This Week in Corporate Espionage News

• Corporate espionage in Canada: how HR leaders can guard against insider threats

• Deel and Rippling corporate espionage case takes a turn as accused ‘spy’ agrees to cooperate

• US is increasingly vulnerable to espionage threats, analysts warn

• Former Spy: Unstoppable AI-Powered Threats Target All

• Russian espionage group focused on corporate espionage, mainly targeting organizations in the US

• North Korea hackers go after business executives in latest info-stealing scheme

• DOGE Purge Is Boosting China’s Espionage Activities Against U.S.

• '$35 million gone in one call': Deepfake fraud rings are fooling the world's smartest firms: Impersonating CEOs for wire fraud to creating fake hostage videos for extortion

This Week in Spy News

• Putin’s Spy Hunters Grab Ukrainian Informants On Mission To Infiltrate Russian Military

• Trump administration is pointing spy satellites at US border

• Your TV is watching you

• Texas AG investigating insurance company accused of spying on lawmakers, journalists, other Texans

• FBI director avoids committing to investigate Signal leak

• Czech Republic blocks Chinese satellite investment over fears of espionage

Man Charged with Installing Eavesdropping Device

A Missouri man was charged with installing an eavesdropping device in an Oak Grove home Wednesday night.

Oak Grove Police told WKDZ that 34-year-old Manual Alvarez was arrested after a camera was found in the headboard of a bed in the home of a woman with whom Alvarez had a child in common.

Alvarez reportedly claimed he put in the camera due to things being stolen and said it was not hidden. more

A Chinese Spy Network is Targeting Former US Officials Laid Off by Musk and Trump

A network of companies linked to a Chinese tech firm has been attempting to recruit recently laid-off U.S. government employees. This campaign, uncovered by analyst Max Lesser, seeks to exploit the vulnerabilities of federal workers affected by mass layoffs. 

While the companies involved remain obscure, the operation's methods resemble those used in previous Chinese intelligence activities. The U.S. government is aware of the potential risks and is urging former employees to remain cautious about such offers...

Lesser, who shared his findings with Reuters, warned that "the network seeks to exploit the financial vulnerabilities of former federal workers affected by recent mass layoffs." These recruitment efforts closely resemble previous tactics used by Chinese intelligence to obtain valuable information under the guise of employment opportunities.

A Web of Fake FirmsFour companies—RiverMerge Strategies, Wavemax Innovation, and two others—are allegedly part of this recruitment network. Their websites share overlapping designs, are hosted on the same server, and exhibit other digital connections, raising suspicions of a coordinated effort. Lesser’s research, along with Reuters' investigation, found that all four companies’ websites were hosted alongside Smiao Intelligence, an obscure Chinese internet services firm. more

Student: Allegedly Secretly Recording Videos in Girls' Restroom

A now-former student at the Gwinnett School of Math, Science and Technology is facing felony charges after police say he recorded videos inside a girls’ restroom multiple times.

The most recent incident occurred on Feb. 25, but warrants reveal the teen is accused of similar actions at least 13 times since October 2024.

According to a police report, the 17-year-old male student entered the girls’ restroom and took a picture or video of a 17-year-old female student without her consent. Investigators collected the student's cell phone as evidence.

Officials credited a student's vigilance in reporting the incident, which led to swift action by administrators. more

Not So Secure: Drones Can Now Listen to Underwater Messages

Cross-medium eavesdropping technology challenges long-held assumptions about the security of underwater communications.

Researchers from Princeton and MIT have developed a method to intercept underwater communications from the air, challenging long-standing beliefs about the security of underwater transmissions.

The team created a device that uses radar to eavesdrop on underwater acoustic signals, or sonar, by decoding the tiny vibrations those signals produce on the water’s surface. In principle, the technique could also roughly identify the location of an underwater transmitter, the researchers said. more

Cool Spycraft at the Tip of Your Finger

Only $3.18.

This is a Near-Field Communications (NFC) chip. Very small. Very thin. NFC is a short-range wireless technology that enables data exchange between two devices within ~4 cm. The chip contains a small amount of memory, a radio antenna, and a controller. It can be operated in one of two modes. 

