Research Electronics International (REI), a leading manufacturer of security equipment to protect against corporate espionage, asserts that corporate espionage and theft of information is thriving. According to Frank Figliuzzi, FBI Counterintelligence Assistant Director, the current FBI caseload shows that commercial secrets worth more than US$13 billion have been stolen from American companies. This number does not include the unreported or undetected losses, nor does it include the losses in the brand value of the victims. The sheer scale of economic espionage against the nation’s top companies threatens America’s economic and technical position in the global economy.
It is a common misconception that espionage only occurs at government agencies and does not affect the business world. However, REI has been promoting that companies should be aware that any information that might benefit a competitor is at risk of espionage or theft, including price lists, customer lists, marketing strategies, insider product information, and financial information. Recently, the FBI launched a campaign promoting corporate espionage awareness including billboards, signs in bus shelters, and website information educating the public about the real and present threat of corporate information theft, and encouraging companies to protect their information from theft.
Companies should be on guard and take the following steps to protect business related information, as stated on the FBI’s website:
1. Recognize there is an insider and outsider threat to your company.
2. Identify and valuate trade secrets.
3. Implement a proactive plan for safeguarding trade secrets.
4. Secure physical and electronic versions of your trade secrets.
5. Confine intellectual knowledge on a “need-to-know” basis.
6. Provide training to employees about your company’s intellectual property plan and security.
For more information on technical equipment to protect against corporate espionage, visit http://www.reiusa.net.
About Research Electronics International
For over 28 years, Research Electronics International (REI) has focused on protecting corporate information, designing and manufacturing technical security equipment to protect against illicit information theft. REI is recognized as an industry leader by corporations, law enforcement agencies, and government agencies for technical security equipment. REI’s corporate offices, RD, manufacturing facilities, and Center for Technical Security are located in Tennessee USA, with an extensive global network of resellers and distribution partners. For more information call +1 (931) 537-6032 or visit REI on the web at http://www.reiusa.net.
Contact Person: Lee Jones
Research Electronics International
Tel: +1 931 537-6032
email: sales(at)reiusa(dot)net
LEE JONES
RESEARCH ELECTRONICS INTERNATIONAL
(931) 537-6032
Email Information
IKEA has sacked four executives, including a country manager and head of security, after an internal probe into spying on workers at its French operations.
In March, police searched the French HQ of the Swedish furniture group at Plaisir, in the west of Paris, after employees complained about spying. Ikea launched an inquiry with the help of independent advisors.
“There have unfortunately within the Ikea group existed work practices contrary to the company’s values and ethical standards,” it said in a statement.
“As a result of this, a former country manager, a former human resources manager, a former chief financial officer and the current head of security will leave their positions and the Ijea group.”
Satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine published in February e-mails allegedly exchanged between Ikea bosses in France and a private security company.
The paper said they showed Ikea had sought information from police files on numerous people including a union leader and a client in dispute with it.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an Obama administration appeal arguing that attorneys, journalists and human rights groups have no right to sue over a law making it easier for U.S. intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on foreign communications.
The justices said they would review a ruling by a U.S. appeals court in New York that the plaintiffs have the legal right to proceed with their challenge to a 2008 amendment to the law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The section at issue allows intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on overseas communications, including phone calls and e-mails, more widely and with less judicial oversight than in the past.
The change meant the U.S. government does not have to submit to a special judge an individualized application to monitor a non-American overseas. Instead, the U.S. attorney general and the director of national intelligence can apply for mass surveillance authorization from the judge.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the attorney general and the director of national intelligence in 2008 in challenging the law as unconstitutional.
The plaintiffs argued they had the legal standing to proceed with their lawsuit because they suspected their communications with people abroad were being monitored.
They said they had reasonable fear of injury from the surveillance and had to take costly, burdensome steps to protect the confidentiality of their communications.
The appeals court agreed and reversed a ruling by a federal judge who dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds the plaintiffs lacked the standing to sue because they could not show they had been actually harmed by the surveillance.
The appeals court did not address the merits of the constitutional challenge and that issue will not be before the Supreme Court either.
But even on the standing issue, the Obama administration cited national security in its appeal.
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli said Congress in adopting the law regulated “the nation’s exceedingly important need to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance” targeting certain non-Americans. The litigation threatened to disrupt important activities “protecting the national security,” he said.
The ACLU opposed the government’s appeal.
“It’s crucial that the government’s surveillance activities be subject to constitutional limits, but the administration’s argument would effectively insulate the most intrusive surveillance programs from judicial review,” Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU’s deputy legal director, said.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case during its upcoming term that begins in October, with a ruling likely early next year.
The Supreme Court case is James Clapper v. Amnesty International USA, No. 11-1025.
(Reporting By James Vicini; Editing by Vicki Allen)
Tyler Clementi apparently committed suicide after his college roommate, Dharun Ravi, spied on him with another man and tweeted about it.
(Credit:Â Tyler Clementi)
A Rutgers University student was sentenced to 30 days in jail today for spying on his gay roommate’s romantic encounter, an act that may have been related to the roommate’s subsequent suicide.
Dharun Ravi, 20, set up the Webcam several times, urged others to watch and tweeted about watching his roommate, Tyler Clementi, “making out with a dude.” The 18-year-old Clementi jumped to his death from a bridge a few days after learning about the spying.
Ravi, who faced up to 10 years in prison, was charged with 15 counts, including invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, hindering apprehension and tampering with a witness and evidence. He was also sentenced to three years’ probation, 300 hours of community service and ordered to pay a $10,000 probation fee and to get counseling about cyberbully sensitivity.
Although the judge had told the jury that the suicide was not relevant to the case, he noted Ravi’s lack of remorse for his actions.
“You lied to your roommate who placed his trust in you without any conditions, and you violated it,” said Judge Glenn Berman of New Jersey State Superior Court, according to the New York Times. “I haven’t heard you apologize once.”
The prosecutor had made the same argument, noting that the day after Clementi’s suicide, Ravi texted a friend about wanting to return to Rutgers: “How can I convince my mom to let me go back Friday night and get drunk.”
A fallen air freshener and a Superman mouse pad led to an Indiana pastor’s fall from grace. Robert Lyzenga, 55, is accused of hiding cameras inside women’s toilet stalls at his church, the Lafayette Journal and Courier reports.
A female church member exposed the pastor’s secret after an air freshener in a toilet stall fell to the floor, revealing a camera inside. She found two other fake air fresheners in adjacent stalls, one of which also contained a camera, according to an affidavit obtained by The Smoking Gun.
When investigators checked the cameras’ contents, they found video of two women and a girl using the restroom. But the cameras had also captured other images that led detectives to the pastor’s door.
The hidden cameras contained video clips of someone setting up the cameras in some sort of office. So sheriff’s deputies went back to the church, where Pastor Robert Lyzenga offered to show them around.
Lyzenga led investigators to several church offices, but none matched what was seen in the video. Deputies then asked to see Lyzenga’s office, which made the pastor “very nervous,” the affidavit said.
Lo and behold, Lyzenga’s office allegedly matched the one seen in the hidden camera video. The pastor’s pencil cup and a Superman mouse pad were dead giveaways, investigators said.
Lyzenga was arrested on suspicion of voyeurism and released after posting bond the same day, according to the Journal and Courier. If he’s formally charged with felony voyeurism and convicted, Lyzenga could face up to three years in prison.
After Pastor Robert Lyzenga’s arrest for the hidden cameras, he was suspended from his church, which he’s led since 2002. Lyzenga is a father of three and has been married for 30 years, The Smoking Gun reports.
