By Allan Maurer

CARY, NC—A star-studded lineup of government and business security experts warned attendees at the North Carolina Technology Association’s “Five Pillars” conference Wednesday that competitors, foreign agents and even disgruntled employees pose serious risks to keeping trade secrets safe.

In a rare public appearance, Erik Prince, CEO of North Carolina-based private security firm Blackwater USA said that better training—such as his company provides—could have helped police deal with tragedies such as the Columbine and recent Virginia Tech school shootings.

But Prince also sounded the first of many alarms attendees would hear regarding lax personal and corporate security, particularly among overseas travelers.

Tom Mahlik, section chief for counter-intelligence strategy at F.B.I. headquarters, and John Slattery, Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, F.B.I., pointed out the threats to protecting intellectual property stemming from numerous sources. The F.B.I. actively seeks ways to help technology companies and academic institutions protect their IP.

Laptops are targets
Dean Carver, National Counterintelligence Executive, Office of the Director of National Intelligence outlined the difficulties that the government, corporations and individuals face protecting sensitive information in the modern world.

Carver warned that carrying a laptop that contains sensitive information to some foreign countries is almost sure to result in the information being stolen. If a traveler passes through customs and agents want to inspect a laptop, they will, he said.

He also said that leaving a laptop in a foreign hotel room is almost an invitation to have any information it contains stolen and that using wireless Internet connections in foreign hotels can also be dangerous.

Carver told of traveling government officials who noted that they were assigned hotel near floor exits, making it easier for agents to enter their rooms and examine anything left behind. He noted that once users of a foreign hotel’s wireless Internet brought back malicious code that not only infected his own company’s system but also one of its client’s.

Not safe even at home
But even at home, information is seldom secure. Citing major companies that suffered security breaches and the loss of thousands of pages of sensitive documents and trade secrets, Carver said risks come from numerous sources.

Those include 550 “intelligence agents” wandering the United States, as well as from traveling foreign business people and partners, and 500,000 foreign students. “It’s hard to pick out the spies,” he added.

Again, citing specific cases, he said even disgruntled employees have stolen trade secrets and delivered them to company competitors. Other attacks might come from a company’s supply chain, customers or partners, he said.

One of the problems, Carver said, is that often it isn’t even hard for those trying to steal sensitive information to obtain it. Many operatives take a direct route and simply approach a company via a phone call or email, posing as a potential client or partner. “It’s a simple and cheap approach,” Carver said.

Lack of preparedness faulted
Agents also obtain information by visiting corporate facilities and at trade shows and conventions, he said.

Sounding an oft-repeated theme that others echoed throughout the day, Carver said the benefits of globalization are enormous, but that same globalization poses new threats to both national and corporate secrets and American competitiveness.

A lack of preparedness for the all too numerous assaults on corporate trade secrets was another theme sounded repeatedly.

Following Carver, Tom McWeeney and Larry E. Torrence from the Center for Strategic Management said a survey of several companies revealed they had virtually no counterintelligence measures in place to protect their trade secrets.

The F.B.I. offers help with companies that want to know how to better protect their technology secrets or suspect that it may have been compromised and want to know how to handle it. Agents make it clear that they act with discretion.

For more information: email: tjmahlik@fbi.sgov.gov

For more on NCTA, see: www.nc-tech.org

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