Forwarded from: Simon Taplin <simon.taplin (at) gmail.com> http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iArticleId=5650147 By Peter Apps Independent Online 16 September 2010 London - Smartphones and e-mail might be revolutionising espionage, but old-style personal spycraft is as important as ever when it comes to protecting - or breaking - state and corporate secrets. The rise of "state capitalist" economies that may use government intelligence agencies to win commercial advantage for official-linked companies could pose a growing threat to their Western corporate rivals, experts say. China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and India either have or are all pushing for security agency access to encrypted BlackBerry smart phones, which they say they need to monitor dangerous militants. But while the skills of electronic snooping are important, where information ends up can come down just as much to private deals put together in anonymous offices by spy chiefs, companies and powerful individuals. "In somewhere like the UAE, if I was the CIA or MI6 station chief I might go to the head of local intelligence and ask for help in following or monitoring someone," said Fred Burton, a former US counterterrorism agent now vice president for US political risk consultancy Stratfor. [...] _______________________________________________________ Subscribe to InfoSec News - www.infosecnews.org http://www.infosecnews.org/mailman/listinfo/isnReceived on Thu Sep 16 2010 - 23:37:15 PDT
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