Tools for covert audio and video interception are available everywhere. Manufacturers need to pay attention, not just at trade shows, but in the design office, in the conference room, anywhere their new designs are stored or revealed. We regularly sweep offices and boardrooms to help insure that no eavesdropping or electronic surveillance is taking place. Performing TSCM sweeps also helps establish trade secret status for the information discussed or shared in those locations. Theft of trade secrets is a much more serious, prosecutable offense than just loss of general information. ~Charles

Fox13 News, Salt Lake City July 31, 2013, by Ben Winslow

SALT LAKE CITY — The Outdoor Retailer’s Summer Market has brought thousands of people to Utah to showcase innovative new designs and technology in outdoor merchandise.

But exhibitors are also trying to guard against counterfeiters, thieves and industrial espionage at this expo, to […]

From IEEE Spectrum Eliza Strickland, Jul 2 2013

The Chinese wind power company Sinovel will be keeping its legal team busy. In addition to the intellectual property charges against the company in Chinese courts, which Spectrum covered last year, the company now faces criminal charges of corporate espionage brought by the U.S. Justice Department. 

In the new charges, prosecutors allege that Sinovel stole trade secrets from the Massachusetts-based company AMSC (formerly American Superconductor Corp.), which sells software and systems to control wind turbines. According to the indictment, AMSC’s alleged losses exceed $800 million.  

The prosecution is part of efforts undertaken by the Justice Department’s IP Task Force, which was recently created to “safeguard the nation’s economic security against those who seek to profit illegally from American creativity, innovation and hard work.”

The various cases against Sinovel have attracted widespread attention, as theWall Street Journal notes:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, while in his capacity […]

Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera has been sentenced to jail for twenty months.

The Financial Times reports that a Milan court found him guilty, but suspended his jail sentence, in an industrial espionage case involving Telecom Italia.

Provera, who denies the charges, was also ordered to pay € 900 000, ”I will appeal, [I am] convinced that the truth will emerge,” he said in a statement.

According to FT the trial was linked to a broader case of suspected industrial espionage and phone-tapping that led to the arrests in 2006 of 20 people, including Giuliano Tavaroli, a former head of security at Telecom Italia and Pirelli.

They were accused of operating a spy network that collected private information about many prominent Italians, including two prime ministers, Silvio Berlusconi and Romano Prodi. (GMM-Apex)

Marco Tronchetti Provera with Paul Hembery

[Read more]

7/13/2013 Payvand Iran News

Ali Motahari, Iranian MP

Iranian conservative MP Ali Motahari says his offices were wiretapped and illegally videotaped. 

Motahari said in a statement that surveillance equipment was accidentally discovered in the air conditioning ductwork, and his own video surveillance shows that up to nine intruders had entered the premises at night.

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This news report points to the need for multiple levels of security.  Motahari’s security video recordings revealed intruders who were planting their own video surveillance devices.  If you suspect possible intrusion to your premises, even if nothing was taken, ESPECIALLY if nothing was taken, it could have been an attempt at planting bugs or eavesdropping equipment and may require a proper TSCM inspection to maintain security.

Omni Hotels were recording phone calls for “service observation”, that is having the ability monitoring or record calls for quality assurance, as we have all often heard announced at the beginning of a call.  In this case Omni was not making that announcement and a class action suit was made against them.   

Law360, Los Angeles (June 24, 2013, 5:04 PM ET) — By Matthew Heller

Omni Hotels Management Corp. urged a California federal judge Monday to toss a putative class action alleging it has illegally recorded telephone conversations between customers and its employees, saying California’s wiretapping law did not apply to the “routine” business practice of “service-observing.”

Omni’s attorney David Farkas said the luxury hotel operator could not be sued for violating the California Information Privacy Act by taping calls without first telling the guests or getting their approval because the law included an exemption for recording equipment “furnished and used […]

International Venture Capital Post; IVC POST | Marc Castro   Updated: May 04, 2013 

The image is the frontage of the Credit Suisse corporate headquarters, whose recent performance in the bourse left much to be desired. (Photo : Reuters)

Credit Suisse Group AG has filed suit against its former vice president for emerging markets group on the grounds she stole confidential documents and trade secrets prior to her transfer to Goldman Sachs.

The complaint was filed in Manhattan state court against Agostina Pechi claiming she had sent highly sensitive and confidential information and documentation to her personal email account months before her date of resignation. The information included databases, client contact information and team sales targets.

Credit Suisse called it an ‘after hours document raid’ when she scheduled to be on furlough when the alleged illegal acts were committed related […]