Business Espionage: Tram Boss Quits due to Buses Spying

Scotland - The former boss of Edinburgh Trams quit his job in anger over the “outrageous” spying carried out against his colleagues by rival transport firm Lothian Buses. 

According to his leaked resignation letter, Tom Norris left his £80,000 a year post last year over the bus company’s covert monitoring of staff.

He also wrote it was “extraordinary” the individual behind the snooping had not been fired and hit out at the “gross mishandling” of the scandal.

Edinburgh Trams and Lothian Buses are separate companies, but they share IT, media relations and human resources and are ultimately owned by the city council. more

Alert Security Guard Nails Corporate Espionage Spy

South Korea - A senior official at Samsung Electronics Co. was arrested for trying to steal a core chip-making technology...


The international crime investigation unit at Gyeonggi Police Agency on Thursday arrested an unnamed executive vice president at Samsung Electronics of the semiconductor division on suspicion of committing industrial espionage.

A security guard at the company reportedly found confidential documents in his car during a routine security check.

The company immediately searched his house and called the police upon discovering thousands of classified documents he kept at his house. more

Bird, James Bird - Suspected of Fowl Play

The Indian police on Saturday detained another pigeon that flew into a village near the heavily militarised border with Pakistan on a suspicion of 'spy'. 

The state intelligence and army officers were inspecting the pigeon that might have flown across border from Pakistan and landed in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district with some words in Urdu inscribed on its wings.

The bird was handed over to police by a local Naresh Kumar who spotted some 'suspicious text' on the wings which were actually names of the week days. The pigeon was X-rayed to verify if something was hidden inside but no clues were discovered having any links with Pakistan.

It is pertinent to mention here that in 2015, Indian authorities had captured a pigeon which was claimed to be a 'spy' pigeon from Pakistan. In 2013, Indian security forces found a dead falcon fitted with a small camera, and in 2010 another pigeon was detained over espionage fears. more

Spying & Espionage Infographic

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Classic Spy Tradecraft: Sexy Spies at G20 Summit

This is a cautionary tale for all business people (men and women) who travel for work...

While Americans in Hangzhou may be worried about red-carpeted stairways, British officials are concerned about something much more important -- honey traps.

The team of officials accompanying new British Prime Minister Theresa May to the G20 summit have been warned to take steps to protect themselves from alluring Chinese spies offering sex during their stay in Hangzhou, the Telegraph reports.

Apparently, British security agents haven't just been reading too many James Bond novels; this kind of thing has happened before and they are taking care that it won't happen again by issuing officials with temporary mobile phones and email addresses.

The scandalous incident occurred during former prime minister Gordon Brown's visit to China in 2008. According to Brown's special advisor Damien McBride, the British officials were “accosted on one side by a beautiful posse of Chinese girls and on the other side by an equivalent group of Russian blondes."

Before they knew what was going on, one of the officials was lured away to his hotel room, where he was drugged and robbed of his Blackberry and "half the contents of his briefcase." more

PS - They can also plant eavesdropping devices and spycams.

The Five Steps to Countering Business Espionage

Everyone has heard the phrase "loose lips sink ships." 

That's the very essence of military operational security. Commonly shortened into "OPSEC," it is a fundamental—if not the most important—part of military operations...

The business world isn't nearly as life and death but that doesn't mean the same rules don't apply. The military has five basic steps to proper OPSEC, and they're just as useful in the civilian world, especially with the proliferation of tech that makes leaks and security breaches more common.

1. Identify critical information
2. Analyze potential threats
3. Know your own weaknesses
4. Assess risks
5. Apply countermeasures

• OPSEC requires complete understanding of your company from the inside out. If you're truly going to be as secure as a well-oiled military unit you need to think about—and think like—the enemy.
• Think about the threats you might face and compare those to your vulnerabilities. The military uses that comparison to figure out where they need to focus on OPSEC—it is no different in the civilian world.
• Planning is nothing without execution. Make sure you're putting OPSEC lessons into play, and also be sure that everyone in your company is on board. The lowest ranking Private in the Army takes OPSEC classes, and so should the lowest level employee at your company. more  

I want to get started, right now.

BBC: Are hi-tech spies stealing all your firm's secrets?

Last weekend's reports about the New Zealand rugby team's discovery of a listening device sewn in to a hotel meeting room chair, have illustrated just how much spying technology has advanced in recent years.

These days, you don't need to sit outside in a van with your headphones on, listening to static for an hour before the battery runs out and the tape recorder gives a tell-tale clunk.

Tiny matchbox-sized gadgets are now capable of transmitting audio and video for hours on end to the other side of the world. more

If you are in business, you have information others want.  Don't be an easy target.
Order our 3-point information security assessment.  (Bug sweep / TSCM, Wi-Fi security and compliance audit & Information Security Survey)

CNN Report: How is the US / China Cyber Theft Agreement Working Out?