• Passive: No battery, powered by the electromagnetic field from the reader. 
• Active: Has its own power source and can initiate communication.

How you might want to put your new spy power to work...

1. Covert Information Drops

• Spy embeds NFC tag in a common object (book, card, clothing tag).
• The chip links to a hidden or encrypted file or payload.
• Handler taps the object with a phone to retrieve information without direct contact.

2. Target Tracking
• Spy plants an NFC tag on a person or vehicle.
• The chip contains a unique ID or triggers background logging when scanned by compromised devices.
• Useful in tight surveillance environments.

3. Access Credential Spoofing
• Clone an NFC badge or card to gain unauthorized access.
• With a reader and software, a spy can harvest data and replicate a target’s access card.

4. Payload Delivery
NFC chip programmed to:
• Open malicious URLs.
• Trigger phone actions (e.g., Bluetooth pairing, contact injection).
• Launch scripts on rooted devices or with social engineering.
• Planted in public items (posters, flyers, seats, hotel room items).

5. Dead Drops with Geofencing
• NFC chip triggers a secure drop message only when tapped in a specific location.
• Adds plausible deniability; nothing visible unless in context.

6. Asset Authentication & Deception
• Tag gear or documents with NFC chips claiming authenticity (e.g., fake origin metadata).
• Alternatively, verify real gear during handoff using known chip signatures.

7. Remote Trigger Mechanism
• NFC tag acts as a trigger for another device (e.g., when tapped, it signals a hidden recorder to start transmitting).

From The Security Scrapbook Archives - "The Talking Dog" (joke)

 From The Security Scrapbook Archives - "The Talking Dog"

FutureWatch: Sophisticated & Smart Surveillance Electronics To Become Smaller and Cheaper

Texas Instruments says it has shrunk the size of the smallest microcontroller unit in its industry with a new MCU the size of a black pepper flake.

The MCU packaging is only 1.38 square millimeters in size... TI says the product is aimed at small products including medical wearables, earbuds, stylus pens and electric toothbrushes. The product includes a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter and has 16KB of flash memory and 1KB of SRAM and runs at 24MHz...

TI says the microcontroller costs 20 cents per unit in quantities of 1,000, which means a company could get an army of robot spiders project started for as little as $200.

Vinay Agarwal, vice president and general manager of MSP Microcontrollers at TI: "With the addition of the world's smallest MCU, our MSPM0 MCU portfolio provides unlimited possibilities to enable smarter, more connected experiences in our day-to-day lives."

William Luk, a consultant and technology expert at Quandary Peak Research, said the MCU shrinkage opens up opportunities in areas where miniature devices weren't previously possible.

"One of the important verticals for micro-devices is in healthcare and surgical: smart pills, embedded sensors, or even surgical devices that can reach places like never before," Luk said. more

Bank of Ghana - Planted Spy Devices at Home

Retired Colonel Festus Aboagye has accused former Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor, Dr Ernest Addison, of installing unauthorized electronic surveillance equipment at his residence, allegedly linked to the central bank.

The claim follows a controversial search conducted by National Security operatives at Dr Addison’s residence, which Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin condemned, alleging that personal belongings, including cash and jewellery belonging to Addison’s wife, were seized.

However, Rtd. Col. Aboagye insists that the operation was based on credible intelligence suggesting Dr Addison had set up surveillance devices that enabled remote monitoring of BoG activities.

Speaking on TV3, he stated, “Monitoring is a very diplomatic word. This is spying, this is surveillance,” adding that sources within National Security had confirmed the presence of such “back door electronic devices” at Addison’s home.

