PARIS — French automaker Renault SA named a top executive of Nissan Americas as its new chief operating officer on Monday, in an effort to move on from an embarrassing scandal around false accusations of espionage.
The partially state-owned French car maker said Carlos Tavares, head of operations at the U.S. division of Renault partner Nissan(NSANY), will take up the post immediately.
In a statement, Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of both Renault and Nissan, called the appointment of longtime Renault veteran Tavares “a first step in strengthening Renault’s management.”
Also Monday, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. said Colin Dodge, its chief performance officer and chairman of Africa, Middle East, India and Europe, will take on the Americas post that had been held by Tavares.
Renault in April announced a wide-scale corporate shakeout — including the ouster of Patrick Pelata from the COO post — over a scandal over false accusations against three executives for espionage.
When the scandal was made public early this year, Pelata accused the three executives of masterminding an “organized, international network” to obtain information on Renault’s flagship electric car program.
The three were suspended Jan. 11 after Renault announced it had discovered signs of espionage and proof the men had received “funds from a foreign source,” and accused them of selling strategic information.
The executives had strongly denied the allegations and investigators could not verify them. Renault sent a deep apology to the wrongly accused employees in March.
Three of Renault’s top security officers and its legal counsel lost their jobs in the scandal, and Ghosn responded by announcing that he would waive all stock option benefits for this year and bonuses for 2010.
The three wrongly accused executives have since reached settlements with Renault, which the car maker did not make public.
Shortly after the scandal broke, Industry Minister Eric Besson spoke openly of “economic warfare” against one of France’s top industrial giants — and one lawmaker from French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party floated an unspecified “Chinese buyer” connection on French radio.
China’s foreign ministry rejected that allegation by Bernard Carayon, a conservative UMP party lawmaker, as “totally groundless, irresponsible and unacceptable.”
CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia will a develop a cyber defence strategy to combat hacking and electronic espionage, the government said on Friday, responding to what it sees as an increased threat after recent cyber attacks on global companies and government officials.
The United States said this week it was assessing whether security had been compromised after Google Inc revealed a major hacker attack targeting U.S. officials that the Internet giant pegged to China.
Google’s hacking has fuelled debate in Washington over China’s intentions in cyberspace, which the United States has identified as a potential flashpoint for future conflict.
Australia’s cyber defence blueprint will confront the growing threat posed by electronic espionage, theft and state-sponsored cyber attack, Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Defence Minister Stepehen Smith said.
“The Cyber White Paper will examine what we need to do to protect ourselves online, the role of government, industry and the public in protecting our interests,” McClelland told a cyber security function in Sydney.
The strategy paper, to be completed in the first half of 2012, would look at a broad range of areas including consumer protection, cyber safety, cyber crime, cyber security and cyber defence, McClelland said.
Google announced on Wednesday that suspected Chinese hackers tried to steal passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including senior U.S. government officials, Chinese activists and journalists.
The allegations by the world’s largest Web search company sparked an angry response from Beijing, which said blaming China was “unacceptable”.
Australia’s parliament came under cyber attack in February, with the computers of at least 10 federal ministers including Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Defence Minister Stephen Smith, targeted and confidential emails possibly accessed.
Chinese intelligence agencies were among a list of foreign hackers suspected of being behind those raids, which followed similar breaches in France concerning computer network information about the Group of 20 wealthy nations.
McClelland earlier this week urged companies to tighten vigilance over cyber attacks launched offshore against some of the world’s biggest resource firms and other businesses, warning high-tech threats were intensifying.
The head of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Dennis Richardson, told upper house budget hearings on Thursday that his officials were experiencing near daily cyber attacks.
“I doubt whether there would be a 24-hour period in which you wouldn’t get something. They can be anything ranging from skilled kids seeing what they can do, to sophisticated hackers getting a kick out of it, through to attempted espionage,” said Richardson, a former head of Australia’s domestic spy agency.
Australia’s former prime minister Kevin Rudd made cyber security a national security priorities in 2009, but the country has not yet followed the lead of close ally the United States and lifted cyber hacking to a sphere of actual war.
