The crime of espionage once conjured images of dark street corners, fedora-wearing spies and government agents who stayed in the shadows, rarely seeing the inside of a public courtroom.
These days, the game has changed. The same agents are now looking for different kinds of spies, ones who increasingly threaten corporate America — while they’re working within it.
The crime is called economic espionage and it has catapulted to one of the top federal law enforcement priorities in the country.
It often involves American-based employees who burrow into company computer systems, steal prized trade secrets and hand over the information to overseas competitors for tens of thousands — even millions — of dollars.
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We know in general about hacking and cyber-espionage that comes out of China and, to a lesser extent, Russia. But rarely have U.S. intelligence agencies so bluntly and publicly pointed the finger directly at those countries’ governments.
A report presented to Congress Thursday accuses them of targeting, over the past three years, “a broad array of U.S. government agencies, private companies, universities and other institutions – all holding large volumes of sensitive economic information.”
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Beijing on Friday hit out at a US intelligence agency report accusing the Chinese of extensive cyber spying, saying it was unprofessional and irresponsible.
The unusually blunt report on foreign cyber spying submitted to the US Congress on Thursday said the Chinese were the world’s “most active and persistent perpetrators” of economic espionage.
“Cyber attacks are transnational and anonymous,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.
“Without investigation, to prejudge the origin of the attack is neither professional nor responsible.”
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Two private investigators have been charged in federal court in connection with a Hewlett-Packard spying scandal in which they allegedly used false identities to obtain the phone records of board members, employees and journalists, court records show.
Matthew DePante and his father, Joseph DePante, were charged in U.S. District Court in San Jose on Thursday with conspiracy to commit Social Security fraud, the latest development in a corporate spying scandal that ruptured the reputation of one of Silicon Valley’s most revered companies.
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A retired Garda inspector has described investigations into the alleged interception of cross-border telephone calls between the RUC and Gardaí by the IRA, leading to the murder of two senior RUC officers.
Retired inspector Chris Kelly was asked to carry out an investigation in 2009 following an article that appeared in the Phoenix magazine, claiming that the IRA had a bug the organisation used to intercept phone calls between Dundalk garda station and the RUC over secure lines.
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