He emphasized that no former BoG Governor had the authority to install systems that allowed remote oversight of the bank’s operations. more

"The Wildest Stories of Corporate Espionage We've Ever Heard"

Video Podcast Episode 689: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) break down the craziest stories of corporate espionage in history. — Show Notes: (0:00) Rippling vs Deel (10:21) The British East India Company (17:11) Oracle vs Microsoft (21:28) Coke vs. Pepsi (24:14) Uber vs. Waymo (26:03) U.S. Intellectual piracy (28:10) Wiz sells for $32B (39:40) A case for Glassdoor (45:54) Marc Lore's new thing (51:52) Money, Status, Power

Using Drones for Peeping, Burglaries on Rise: “It’s Gotten Dramatically Worse”

It's attack of the drones as flying cameras stalk stars and serve as burglary lookouts, all while becoming tougher to detect. But security companies are offering high-tech solutions...

Illicit drone use has not only continued despite states passing strict laws but in recent years has proliferated, says Mike Fraietta, an FAA drone pilot and founder of security company Gargoyle Systems. Drone security systems are on the rise as companies and event producers look to secure their airspace. Professional, military-grade drone-detection systems — the kind used for sporting events, for instance — can cost about $200,000...

Drones are typically detected by their noise or the radio frequency (RF) an operator uses to pilot the craft. Fraietta says the technology is innovating in three ways: using AI to program portions of a preplanned flight path instead of relying on RF, making drone wings quieter, and using a wire like a kite string. “A tethered drone sounds silly at first,” he says. “But they’re fiber optic wires that also allow for 4K streaming, and the drone is not detectable by the police looking for a radio frequency. So they’re able to get away and move drones a lot quicker and quieter than a year ago.” Such teathers can literally be miles long. more

Notes From ‘Watchers’ of Spy Kim Philby Made Public

A new exhibition at the National Archives in London will reveal the extent of MI5 operation to expose the British double agent...

Secret surveillance of Britain’s ­notorious double agent, Kim Philby, made public for the first time in archived documents, reveals how keenly the Security Service wanted to confirm or disprove early suspicions of his high-level treachery.

In daily bulletins submitted to MI5 in November 1951, undercover operatives describe how Philby, codenamed Peach, moved about London...

Philby, who later worked for the Observer as a Middle East correspondent, has been called the “Third Man” because he was suspected by both MI5 and the Americans of being the elusive double agent who had tipped off the two spies before they could be questioned, allowing them to flee to Moscow via France...

Philby finally fled to Moscow, handing over a written confession to his old MI6 friend, Nicholas Elliott. He had been accused by Flora Solomon, a former girlfriend, who said he had once tried to recruit her...

Philby spent 25 years in Moscow, instructing trainee spies in the techniques of “tradecraft”. When he died, in 1988, he received full KGB honours. more

An El Cheapo Laser Listener (<$30.)

With the availability of electrical components, building a laser microphone from scratch is possible. Using three components, with an optional fourth, users can listen to distant audio [sort of]. The build is straightforward if a device accepts and records mono audio input.

As SomethingAboutScience explains, a laser microphone works by shining a laser beam at a window or picture frame in a room. The beam’s reflection is captured by a photodiode, which converts the vibrations through the glass into audio. A red light laser isn’t necessary; a covert infrared laser can be used instead.

For a more in depth look at laser eavesdropping, click here.

RIP: Oleg Gordievsky, KGB Spy Who Defected to the UK - 86

Oleg Gordievsky, a Soviet KGB officer who helped change the course of the Cold War by covertly passing secrets to the UK, has died at home in England.

Gordievsky died on March 4 in England, where he had lived since defecting in 1985. Police said on Saturday that they are not treating his death as suspicious. 

Historians consider Gordievsky one of the era’s most important spies. In the 1980s, his intelligence helped avoid a dangerous escalation of nuclear tensions between the USSR and the West. more

Dr. Seuss on Surveillance

Dr. Seuss wrote a story about a Hawtch-Hawtcher Bee-Watcher who had a rather peculiar job. He was tasked with keeping an eye on his town’s only lazy bee. 

The idea was that if a bee is watched, it’ll work harder, right? 

Well, guess what? That didn’t seem to work at all! So, they decided to assign another Hawtch-Hawtcher to watch the first one, and then another to watch the second… and so on. Before you know it, the entire town was watching each other watch a bee!

