Monthly Archive for July, 2008

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Finding Inbound Links

Published on July 14, 2008 in Search Engines and Search Strategies. 2 Comments Tags: , .

Evaluating a web site or blog is never easy. Fact checking will weed out the crap, but who needs to start with a lot of crap. The number of links to a site will supposedly put it towards the top of the search results, but that isn’t a guarantee of accuracy if the inbound links are from sites full of crap.

When I see something worth citing, I begin the evaluation by seeing who links to the site, perhaps it will be other sites already proven reliable through fact checking. This may also lead you to more or better data.

Continue reading ‘Finding Inbound Links’

French Competitive Intelligence Club

Published on July 11, 2008 in Competitive Intelligence. 0 Comments Tags: .

I first noticed this on the SCIP news site.

Competitive Intelligence Club Spreads its Wings
June 30, 2008

Initially a network of competitive intelligence specialists working in France’s aeronautics industry, the Commission pour l’Information en Entreprises (ClpE) gradually expanding its remit to new areas like lobbying, security and crisis management. Bolted on to the Association Aeronautique et Astronautique de France (3AF), CIpE boasts a membership of 80 officials in charge of business intelligence in around 40 big French companies and organizations.

Incompetence and Non-compliance to the Rescue

Published on July 10, 2008 in Competitive Intelligence, Privacy and Private Investigator. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

An interesting  study that found that 87% of data breaches are the result of incompetence and carelessness.

Another study shows that a large disconnect between the executives tasked with protecting customer data and marketing departments, which use the data for advertising purposes or share it with third parties.

a third of marketing execs said they don’t place any limits on the data they share with third parties, such as e-mail marketing agencies or online advertisers. By contrast, 75% of privacy officers believe that their companies limit the sharing of customer data.

These findings are a good reminder that asking questions will yield useful data that they shouldn’t divulge. It’s all in how you ask the question.

Newspapers & Bowler Hats

Published on July 9, 2008 in Surveillance. 0 Comments Tags: .

The Tuesday Zits cartoon in my morning paper got me thinking about how much things have changed.

In another life, I was assigned to a surveillance team that concentrated on the subjects who commuted by underground and train. Of course this required extensive training. One whole day was spent on how to use the newspaper as a prop. This was essentially teaching us how to fold it like a lifelong commuter so we wouldn’t look out of place. I guess PDA’s, iPod’s, and all manner of similar gadgets might make that unnecessary today, but if it isn’t, there’s a web site to teach anybody that arcane skill.

Weeks were spent memorizing all the lines, schedules, and stations. Then came memorizing where all the station payphones were located and learning to constantly look for and remember  the location of the nearest public telephone. Today’s cell phone makes that unnecessary too. Many cell phone cameras are better than the small format cameras we were given as is, or as part of certain props. I do wish I had been able to keep one of the Rollei 35 B or later Rollei 35 S cameras though.

Subjects with Multiple SSN’s

Published on July 9, 2008 in Identity Fraud, Identity Theft and Private Investigator. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

In Canada, it is rare to find somebody with two Social Insurance Numbers (SIN).  Where this happens it may be a case of clerical error or a reference to a former SIN appropriated by an identity thief. The former reason is extremely rare. In thirty years I have only encountered this once. The Canadian SIN is used as an identifier less than the SSN is in the USA.

However, in the USA the case is somewhat different. According to Susan Daniels, of Daniels and Associates Investigations, Inc. in Chardon Ohio, when searching through database aggregators such as IRB, it is common to find a subject referenced with two or three Social Security Numbers (SSN). Here are some of the reasons a person may show-up with multiple SSN’s:

  • a wife’s or child’s SSN could end up with father’s name
  • a parent’s SSN could show up with a child
  • the subject bought something with someone else and the SSNs could end up with each other’s name
  • the database producer is relating several SSN’s to one address
  • an error by whoever entered the data

Susan Daniels of Daniels and Associates Investigations, Inc. (9754 Thwing Road Chardon, OH 44024, Tel.:440.286.4072) has been a Private Investigator for 15 years.

Chinese Economic Espionage

Published on July 8, 2008 in Espionage and Industrial Espionage. 1 Comment Tags: , .

Woman accused of spying for China at Motorola

A Chinese spy was caught “red-handed,” according to federal authorities, as she was about to board a plane at O’Hare bound for Beijing.

Hanjuan Jin says she worked as a computer engineer for Schaumburg-based Motorola, a global leader in communications technology.

Federal agents say Jin was also working as a spy for a Chinese company, and she has been charged in a corporate espionage case that reflects a growing national security problem.

  • She downloaded hundreds of confidential documents valued at $600 million from Motorola’s internal network.
  • Arrived at O’Hare Airport with a one-way ticket to Beijing.
  • She was really carrying $30,000.00
  • A routine check of passengers revealed she was carrying the cash and a laptop computer with more than 30 compact data storage devices containing stolen Motorola files.

Surveillance as a Legitimate Competitive Intelligence Tool

Published on July 3, 2008 in Competitive Intelligence. 0 Comments Tags: .

A survey in Britain and the United States found that eavesdropping in public places was common. Nearly two out of five British professionals (35 per cent) and 34 per cent of Americans surveyed said they had caught sight of other people’s sensitive company documents.

Information exchanged during supposedly private business conversations were also used by others for their own advantage, according to survey findings.

The survey, TWO THIRDS OF TRAVELLING BRITS HEAR CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION LEAKED BY FRAZZLED BLACKBERRY GENERATION, has an obvious bias. Regus Group plc, the company that commissioned the survey, sells virtual offices, and meeting rooms to clients on a contract basis. Regus caters to small businesses, large companies with few representatives in a given location, and frequent travellers. However, the results seem to match my experience regarding the behaviour of many business people.

If you conduct business in inappropriate places, then expect somebody to listen in on what is transpiring. If you work on company documents in public, then expect somebody to look over your shoulder. Conducting business in public makes surveillance of your activities legal and ethical. If the guy sitting at the next table in a restaurant reports to a competitor what he sees and hears during your business meeting, don’t complain, you gave away the information, and a competitor will use it to advantage.

Dumpster-diving in the Digital Age

Published on July 2, 2008 in Competitive Intelligence, Industrial Espionage and Security. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Dumpster-diving — going through trash bins in hopes of finding paper records with valuable information like customer names or future product plans — is alive and well in the age of USB flash drives and portable music players.

An excellent article from Robert L. Scheier in Computerworld, on Monday, December 17, 2007 entitled, Dumpster-diving for e-data, discusses the risk factors and offers some solutions.

Popular Mechanics offers advice on how to destroy hard drives.

Identity-theft Protection for Canadians

Published on July 1, 2008 in Canada, Identity Fraud and Identity Theft. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

You don’t have to spend $100 to $200 a year to defend yourself from identity theft at the level of protection that a paid service offers. You can do almost everything the services do, for free.

DIY Identity-theft Protection: A 12-step Program