Engineers convicted in Goodyear corporate espionage case

tyrepress.com



A US federal judge has sentenced two former Wyko engineers to four years probation and 150 hours of community service after they were convicted of convicted of stealing trade secrets from Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in a corporate espionage case that first surfaced in 2009.



According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, federal prosecutors had wanted US district court judge Thomas W. Phillips to give Clark Alan Roberts and Sean Edward Howley at least 10 months in prison, but their lack of previous convictions and “ample” family and community support reportedly won out.



A jury found Roberts and Howley each guilty in December on 10-counts alleging they conspired to steal and use trade secrets. Roberts and Howley, who were employees of Wyko Tire Technology Inc. at the time, had been accused of visiting Goodyear’s Topeka, Kansas plant in 2007 so Howley could use his camera phone to take pictures OTR tyre production procedures.



During the trial Tom Frey, a consultant for Goodyear and a former Goodyear manager, had estimated it cost $520,000 to develop the design drawings for the equipment the defendants were convicted of photographing and that Goodyear made $17 million in 2007 from the sale of tyres that machine produces. However Judge Phillips rejected Frey as a witness and noted that he was not employed by Goodyear and had not produced documentation to verify these figures.



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FBI warns businesses to protect their trade secrets and information

standard.net

KAYSVILLE -- Companies and individuals need to protect their trade secrets and financial information the way Kentucky Fried Chicken protects its secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices, FBI officials warn.

FBI Special Agent Karl Schmae and FBI Financial Analyst Shane Esplin, from the Salt Lake City office, shared tips with the Davis Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday to help business owners protect themselves from becoming victims of a white-collar crime.

About 30 people attended the presentation titled "Economic Espionage: Trade Secrets Under Attack." The presentation was made at the NorthFront Business Resource Center in Kaysville.

The FBI has a broad mission that includes "economic espionage" and the impact it has on businesses, Schmae said.

Some of that espionage includes the stealing of trade secrets and claims ranging anywhere from the design of America's space shuttle being stolen by Russians, to New England Patriots Football Coach Bill Belichick spying on other NFL teams, Schmae said.

But in the world of economics, it is every company for itself, and it is the responsibility of each company to protect its trade secrets, research or marketing information -- all that separates them from their competitors, Schmae said.

Trade secrets have to be identified, Schmae said, and "reasonable measures" taken to protect them, including educating staff that any information they glean by working for the company cannot be shared.

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Investigation reveals widespread insider hacking at immigration agency

nextgov.com

A yearlong probe into computer fraud at an immigration application processing center uncovered multiple incidents of internal hacking where staff accessed management-level emails and other confidential files, according to Homeland Security Department interviews, network analyses and internal emails obtained by Nextgov.

The investigation began in January 2008, when officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of Homeland Security, reported to the department's inspector general that numerous personnel had violated federal security rules at the agency's Texas Service Center, one of four regional centers that handle a variety of immigration-related petitions and applications. According to the materials obtained, employees and supervisors abused system logon privileges, gained unauthorized access in some instances and then allegedly sabotaged audit logs to leave behind no traces of their illicit activities. IG papers list the redacted names of 17 subjects of the investigation, all of whom were information technology specialists.

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Security Report: Stealing ATM PINs with thermal cameras

nakedsecurity.sophos.com

At the USENIX Security Symposium last week, researchers Keaton Mowery, Sarah Meiklejohn and Stefan Savage from the University of California at San Diego presented their paper "Heat of the Moment: Characterizing the Efficacy of Thermal Camera-Based Attacks."

Inspired by previous research on safecracking by Michał Zalewski, they thought it would be easier for a criminal to snoop on ATM PINs using a thermal (infrared) camera to detect residual heat from keypresses rather than current techniques using traditional video cameras.

Thermal imaging provides several advantages. Unlike with traditional cameras, visually masking the PIN pad does not defeat the attack, and the ability to automate PIN harvesting using computer software further simplifies the task.

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Hacking, tapping and spying - business as usual

cnn.com

Johannesburg, South Africa (CNN) - The skullduggery by the News of the World newspaper in Britain exposed an underbelly of phone taps and lies.

While the fall of the newspaper and the shenanigans of the Murdoch business empire are a compelling and continuing drama, we should be reminded that this sort of behavior is not limited to the tabloid muckraking press.

Underhand tactics, secrets and illegal tampering with private information is a growing and common problem in the corporate world. Call it what you may - industrial espionage, corporate hacking, commercial spying - the practice is widespread and deeply entrenched on a global scale.

In Africa, the practice of stealing or secretly accessing information about another company –­ more than likely in competition with yours – is not as widespread as it is in Europe, America and Asia. However, here in South Africa the practice of corporate spookery is “massive” and “rife,” according to a security expert working for a global bank.