HR Tech Firm Sues Rival for Corporate Espionage

HR software provider Rippling has sued competitor Deel for allegedly planting a spy in its Dublin office to steal trade secrets, court documents [PDF & VERY interesting] showed on Monday. Rippling claims the employee, identified as D.S., systematically searched internal Slack channels for competitor information, including sales leads and pitch decks.

The company discovered the alleged scheme through a "honeypot" trap -- a specially created Slack channel mentioned in a letter to Deel executives. When served with a court order to surrender his phone, D.S. locked himself in a bathroom before fleeing, according to the lawsuit. "We're all for healthy competition, but we won't tolerate when a competitor breaks the law," said Vanessa Wu, Rippling's general counsel. Both companies operate multibillion-dollar HR platforms, with Rippling valued at $13.5 billion and Deel at over $12 billion. more

“The world has changed.

Corporate Espionage is the new Healthy Competition.

You need Operational Privacy to compete.”

counterespionage.com

UPDATE - HR giant hired plumbers to search toilets for phone after fears alleged corporate spy in Dublin flushed it away. more

Former Council Candidate Bugs Town Hall

FL - A former Southwest Ranches council candidate is accused of planting a recording device in Town Hall and sharing the information with a business owner locked in a lawsuit with the city, according to court documents and town officials.

John Garate, 50, was arrested by Davie police on Dec. 19 after they caught him leaving Town Hall with a recording device he secretly placed in a conference room the day before, according to an arrest report.

His arrest was the culmination of an investigation that started two weeks earlier, when town officials called police to report their belief that someone had recorded a Dec. 4 closed-door meeting in that conference room. The purpose of that meeting was to discuss strategies for ongoing civil cases.

Police reviewed Town Hall surveillance footage and identified Garate as someone who walked into the building on Dec. 5, entered the conference room, and walked out with “something in his hands,” according to the arrest report.... Police planted their own recording device ahead of a second closed-door meeting scheduled for Dec. 18.

...the recording shows Garate entering the conference two hours before the Dec. 18 meeting. After he left Town Hall, but before the meeting, police checked the conference room and “verified that a device was placed on the bookshelf.”

The next morning, after the meeting, Garate returned to Town Hall, entered the conference room, picked up the device and was stopped by police as he was leaving. “During the search incident to arrest, in the defendant’s pocket was a black device with a USB attachment,” the police report states.

John Garate, 50, was arrested by Davie police on Dec. 19 after they caught him leaving Town Hall with a recording device he secretly placed in a conference room the day before, according to an arrest report. more

You might also be interested in: The World’s Smallest Voice Recorder?

AI is Watching You Drive, And it Knows More Than You Think

SUMMARY

• AI traffic cameras are becoming widespread, detecting violations like texting or not wearing seat belts.
• Location determines enforcement methods, with some countries automating citations while others involve human officers.
• AI cameras can improve road safety by catching distracted drivers, but data security, accuracy, and bias concerns remain.

Think you can sneak a quick text or drive without buckling up? AI traffic cameras may have other plans. These high-tech cameras are popping up everywhere, and they're no longer only looking for speeders. They can detect way more than you think.

As you drive past, the camera snaps a high-resolution photo of your car. These images capture the license plate, front seats, and “driver behavior.” Then, AI software analyzes the image to detect violations, like if you’re holding a phone or riding without a seat belt.

• Acusensus heads-up system snapshot of a passenger not wearing a seatbelt.

The system doesn’t issue tickets right away. Instead, it assigns a “confidence level.” This is basically a guess at how sure the AI is that you broke the rules. If the confidence is high enough, the flagged image goes to a human officer, who makes the final call.

If they decide you are breaking the law, you get a ticket. If not, the image is deleted. more

Book: In the Shadow of Giants: A true story of corporate espionage... by Liam Monclair

A true story of corporate espionage in the shadow of China’s rise.

At the heart of modern power struggles, In the Shadow of Giants follows the extraordinary journey of Liam Monclair, a security and strategy expert. This gripping narrative, blending memoir and thriller, opens the door to a unique and little-known universe—corporate espionage, geopolitical manipulations, and cultural tensions—spanning from the skyscrapers of Shanghai to the streets of Jakarta and the vast deserts of the Middle East.

