IP: "Bomb" is at the bottom...

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

"Bomb" is at the bottom...


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(Reuters, 2/28/96, "FBI director warns of economic espionage")


Economic espionage by foreign countries and firms against U.S. companies 
is a growing threat to national security, FBI Director Louis Freeh 
warned Congress on Wednesday.
     
"The problem involves billions of dollars, thousands of jobs and the 
health of our national economy," Freeh said at a hearing of the Senate 
Intelligence Committee.
     
"Current FBI investigations reflect 23 countries engaged in economic
espionage activities against the United States," Freeh added.
     
Freeh did not identify any of the countries, but other witnesses told of
incidents involving companies and individuals from China, Germany and 
Japan.
     
Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said Russian President
Boris Yeltsin recently ordered the use of industrial intelligence to 
close the technology gap with Western nations.


"I think it's an ominous sign," Freeh said of Yeltsin's statement. "They
(foreign countries) certainly have increased their activities in the 
United States."
     
Because of the threat, Freeh said the Federal Bureau of Investigation
established a counterintelligence programme in 1994 to detect and stop  
foreign economic espionage.
     
Specter said the White House had estimated that U.S. businesses were 
losing $100 billion a year to foreign spying. He said at least 51 countries 
had spies in the United States trying to steal economic information.
     
A recent report by the General Accounting Office, the congressional
investigational agency, said some U.S. allies were trying to steal 
American military technology. The report did not identify the countries.
     
Freeh said the problem was becoming more difficult because of the greater
importance of advanced technology and the increased access to electronic
information on computers.
     
He said some countries use their students studying in the United States as
intelligence agents or pay employees of U.S. companies to obtain economic
secrets or proprietary information.
     
Freeh said current laws on theft and fraud often could not be used in
industrial spying cases because no physical property was actually stolen.


     
"For example, if an individual downloads computer programme code without
permission of the owner, has a theft occurred even though the true owner 
never lost possession of the original?" Freeh asked.
     
He urged Congress to pass laws which deal specifically with economic
espionage.
     
Among the legislation being considered is a bill that would make theft of
proprietary information a federal crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison
and a $250,000 fine for individuals and to $10 million in fines for companies.


(end)
_______________________________________________________________________




Seems to me that liberal ...er... illiberal but loose ... definitions
of "theft"  and "proprietary information" could make info-terrorists.
of us all.




Brad