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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Apple Doesn't Spy, Vows to Fix Spying

thestreet.com
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Apple(AAPL_) denied, confessed to and then said it will change its iPhone tracking practices that have created a swirl of outcry about potential privacy invasion.

In classic Apple fashion, the company issued a press release Wednesday consisting of 10 questions the company asked itself. In addition to the 10 answers, the company said it is preparing a software update that changes the way it collects data about iPhone locations.

First came the denial.

"Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so," said the release.

Next came the explanation.

The short version: Apparently Apple doesn't track iPhones -- it collects the data from WiFi and cell tower antennas that track iPhones.

The long version: In order to find your location faster, Apple said it uses a database of antennas in a given area. This ready cache of antenna info can quickly pinpoint you on a map -- that's a lot faster than if you had to wait only for a GPS satellite report.

While Apple says this offers fast, accurate and secure location services, "users are confused" because the company has "not provided enough education about these issues to date."

So it's not your fault for being confused and angered about location snooping. It's Apple's -- among others' -- fault for not explaining how awesome the system is.

Apple also blamed bugs in the system.

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Millions of Sony Playstation users hit by massive data theft

telegraph.co.uk
Sensitive personal details of tens of millions of internet users have been stolen by hackers in one of the biggest ever cases of data theft, it has emerged.

Fraudsters have obtained data on millions of online video gamers – including three million Britons - after targeting Sony’s PlayStation Network.

The electronics giant is contacting around 70 million customers warning that details including their names, addresses, dates of birth, passwords and security questions have been stolen.

Sony also admitted that the hackers may have gained access to people’s credit card details.

The network provides online video gaming services and allows streaming of films and music via the internet.

It requires members to submit credit card and personal details to subscribe.

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