From the escalation of a fierce conflict between Altéone Group—a French multinational—and Wang Industries, a Chinese giant led by the enigmatic Mr. Wang, to high-stakes missions in Iraq and the protection of a football star in dangerous zones, the author unveils the inner workings of a demanding world. 

Based on a true story, In the Shadow of Giants is both a tribute to those who work behind the scenes and an exploration of a life lived on the edge. Masterfully blending suspense and thought-provoking insights, it takes readers deep into the hidden reality of an extraordinary existence. more

The Atlas of Surveillance

The Atlas of Surveillance, which documents police surveillance technology across the US. See how your city is spending its money. 

FutureWatch: Acoustic Eavesdropping with Multi-Antenna mmWave Radar

Acoustic eavesdropping against private or confidential spaces is a significant threat in the realm of privacy protection. 

While the presence of soundproof material would weaken such an attack, current eavesdropping technology may be able to bypass these protections. 

This paper introduces mmEcho, a new acoustic eavesdropping method that utilizes millimeter-wave signals to sense vibration induced by sound precisely. Through signal processing techniques such as the intra-chirp scheme and phase calibration algorithm, mmEcho achieves micrometer-level vibration extraction without requiring target-related data. 

To improve the range of eavesdropping attacks while reducing noise, we optimize radar signals by leveraging the widespread availability of multiple antennas on commercial off-the-shelf radars. We comprehensively evaluate the performance of mmEcho in different real-world settings. 

Experimental results demonstrate that, with the aid of multi-antenna technology, mmEcho can more effectively reconstruct the audio from the target at various distances, directions, sound insulators, reverberating objects, sound levels, and languages. Compared to existing methods, our approach provides better effectiveness without prior knowledge, such as the speech data from the target. more

RIP: Mark Klein, AT&T Tech, NSA Check - 79

Mark Klein, a bona fide hero who risked civil liability and criminal prosecution to help expose a massive spying program that violated the rights of millions of Americans.

Mark didn’t set out to change the world. For 22 years, he was a telecommunications technician for AT&T, most of that in San Francisco. But he always had a strong sense of right and wrong and a commitment to privacy.

Mark not only saw how it works, he had the documents to prove it.

When the New York Times reported in late 2005 that the NSA was engaging in spying inside the U.S., Mark realized that he had witnessed how it was happening. He also realized that the President was not telling Americans the truth about the program. And, though newly retired, he knew that he had to do something. He showed up at EFF’s front door in early 2006 with a simple question: “Do you folks care about privacy?” more

RIP: Peter Sichel, Spy Turned Wine Guy -102

Peter Sichel was a shrewd observer, a skill that served him as both spy and marketing genius. 

As a U.S. intelligence officer in occupied Berlin in the aftermath of World War II, the German-Jewish immigrant put Western fears to rest when he concluded that the Soviet Union did not intend to launch a military invasion of West Germany. 

Later, after he’d grown disenchanted with espionage, Sichel took over his family’s wine business. Realizing that most Americans in the late 1950s had little knowledge of wine, he determined that they’d be drawn to something simple. He chose Blue Nun, a slightly sweet German white his family had been making since the 1920s, and the brand became ubiquitous. At its peak in 1984, it sold 30 million bottles... more

Hackers are Taking Aim at Board Directors

Well-known CEOs and executives aren’t the only potential victims of hacks and threats from criminals. Board directors also have to be vigilant, according to Jason Lish, the global chief information security officer at Cisco.

“Often times they’re targets, especially for public companies, where their profiles are out there,” he said during a virtual conversation on Thursday hosted by Fortune in partnership with Diligent for The Modern Board series.

Lish added that he’s even seen an increase in the mailing of physical ransom letters to board directors and company executives. “How do they stay protected in their personal lives?” he said. “Because threat actors will try to do reconnaissance.” more

TSCM is the corporate counterespionage measure you need.