About a year ago, China and the United States formally agreed not to conduct or knowingly support the cyber theft of each other's intellectual property.

So, how is that agreement working out?

Not great, said Adm. Mike Rogers, head of US Cyber Command.

"Cyber operations from China are still targeting and exploiting US government, defense industry, academic and private computer networks," Rogers said last April during testimony before a US Senate committee.

Cyber theft of US trade secrets can easily ruin American businesses and result in higher prices for consumers. Even more worrisome, stolen American military secrets could put US servicemen and women at risk during combat. more with video

See the dramatic story of how the United States caught and convicted an American who was spying for China. Watch CNN's "Declassified," Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

TSCM Find: Bug Discovered in Hotel Meeting Room Used by New Zealand Rugby Team

New Zealand Rugby says a Sydney hotel room where the All Blacks held meetings was bugged before their first Bledisloe Cup match against Australia.

The New Zealand Herald reported that a "sophisticated" listening device found on Monday had been hidden in a chair...

The paper reported that hiding the bug "was a highly skilled and meticulous act and whoever put it there would have needed a significant amount of time to have pulled off such an accomplished job".

Indications are that the device was working and would have transmitted conversations about the All Blacks' strategy for Saturday's match. more

The Herald understands the foam of the seat appeared to have been deliberately and carefully cut to make way for the device and then sewn or glued back together to be almost undetectable. more

Three Espionage Tests

Denmark - The EspionageTest is the name of a newly developed free online test designed to reveal whether businesses are vulnerable to industrial espionage.

“The test is designed to provide an immediate picture of a business’s strengths and weaknesses. It provides a picture of the business’s challenges and the areas that need strengthening. The test looks at digital security, employee behaviour, culture and physical security,” says Senior Consultant Christine Jøker Lohmann from the Confederation of Danish Industry who is a member of the project steering group.

Employee behaviour and technology are tested
The test, which has been financed by the Danish Industry Foundation and developed by the intelligence and security firm CERTA Intelligence & Security, requires businesses to answer questions covering all areas of security and tests both technology and employee behaviour.

In each area, businesses will be told how they score in terms of security and will be given specific tips and recommendations on how to improve or develop suitable protection against espionage... more

The EspionageTest – Launching on 23 August 2016 – will be freely available to all Danish businesses.

...and, from another point-of-view, take these two tests to see if you would be good at espionage...

Espionage Spy Test #1
Espionage Spy Test #2

The Spy Who Turned... female

When the Chevalier d’Eon left France in 1762, 

it was as a diplomat, a spy in the French king’s service, a Dragoon captain, and a man. When he returned in July 1777, at the age of 49, it was as a celebrity, a writer, an intellectual, and a woman—according to a declaration by the government of France.

What happened? And why? 

The answer to those questions is complex, obscured by layers of bad biography, speculation and rumor, and shifting gender and psychological politics in the years since, as well as d’Eon’s own attempts to re-frame his story in a way that would make sense to his contemporary society. more

Remotely Turning Office Equipment into Bugging Devices

You think about securing your laptop, but what about your desk phone, monitor, or printer?

Ang Cui, who heads up Red Balloon Security in New York City, has a particularly innovative way of hacking these devices. Using a piece of malware called “funtenna,” he’s able to make devices transmit data over radio (RF) signals, and then pick them up with an antenna. He’s basically using software to turn this equipment into bugging devices. more
(If video space is blank, click here.)
This is one reason why businesses conduct regularly scheduled bug sweeps (TSCM) of their offices and conference rooms. If you are not plugging these information leaks yet, call me. I'll help you put a protection strategy in place. ~Kevin

The DNC Hack — Worse than Watergate

A foreign government has hacked a political party’s computers—and possibly an election. It has stolen documents and timed their release to explode with maximum damage. It is a strike against our civic infrastructure. And though nobody died—and there was no economic toll exacted—the Russians were aiming for a tender spot, a central node of our democracy...

What’s galling about the WikiLeaks dump is the way in which the organization has blurred the distinction between leaks and hacks. Leaks are an important tool of journalism and accountability. When an insider uncovers malfeasance, he brings information to the public in order to stop the wrongdoing. That’s not what happened here.

The better analogy for these hacks is Watergate. To help win an election, the Russians broke into the virtual headquarters of the Democratic Party. The hackers installed the cyber-version of the bugging equipment that Nixon’s goons used—sitting on the DNC computers for a year, eavesdropping on everything, collecting as many scraps as possible.

This is trespassing, it’s thievery, it’s a breathtaking transgression of privacy. more

North Korea Revives Coded Spy Numbers Broadcasts

In an era of sophisticated spycraft, North Korea appears to be returning to the days of shortwave radio.

Click to enlarge.

The North broadcast a series of seemingly random numbers on Pyongyang Radio twice recently, an eerie reminder of the days when the North encrypted messages to its spies in South Korea.

