anybody who wanted to know this knew it. It was a neccessary reality as the
dissolution of boundaries blurred the distinctions between nations and
multi-national corporations.
Europeans do this overtly. The French call it "economic patriotism." They
bugged the first class seats in trans-Atlantic Air France flights to
capture conversations. Hotels are assumed by savvy business travellers to
be bugged. Not the telephones, the hotels.
Two years ago, when I keynoted the first Black Hat Briefings, I was
approcahed by an American seeking help in dealing with the - in this case,
French - practices because the playing field was not level. His US
corporation did not work hand-in-glove with the government because - as a
government security offical told me, "If we help, say, GM, for example,
then we have to help Ford. We have a different system."
But when I asked the guy a year later of they had solved their problem, he
said they had. No more needed to be said. Yes, the open channels could not
be acknowledged, so they had to work in the "gray areas" which are
expanding - as they must - because economic and political realities during
this time of transition turn what used to be black or white into gray. Only
the US could not admit it, for the reasons my source said. That is not how
our (overt) system works (in the public domain).
Meanwhile, we wire the world.
Which is also why I have been speaking about the need for corporations that
want to function globally to become fully conscious of the need to act as
if they are a country (in the days, now passing, when the nation-states
that evolved in the 18th and 19th centuries were appropriate
political/economic structures) - and engage in intelligence,
counter-intelligence, and disinformation (sometimes called advertsiing,
marketing or PR) in a self-conscious sophisticared way. Using all of the
resources, white and gray and sometimes black, at their disposal.
My two cents.
At 04:18 PM 5/18/99 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>
>A short rant:
>
>I am not the least bit shocked to read, in the link published here
>earlier today:
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/techweb/TW_Report_U_S_Uses_Key_Escrow_To_Steal_Secre
ts.html
>
>that the US has, for some time, been conducting economic espionage
>against European countries, and that an E.U. report has concluded that
>pushing for key escrow and international cryptographic controls has
>been aimed to a large extent, not at preventing "crime", but at
>espionage against "friendly" countries.
>
>What does shock me, however, is that so many European countries have
>been completely blind to what has been going on up to this point. Does
>everyone remember the speculation from some time back that the
>U.S. had employed ECHELON based espionage to determine the negotiating
>positions of various Wassenar countries in order to achieve
>international cryptographic controls? I assume that we can't be the
>only people who've noted this. Does everyone remember the silly trivia
>that many European countries got in exchange for their support on
>cryptographic controls? Things like arms contracts -- the phrase
>"selling one's birthright for a mess o' pottage" comes to mind.
>
>One wonders, however, if the latest revelations that companies like
>Thompson S.A. and Airbus have lost contracts because ECHELON was used
>to spy on them and give information on bids to American competitors
>will create any change European policy.
>
>If the Europeans know what's good for them, they'll start pushing mass
>use of crypto instead of fighting it.
Richard Thieme
ThiemeWorks ... professional speaking and
business consulting:
ThiemeWorks
P. O. Box 17737 the impact of computer technology
Milwaukee Wisconsin on people in organizations:
53217-0737 helping people stay flexible
voice: 414.351.2321 and effective
http://www.thiemeworks.com during times of accelerated change.
