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More Kinds of Corporate Spies Target More Kinds of Trade Secrets

Voice of America, Jim Randle November 05, 2013

Efforts to steal trade secrets from U.S. companies continue at a high level and are hitting new targets, in spite of major efforts to stop such industrial espionage. Losing trade secrets hurts the economy by discouraging investments in the research critical to growth. Some new players are getting into the fray, and the attacks hit a huge variety of businesses from high tech to high fashion.

Plans for a fighter jet are an obvious target for corporate and other kinds of spies, but experts say industrial espionage also has been aimed at high fashion designers and toymakers, innovative steel makers, food and beverage companies, clean energy research and wind turbine makers. Corporate spies also are seeking information about the management practices that guide successful businesses.

Mandient corporate security expert Laura Galante says a growing number of companies think security breaches are becoming inevitable.

“2013 was […]

Exec Security2016-12-16T20:23:56-05:00November 11th, 2013|

Insider threats- the dangers within

We’ve come across a number of articles recently highlighting the spy threats that come from within a company’s own employees, a few of these are referenced below. As with all security, some of the biggest threats come from within your own walls. This is particularly worth noting when it comes corporate espionage. About 90 percent of all eavesdropping devices and threats we have discovered were placed by current or former employees or others who had free access to the target areas. In espionage cases, there may be nothing obvious missing to alert you to the incident. By the time the loss of information is recognized it may be too late, the damage may be done.

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Digital security website Dark Reading reports:

Generation Y Users Say They Will Break Corporate BYOD Rules

Majority of users ages 21 to 32 say they would flout company policies restricting the […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:57-05:00November 9th, 2013|

Spy shoes to drones: How U.S. surveillance changed

An article in USA Today reviews the history of spy-dom with an interactive graphic reviewing some devices and techniques from the 1940’s through 2013. An important point to remember when considering all forms of technology today, is that the advancements have a cumulative effect, especially when it comes to spying. Techniques from the 1700’s, 1800’s, and 1900’s are still valid in 2013. Just because new technology has emerged does not mean that old technology or techniques have disappeared. We now have Kindles and iPads, Youtube and podcasts, yet books, radio, and TV are still with us and very significant. With much of today’s spying taking place in the cyber world, it’s important to remember that the old techniques have not gone away. Hidden microphones, transmitters, covert video, even putting your ear up to an air vent to hear voices from another room are still active valid eavesdropping threats […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:57-05:00November 8th, 2013|

Trade secrets protection set to get tougher

Performing regular TSCM sweeps is a key element in trade secret protection. If security measures are not being taken to protect your privacy, intercepted or stolen information may not be considered a “trade secret” in court.

Legal protection of trade secrets on a state-by-state basis has created enforcement problems. Now push is on for federal legislation.

By Paul Krill | InfoWorld

Momentum is building for federal legislation protecting trade secrets, an intellectual property attorney said at a Silicon Valley seminar on Thursday.

Trade secrets, in which a company keeps vital information a secret rather than disclosing it for patent protection, can be vital to companies in fields such as information technology. Intel endured a $1 billion trade secrets case in 2008 that saw a departing employee sent to prison.

But protection of trade secrets via the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which was passed on a state-by-state basis, has been limited, said attorney […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:57-05:00November 2nd, 2013|

Pacific Beach home searched for cameras after renters found webcam

By Matt Johnson, Reporter

PACIFIC BEACH (CBS 8) – A vacation home in Pacific Beach was searched for at least one hidden camera that recorded nude images of renters, according to a search warrant.

Police officers searched the house on the 4800 block of San Joaquin Drive on October 6, the same day a Seattle family reported they had discovered a camera hidden in the living room.

A male family member spotted the camera behind glass in the entertainment center. Then a female family member removed the webcam’s memory card to discover nude images of her 4-year-old niece playing in the living room. The camera had also recorded video of her walking around nude while no one else was home, according to documents.

She expressed concern the homeowner could have remote access to the clips via the internet. The family said they had not been notified that […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:57-05:00November 1st, 2013|

Spy: The Secret World of Espionage – exhibit opens at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley

The exhibition is on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. It was put together through a collaboration between the CIA, FBI, the National Reconnaissance Office and the Foreign Excellent Trenchcoat Society, a Florida-based non-profit operated by author and collector Keith Melton. www.reaganfoundation.org

Article By Gregory J. Wilcox, Los Angeles Daily News

The current flap about the NSA spying on U.S. allies and enemies alike shouldn’t be a big surprise to those familiar with the history of spycraft.

Governments have secretly been listening to and watching each other for decades and now an exhibit opening Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley exposes the tricks of the spy trade.

Visitors to “SPY: The Secret World of Espionage,” will get a look at many devices and documents that had been kept secret for years. It’s the West Coast premiere of the traveling show so there […]

Charles Patterson2013-10-31T20:15:51-04:00October 31st, 2013|

British phone-hacking trial for ex-Rupert Murdoch employees starts

Former News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks is one of eight defendants on trial.

