Baseball (MLB) organization is updating the ongoing investigative effort on the  2017 baseball games signal hacking issue. The Houston Astros organization is leading the pack of baseball teams under the investigative radar. Astros front-office employees, on-field staff and the Astros manager, AJ Hinch have already been interviewed. Other players allegedly involved are the current Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora and the New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran. 

The SNY TV Network on November 14, 2019, is quick to state that the MLB has no evidence yet for imposing sanctions to Cora and Beltran,  further stating, “ The league does not have either accusations or evidence that would point to severe discipline for either”.

For years, stealing signals from players was considered an art. It is not illegal, but officials become wary when they find reports of the activity when it is done using banned technology. 

The use of technology to intercept or relay the signals is forbidden. The New York Times reported in 2017 the use of an Apple watch as a means to electronically relay signals to the Red Sox team partners by a Red Sox trainer. The Apple watch use was revealed in a detailed official complaint filed by Brian Cushman, the New York Yankees general manager. Among the exhibits in the complaint was a video shot of the Reds Sox dugout in Boston during the 2017 three-games series. The Red Sox team was fined by the MLB.

Recently, USA Today ran an article explaining how Manny Machado was caught stealing and relaying signals in game two of the 2018 World Series. In the Machado event, there was no violation of any rules because all the signal intelligence was acquired and relayed by Machado using manual signaling skills. No mechanical or electronic devices where used.

 The Athletic ran an article detailing how the Astros in 2017 ran a hacking operation using a video camera and drum beats to relay signals from the catchers to everyone in the stadium, only the hacking partners knew the meaning of the beats and how to decode them.

 Some suspected means of stealing baseball signals are:

 (1) The use of a realistic-looking medical bandage-like device worn by the player at bat that receives a buzzing signal with a  predetermined pattern, for example, one buzz for a fastball. 

(2) Hidden catcher aimed mini cameras that feed data of catchers signals and sends out information on the type of pitch. 

(3) Extended range antennas for radio devices to hear the pitcher-catcher-manager conferences at the mound. 

(4) Lips reading text interpreters for conferences between players (that is the reason players cover their mouth with the gloves when they speak to each other). 

(5) Monitoring of the live video broadcast of the game (MLB mandated a delay in the video monitors that are used in the dugouts and nearby areas). 

Most of the suspected technical equipment techniques used are detectable by specialized equipment and manual signaling stealing can be detected by a trained eye. 

The fact that we may find such hacking practice, even when they can be detected, tends to show the high amounts of monetary rewards involved, that in the eyes of the perpetrators, warrant the risk of detection. So far, no one has been charged with any criminal or civil offense. MLB is offering leniency to those who speak up on the subject and, as of this date,  all technical equipment use events are related to the 2017 year. 

The MLB hacking using information technology techniques and equipment brings to the field a new form of platform to think about, perhaps some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs will design custom hardware and software to detect the hacking devices.

Target Data Breach Unveiled

How It was done. You will be surprised that all the tools used where known!

By Cesar Ortiz- Trojan. POSRAM Identified As the RAM Scraper in the KAPTOXA Operation That Infected Target Stores

Article first published 1/23/2014  as "Target Data Breach Unveiled: Technical Details Are Known" in Yahoo! Contributors/ABC News Network.

This article won the "Best General Interest Article in 2014", General- Category by Yahoo Contributors Users.

The US government in an effort to warn other point of sale merchants of the potential danger of  more attacks that will provide another wave of  "Target like" customer victims, have released an internal document where detailed insight of the methodology used by attackers of the Target data breach is revealed. The consulting firm iSIGHT Partners was one of the investigative contracted forensics experts. The US Department of Homeland Security released to merchants a joint Department of Homeland Security, USSS, FS-ISAC and iSIGHT report titled "KAPTOXA POS Report" where we get a look at an insight of the methods and tools used to hack Target. Hopefully, merchants will take notice and immediately take preventive measures.

The methodology used at Target was almost exactly as I predicted in our original exclusive December 26, 2013 “ The Target Stores Data Breach ” Yahoo! article, right after the hack. Journalist Brian Krebs was also right on target when he mentioned at that time that the hack might have been based on a known trojan virus called BlackPos that is readily detected by all anti-virus software. The updated modified version of BlackPos trojan used in the Target breach is named Trojan.POSRAM, this derivative is highly sophisticated in stealth features in order to hide to prevent detection. POSRAM is believed to have originated in Russia.

When we compile the information given by the report and the media, specially an article in the Wired publication named “The Malware that Duped Target Have Been Found”, we come close to figure out the order of events in the Target data breach. First, the merchant network system is infiltrated with the malware, possibly remotely, exploiting an opening in the system or by executing a simple human engineering exploit. The malware is a data scrapping tool that takes data from the memory of the point of sale terminal (POS) or what we know as the cash register. This tool will reside in the system and will store the stolen data inside the merchant’s servers. The tool will monitor the data in the files named “pos.exe" and "PosW32.exe”; these files contain the memory space that includes magnetic strip data of your bank card. In the Target's breach event it remained still for six days. That inactivity period is excellent to prevent detection.

The residing malware in the merchant creates a connection to an out of the premises server that receives and transmits data to the victim server. The outside server, can be located anywhere, in the world, and, queries the victim server at specific time intervals. This one was located in Russia. Some of the malicious scripts used have references in Russian language. If the local merchant time is for example between 10 AM and 5 PM, as it is used in the old BlackPos tool, then the data is deposited in an a  temporary NetBIOS share “host” folder created by the malware. This share folder is then accessed using file transfer protocol (FTP). Many more complex technical details have been found by the media in just a few hours after the release of the KAPTOXA POS Report. All the details follow the same pattern; surprisingly, modified known exploits where used at all times.

 KAPTOXA is the name given by investigators to the specific operation methodology and compilation of hacking tools in the Target data breach. Nothing in the KAPTOXA operation is out of the ordinary. Probably the other tools used in the hack are already known in the trade. It is not that the criminals used super sophisticated malware, it is the way and the timing they where used. The fact that known hacking tools where used will open the doors to a wave of lawsuits that will claim that the merchants could have prevented the hack; this is one of the reason that the government has taken the unprecedented steps of releasing some of the facts and data about the crime before even finishing the investigation. Merchants should verify their systems immediately. Victimized stores should consider making public their breach ASAP. The more time the notifications to affected customers passes by, the higher the lawsuit figures will be and more damage to the customer is made.

Two individuals from Mexico were arrested in McAllen, Texas with ninety six fraudulent bank cards in their possession. The suspects had used bank cards with account information matching the Target stolen cards of South Texas residents. After the shopping spree, the suspects left for Mexico. They entered the US again possibly, for another shopping spree. They where detained upon arrival. This event confirms that the stolen data is sold in the illicit market by regions. Criminals are maximizing the use of the stolen data by being very creative. Regardless of Target's downplay efforts to minimize the impact, a customer can be a victim of identity theft with the specific data stolen at Target.