Tag Archive for 'Industrial Espionage'

The Olde Ways

Published on March 7, 2011 in Espionage, Industrial Espionage, Methods, Private Investigator, Security and Surveillance. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I was summoned to a meeting with a client. The client firm is over a century old. This successful firm has learned a thing or two about security.

I was asked to surrender my electronic gadgets. Being of the old school, I had none. This pleased the gatekeeper. I was led to a room furnished with only a curious table and four old wooden bankers chairs. No telephone, no electrical outlets, one florescent light fixture above the table.  The gatekeeper had to unlock the room. She then waited at the open door until my contact arrived.

My contact enters and places pieces of chalk and a chalkboard eraser on the the table. Most of the table top is painted with chalkboard paint.

We eventually compose a handwritten Memorandum of Agreement regarding the engagement, sign it, and off we go.

These people understand the rules, especially Rule #1 — If you don’t want it overheard, don’t say it. But I must admit, I have never seen a “Magic Slate” table before.

China’s Espionage and Cyber Attack Strategy

Published on April 29, 2009 in Communication, Industrial Espionage, Intellectual Property Rights, Intelligence Services and Surveillance. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

An excellent article about the “recent discovery of Chinese cyber warfare attacks on foreign computers, on communication computers of visiting dignitaries, and espionage activities to assist a friendly country is building weapons of mass destruction (WMDI)” entitled China’s Silent Warfare at BLOg Source INTelligence reveals a lot about China’s espionage and cyber attack strategy.

Industrial Espionage News

Published on March 19, 2009 in Industrial Espionage and News. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Bad Times Can Make Firms Vulnerable to Espionage

Corporate espionage is always a threat, but when the economy is sour the temptation is greater and finding broke or disgruntled employees is easier.

Stamping out data leakage & industrial espionage during a recession

How the recession is impacting IT security and top tips to ring fence your data to minimise risk.

British pair charged in ‘industrial espionage’ row

Two Wyko engineers are alleged to have used a mobile telephone to photograph a secret piece of equipment at an American factory

Mobile Phones & Tin Foil Hats

Published on January 12, 2009 in Espionage, Industrial Espionage, Intelligence Services, Security and Surveillance. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Under certain circumstances, if you lose sight of your mobile telephone, then you may reasonably assume it has been compromised. These circumstances are more common than you might think. Here are two cases of this that I have encountered over the last year or so. Continue reading ‘Mobile Phones & Tin Foil Hats’

Industrial Espionage at its Finest

Published on December 19, 2008 in Industrial Espionage. 0 Comments Tags: .

Sneaky Guy Loses

Data Slurping

Published on November 11, 2008 in Industrial Espionage and Security. 0 Comments Tags: , .

An excellent article at Sharp Ideas about software called Slurp that turns an I-pod into a covert data theft device.

An unauthorized visitor shows up after work hours disguised as a janitor and carrying an iPod…He walks from computer to computer and “slurps” up all of the Microsoft Office files from each system. Within an hour he has acquired 20,000 files from over a dozen workstations…

Ex-Intel worker accused of IP theft

Published on September 16, 2008 in Industrial Espionage. 0 Comments Tags: .

A former engineer at chip maker Intel Corp., Biswahoman Pani, has been charged with stealing trade secrets after taking a new job at rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc..  More than 100 pages of sensitive Intel documents, as well as 19 computer-aided-design drawings, were found in a search of Pani’s house conducted on July 1.

He began working for AMD eight days before his employment at Intel ended. Pani still had access to Intel’s computer network. Russell said Pani used this access to collect sensitive documents that might have provided valuable competitive intelligence for his new employer.

“…there is no evidence AMD knew of Pani’s actions or encouraged them. Neither is there evidence that AMD ever received the confidential Intel files.”

You can read the entire article at The Boston Globe.

From Competitive Intelligence to Counter Intelligence

Published on August 28, 2008 in Competitive Intelligence, Industrial Espionage and Security. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I see a lot of silly security measures against the most improbable risk scenarios. Yet the simplest attacks succeed over and over again. We have to do more to defend against these simple, direct, and constantly repeated attacks.

The following books illustrate that mundane attacks, which so often succeed, represent an enormous drain on our economy. Understanding why these attacks result in large losses is the first step in preventing them. To work both sides of the street, the Competitive Intelligence professional should understand these attacks. The Competitive Intelligence professional will understand the risk better than anybody and should educate his colleagues about  the risks and solutions. The Competitive Intelligence professional will also be positioned to exploit the opposition’s failings where legally and ethically permitted.

Confessions of a Corporate Spy

A former National Security Agency analyst who is now an expert on corporate espionage offered chilling accounts yesterday of his easy penetration into a variety of U.S. companies. In one case, in just a few hours he was able to make off with product plans and specifications worth billions of dollars.

“Never measure security budgets by IT,” said Winkler, author of [asa link]0764584685[/asa].

Other excellent books in this area are:

[asa link]1591096227[/asa]

and  [asa link]0595301290[/asa].