Jury selection got under way at London’s Central Criminal Court on Monday in the first trial of the phone-hacking scandal that brought down Rupert Murdoch’s 168-year-old News of the World newspaper and rocked Britain’s political establishment.

Former News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks and former News of the World Editor and one-time communications chief for British Prime Minister David Cameron, Andy Coulson, are among the eight defendants in the dock.

The accused – all of whom are former Murdoch employees except for Brooks’ husband, Charles — have denied the charges against them, which range from illegally hacking the cell phone voicemails of celebrities, bribing public officials and covering up evidence.

A second trial involving journalists from The Sun newspaper, which is also owned by Murdoch, is scheduled for next year.

The phone-hacking […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:57-05:00October 29th, 2013|

Valley Police Beat: Sailor at NAFEC being investigated after hidden camera found

Hidden cameras are considered a no-no, even though nothing overly suspicious was reported.

Imperial Valley, CA, IVpressonline.com
Thursday, October 24, 2013

SEELEY — Authorities at the Naval Air Facility-El Centro are investigating a sailor after a hidden video camera was found in a sailor’s barracks room, according to a Navy official.

In July 2012, the Navy Criminal Investigative Service and NAFEC opened an investigation once the hidden video camera was found, said Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, spokesperson for Commander, Naval Air Force, Pacific.

A sailor assigned to a unit at NAFEC has admitted to placing the camera and has been placed in a legal hold status and reassigned to another location pending final disposition of the case.

Discovered video recordings showed both male and female sailors.

The investigation is ongoing, and the names of those involved will not be released pending final disposition of the case.

“The Navy will not tolerate invasions of our […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:57-05:00October 27th, 2013|

Tussle Over High-Tech Corporate Espionage

By KEVIN KOENINGER, Tues. Oct 22, 2013
Courthouse News Service

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (CN) – A satellite TV software developer claims in court that a competitor used high-tech skullduggery to steal its products and customers and commit “digital crime.”
     Pixsys Technologies sued Agemni LLC in Federal Court, claiming Agemni used a customer’s log-in credentials to access its software hundreds of times in the past year.
     Pixsys claims in the lawsuit to be a leading developer of installation and repair software for DISH satellite systems.
     The complaint involves a software suite called Dish Operations, which handles “work order management, inventory, payables and receivables, employee recruitment and retention, basic human resources, and business and employee performance and productivity.”
     Pixsys claims the configuration of its software is a closely guarded secret, and that access is available only through valid username and password credentials, which are given to […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:57-05:00October 27th, 2013|

New project for Elon Musk: making James Bond submarine car work.

The Drum.com 19 OCTOBER 2013

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed as mystery buyer of James Bond submarine car – and now he plans to make it work

Elon Musk, the billionaire tech inventor who co-founded Paypal, has admitted that he was the mystery telephone bidder who bought James Bond’s submarine car from ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ for £550,000 at auction in London last month. (see our post https://execsecurity.com/?p=571 )

But more intriguingly, the 42-year-old SpaceX and Tesla Motors chief now says he plans to make the classic Lotus Espirit work underwater.

“It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ drive his Lotus Esprit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater,” he said.

“I was disappointed to learn that it can’t actually transform. What I’m going to do is upgrade it […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:57-05:00October 21st, 2013|

Confronting the Insider Threat

This article from this month’s Security Management magazine (ASIS publication) provides a lot of insight into understanding how people inside your organization could be motivated to betray you. The writer delves into areas such as personality traits, background checks, risk assessment and dealing with terminations.

Confronting the Insider Threat
By Laura Spadanuta

Edward Snowden, who has leaked classified information about intelligence collection activities of the National Security Agency (NSA), reportedly told the South China Morning Post that he sought a job as a contractor at government consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton with a goal: to collect proof about the NSA’s domestic surveillance programs and alert the public to the programs. However, Snowden is not the typical insider threat. Most insiders who later betray their employer’s trust don’t start out with that intent. The change from benign employee to malicious insider can be spurred by anything from home-life stress […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 20th, 2013|

North Korea’s Overseas Restaurants Used for Espionage and Gaining Hard Currency

Travelling on business? Be careful not only of what you eat, but better be wary where you eat as well. “Another mission of the restaurants is to spy on …travelers who frequent the restaurants. Defectors say waitresses at the eateries are trained in intelligence gathering with an emphasis on prying corporate secrets from business travelers.”

BY: Bill Gertz, Washington Free Beacon
October 15, 2013

North Korea’s global network of state-run restaurants, most in China, are dens of espionage and sites of operations involving tens of thousands of overseas North Koreans who send the regime in Pyongyang more than $100 million in hard currency annually, according to U.S. and western intelligence officials.

In Asia alone, the U.S. government has identified 60 restaurants ranging from Nepal to Cambodia to Dandong, China – located along the Yalu River separating China from North Korea.

North Korean […]

Charles Patterson2013-10-19T19:31:18-04:00October 19th, 2013|

Hidden cameras keep on rolling

Discovery of hidden cameras continue to make the news. Here are a few of the latest. While the news media reports on the more sleazy discoveries, they are also popular devices for corporate spies. Most covert video cameras will also record audio making them even more dangerous as eavesdropping devices. Corporate discoveries rarely make the news as they are often dealt with in-house to avoid bad public relations.

