The crime of espionage once conjured images of dark street corners, fedora-wearing spies and government agents who stayed in the shadows, rarely seeing the inside of a public courtroom.
These days, the game has changed. The same agents are now looking for different kinds of spies, ones who increasingly threaten corporate America — while they’re working within it.
The crime is called economic espionage and it has catapulted to one of the top federal law enforcement priorities in the country.
It often involves American-based employees who burrow into company computer systems, steal prized trade secrets and hand over the information to overseas competitors for tens of thousands — even millions — of dollars.
The FBI has placed economic espionage on both a national and local level second on its list of priorities, right behind fighting terrorism.
That’s because the potential for damage is severe, law enforcement officials say, with the potential loss to companies in the tens of billions of dollars and, according to one expert, growing at a rate of 9 percent a year.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Army charged an Alaska-based soldier Monday with attempted espionage, saying he communicated and transmitted national defense information to someone he believed was a foreign intelligence agent.
According to the charges, 22-year-old Spc. William Colton Millay of Owensboro, Ky., intended to aid a foreign nation.
“Millay had access to the information through the course of his normal duties both stateside and on a previous deployment, and although the information was unclassified, Millay believed that it could be used to the advantage of a foreign nation,” according to a description of the charges released by Army officials.
Officials would not identify the country Millay believed the so-called agent represented or if their investigation involved a sting operation. Millay was assigned to a combat tour in Iraq from December 2009 to July 2010, and he served in Korea, according to information provided by the Army.
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(CNN) — The attorney representing the 22-year-old Kentucky soldier charged with attempted espionage and communicating military information said Tuesday that his client told him he is innocent.
“Generally speaking, yes — that he is not guilty of attempted espionage or spying against the United States,” Stephen Karns said of what the solider told him.
Spc. William Colton Millay of Owensboro, Kentucky, was charged this week with attempted espionage and communicating military information, allegations that have shocked friends who have described him as a patriotic country boy.
The formal charges were issued 10 days after Millay was arrested at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, said Col. Bill Coppernoll, the public affairs officer at the base.
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SpyDialer.com has launched a new free website that lets users eavesdrop on the outgoing voicemail message of cell phones to learn who the user of the phone is. The free cell phone search has ignited concern about its use.
A controversial new website created by a Los Angeles private investigator has Internet users debating its use. The website, Spy Dialer, is a free cell phone search that lets users legally eavesdrop on the outbound voicemail message of any U.S. based cell phone number. Now, web users are asking, “Is it cool or is it creepy?”
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On Sunday, President Bush signed a law that expands the government’s surveillance abilities on foreign terrorist suspects. The new law is an expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and allows the government to eavesdrop on foreign suspects without a warrant.
The surveillance can be approved by either the attorney general or the director of national intelligence.
According to cnn.com, the bill was pushed by Bush after a court ruling maintained that warrants were needed to eavesdrop on overseas calls because many of these calls use U.S. call centers. The new law would allow intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on the calls of foreign terror suspects that pass through the U.S.
However, some people worry that this new law can lead to the possibility of eavesdropping on any U.S. citizen.
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