Tuesday 24th of December 2024
Home » Blogs » Gus Leonisky's blog

industrial espionage...

 

keyscore...

image from Der Spiegel...

At the specialty chemicals giant Evonik, managers are required to store their mobile phones in cookie tins during meetings, the idea being that the tins will serve as Faraday cages that prevent anyone from listening in on the conversations.

Ferdinand Piëch, the chairman of Volkswagen's supervisory board, has conference rooms regularly swept for bugs, and the company even has its own airline, Volkswagen Air Services. The planes are registered in the Cayman Islands, but not in order to avoid paying taxes. Instead, the point is to make the aircraft less recognizable as VW planes so that passenger lists are not readily accessible.

At the aerospace group EADS, employees are not permitted to use iPads or iPhones at work. Only Blackberrys are allowed. Employees working in high-security areas are also not allowed to read work-related emails outside their sealed-off offices.

Heightened Worries about Data Abuse

After the revelations of large-scale data mining by the United States, German managers have become even more nervous about data security. EADS CEO Tom Enders and other senior executives have ratcheted up their defensive measures even further. "Many documents that used to be sent by email are now hand-delivered to the recipient," says an EADS official. He notes that the only documents that are now sent electronically are those that the company would have no objections to posting publicly or displaying "on the church door."

Enders and his fellow managers are not alone. Many German business executives are worried about what the NSA does with all the data it presumably collects on German companies, says Ulrich Brehmer, a member of the executive board of the German Association for Security in Industry and Commerce (ASW).

Brehmer is far from a conspiracy theorist, and he isn't trying to suggest that US intelligence services are deliberately poaching industrial know-how from Germany and channeling it to American companies. Instead, what worries him is that US intelligence agencies are working hand-in-hand with consultants from the private sector. "Who knows whether they might be selling information to interested parties here and there," says Brehmer, who assesses the risk of such data abuse as "high."

SAP founder Hasso Plattner also feels uneasy about the surveillance operations of American intelligence agencies. "It certainly is strange that much of the surveillance is centered on southern Germany," he says, "precisely where all the large and small technology companies are located."

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/companies-in-germany-scramble-to-strengthen-data-protection-abilities-a-914922.html

 

Gus: I remember in the early 1970s, some companies I did business with and that transferred sensitive documents to one single destination in Australia had quite often two people on two different flights carrying a briefcase attached to their wrist. Secrecy also needed that the people involved in writing the documents, would be sequestered incommunicado until such time the documents had been delivered and "contracts were signed". It was also customary that the final negotiated or proposed settlement figures were kept secret till the last minute and inserted only then in the final documents...

 

email shut...

The latest casualty of the American government's online surveillance program seems to be Lavabit, the email service supposedly used by Edward Snowden to protect himself against National Security Agency (NSA) snooping. In a dramatic letter posted on Lavabit's website Thursday, Ladar Levison, the company's owner and operator, announced that he had decided to shutter the site rather than become "complicit in crimes against the American people." Although it didn't include any mention of the NSA, Edward Snowden or government surveillance, the letter seems to refer to a court order asking for cooperation in the US government spy programs

"I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what's going on -- the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests."The email service attracted global attention when whistleblower Edward Snowden, or someone working with Edward Snowden, used it to invite journalists to a press conference in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport in July. Lavabit claimed that 350,000 customers used its extensive security features -- which include asymmetrical encryption, a form of encryption that is extremely difficult to hack.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/lavabit-email-service-allegedly-used-by-snowden-closes-a-915679.html

 

the ring cycle...

Düsseldorf is awash in spy rings this week, with a local bakery chain trying leverage the NSA surveillance scandal into a marketing coup. The rings, of course, are good, old-fashioned American donuts, which share shelf space with Snowdy rolls and Insider muffins.

This NSA probably already knows this, but a German bakery has responded to the mass surveillance scandal by devising a topical range of delicacies including "Spy Ring" doughnuts, "Snowdy" rolls, "Insider" muffins and "Facebrot" bread.

The "Snowdy" rolls are an homage to the whistleblower Edward Snowden who is something of a hero in Germany for having informed the public about the massive digital surveillance undertaken by the National Security Agency
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/nsa-scandal-inspires-baker-to-launch-new-doughnut-a-915098.html

a dagger complex in the heart of germany...

The so-called "Dagger Complex" is one of the best protected sites in the German state of Hesse. Griesheim resident Daniel Bangert recently discovered what could happen to those who show a little too much interest in sites like Dagger. In early July, Bangert -- inspired by the leaks of whistleblower Edward Snowden -- used his Facebook account to post an invitation to a "stroll" to the Dagger Complex, for the purpose of "joint research into the threatened habitat of NSA spies." But before he could embark on his outing into the world of espionage, Bangert found himself dealing with the police.


Lawmakers in the German parliament, the Bundestag, have also expressed an interest in the group of buildings near Darmstadt, south of Frankfurt. The campus houses one of the most important European branches of the National Security Agency (NSA), the American intelligence agency that has come under fire worldwide as a result of leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

According to internal NSA information, which SPIEGEL has seen, the agency's European Cryptologic Center (ECC) is headquartered in Griesheim. A 2011 NSA report indicates that the ECC is responsible for the "largest analysis and productivity in Europe." According to the report, results from the secret installation find their way into the President's Daily Brief, the daily intelligence report given to US President Barack Obama, an average of twice a week.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/germany-is-a-both-a-partner-to-and-a-target-of-nsa-surveillance-a-916029.html

NSA engaged in industrial espionage...

