IndustrialEspionage
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Biscuit tins: your greatest defense against industrial espionage?
We don't know what your daily grind is like, but we're constantly warding off the ever-present threat of industrial espionage. For whatever reason, here's something we've yet to try: the ordinary household biscuit tin. Word has is that the thin, metal baked goods holder is great for keeping the eyes of potential saboteurs away from your secret-storing mobile devices. AFP is reporting that executives at a German chemical company have begun carrying their phones around in the boxes to protect them from the sorts of electromagnetic radiation used to steal valuable information from the handsets. No word on how many of the devices involved are running Gingerbread or similar pastry-based operating systems.
Motorola sues Huawei and several former employees for stealing wireless trade secrets
Man, if you thought the lawsuit action in the mobile space was crazy before, well, you ain't seen nothing yet -- Motorola just sued Huawei and over a dozen former employees for conspiring to steal its wireless trade secrets and other proprietary technology over a period of years starting in 2001. Yeah, it's crazy. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2008 against four former Motorola engineers and a company called Lemko, all of whom Motorola accused of conspiring to stealing trade secrets related to wireless technology. After years of discovery in the case, it appears that Motorola realized the conspiracy went much deeper than it originally thought, leading the company to file a new complaint on July 16th, in which it named Huawei and nine additional former employees, who allegedly schemed to steal plans for a 3G base station called the SC300. According to the complaint, part of the scheme was ultimately blown up when one of the employees was arrested by Customs at O'Hare airport en route to China with $30,000 in cash and over 1,000 pages of documentation regarding Motorola's various communications networking tech, while another employee was caught buying Motorola phones in bulk and sending unlock codes and dump files to Lemko for reverse engineering purposes. Motorola also says that it doesn't yet know the exact relationship between Lemko, Huawei and some of the former employees because "file destruction software" was installed and run on computers before they were turned over as evidence, but the company claims that Huawei was aware it was receiving proprietary Motorola information the entire time it was in contact with the former employees. Yes, it's all very juicy -- we'll be watching this one closely.
Samsung, Hynix, Applied Materials in corporate espionage shocker!
In the cut-throat world of high tech manufacturing, "going rogue" is an ever-present temptation -- and no one, from AMD to LG, is immune from scandal. For the latest bit of corporate shenanigans, look no further than Applied Materials, who installs and maintains Samsung's chip manufacturing equipment -- prosecutors in South Korea have accused the company of stealing the latter's semiconductor technology and leaking it to Hynix Semiconductor (who ranks third in the world in the manufacture of NAND flash, behind Samsung and Toshiba). According to the AP, eighteen people have been indicted in the case so far, including the vice president of Applied Materials Korea. We just hope they didn't get the idea from us! That is definitely not the message we're trying to impart with this site.
Swann's MovieStick begs to be used for nefarious ends
With all the layoffs we've been seeing lately, it looks like an increasing number of tech professionals will be going mercenary in order to pay the bills. Of course, Engadget does not condone industrial espionage in any way, shape or form -- but if you do happen to find yourself "in the cold," as Le Carré used to say, you might consider Swann's MovieStick. This thing is small enough to fit inside a packet of gum, includes a lithium-ion battery (rechargeable via USB) and can store up to 2.5 hours of video on a 2GB MicroSD card (not included). There is no word yet on release date, video quality or battery life, but we're sure that this $119.99 (retail) beauty is just the trick for all those patented industrial processes you plan on stealing. But don't steal them. For realz.
Ex-Intel employee busted for trying to take secrets to AMD
Another day, another disgruntled ex-employee trying to schelp stolen trade secrets. This time it's a former Intel engineer named Biswahoman Pani, who nabbed 13 files containing over 100 pages of internal Intel design documents drawings on his way to a new gig at AMD. The FBI got involved when another Intel employee noticed some funny business on system access logs, but so far Biswahoman has denied everything -- although his passport's been confiscated and he never got to take that AMD job. Crime don't pay, kids.
SAP admits to corporate espionage against Oracle
Uh oh, we've got ourselves a true-blue corporate competitive intelligence espionage fiasco exploding on the international stage. Germany's SAP has admitted to "inappropriate downloads" from arch-rival, Oracle in the US. Oracle is suing SAP with claims that it is guilty of "corporate theft on a grand scale" after hacking into Oracle's computer network and stealing a "wide range of copyrighted software and other material" from their Peoplesoft business unit. Taking the presidential classic, "I didn't inhale" defense, SAP admits to stealing the data but claims it never left the systems of their wholly owned subsidiary, TomorrowNow (where SAP has "made changes" to management). Well, at least now we can more clearly see why the French are so concerned with their sensitive data being hosted outside of their immediate control.