But Australian Defence Minister Smith said the cyber threat was “a real, evolving and a growing” test to Australia’s national security defences.
“It comes from a wide range of sources, and from adversaries possessing a broad range of skills,” he said.
The office of Victorian Deputy Premier Peter Ryan won’t comment on reports a ministerial adviser has been under surveillance by the police watchdog.
A ministerial adviser to Mr Ryan has been named in reports in The Age and Herald Sun newspapers as a target of surveillance by the Office of Police Integrity (OPI).
Mr Ryan, also Police Minister, is on compassionate leave from parliament and was unable to be contacted on Saturday, but his spokeswoman said the OPI operated without influence by politicians.
‘Matters to do with the OPI are strictly matters for the OPI,’ she said.
‘They have the powers they have, they do as they do, we are outside of that process,’ the spokeswoman said.
The OPI on Friday admitted they had Sir Ken Jones, one of Victoria’s most senior policeman, under surveillance following complaints.
A media report had earlier revealed the surveillance was underway, and Sir Ken’s wife and supporters had also been targeted.
Sir Ken had a rocky relationship with the police Chief Commissioner, Simon Overland.
Mr Overland forced Sir Ken to go on leave three months early after Sir Ken announced his resignation in May.
Victoria’s Police Association has said Mr Overland used his friendship with OPI’s deputy director, Paul Jevtovic, to influence the OPI to commence the investigation.
It is thought the ministerial adviser allegedly bugged by the OPI was a supporter of Sir Ken.
Chief Commissioner not keen to answer questions about OPI surveillance targeting Sir Ken Jones
ffice of Victorian Deputy Premier Peter Ryan is refusing to comment on reports an adviser to the minister has been under surveillance by the police watchdog.
Mr Ryan, also Police Minister, is on compassionate leave from parliament and was unable to be contacted today, but his spokeswoman said the OPI operated without influence by politicians.
“Matters to do with the OPI are strictly matters for the OPI,” she said.
“They have the powers they have, they do as they do, we are outside of that process,” the spokeswoman said.
The OPI yesterday admitted they had Sir Ken Jones, one of Victoria’s most senior policeman, under surveillance following complaints.
A media report had earlier revealed the surveillance was underway, and Sir Ken’s wife and supporters had also been targeted.
Sir Ken had a rocky relationship with the police Chief Commissioner, Simon Overland.
Mr Overland forced Sir Ken to go on leave three months early after Sir Ken announced his resignation in May.
Victoria’s Police Association has said Mr Overland used his friendship with OPI’s deputy director, Paul Jevtovic, to influence the OPI to commence the investigation.
It is thought the ministerial adviser allegedly bugged by the OPI was a supporter of Sir Ken.
“2011 has really lit up the boards in terms of data breaches,’’ said Josh Shaul, chief technology officer at Application Security, a New York-based company that is one of the largest database security software makers. “The list of targets just grows and grows.’’
Lockheed Martin Corp. said in a statement Saturday that it detected the May 21 attack “almost immediately’’ and took countermeasures.
“Our systems remain secure; no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromised,’’ the Bethesda, Md.-based company said. Neither Lockheed Martin nor federal agencies would reveal specifics of the attack, or its origins. Company spokeswoman Jennifer Whitlow declined to comment further on the case Sunday.
This isn’t the first time Lockheed Martin has been targeted. Nearly four years ago, officials revealed that hackers had breached Lockheed’s Joint Strike Fighter program. Officials said no classified information about the military program was compromised, but heightened protections were added.
Analysts said the latest attack would likely spur rival defense contractors like Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon Co., General Dynamics Corp. and Boeing Co. to take additional steps to safeguard their systems.
“I guarantee you every major defense contractor is on double alert this weekend, watching what’s going on and making sure they’re not the next to fall victim,’’ Shaul said.
Boeing declined to comment on the company’s network security measures. Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote said in an e-mailed statement that “we do not comment on whether or not Northrop Grumman is or has been a target for cyber intrusions,’’ adding that the company “continuously monitors and proactively strengthens the security of our networks.’’