Secret Commands Found in Bluetooth Chip - Used in a Billion Devices

A potential security issue has been discovered by cybersecurity researchers that has the capability to affect more than one billion devices.

According to researchers at the cybersecurity firm Tarlogic, a hidden command has been found coded into a bluetooth chip installed in devices around the world. This secret functionality can be weaponized by bad actors and, according to the researchers, used as an exploit into these devices.

Using these commands, hackers could impersonate a trusted device and then connect to smartphones, computers, and other devices in order to access information stored on them. Bad actors can continue to utilize their connection to the device to essentially spy on users. more

Chinese Spy Balloon Packed with American Tech

A Chinese spy balloon that crossed over the United States in 2023 was packed with American technology that could have enabled it to spy on Americans, according to two sources with direct knowledge of a technical analysis conducted by the U.S. military.

The discovery of a satellite communication module, sensors and other tech from at least five American firms underlines the failure of U.S. efforts to restrict exports of technology that could have military uses to main adversary China as well as to countries such as Russia and Iran. It also raises questions over the role of private companies that sell their equipment globally in keeping control over the ultimate users of dual-use technology that can have defense applications as well as civilian uses.

A Chinese patent reviewed by Newsweek describes a communications system for exactly such a balloon as the one that crossed America, based on using a satellite transceiver from a U.S. company that the balloon’s controllers in China would use to communicate with it and that would send data back, and that is easily available online. more

1984 or 2025 - What the Flock?

Flock Safety, a maker of license plate-reading cameras, is said to be valued at $7.5 billion — a 56% increase from a year ago — in a funding round to be led by Andreessen Horowitz. The startup plans to raise $250 million. more

Not everyone is thrilled, and the courts have not weighted in yet. When they do, it will be boom or bust.

2025 Canadian Technical Security Conference (CTSC)

Conference Dates
Tuesday May 06, 2025 to Thursday May 08, 2025
Arrival Monday May 05, 2025

Conference Venue
Banff Centre for Professional Development
Kinnear Centre for Innovation
107 Tunnel Mountain Drive, Banff, Alberta Canada T1L 1H5

Conference Theme:
The Future of Technical Security: Adapting to a Changing Threat Landscape
Defensive resources, tools, countermeasures, and technologies are available. That is why, you need to attend the Canadian Technical Security Conference to hone an up-to-date awareness of the threat environment, countermeasures, tools and a better understanding how to make the best use of them. Moreover, not only will you learn from experts but you can become part of a community that pulls together against the threat operators to share information and best practices.

A very worthwhile event for TSCM colleagues. more

History: Spies and Informants | A 60 Minutes Marathon

From 2017, Scott Pelley’s interview with an FBI undercover agent who infiltrated Al Qaeda and helped thwart several terrorist attacks. 

From 2011, Anderson Cooper’s report on FBI agent Lin Vecchio, who helped put away several notorious Mafia leaders, but also faced murder charges due to his association with an informant. 

From 2017, Sharyn Alfonsi’s report on the use of jailhouse informants in Orange County, California. 

From 2015, Steve Kroft’s report on Jack Barsky, a KGB spy from the Soviet Union who lived for decades in the United States without being detected. 

From 2019, Pelley’s talk with a former American member of Al-Qaeda who provided valuable intelligence in order to avoid jail. 

From 2001, Lesley Stahl’s report on Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent who was convicted of spying for Russia. 

From 2024, Cecilia Vega’s report on the Americans spying for Cuba in the U.S. 

From 2015, Stahl’s investigation into the controversial use of young confidential informants by law enforcement in dangerous and sometimes deadly drug cases. 

From 2010, Pelley’s report on a Defense Department employee caught on tape selling secrets to a Chinese spy. 

From 2022, Jon Wertheim's story on the Ritchie Boys, the secret U.S. unit bolstered by German-born Jews who helped the Allies beat Hitler. 

From 2018, Cooper’s interview with Justice and FBI officials who reveal how they caught a former CIA officer spying for the Chinese. 

And from 2017, Kroft’s interview with British author John Le Carré who has written several best-selling spy thrillers under the pen name David Cornwell. more