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ESPIONAGE: THE WHITE COLLAR NIGHTMARE Welcome to online dating site Lavalife, where singles click! Love and admire or hate and despise him, when Ollie North talks about national security and counterintelligence, people listen -- and they listen closely. Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who gained national attention and celebrity during the Iran-Contra congressional hearings in 1986, recently preached his message of preparedness and diligence to some of the nation's top corporate security executives attending an intelligence symposium at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. According to North, a former blood and guts marine and member of President Ronald Reagan's National Security Council, the most serious threat to US national security in the 1990s on into the 21st century is economic espionage. He claims it is a pervasive crime that will adversely affect every man, woman, and child in America. But North is not the only one sounding the alarm, if not pushing the panic button. Counterintelligence experts believe that with communism now dead in its tracks, the newly developing nations of the now defunct Soviet Union pose a serious threat to American businesses. As these fledgling countries look to replicate US, Japanese, and European free-market systems and find themselves strapped for research and development financing, they may likely turn to corporate spying to gain much needed information and technology. It's a matter of economics: stealing technology is always cheaper than developing your own. "Corporate espionage is nothing new. What is new is the number of governments and organizations doing it," claims North. Although the countries of the crumbled "Evil Empire" are viewed by Col. North and other intelligence and security experts as prime suspects in the high-tech crime of corporate espionage, they say US corporations must turn a watchful eye towards allies such as Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain, and others who are fierce competitors in the global marketplace. Additionally, there remains the threat of American companies increasing their indulgence in spying. "Corporate spying is commonplace in many industries and viewed as just part of doing business in our country," states North. Figures and statistical data on economic espionage incidents are hard to come by, since few company CEOs want to be the one to announce their victimization at stockholders' meetings, or have the crime reported in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. According to Col. North, sometimes more is done to conceal an occurrence than was done to prevent it from happening in the first place. North alleges, "They worry more about public relations than they do about protecting the information. It's gotten to the point where CEOs don't even want to know their secrets were stolen...they don't want to face the apparent breaches in security." The amount of damage to an American company as a result of stolen secrets would astound the average consumer. Not only is there a loss of profits for a firm because a competitor used espionage, but there also is a loss of vast amounts of money poured into research and development. R & D budgets for major companies are in the eight-figure bracket -- millions and millions of dollars. As a result of being the victim of the white-collar crime of corporate espionage, companies could fold, jobs could be lost, and the costs to cover financial losses are passed on to the consumer through higher prices for products. The scenario can be shocking. Col. North believes that the highly competitive global market will actually create incentives for company spying. "It will become increasingly important for businesses to know what other businesses are doing; and corporate espionage gives them that information," says North, now chairman of Guardian Technologies International, a police and security equipment firm. However, the picture isn't completely bleak. Many American companies are spending millions upon millions of dollars on security guards, alarm systems, closed-circuit television, computer-security analysts, and other protection measures. Whether these protection programs work or not is difficult to gauge. "It's hard to prove that security is working because it's hard to prove something didn't happen as a result of that security...it's hard to prove a negative," says North. In the high-tech, futuristic world of corporate espionage, security experts for many American firms are experimenting with newly developed Biometrics protection devices -- devices that would force even James Bond to take pause. These access-control systems can "read" a person by scanning face-prints, fingerprints, hand contours, eye-retinal patterns, and voiceprints. Biometrics will all but replace conventional lock and key, or even card-reading systems. Using such devices is referred to as "target hardening" in the world of counterespionage. Ollie North claims, "The idea is to allow the good guys in and keep the bad guys out. Make it as difficult as hell to steal your secrets and confidential information. It's important to know who goes where, when, and for how long." Experts also agree that taking some common sense steps decreases a company's vulnerability. They advise business people to avoid signposts on doors such as "Restricted Area," or file-folder labels that read "Top Secret" or "Confidential." In other words, don't announce to the world where valuable secrets and confidential information are being stored. They also believe that corporation executives should view corporate espionage as a crime. "Executives and workers should treat the "inside" spy (employee) as an embezzler, and the "outside" spy (intruder) as a burglar," North warns. Many American corporations routinely hold internal-security training programs for all of their key employees. Employee background checks are also more common and more intense, and not just limited to work or criminal histories. An applicant's lifestyle may be examined to insure he or she will not be easily compromised. Several firms are using written psychological or honesty tests in the hopes of avoiding a future problem. According to North and other intelligence experts, inside informants are the most dangerous source of data to a business, and the most helpful source for spies. If a spy can set up an inside source (including him-or herself) he may be able to render even the most elaborate security program ineffective. "It helps to remind business people that espionage or spying is not a matter of common business practice...it's a serious and destructive crime." Jim Kouri is currently director of public safety at Saint Peter's College in New Jersey. He also lectures on criminal justice at the college. He served as Top Cop in New York at a housing project in upper-Manhattan nicknamed "Crack City" by the news people covering the drug war in the 1980s. He's written over 100 articles for police and crime magazines and journals and he's written training videos for the Law Enforcement Television Network. He's also written and appeared in a segment for MTV's "The Week in Rock." He's appeared on dozens of TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah Winfrey, The McLaughlin Report, America After Hours, CBS News and, most recently, The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel. In 1992, Kouri served as law enforcement liaison in the Bush White House, and he's trained police and security forces in Mexico and the Caribbean. His book/CD CRIME TALK is available at Amazon.com, Borders.com and Barnesandnoble.com.
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