Brussels, 01/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - Mario Mauro (EPP-ED, Italy), Vice-President of the European Parliament, has invited Shai Blitzblau, the technical director of Maglan Europe, to the Parliament to present the different methods of industrial espionage and possible protection solutions. Mauro explained that industrial espionage can “harm the economy and public security”. The MEP added that this is a growing problem and affirmed that they should look at “the weak points in our system and how they can be rectified”.
Industrial espionage experts form small teams and have to constantly change their information access points to avoid detection. Cyber spies are often trained during conferences, the most famous of which is the “Chaos Computer Club” in Berlin. They are recruited from among employees, former employees and information and telecommunications service providers in the IT domain.
Blitzblau said that “passwords are useless” and explained that a programme can be downloaded on the internet which can find most passwords in a few seconds, no matter the length or complexity of them. For passwords on Word Office documents, it is possible to purchase a €100 programme or even download it free on the internet. The only safe solution is to use biometrics containing two different levels of authentication.
If a computer is connected to a Wifi network, all the other computers connected to this network will have access to it. A commercial tool can also be acquired on the internet for obtaining access to all equipment using Bluetooth. Even if the person only uses Bluetooth for audio purposes, pirates can
activate the rest of the programme and subsequently access all portable or computer information.
Mr Blitzblau suggested protecting portable telephones and computers by encrypting all important or confidential information.
According to Mr Blitzblau, USB keys that appear normal, can be used to collect any information on a computer in which they are linked and encrypt them for someone else to read. These USB keys are pre-programmed by computer pirates to collect all the .doc, excel, pdf documents as soon as they are put into a computer. There are also USB keys that can record conversations. Three years ago, they were considered to be confidential tools but can now be bought anywhere at around €300 for a very high quality key.
Increasing numbers of companies in the European Union are requesting Mangan companies to carry out counter-espionage investigations for them. Industrial espionage against the European Union often comes from Eastern European countries and Asia because these countries do not have laws against this kind of activity. European Union financial markets are the main targets for this kind of spying. Mr Blitzblau underlined the importance of raising the European Parliament's awareness about the current espionage situation. A risk management policy is also required. (E.M.transl.rh)