1. Police investigating hidden camera at Waukesha swim school

TMJ4 report by Michele Fiore Oct. 4, 2013 – UPDATED: Oct. 4, 2013

WAUKESHA – A part-time swim instructor is accused of setting up a hidden camera and capturing images of his teenage coworkers in a changing room.

34-year-old Michael Coyle appeared in Waukesha County Intake Court Friday in an orange jail jumpsuit. His mother looked on, taking notes, as the attorneys in the room spoke. Coyle did not […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 14th, 2013|

Bugging in history: Ten years ago, a bugging at the mayor’s office shook Philadelphia

This article looks into the bugging of the office of Philadelphia Mayor John Street, discovered on October 7, 2003, after Street had his own sweep team inspect his office. On the eve of the 2003 mayoral election, an FBI bug was discovered in Mayor John F. Street’s office, unmasking a federal pay-to-play corruption probe of City Hall. The investigation resulted in two dozen convictions, including that of former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The article goes into a fair amount of detail including the efforts made by the FBI to get their listening devices installed.

Craig R. McCoy and Mark Fazlollah, Inquirer Staff Writers
Posted: Sunday, October 6, 2013, 2:01 AM

Before it all blew up, the FBI’s bugging of Mayor John F. Street’s City Hall office went off without a hitch.

In a choreographed intrusion, dozens of agents protected the perimeter while the […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 6th, 2013|

Corporate espionage- not new. Lack of awareness- also not new.

Having been working in the security field for over thirty five years, and in the surveillance countermeasures field for more than half of that, I’ve come to accept the need for protecting information as a given. I’m always surprised when people I would have expected to be knowledgeable demonstrate their ignorance in such matters.

In this video from 2010, experienced newscaster Bob Schiefer shows that he was clueless about the world of corporate spying. Unfortunately, I think he represents the majority of CEO’s and corporate executives out there. They need to understand the dangers their businesses face and how significant the threat against their proprietary information is.

I just ordered Eamon Javers’ book, Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy from Amazon and have not read it yet. Judging by the reviews it may be good reading for anyone dealing with corporate information.

Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy (on Amazon)

-Charles […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 5th, 2013|

New audio technology could be an interesting way to pass secret messages…

Dr. Ivan Poupyrev is a Principle Research Scientist for Disney Research in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Among other creative projects, he has developed a method for transferring audio through the human body by modulating an electric charge in the body. The audio cannot be heard unless the charged up person touches someone’s ear (or other amplification device). His creation is called Ishin-Denshin, which is a Japanese expression for communicating through an unspoken medium.

Here is a description of Ishin-denshin from Dr. Poupyrev’s web site

Ishin-Den-Shin: Transmitting Sound via Touch

This project explores the use of human body as an analogue sound transmission medium. Called “Ishin-Den-Shin,” a Japanese expression for communicating through an unspoken mutual understanding, i.e. non-verbal communication, the technology turns an audio message into an inaudible signal that is relayed by the human body. When the communicator’s finger slightly rubs an object, this physical interaction creates an ad hoc […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 2nd, 2013|

Eavesdropping, tax evasion snare divorce attorney

SFGate.com by Bob Egelko, Sept 27, 2013

San Francisco. An East Bay divorce lawyer pleaded guilty Friday to planting a secret listening device in the car of a client’s ex-husband, using a private investigator who has admitted setting up drunken driving arrests of men involved in divorce cases.

Mary Nolan‘s admission to five federal felony charges wound up a series of criminal prosecutions stemming from disclosures of private sting operations in Contra Costa County that have been nicknamed “dirty DUIs.”

Investigator Christopher Butler said he designed the scheme to tarnish men facing divorce proceedings by hiring women to approach them, have drinks at a bar and then ask the men to follow them in their cars. Butler would then call police or 911 to report a suspected drunken driver.

Butler is serving an eight-year prison sentence. Officers from four Bay Area police agencies have also been convicted.

The charges against Nolan, 61, were not connected to the […]

Charles Patterson2016-12-16T20:23:58-05:00October 2nd, 2013|

Canadian DND now says no listening devices were found at Nortel building

No bugs found in former Nortel building, Defence officials now say
Ottawa Citizen, October 1, 2013 by David Pugliese

OTTAWA — The Conservative government says Defence officials have assured it that no listening devices have been found at the former Nortel campus, contradicting previous security concerns raised by both former Nortel and government intelligence employees.

Former Nortel employees have contacted the Citizen to say that the listening devices were found when Department of National Defence officials did their initial security sweeps of the facility, purchased for DND’s new home.

DND documents also indicate that concerns about the security surrounding the former Nortel campus were raised last year within the department. A briefing document for then-Defence minister Peter MacKay warned that the public announcement that the DND was moving into the complex before it could be properly secured created a major problem.

“This not only raises the level of difficulty of verifying appropriate security […]

Charles Patterson2013-10-02T20:11:21-04:00October 2nd, 2013|