The spy in your cafeteria

Ira Winkler, July 25, 2006 (Computerworld) Corporate espionage rarely gets its day in print, so it has been refreshing to see reportage on two major cases recently. The first, involving The Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc., received most of the attention. The other, which involved manufacturer Metaldyne Corp., seemed to be a minor footnote, but is exponentially more important.

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Despite its regularity, most people still believe that espionage doesn't happen to them or their companies. Corporate espionage is significantly more mundane than people think, and it tends to take on the least technological form possible. Most of these security breaches are not highly targeted espionage campaigns but crimes of opportunity. Even when you are dealing with Russian intelligence services -- which are probably the most sophisticated in the world with the exception of those of the U.S. -- their most fruitful cases are when an insider walks into their offices looking to sell information. Even if they recruit an insider, they are dependent on the access that the insider generally has and, to some extent, on the insider's ability to understand what information is desired. More...

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