A Growing Problem..

Industrial espionage or corporate espionage is espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of national security purposes.

The term is distinct from legal and ethical activities such as examining corporate publications, websites, patent filings, and the like to determine the activities of a corporation (this is normally referred to as competitive intelligence). Theoretically the difference between espionage and legal information gathering is clear. In practice, it is quite difficult to sometimes tell the difference between legal and illegal methods. Especially if one starts to consider the ethical side of information gathering, the border becomes even more blurred and elusive of definition.

Industrial espionage describes activities such as theft of trade secrets, bribery, blackmail, and technological surveillance. As well as spying on commercial organizations, governments can also be targets of commercial espionage—for example, to determine the terms of a tender for a government contract so that another tenderer can underbid.

Industrial espionage is most commonly associated with technology-heavy industries, particularly the computer and automobile sectors.

Espionage takes place in many forms. In short, the purpose of espionage is to gather knowledge about (an) organization(s). A spy may be hired, or may work for oneself.

 

 

Think of everything you do with your phone making calls, checking voicemail, and of course going online.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

"I use it all the time constantly to check internet and check my accounts" said Ben Chase and iPhone user.

Now new technology threatens the privacy most take for granted. Websites offer ways to hijack someone's phone to listen to their calls and messages. You can read their text messages, control a phone remotely and get alerts when someone else gets a call.

“We're reading more about this. The situation where people are intentionally putting spy ware on phones to catch for example a cheating spouse, said Michael Corn who is in charge of keeping campus information secure at the University of Illinois. “I'd like to know that that data is as secure on you phone as it is on your computer. But at this point in time we're starting to lose some of that confidence.”

Once someone gets into your phone they can access bank account and credit card information. Experts say to watch out. Because the more we use our phones like computers the more common it will be.

“I've actually sat at the airport with my Bluetooth on and I can see other people's phones come in and out of range of my phone,” Corn said.
To protect yourself make sure your phone is always in sight and password protected.

“You should never open a text message and go to a website that you don't trust.”