After secret talks in a room designed to prevent bugging, British tour operator Thomas Cook has bought a majority stake in Intourist, the Russian travel agency founded under Joseph Stalin. (
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Stalin founded a travel agency?!?!(Shrugs shoulders, walks away with a head full of jokes that will never see the light of day.) Sortalike when you’re in a Siberian… (Slaps hand over mouth.)
Australia – A Tasmanian cleaner who stole State Government documents, and leaked them to the Opposition and the media, has been sentenced to 84 hours of community service… Outside court, Nigel John Jones maintained his innocence and said he will appeal against the conviction. (
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Many of Germany’s top companies are blocking access to Facebook and other social networking sites over fears of industrial espionage and other security concerns, according to a new report. Business weekly Wirtschaftswoche said that many companies on the Dax-30 blue-chip index saw an
unacceptable risk posed by employees using such sites at work. (
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…not to mention the financial drain of social notworking.
…So, the problem of cell phone interception is real, growing and unlikely to be eliminated in the foreseeable future.
For an organization, knowing that phone calls have been intercepted at all is difficult. There is rarely a test that can be done, other than looking at the consequences of a lost deal or secret information in the public domain. In fact, in 2010, the Ponemon Institute found that 80 percent of CIOs admitted they would not find out directly if they had been intercepted.
The problem shows a wide geographical variation, both in the number of instances and in the public perception of risk.
In the United States and mainland Europe, the perception of risk is relatively low. However, travel to Latin America or some parts of Asia, and the perception of an issue has reached the consumer with advertisements on mainstream television for protection equipment.
Yet few executives traveling around the world have taken special measures to secure their cell phone conversations.
Research from ABI shows that 79 percent of companies’ cell phones were routinely used to discuss information that, if intercepted, would lead to material loss to the business.
Yet less than one in five had in place adequate measures to address this risk. (
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New book coming soon…
Stay tuned for details.
Stalin founded a travel agency?!?!
