Spy scandal spreads at Sweden's Ericsson
STOCKHOLM -- A spying scandal at Sweden's flagship telecoms company
Ericsson widened on Friday (Saturday, Manila time) as the firm suspended
two more employees who may have contributed to leaking secrets to a foreign
intelligence service.
A senior Ericsson source said Russia was the foreign power involved.
Loss-making Telefon AB LM Ericsson is the world's biggest producer of
mobile phone networks and is also involved in developing radar and missile
guiding systems for the high-tech JAS 39 Gripen fighter plane, Sweden's
main strike warplane.
The suspensions follow Wednesday's arrests of two employees from
development units, and one former employee, on suspicion of industrial
espionage.
The main suspect, the former employee, was taken into custody as he was
meeting a foreign intelligence officer.
A Russian diplomat is likely to be expelled from Sweden as a result, an
intelligence source said, but a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said no one
had been expelled so far.
Ericsson said the two people suspended also worked in development units.
"At this time the two are not suspected of any crime, but they could have
broken Ericsson's internal security or secrecy rules," the company said in
a statement.
Spokesman Henry Stenson said their involvement had been discovered on
Wednesday, but Ericsson waited before taking action to underline their
different status in the case.
"They are not suspected of espionage but) we have reason to believe they
may have handed over information to the main suspect," Stenson told a news
conference.
He said the company believed the leaking had only caused limited damage,
even though it had been going on for some time.
A court ordered the three arrested Swedes be detained until Nov. 22, when
the prosecutor will present charges against them or seek a further detention.
The three are being held in custody because police fear they might try to
escape.
One of the suspects was detained on suspicion of serious espionage -- a
crime against national security, suggesting more than corporate secrets had
been betrayed.
The other two were detained on suspicion of serious industrial espionage.
Ericsson would not say what documents had been leaked, but a senior company
source said they did not appear to have been linked to any military projects.
But the affair -- casting doubt on the security of Ericsson technology --
could not have come at a worse time for the Gripen fighter, one of three
planes contesting a $3.5-billion Polish contract for 48 multi-role combat
jets.
The deadline for placing offers is Nov. 12.
Saab Aerospace, a joint venture of Sweden's Saab AB and Britain's BAE
Systems Plc. that makes the Gripen fighter, said the company was not affected.
It is competing against the French-made Mirage jet and the US F-16 fighter
from Lockheed Martin.
"There is nothing that I know of, that suggests that we should have any
connection whatsoever to this spy affair," said Saab spokesman Peter Larsson.
No one was available for comment at the Russian embassy or in Moscow
because of a public holiday. -- Reuters
http://itmatters.com.ph/news/news_11112002f.html
"...The transfer of these technologies to China has been facilitated by two
mutually supporting trends.
First, there is enormous competition among telecommunications firms to get
a share of the relatively undeveloped but rapidly expanding Chinese
telecommunications market the largest market in the world. Naturally, the
lure of potential billions has attracted every major telecommunications
corporation, including US-based Lucent and Cisco, European wireless giants
Nokia and Ericsson, and Canada's Nortel Networks not to mention countless
others. From these companies, China is buying more than US$20 billion worth
of telecom equipment a year.
China is reported to account for about 25% of the world's market for
telecommunications equipment and is expanding exponentially. Much of this
growth is achieved through sales by foreign telecommunications companies
and by joint ventures with Chinese partners, which brings us to the second
important trend.
The installation of an advanced telecommunications infrastructure to
facilitate economic reform greatly complicates the state's internal
security goals. As the amount of information traveling over China's
networks increases exponentially, the government's ability to control that
information declines.
The exponential growth of the Internet in China has led some to argue that
as new technologies are adopted they will inevitably create a more open,
democratic society. The premise of much research is that the Internet is an
inherently democratizing medium, promoting pluralism, strengthening civil
society, and pressuring governments to become more accountable to their
people. In the post-Cold War world, the power of information and
communication technology to transform repressive societies is often held to
be self-evident.
Recent events in China present a rather different story..."
http://www.ichrdd.ca/english/commdoc/publications/globalization/goldenShieldEng.html
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