"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

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

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

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

Spy History: 1902 Corporate Espionage on the High Seas

Your Editor (not me) chanced upon the following in the library of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich last winter and it is reprinted here by kind permission of Stephen Rabson, Group Information Manager of P&O.

The document is in the form of a quasi-official report, written by one of P&O's traveling inspectors on two voyages in 1902, one from Southampton to New York, the other from Vancouver to Yokohama.

The writer (whose signature is, alas, indecipherable) was clearly more than a passenger, he was a benevolent spy, assessing conditions aboard the competition...

"I have the honor to report my arrival here yesterday. The following details of the steamers in which I have traveled may interest you..." more

This business spy tactic has been around forever. These days corporate espionage is enhanced with electronics (audio, video, and data). This is why businesses have added Technical Surveillance Countermeasures to their security precautions. If you have not, it is highly recommended you do so. Contact a professional TSCM information security consultant to begin protecting your company.

Giambattista della Porta (1535 – 1615): The Egg-cryption Man

Della Porta invented a method which allowed him to write secret messages on the inside of eggs. 

Some of his friends were imprisoned by the Inquisition. At the gate of the prison, everything was checked except for eggs. Della Porta wrote messages on the eggshell using a mixture made of plant pigments and alum. The ink penetrated the eggshell which is semi-porous. When the eggshell was dry, he boiled the egg in hot water and the ink on the outside of the egg was washed away. 

When the recipient in prison peeled off the shell, the message was revealed once again on the egg white. - Philalethe Reveal'd Vol. 2 B/W

How a Cold War Spy Test Boosts Fitness and Sharpness

A novel training approach could help older adults stay mentally sharp and physically fit even when fatigued, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Extremadura in Spain investigated the effects of Brain Endurance Training (BET) on cognitive and physical performance in sedentary older women. The research, led by Jesús Díaz-García and colleagues, compared BET to standard exercise training and a control group over an 8-week period.

One example of BET is the Stroop task, a cognitive test where participants must name the color of a word, while the word itself spells out a different color (e.g., the word "red" printed in blue ink)...

During the Cold War, U.S, intelligence agencies used the Stroop task to identify potential Russian spies by presenting them with a color-word test in Russian, where a native Russian speaker would slow down when encountering incongruent color-word combinations, revealing their ability to read Russian and potentially their true identity as a spy; whereas a non-Russian speaker would not experience the same delay because the words would be meaningless to them. more

Spy History: Did Lucille Ball's Fillings Help Capture Japanese Spies?

Here is the comedienne relating this anecdote to talk show host Dick Cavett in 1974:

But is this story true? 

That assessment hinges on two elements: Did Lucille Ball really pick up some type of radio transmission through her dental fillings, and did that event lead to the discovery and capture of Japanese spies operating an underground radio station? Fact checked by Snopes

History: How to Build a Bugging Device in 1917

Want to build a bug; known as a Detectograph back in 1917? 

Just write to a magazine, like The Electrical Experimenter, and they would tell you. Things were pretty simple back then, but the parts were not cheap. The average full-time worker's wage was $13.21 per week.

How to Boost an Auction - Mention the Word Spy

The holder of Jeffrey Epstein's "little black book" believes it could hold the answer to suspicions that the late sex offender was a foreign spy. 

Eager for the cryptic scribbles and numbers to be investigated, the anonymous owner is putting the book up for online public auction on Aug. 16, with the goal of selling it to somebody capable of tracking down those named in it. more

Greenbrier Hotel Up for Public Auction

The Greenbrier Hotel, owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family, has been announced for auction on the courthouse steps late this month because of default, according to a legal advertisement placed in Lewisburg’s West Virginia Daily News. more

So, why is this news?

One of the great vestiges of the Cold War is the Greenbrier bunker, a facility built to house all 535 members of Congress in the event of a nuclear attack.

