In 2006, HP Chairman Patricia Dunn (bottom left)–with the approval of then CEO Mark Hurd (bottom right)–sent private detectives to spy on board members and reporters from such publications as the Wall Street Journal and CNET
(Credit: Greg Sandoval for CNET/HP)
A father-and-son team of private investigators was charged in federal court last week on charges of conspiracy to commit Social Security fraud in connection with Hewlett-Packard’s 2006 spying scandal, a court representative confirmed today.
The charges filed Thursday against Matthew DePante and his father, Joseph DePante, in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., stem from allegations that HP had indirectly hired their Florida-based private investigation firm, Action Research Group–a subcontractor to another firm–to probe boardroom leaks to journalists, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
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A French court has convicted the French state electricity company, Electricité de France SA (EDF), on charges of spying on Greenpeace France.
The company was fined €1.5 million, and ordered to pay €500,000 in damages to Greenpeace for non-material losses.
EDF was charged with complicity in concealing stolen documents, and complicity with an operation to break into a computer network.
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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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Anchorage, Alaska
A U.S. Army specialist from Kentucky who was serving as a military policeman has been arrested at an Alaska military base on suspicion of spying, an Army spokesman said on Tuesday.
Specialist William Colton Millay was taken into custody at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on October 28 following a joint espionage investigation conducted by the FBI and Army Counterintelligence special agents, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Bill Coppernoll said.
Coppernoll did not say who Millay, of Owensboro, Kentucky, was suspected of spying for or what sensitive information he may have had access to. He said the investigation was ongoing.
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In accusing China and Russia of conducting widespread and effective economic espionage against America, the US intelligence establishment on Thursday brought into the public domain what many in government, the private sector and the media have been saying for years.
The 31-page document directly blames the governments of the two rival powers for campaigns to steal American technology, reflecting what analysts said was a deep feeling of frustration at being unable to stop the spying through either diplomatic talks or technological defences.
The incidents mentioned in the report include the attack on Google’s network in 2010, where the company later claimed part of its source code may have been taken, and a 2011 study by McAfee that described an intrusion it called “Night Dragon” which took data from the systems of energy companies and which was traced back to an address in China.
It also lists the cases of three ethnic Chinese employees of American companies who were arrested for stealing proprietary information which they had allegedly planned to sell to new employers in China.
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