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Corporate Spying: The Next Growth Industry

economywatch.com

The corporate spying business is booming. The largest companies around the world are all involved in “competitive intelligence gathering” by highly trained professionals according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"Corporations have people trained to obtain raw data from a wide range of sources and apply traditional intelligence analysis techniques to produce usable information," PwC dispute analysis and investigations director Richard Batten said.

In a story from Wired:

Veterans from the most infamous private security firm on Earth and one of the military’s most controversial datamining operations are teaming up to provide the Fortune 500 with their own private spies - who call themselves Jellyfish.

Jellyfish is about corporate-information dominance. It swears it’s leaving all the spy-world baggage behind. No guns, no governments digging through private records of its citizens.

“Our organization is not going to be controversial,”

pledges Keith Mahoney, the Jellyfish CEO, a former Navy officer and senior executive with Blackwater’s intelligence arm, Total Intelligence Solutions.

During a Thursday press conference in Washington that served as a coming-out party for the company, Jellyfish’s executives described an all-purpose “private-sector intelligence” firm.

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CI Centre Announces Global Launch of SPYPEDIA

sys-con.com

The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies^® (CI Centre), the nation’s leading counterintelligence (CI), counterterrorism (CT), and security training and education company, today announced the global launch of SPYPEDIA^™. This exclusive online database provides the security and intelligence community with instant and up-to-the-minute access to all Security, CI, and CT related news and events of yesterday and today.

SPYPEDIA™ is the first online database of its kind to be offered to private and government security and intelligence professionals from around the world to include educators, academics, students, and all who share an interest in Security, CI and CT. The research and development of this project began 15 years ago with the ultimate objective of developing the world’s most comprehensive, informative, and up to date library of such information.

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Insider Data Theft Costs Bank of America $10 Million

pcworld.com
A Bank of America insider who sold customer data to criminals cost the bank at least US$10 million in losses.

Bank of America began notifying customers of the incident recently, but is not providing many details of the case which is still under investigation. The theft, "involved a now former associate who provided customer information to people outside the bank, who then used the information to commit fraud against our customers," said Bank of America spokeswoman Colleen Haggerty, in an email message.

The bank lost at least $10 million to the criminals, said James Kollar, a special agent with U.S. Secret Service in Los Angeles. "There was information that was coming from the bank to the outsiders," he said. "It was basically a check scam."

About 95 members of the loosely affiliated criminal gang behind the alleged fraud, including the bank employee, were swept up in a February 2011 law enforcement action, Kollar said. However, the names of the accused have not been released, and the court case is under seal as the investigation continues.

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10 Most Notorious Acts of Corporate Espionage

businesspundit.com
There’s no end to the skullduggery that businesses will get involved in with the aim of making a quick buck, or trying to keep up with their competitors. Of course, their fellow companies aren’t beyond their schemes, either. There’s a war going on out there, folks, and spying is part of the game – criminal or not. Corporate espionage was a normal way of doing business back in days gone by, before copyright and patent protection brought the long arm of the law into play, but some companies still engage in the practice of acquiring trade secrets and business information by any means necessary. Here are 10 infamous cases of industrial espionage.

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Competitive Intelligence: How to Spot a Liar

inc.com

"Deception detection" experts—often former CIA agents—are used by banks and hedge funds to assess the honesty of CEOs. In his recent book, Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy, Eamon Javers shares some tricks of the trade:

1. Fidgeting
Aside from true sociopaths, people aren't natural liars, and saying one thing while thinking something else can actually cause physical discomfort. That's what causes people to squirm.

2. Weasel Words
Expected to, probably, basically, should be... These kinds of qualifiers crop up when someone is trying to obscure doubts or worries.

3. Detour Phrases
Think, As I said before. Liars try to circumvent a direct answer by referencing past answers to different questions.

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Former cop in court on corruption charge

abc.net.au

A former WA police officer has appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court accused off tipping off a police suspect that his phone was being bugged.

42-year-old Robert Critchley was working in the State Intelligence Division January last year when he is alleged to have told the person who was under investigation that his phone calls were being intercepted.

It is also alleged that between May 2009 and January 2010, Mr Critchley accessed the details of people on the police data base when he was not authorised to do so.

Police say the two incidents are not linked.

They say Mr Critchley, who had been with the force for six years, resigned in September last year after his alleged misconduct came to the attention of the Police Commissioner.

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U.S. Companies Are at Risk of Spying by Their Own Workers

nytimes.com
Huang Kexue, federal authorities say, is a new kind of spy.
For five years, Mr. Huang was a scientist at a Dow Chemical lab in Indiana, studying ways to improve insecticides. But before he was fired in 2008, Mr. Huang began sharing Dow’s secrets with Chinese researchers, authorities say, then obtained grants from a state-run foundation in China with the goal of starting a rival business there.