In 1955, Dwight D. Eisenhower instructed the Department of Defense to draft emergency plans for Congress in case of a nuclear strike. Even if Washington, DC was destroyed, American officials needed a procedure to maintain the continuity of government. As part of these efforts, the Army Corps of Engineers was charged with scouting the location of a nuclear bunker for the members of Congress. They ultimately selected the Greenbrier, a luxury resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

Greenbrier was chosen because of its location—relatively close and accessible to Washington, but far enough away to be safe from an atomic bomb—and because of its prior relationship with the United States government. During World War II, Greenbrier had served as an internment facility for Japanese, Italian, and German diplomats and then as a military hospital, where Eisenhower himself was at one time a patient. Although it returned to its original function as a hotel after the war, government officials occasionally held conferences at Greenbrier. more 

Video of the bunker.

Time to sing-s-long! or sing-a-long with... a little darker number.

Widow: Hugh Hefner Had ‘Little Spy Holes’ to Record Celebs

Crystal Hefner has revealed that her late husband, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, had camera peepholes in his bedroom and even in the foot of his bed — where he says he recorded sexual encounters with celebrities and high-ranking politicians, apparently without their knowledge...

The revelation is part of Hefner’s upcoming tell-all book, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself, which is due out on January 23...

In the book, Hefner adds that Hef, who passed away in 2017 at the age of 91, claimed to have tapes of numerous A-list celebrities and “videos of wild orgies, also with celebrities and politicians and business leaders, some of whom were married.”... It has not been reported what Hef did with all those videos... more

Excellent Video on Early Law Enforcement Spy Tech

On January 18th AWA Wireless Museum published this video. As per its description, “during Mike Murphy’s career he had the opportunity to be involved with the design of law enforcement surveillance radios, and he met some of the colorful personalities who pioneered these controversial technologies. In this presentation Mike tells the story of the people and companies that created surveillance devices that remained secret for decades, some of which still haven’t seen the light of day.”

Spy History: When Furbys Caused National Security Fears

In the late 90s, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) banned Furbys on its premises over fears they could record and repeat top-secret information.

When it first hit toy stores in 1998, Furby was an immediate sensation. The animatronic furball would eventually be recognized by Time Magazine as one of “History’s Best Toys.” And just as it spiked in popularity among children looking for a new robotic friend, security officials were reportedly concerned over the robot’s potential to record top-secret information.

All such stories stemmed from reporting by The Washington Post. On Jan. 13, 1999, The Post published an article titled “A Toy Story of Hairy Espionage” more

Weekend Read: “Spymaster’s Prism: The Fight Against Russian Aggression”

November 1, 2023

by  Jack Devine  (Author)

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars      73 ratings

I am pleased to announce that the paperback edition of my second book “Spymaster’s Prism: The Fight Against Russian Aggression” comes out today.

When the book was first published in the middle of the pandemic in 2021, there was only an emergent acknowledgement of the real threat posed by Russian "active measures" and espionage to Western interests. Though I devoted an entire section to Ukraine called "New Berlin", I could not have foretold how much the world would change only a year later, on 24 February 2022...

I hope that the release of the paperback of "Spymaster's Prism: The Fight Against Russian Aggression" will give you an opportunity to discover or revisit a thorough accounting of the Russian intelligence services relentless and unending campaign against the West and what we must continue to do to arrest it. Good Hunting! 

Disrupting Time: Industrial Combat, Espionage, and...

This week, Aaron Stark joins the show to discuss his new book Disrupting Time: Industrial Combat, Espionage, and the Downfall of a Great American Company, which chronicles an attempt by a foreign power to infiltrate, emulate, and eventually annihilate a great American company. 

In the late 19th century, watches were at the forefront of technological innovation, and the Waltham Watch Company made some of the finest watches in the world. Unlike their Swiss competitors, whose products were fancy, handcrafted works of art, the Watham company specialized in mass produced, affordable, and reliable watches for the masses. 

At an 1876 World’s Fair, they announced their arrival on the world’s stage, and the world took notice. The Swiss, in particular, took notice, and they took it by sending spies to steal the secrets of Waltham’s success. more

The Tapes That Doomed Nixon’s Presidency (50th Anniversary)

Fifty years ago, on July 16, 1973, the country was rocked by the revelation that President Richard Nixon had been secretly recording his conversations in the White House. 