Napoleon said, “The art of war does not require complicated maneuvers; the simplest are the best, and common sense is fundamental. From which one might wonder how it is generals make blunders; it is because they try to be clever.”

Applying Napoleon’s maxim on simplicity to protecting critical data throughout your organization would go a long way to securing your company’s most precious asset.

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.

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.

Secrets are Secret, unless you work in the UK Cabinet Office

Published on June 19, 2008 in Competitive Intelligence, Industrial Espionage, Intellectual Property Rights and Intelligence Services. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

By now you have heard of the secret intelligence files left on a commuter train in England.

Keith Vaz MP, chairman of the powerful Home Affairs select committee told the BBC: “Such confidential documents should be locked away…they should not be read on trains.”

This should be a reminder to the private sector regarding trade secrets.

Trade Secrets

A trade secret is not protected by a Patent, Trademark, or Industrial Design. A trade secret is confidential and proprietary information that you protect because of its commercial value and the competitive advantage that it produces for your company.

Competitive Intelligence

Exposing a trade secret in public by working on a critical document on an airplane, leaving a trade secret on a commuter train, or exposing it in an proposal, may eliminate the confidential nature of the data, and once you do that, you have, by definition, given up protecting it, therefore, it is not a trade secret that you can claim as proprietary — your former trade secret moves into the public domain for all to see and use.

As a competitive intelligence practitioner, I often find former trade secrets loose in the public domain due to irresponsible security practices. If the owner does not protect the trade secret, it ceases to be confidential and proprietary data, and is likely to become somebody else’s competitive advantage, or worse still, it might become a standard practice for an entire industry.

l’Ecole de Guerre Economique

Published on May 9, 2008 in Competitive Intelligence and Industrial Espionage. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

I asked Guy Gweth what he valued most from my time at School of Economic Warfare of Paris (EGE). His answer is quite enlightening. The school assumes that the competitive situation will be asymmetrical (weak France vs. strong adversary) and that the U.S.A. is the chief adversary with China and Asia on the horizon as future adversaries. This does not represent anything unusual or unwise on France’s part.

However, the name of this school, l’Ecole de Guerre Economique, should make you wonder if this is just another Competitive Intelligence (CI) school or not. Continue reading ‘l’Ecole de Guerre Economique’

Israeli Private Investigators Convicted of Industial Espionage

Published on May 2, 2008 in Industrial Espionage and Private Investigator. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Four Israeli Private Investigators have been sentenced by an Israeli court on industrial espionage charges for their use of the Michael Haephrati’s Trojan software to steal commercial secrets on behalf of their clients.

Four members of the Israeli Modi’in Ezrahi private investigation firm including Asaf Zlotovsky, a manager at the firm was jailed for 19 months, with two other employees given 18 and 9 month sentences.

Chinese Spies Steal US Passport Smart Chip

Published on April 22, 2008 in Espionage, Forgery, Identity Fraud, Industrial Espionage, Intelligence Services, Security, Terrorism and U.S.A.. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

The US authorities demand that everybody entering their country have a passport and identity documents compliant with their security standards, but when it comes to their own passports, they have a much lower security standard than they demand of other countries.

Outsourcing passports ‘profound liability’

The blank passports travel to Europe where a microchip is inserted in the back cover and then onto Thailand where they are fitted with a radio antenna. The Netherlands company that makes the covers for the passport said in October that China stole the technology for the microchips, the Times said.

Outsourced passports netting govt. profits, risking national security

The Government Printing Office’s decision to export the work has proved lucrative, allowing the agency to book more than $100 million in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for blank passports than it actually costs to make them, according to interviews with federal officials and documents obtained by The Times.

Origins of Industrial Espionage & Competitive Intelligence

Published on April 18, 2008 in Competitive Intelligence and Industrial Espionage. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Britain drove the Industrial Revolution with a strategy of learning by experience. The age of science that followed was driven by formal education in abstract and theoretical knowledge that could be applied to many applications. The conditions and environment created by formal education produced the concept of competitive intelligence through the publication of scientific journals and the creation of the mass media.

Industrial espionage arises where the published data is non-existent or beyond the experience of those seeking to reproduce the success of others. They need somebody to show them how to put the pieces together. Sometimes, only people with hands-on experience can pass-on the knowledge.

For example, after 1916 France was desperate for field guns. They gave the USA blueprints for their 75mm gun, which was the best in the world at the time. It was so well designed that a glass of water placed on the carriage would go undisturbed as the gun fired. The Americans could not produce usable copies of the gun until French workers arrived to show them how to properly produce the gun.

After WWI, Germany’s lead in chemistry could not be exploited by the victorious allies, even with the confiscated patents and other documents. The Americans needed German chemists to show them how to make it all work. They got this expertise in the 20′s by hiring away the needed German chemists.

In earlier times, industrial espionage was the preferred method of gathering knowledge and building experience as published data was almost non-existent and experience was limited. Competitive intelligence works when you have the hands-on experience to do something constructive with collected and analysed data.