Industrial espionage: Data out of the door

www.ft.com

Jin Hanjuan was about to board a flight to Beijing almost four years ago when a random check stopped her in her tracks.

According to court documents and an FBI affidavit filed in an economic espionage case against her, when customs officers at O’Hare airport in Chicago inspected the bags of the 40-year-old software engineer, they found more than 1,000 confidential papers that are alleged to have been stolen from Motorola, the US electronics group for which Ms Jin had worked until two days before the flight.
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China catching EU on innovation, amid industrial espionage scandals

euobserver.com

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – China is catching up fast with the EU in research and innovation, according to a study published by the European Commission ahead of a meeting of EU leaders on the same issue. But industrial spying scandals in France and the US have painted China's economic ambitions in a disturbing light.

The US and Japan are way ahead of Europe, while China and Brazil are catching up fast with the old continent in the number of patents issued, private and public expenditure dedicated to research and development, and academic research on cutting-edge technologies, the EU's latest "Innovation Union Scoreboard 2010" shows.

Within the EU, Sweden is top, followed closely by Denmark, Finland and Germany. Latvia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Romania are at the lower end.

"The scoreboard highlights the innovation emergency in Europe," EU commissioner for innovation, research and science, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn said. "If Europe stands still we will see the US disappear into the distance just as we feel emerging nations breathing down our necks."

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French warn of Chinese industrial espionage

theage.com.au

CHINA is using honey traps and spying interns in industrial espionage, according to leaked French intelligence files.

One report claimed a top French researcher was wined and dined by a Chinese woman and ended up in bed with her.

''When he was shown the recorded film of the previous night in his hotel room … he proved highly co-operative,'' an intelligence official said.

In another case, an unnamed French company realised that a sample of its patented liquid had left the building after a visitor from a Chinese delegation dipped his tie into the liquid to take home a sample.

Companies should do more to protect themselves from prying eyes among the 30,000 Chinese students on internships in France, experts warned.

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