Pressed by Senate investigators, a Nixon aide, Alexander Butterfield, revealed that the president had installed an extensive taping system and that the machines had recorded “everything.” Butterfield’s words electrified the nation, watching live on TV...

Indeed, the tapes effectively doomed his presidency, giving prosecutors reams of evidence to sift through in the cascading Watergate scandal. Worse, they revealed a president speaking so coarsely that it embarrassed many Americans. It was a political disaster and a cautionary tale as well. Since then, no president has taped his official meetings. more  The 18.5 minute gap.

Notable US Spies Fast Facts

Timeline Summaries* of Spies Who Failed

Aldrich Ames
1962 - Aldrich Ames, son of a CIA analyst, joins the agency as a low-level documents analyst. 

David Boone
1970-1991 - David Boone serves in the US Army as a signals intelligence analyst. During the late 1980s, he is assigned to the National Security Agency as a senior cryptologic traffic analyst. 

Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins
1996 - Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins makes visits to Russia to meet with their intelligence agents. He is given a code name and signs a settlement “attesting that he wanted to serve” them.

Noshir Gowadia
1968-1986 - Noshir Gowadia is employed by Northrop Grumman where he works on technology relating to the B-2 Spirit Bomber, aka the “Stealth” bomber.

Robert Hanssen
January 12, 1976 - Robert Hanssen joins the FBI.

Ana Montes
1984 - Ana Montes is recruited to spy for Cuba. She is never paid for her spying.

Walter Kendall Myers
1977 - Walter Kendall Myers begins working for the US State Department on contract, as an instructor.

Harold James Nicholson
1980 - Harold Nicholson joins the CIA after serving in the United States Army.

Ronald Pelton
1965-1979 - Ronald Pelton works for the National Security Agency, with top-level security clearance.

Earl Pitts
1983-1996 - Earl Edwin Pitts works at the FBI.

Jonathan Pollard
1979 - Pollard is hired to work at the Navy Field Operational Intelligence Office. He had been rejected previously from employment at the CIA due to drug use. His specialty is North America and the Caribbean.

George Trofimoff
1969-1994 - George Trofimoff, a naturalized American citizen of Russian parentage, works as a civilian for the US Army at the Joint Interrogation Center in Nuremberg, Germany. He also attains the rank of colonel in the Army reserve.     *Complete timelines for each spy.

---

And, one successful spy hero...

VA - The local FBI agent who cracked the notorious Walker spy ring in the 1980s has died. Robert "Bob" Hunter was the lead investigator in the 1985 arrest of master spy John Walker, who led what U.S. officials called the most damaging espionage case in American history. The Walker spy ring operated for nearly two decades, spanning five presidencies, stealing top-secret information from the Navy and selling it to the Soviet Union. In 1999, Hunter wrote a book about his experiences: "Spy Hunter: Inside the FBI Investigation of the Walker Espionage Case." more

White House Plumbers...

...A Delightfully Funny Retelling of the Watergate Scandal

The Watergate scandal is not exactly new territory for screenwriters. From the 1976 classic All the President’s Men to, just last year, the excellent Gaslit, the story of the bungled covert operations that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974 has been raked over time and time again.

So White House Plumbers, created by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck – two writers who have previously worked on Veep and David Letterman’s 90s Late Show – needed to be pretty good to justify its existence. Thankfully, it was.

The five-episode comedy drama focuses on E Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), ex CIA and FBI agents respectively, who were hired by Nixon’s White House to run a dirty tricks unit. more

Australian Spy Camera Ads from the 1880's

Not very covert by today's standards, but interesting.

The Dog Cam... Send the dog into an area by himself, blow the dog whistle, dog wags tail connected to the shutter. Fingers crossed, you got the shot.

The Pot Shot... or, The Detective Camera. Lens peeks through a buttonhole. The bull taking a shot at the photographer, taking a shot of the kangaroo is a bit of a non sequitur.