 

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has alleged the National Security Agency engaged in industrial espionage.

In an interview with Germany's ARD TV channel, the former NSA contractor said the agency would spy on big German companies that competed with US firms.

Mr Snowden, who was granted temporary asylum by Russia, also said he believed that US officials wanted to kill him.

His leaks caused outrage in Germany when it came to light Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone had been bugged.

After the row broke out last year, Mrs Merkel accused the US of an unacceptable breach of trust.

Last week President Barack Obama indicated to Germany's ZDF TV that US bugging of Mrs Merkel's mobile phone had been a mistake and would not happen again.


  • Accessing internet company data
  • Tapping fibre optic cables
  • Eavesdropping on phones
  • Targeted spying


Mr Snowden's new allegation about industrial spying may make it harder to rebuild trans-Atlantic trust, the BBC's Stephen Evans reports from Berlin.

Referring to the German engineering company Siemens, Mr Snowden told ARD: "If there is information at Siemens that they [the NSA] think would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the United States, they will go after that information and they'll take it."

He also said he believed US agents want to kill him, referring to an article published by the Buzzfeed website in which intelligence operatives are quoted as saying they want to see him dead.

In August Russia granted Mr Snowden asylum for one year, after he leaked details of US electronic surveillance programmes.

The US has charged Mr Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence.

Each of the charges carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence. Earlier this week he said he has "no chance" of a fair trial in the US and has no plans to return there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/25907502

 

Read story at top...

 

cigarettes and shrimps...

 

Australia spied on Indonesia and shared the information with the United States when the two countries were involved in a trade dispute in February 2013, a new document from whistleblower Edward Snowden shows.

Australia listened in on the communications of an unnamed American law firm which was representing Indonesia in the discussions and passed the information to the National Security Agency, according to a document obtained by the New York Times.

It is unclear what the discussions were about - but two trade disputes around that time were about the importation of clove cigarettes and shrimp, says the paper.

A monthly bulletin from the NSA’s liaison office in Canberra said the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) was monitoring the talks and offered to share any information with the US. It offered up that “information covered by attorney-client privilege may be included”.

Liaison officials asked for guidance for Australia from the NSA general counsel’s office on the surveillance. The bulletin did not specify what the guidance was, but said Australia was “able to continue to cover the talks, providing highly useful intelligence for interested US customers”.

In addition, a 2012 document reveals that America and Australia share access to Indonesian telecommunications. The NSA has given Australia access to bulk data collected from Indosat, one of Indonesia’s largest telecommunications networks. This includes data on Indonesian government officials in a number of departments.

The Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has been contacted for comment by Guardian Australia.

The ASD has also obtained 1.8m encrypted master keys from the Telkomsel mobile telephone network in Indonesia and has decrypted almost all of them according to a document from last year.

According to a separate document, the US sought to “mentor” Australia to break the encryption codes used by the Armed Forces in Papua New Guinea and another document reveals the NSA and ASD run an intelligence facility in Alice Springs where half the personnel are from the NSA with particular focus on monitoring Indonesia and China. It is known that Australia and the US jointly run a defence facility near Alice Springs named Pine Gap.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/16/australia-spied-indonesia-talks-us-firm

The list of those caught up in the global surveillance net cast by the National Security Agency and its overseas partners, from social media users to foreign heads of state, now includes another entry: American lawyers.

A top-secret document, obtained by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden, shows that an American law firm was monitored while representing a foreign government in trade disputes with the United States. The disclosure offers a rare glimpse of a specific instance in which Americans were ensnared by the eavesdroppers, and is of particular interest because lawyers in the United States with clients overseas have expressed growing concern that their confidential communications could be compromised by such surveillance.

Related Coverage

The government of Indonesia had retained the law firm for help in trade talks, according to the February 2013 document. It reports that the N.S.A.’s Australian counterpart, the Australian Signals Directorate, notified the agency that it was conducting surveillance of the talks, including communications between Indonesian officials and the American law firm, and offered to share the information. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/us/eavesdropping-ensnared-american-law-firm.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=0

 

the war of the washing machines...

South Korean prosecutors have raided the headquarters of LG Electronics in Seoul, following allegations the firm's executives vandalised their rival Samsung's washing machines at a trade fair in Germany.

Samsung had filed a lawsuit accusing the LG executives of defamation, property damage and obstruction of business and said LG home appliance division president Jo Seong-Jin was among those who damaged machines displayed at September's event in Berlin.

Investigators seized documents and computer hard disks during the raid on LG headquarters and the company's home appliance factory in the southern city of Changwon was also searched.

"Our office is under scrutiny by investigators," an LG spokesman said, without providing further details.

Samsung said surveillance video footage from the Berlin fair showed several men - whom they later identified as LG executives - destroying door hinges on the washing machines.

Samsung also accused LG of making slanderous claims that its washing machines were defective.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-26/samsung-accuses-lg-bosses-of-vandalising-washing-machines/5989214