The European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) in Vietnam will host a talk on preventing industrial espionage during a luncheon in Ho Chi Minh City next month.
Dr. Roman Hummelt of International Management Consultants (IMC) and author of “Industrial Espionage – Strategic Risks and Prevention” will discuss special risks of industrial espionage for foreign affiliates abroad and suggest several defense methods.
“Industrial Espionage – Causes and Prevention – Protection of Confidential Information in Foreign Affiliates” will be held on February 22 at Park Hyatt Saigon, 2 Lam Son Square, District 1.
The luncheon will cost members and co-hosts VND600,000 (US$30) per person, while non-members will have to pay VND900,000. Participants have to register online for the event.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The United Arab Emirates is strongly denying any link to an alleged spy ring uncovered by Oman, a neighbouring Gulf country.
A statement by the UAE’s foreign ministry says the nation is “shocked and surprised” by the claim and promises to assist Oman in any investigations. The statement was posted Monday by the state news agency WAM.
Oman on Sunday said it dismantled a spy ring linked to the UAE that targeted government and military operations.
Omani authorities have given no other details, but suggested that arrests have been made.
It marks a rare display of tensions between the close allies.
China used honeytraps and spying interns in industrial espionage, according to leaked French intelligence files.
One report claimed a top researcher in a major French pharmaceutical company was wined and dined by a Chinese girl 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,” said an economic intelligence official.
In another case, an unnamed French company realized too late that a sample of its patented liquid had left the building after the visit of a Chinese delegation. One of the visitors had dipped his tie into the liquid to take home a sample and copy it.
Companies should do more to protect themselves from prying eyes among the 30,000 Chinese students who conduct internships in France, experts warned.
Among the most frequent methods cited by French intelligence is the so-called “lamprey technique”, which usually takes the form of an international tender for business. “The aim of the project is to attract responses from developed countries,” notes the report. When Western companies vie to respond, they are cajoled and “told to improve their technical offering”.
“Each (company) tries to outdo the other, once, twice, several times until the Chinese consider they’ve had enough.” Once key information has been gathered, the bidders are told the project has been shelved and the information is used by the Chinese to develop its own products.
A prime example was a recent multi-billion dollar tender to build China’s high-speed train. France’s TGV was a bidder. As part of the process, the French embassy in Beijing organized a six-month training course for Chinese engineers. Soon afterwards China brought out its own high-speed train remarkably similar to the TGV and Germany’s ICE train.
Another technique is the “mushroom factory”, in which French industries create a joint venture with a local Chinese firm and transfer part of their technology. Later local rivals emerge, “offer identical products and are run by the Chinese head of the company that initiated the joint venture”. A third technique is to turn the tables on a foreign firm by accusing it of counterfeiting. Schneider Electric was taken to court over a hook in its fuse box, which it patented in 1996. Its Chinese rival Chint started building the same hook, took Schneider to court in China for copying its design and Schneider was ordered to pay a $49.5 million.
Renault, the French carmaker is embroiled in an espionage scandal involving three top executives over allegations they were paid to hand over car secrets to a Chinese firm.
New York – According to intelligence agencies, China is enlisting beautiful women for corporate espionage in the West. How does the dreaded “honeytrap” method work?
According to leaked French intelligence files, China has been employing beautiful female spies — the dreaded “honeytrap” method — and blackmail to steal business secrets from French executives. And it wouldn’t be the first time that China has used such tricks to gain access to privileged information. Here, a brief guide:
How does the “honeytrap” work?
A beautiful woman wines, dines, and even beds a mark to get information from him, a la many a Bond flick. The French intelligence reports cite a case in which a young Chinese woman slept with a top French researcher at a major pharmaceutical company, a man unaware that she was a spy and that the encounter had been videotaped. “When he was shown the recorded film of the previous night in his hotel room… he proved highly cooperative,” says an intelligence official.
Have other countries fallen victim to Chinese “honeytraps”?
