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Iranian Doctoral Student Being Tried In His Country ...
By Daria Carmon
Omid Kokabee, an Iranian Ph.D. candidate in physics at the University of Texas in Austin, is standing trial on espionage charges in his homeland, after being held in custody since the end of January or February. It is believed he was picked up at the Tehran airport en route to continuing his graduate studies…
15 yrs in slammer for China-born engineer
Seven months after Dongfan ‘Greg’ Chung, a Chinese-born naturalized U.S. citizen in his seventies, was put on trial for economic espionage, he has been issued a sentence of 15 years. His trial was a quick affair – 10 days in Santa Ana, California – and he was declared guilty of…
China poised to win cyber war?
Google shocked the Chinese government – not to mention all us gmail users – by announcing on January 12 that the company had suffered a serious cyber security breach, likely perpetrated by China. Encouraged by Google’s bold step, other companies are now coming forward, and so we see…
CIA turns to open-source intel
Web 2.0 means that there’s a plethora of user-generated information out there to monitor – blog posts, tweets, commentary on news pieces, videos, reviews of books, etc. But the CIA’s not interested in any of that harmless chatter, right? Wrong. The investment arm of the U.S. intelligence community, In-Q-Tel – which serves…
Hacker hunter turns bad
Albert Gonzalez once used his wily computer skills to help the U.S. government track down hackers. Now it seems he’s crossed over to the other side, where instead of spying to protect U.S. citizens, he’s been spying to steal millions…
China says has conclusive evidence against Australi ...
China has surprised just about everyone with its recent arrest of four employees of the world’s second largest mining company, Rio Tinto. The detainees – one Australian and three Chinese – have been accused…
Rush of cyber attacks in South Korea abates
The websites in South Korea that have recently been crashing under a series of Denial of Service (DoS) cyber attacks seem to be operating regularly again, since last Thursday’s assault. As a result, South Korea’s National Intelligence…
Goldman code spy out on bail
Sergey Aleynikov – a Russian computer programmer who started working at Goldman Sachs in May 2007 and was recently accused of stealing code from the company – was released on $750,000 bail. In addition to…
UK: Deloitte in the counter-espionage game
The international consultancy Deloitte has announced the launch of a new corporate counter-espionage team within its Security, Privacy & Resilience department. Corporate espionage is on the rise, and Deloitte has cautioned others that this sort of spying can have severe affects on…
First U.S. economic espionage trial under way
In 1996, the U.S. Economic Espionage Act was passed, making the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime. No one suspected of economic espionage has gone to trial (six settlements) – until Tuesday, when a…
Terrorists use Facebook to recruit agents
So while the FBI is using Facebook and other online marketing tools to help catch fugitives and find missing children, terrorists have decided there may be something in these sites for…
The Hip Face of the FBI
Facebook and Twitter have been mainstream for quite some time, but it’s still surprising – and refreshing – to see the stuffy FBI embrace next generation…
Ex-spies reveal illegal espionage in Colombia
Two former officers of Colombia’s main security and intelligence agency, the Department of Administrative Security (DAS), recently told all to La FM radio station. Turns out the candidates who ran against the then incumbent and current president Alvaro Uribe in 2006 were spied upon by…
Spy costs AV company $10 million
Yes, it is annoying when every 3-6 months your work computer flashes an insistent message asking you to change your password(s). But it appears that even if all you’re dealing with is…
Lebanon: Israeli spy gadgets on display
With mounting news of arrests of Palestinians and Lebanese accused of spying for Israel, it doesn’t come as a surprise that some proof is being paraded before the press. Yesterday…
British Agent Loses Drug Intelligence in Handbag
For most females, a handbag is a veritable extension of the body, but that doesn’t mean they never get lost or accidentally left behind – probably something an undercover British female agent should have considered before traipsing across South America with a USB stick chock-full of intelligence in her purse.
The Sunday Times reported this weekend that…
UK Secret Service on the Hunt for Gadget Guru
Officially, MI5 has posted a job opening on their website for a Chief Scientific Advisor, but what they’re really looking for is someone along the lines of the character Q, the man who outfits James Bond with all of his secret agent gadgets (think sleek cars that can travel underwater and tazer-emitting cell phones).
The Advisor will…
Cybersecurity also a focus in Australia
As cyber espionage and computer crime are being deemed one of the most dangerous threats to national security in the United States, similar concerns are being expressed down under in Australia.
While in the U.S. the Senate has seen legislation…
GPS for Snoops
Motorists don’t use maps, they use navigation devices to get from point A to point B through Z. Now wouldn’t it be telling to get your hands on someone’s GPS data from their dashboard navigation device…? Think about it – today’s drivers have effectively installed a self-tracking mechanism in their vehicles, one that could be exploited…
Cyber Spies Strike Greenpeace
Spies have infiltrated Greenpeace. Espionage comes in many forms – and government or insurgent intelligence operatives need not always play a role, although corporate spies sometimes come from a government background, as in the recent spy flick Duplicity.
This time, Greenpeace has allegedly been targeted by EDF, the huge French nuclear energy company whose initials stand for…
Russia Accuses U.S. Base of Spying
This Friday, April 3, the United States was accused by the Russian state television channel Rossiya of using its only air base in Central Asia as a cover for a big espionage operation whose focus is China and Russia. The accusation came with the teaser of a documentary about U.S. intelligence ops at Manas base in…
National Cybersecurity Advisor for Obama
On Wednesday, legislation with the purpose of creating a new federal advisory position – with a direct reporting line to the President – was presented by two U.S. senators. We know what you’re thinking…doesn’t the President have enough advisors already? And how is this at all relevant to the world of espionage?
This is how: The legislation,…
Google Street View = Spy Gadget??
Although the street view feature on Google Maps was released some time ago in the U.S., it’s only just been added to the online mapping software in the UK – and thus far reports indicate it’s creating all sorts of mischief – both for amateur spies and the spied upon.
It’s no secret that some folks kill…
China: “Computer Spy Allegations are Lies”
A report released this weekend by Canadian researchers about the uncovering of a MEGA global cyber espionage operation clearly implicated the Chinese (though not necessarily the Chinese government). China responded to the allegations today with distinct indignation.
Ministry spokesman Qin Gang spoke to journalists: “Some people outside China are bent on fabricating lies of so-called Chinese computer spies….…
Massive Cyber Espionage Operation Uncovered
Canadian investigators reported this weekend that the computers of government and private offices in over 100 countries around the world have been infiltrated by a huge cyber espionage operation.
Private documents were stolen by the spy system, which is allegedly controlled by computers based primarily in China. The Canadian researchers who put the report together caution against jumping…