In the latest episode last Friday, an announcer read what she described as “a mathematics review assignment for investigative agent No. 27,” engaged in a “distance learning” program.

“Turn to Page 459, No. 35; Page 913, No. 55; Page 135, No. 86,” she said, continuing to cite numbers for 14 minutes.Decades ago, it was not unusual for late-night radio listeners in the South to hear mysterious numbers arriving on static-filled signals from the North. more

Quote of the Week

"Lord knows how much industrial espionage has gone on." —Bill Curtis, a Fellow of the IEEE more

The Man with the Butterfly Net was a Spy... and then founded the Boy Scouts

Just a few years into his military service, Robert Baden-Powell had served in South Africa and was transferred to Malta, where he began his spy career as an intelligence officer for the director of military intelligence. One of his favorite disguises was that of an entomologist who studied butterflies, a cover that allowed him to move around freely without looking suspicious. He revealed his scientific subterfuge in his book "My Adventures as a Spy."

Click to enlarge.

"Carrying this book and a colour-box and a butterfly net in my hand, I was above all suspicion to anyone who met me on the lonely mountain side, even in the neighbourhood of the forts," Baden-Powell wrote. And not only did he disguise himself as a butterfly collector; he hid secret information about those forts, as well as other military secrets in drawings of insects and other natural ephemera, which you can see scattered throughout this post.

In Baden-Powell's illustrations, natural patterns are used to transmit messages and information within a drawing; a leaf's pattern could reveal the contours of an area to be invaded, as above. Once a recipient knew how to read the illustrations, it was possible to convey the information easily, without much translation or complex code-breaking needed. more

Spy Demise? You Decide.

Russian intelligence officer, Aleksandr Poteyev, who was sentenced for treason in absentia by Russia after blowing the cover of a spy ring in the US, has reportedly died. Moscow, however, is not confirming the news or taking the defector of its wanted list.  more

The Most Dangerous U.S. Spy You Never Heard of... until now

She put American combat troops in harm's way, betrayed her own people and handed over so many secrets that experts say the U.S. may never know the full extent of the damage.
Ana Montes was the Queen of Cuba, an American who from 1985 to the September 11, 2001 attacks handed over U.S. military secrets to Havana while working as a top analyst for the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency.

But despite her crimes, Montes remains largely unknown.

You might not think Cuba could do much harm to a superpower like the U.S., said retired DIA official Chris Simmons, appearing on CNN's "Declassified." But you'd be wrong... more

Programming note: Explore untold stories of American spies: CNN Original Series "Declassified" airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT only on CNN.

Business Espionage: A Brief History

by Daniel Corbett and Michael Disotell
...another early example of industrial espionage came about in the late eighteenth century, when France found itself attempting to compete with the emerging industrial strength of Great Britain. The French government surreptitiously placed apprentices in English iron and steel yards to abscond with production formulas. To maintain its market dominance, Britain became the first country to pass legislation aimed at preventing industrial espionage.

In the United States, American businesses employed former Pinkerton detectives to uncover employee theft after the Civil War. And during the 1920s, anxiety over Communist and unionist upheaval caused companies to hire double agents to expose internal threats. According to a report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor, a majority of American companies had placed labor spies in their plants and unions around that time.

As labor-management tensions started to ease after World War II, American companies shifted their focus away from themselves and began spying on competitors. Industrial espionage began to follow one of two familiar patterns: (1) a former employee would misappropriate confidential information before departing for a competitor, or (2) a competitor would place a “mole” inside an organization to gain access to corporate secrets.

Industrial espionage became a global affair during the Cold War, as U.S. businesses faced threats from Soviet spies and multinational competitors alike. For example, in 1982 six executives from the Japanese firms Hitachi and Mitsubishi were arrested in Santa Clara, California, for allegedly trying to steal computer parts from IBM. Companies also became increasingly worried about executives overseas defecting to competitors. A dispute between General Motors and Volkswagen arose when a group of GM executives in Germany left GM to join VW. Upon seeing similar designs in VW’s car models, GM accused VW of using proprietary information gained from its former executives. In one of the largest industrial espionage cases ever, VW settled with GM for $100 million and agreed to buy at least $1 billion worth of car parts from the company. more

Spy Alert #734: The Olympic Games Warning

If Zika, political instability and contaminated water weren’t enough,

U.S. intelligence officials are warning Americans traveling to the August Olympic Games in Rio and other destinations abroad that proprietary information stored on electronic devices is at high risk for theft by spies and cyber criminals who are increasingly targeting global events as troughs rich in valuable intelligence.

Bill Evanina, the nation’s chief counter-intelligence executive, is urging travelers to carry “clean’’ devices, free of potentially valuable archives that could be tapped for economic advantage, personal data or security information.

Just as the Olympics draw the world’s most talented athletes, Evanina said the games and other international events represent a "great playground’’ for government intelligence services and criminals, if only because of the “sheer number of devices.’’ more