Yes, in early 2010, Britain’s MI5 accused the Chinese government of using honeytrap schemes to hack into corporate British computer networks. Two years earlier, MI5 had distributed a document titled “The Threat from Chinese Espionage” to security officials, British banks, and businesses, explicitly warning executives of honeytraps and subsequent blackmail attempts: “Chinese intelligence services have also been known to exploit vulnerabilities such as sexual relationships and illegal activities to pressurize individuals to cooperate with them,” it read. “Hotel rooms in major Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai which have been frequented by foreigners are likely to be bugged. Hotel rooms have been searched while the occupants are out of the room.”
What other means of espionage are the Chinese reportedly using?
Other techniques cited by French intelligence officials include the “lamprey” and the “mushroom factory.” The lamprey technique involves soliciting business proposals from Western countries, and then rejecting the applications, telling bidders that they need “to improve their technical offering”; the Chinese then use what they’ve learned from the bids to develop their own products. In a recent incident, France’s TGV bid on a proposed high-speed Chinese train project, and even arranged a six-month training course for Chinese engineers, only to watch China build its own train that looked “remarkably similar” to the TGV trains. In the mushroom factory technique, local Chinese firms partnered with French companies in a joint venture, only to be bested by local “rivals” that were actually run by the original Chinese firm. Danone, a French dairy company, reportedly fell victim to this trick.
Sources: Telegraph, The Times, Register, New York Times
HAVANA (AFP) – Cuba has requested a 20-year prison term for US contractor Alan Gross who was arrested in 2009 on spying charges, a government statement has indicated, as Washington slammed the move as an “injustice.”
In a statement released through the Communist Party newspaper Granma, Cuba said Gross was being charged with violating Cuba’s “independence and territorial integrity,” and said a trial date will be fixed “shortly” in a case that has created a new diplomatic tension between Washington and Havana.
The charges against Gross, 61, are in the category of “crimes against state security” and suggest that Havana is taking a hard line in the high-profile case.
“The US government has been informed of this and duly notified through the diplomatic channels that its consular representatives, Mr Gross’s relatives and his family lawyers will be allowed to attend the trial,” the statement said.
Washington swiftly criticized the action.
President Barack Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs said Gross “has been unjustly detained and deprived of his liberty and freedom for the last 14 months.”
But instead of releasing him, the White House said the decision Friday “compounds the injustice suffered by a man helping to increase the free flow of information, to, from, and among the Cuban people.”
US State Department spokesman Charles Luoma-Overstreet said: “We deplore the Cuban government’s announcement… (Gross) has been held without charges for more than a year, contrary to all international human rights obligations and commitments regarding justice and due process.
“He should be home with his family now,” he said.
The contractor’s wife Judy Gross told AFP that she would spend the weekend processing the possible implications for her husband and their family.
“I’m trying to digest the news myself,” she said, declining further comment.
US authorities have argued that Gross worked for a non-government organization contracted by the State Department to supply computer and communications material to civil society groups on the island, and that he should be freed.
Washington officials said that Gross, an international development worker, visited Cuba to help members of the Jewish community in Havana link up with other Jewish communities throughout the world.
In December, a State Department spokesman said Gross had “languished in a Cuban jail for a full year” with no explanation or charges filed against him and that the actions “violate international standards of due process and judicial procedure.”
On Friday the company that contracted Gross to work in Cuba, Development Alternatives Inc., described the threat of a 20-year prison sentence as an “outrage.”
The company said in a statement released to AFP that it called on “principled leaders within our government and in the international community to stand up for Alan and step up their efforts to bring him home to his family.”
The United States and Cuba have not had formal diplomatic ties since 1961, though Washington is represented by a US interest section in Havana.
On January 13, Cuba allowed a senior US diplomat to visit Gross, whose incarceration had become an obstacle in efforts to work towards normalized relations.
Arturo Valenzuela, the top US State Department official for Latin America, said recently that Washington had made it “very clear” to Havana that it will be difficult to reach any major agreements as long as Cuba is holding Gross.
Cuba has been pressing meanwhile for the release of five of its nationals held in prison since 1998 in the United States on espionage charges.
On January 15, Obama eased restrictions on visas, remittances and travel under the US embargo on Cuba, saying it would “increase people-to-people contact,” and “enhance the free flow of information” to the communist-ruled island.