Now, Mr. Huang, who was born in China and is a legal United States resident, faces a rare criminal charge — that he engaged in economic espionage on China’s behalf.

Law enforcement officials say the kind of spying Mr. Huang is accused of represents a new front in the battle for a global economic edge. As China and other countries broaden their efforts to obtain Western technology, American industries beyond the traditional military and high-tech targets risk having valuable secrets exposed by their own employees, court records show.

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Justice Department Seeks Ebonics Experts

thesmokinggun.com

AUGUST 23--The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to federal records.

A maximum of nine Ebonics experts will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta field division, where the linguists, after obtaining a “DEA Sensitive” security clearance, will help investigators decipher the results of “telephonic monitoring of court ordered nonconsensual intercepts, consensual listening devices, and other media” The DEA’s need for full-time linguists specializing in Ebonics is detailed in bid documents related to the agency’s mid-May issuance of a request for proposal (RFP) covering the provision of as many as 2100 linguists for the drug agency’s various field offices. Answers to the proposal were due from contractors on July 29.

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Arpaio-Thomas Feud With County Officials Had Nothing to do With Sweep for Bugs, County Manager Says

phoenixnewtimes.com
Last year's sweep of Maricopa County offices for hidden bugs had nothing to do with the feud between county officials and the tag-team of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and then-County Attorney Andy Thomas, says County Manager David Smith.

Instead, the two sweeps costing taxpayers $14,600 were conducted out of concern about "leaks" of information to the media, Smith says. Board members were worried that someone had given out details of supervisors' executive sessions last December -- yet none of these concerns was linked to the long-running feud with the county's two antagonists, he adds.

If you're like us, you're wondering why the heck Smith seems to be lying about this.

Sure, we understand that the thinly evidenced investigation into Maricopa County Supervisor Andy Kunasek appears yet another political tactic by Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott on behalf of his boss, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

We knew the Kunasek investigation had problems before we could tell you, with certainty, what it was about.

Now that the Arizona Republic has confirmed rumors that Arpaio's office was investigating Kunasek over last year's sweep for bugs in county offices, Hendershott's tactic looks no less unprofessional.

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Hybrid Espionage! GM Takes Couple to Court Over Tech Secrets

earth2tech.com
Hybrid technology is really getting its day in court. A former General Motors worker and her husband have been accused of stealing (and trying to sell to a Chinese competitor) $40 million in trade secrets related to the automaker’s hybrid vehicles. On Thursday, a federal court in Detroit unsealed an indictment of the couple on seven charges including conspiracy and fraud.

This comes on the heels of two other longstanding legal battles over hybrid technology finally coming to a close, with Ford and Toyota each reaching settlement agreements this month in patent disputes with a company called Paice LLC. All of these cases come at a time when automakers are jockeying to carve out a piece of the nascent green car segment, not least of all in China’s fast-growing auto market.

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'James Bond' Tactics Help Companies Spy on Each Other

abcnews.go.com

James Bond, meet Fred Rustmann. A former CIA agent, Rustmann now runs a "corporate intelligence" firm that helps companies spy on each other. Like many veterans of the Central Intelligence Agency, Rustmann's spying tricks are in high demand by the private sector.

When one of Rustmann's clients wants to find out about, say, its competitors' upcoming product line-ups, it pays him to conduct undercover interviews with unsuspecting employees and dig through their garbage.

More... .........................................Note: Is your company safe from "corporate spies" ?.....Contact me, I can help. JDL

Google Asks NSA to Help Secure Its Network

wired.com

Google is teaming up with the National Security Agency to investigate the recent hack attack against its network in a bid to prevent another assault, according to The Washington Post.

The internet search giant is working on an agreement with the controversial agency to determine the attacker’s methods and what Google can do to shore up its network.

Sources assured the Post that the deal does not mean the NSA will have access to users’ searches or e-mail communications and accounts. Nor will Google share proprietary data with the agency.

But the move is raising concerns among privacy and civil rights advocates.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request on Thursday, shortly after the agreement was made public, seeking more information about the arrangement. (.pdf)

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State Police probe Police Jury bugging

2theadvocate.com

ST. FRANCISVILLE — West Feliciana Parish Sheriff J. Austin Daniel said Friday he asked State Police detectives to investigate a report of a listening device being planted in a Police Jury office.

Daniel said determining who planted the device may be difficult because a Police Jury employee took it apart and removed a battery.

The sheriff also said the device was found around Thanksgiving but was not reported to him until after Christmas.

Note: #1: If a suspected listening device is discovered "DON'T TOUCH IT" call a professional.

Note: #2: You may want to consider reporting it to police (since it was found in a police jury room) sometime the same day you found it.....just a suggestion. JDL