'Corporate Espionage: Easier than you think'



Written by: The Clone
Tuesday August 17, 1999



	I'm certain that everyone is aware that Corporate Espionage
is an everyday thing in society - especially here in Canada and of course
our neighboring country the United States.

Corporations like to know what's going on behind the doors of their 
competitors so that they'll have a good idea what to do next and at the 
same time always be one or two steps ahead.

Unfortunately for most, this just doesn't happen. 

--

Portfolio managers, Stockbrokers, Marketing representatives,
and Corporate CEO's of a company constantly have short term
or long term goals for wealth. Wether or not they do get the wealth
they intend upon or have a recession is all a matter of wits, probability,
and even sometimes luck. 

What we infrequently recognize time and time again is the lies, the tricks,
and of course Corporate Espionage which commonly happen in today's business 
world. Making the "honest buck" is irrelevant where as "making-as-much-money
as-you-possibly-can-at-all-costs" seems more realistic.

Corporate Espionage can be done numerous ways and 
presumably has been done numerous ways. Here's a few:


` Companies hiring hackers to break into competitors servers, and 
mainframes to steal sensitive information on stock trades, international
and global equities, marketing strategies, etc.

` Companies hiring people to break into competitors trash bins to find
important papers concerning many of the above categories of information.


There is one more way in which Corporate Espionage takes place. From what
I can tell, it hasn't been done much because I've never read a file on it
and have never heard about it in the news. 

It can be done via the telephone... I'm not talking "social engineering" your 
way into a companies secrets (though I'm sure it's been done). I'm talking
about dialing a phone number, usually on an 800-exchange, waiting for the 
system to pick up and listening to automated voice read off the options.
  
"It's as simple as that?" you ask yourself. Yes. Infact, I've found so many
companies which offer this it's unbelievable. Perhaps it's for employee
convenience more than anything.  

How you know you've found an 'automated Gestapo' line is firstly and the 
most obvious is; the automated voice. Generally the system picks up
with a warning telling you that the number you have dialed is for employees  
only and that it may not be reproduced, quoted, shown to members of the
public or used as sales material for public use.

You will be supplied with a range of categories to choice from such as
'domestic equity updates', 'market news', 'economist information', 
'international and global updates', 'growth and income and fixed income 
 updates', etc. 

The categories are often updated by the portfolio
managers and the information supplied by them is often very specific
(just what the analytical spies are looking for).


`-`

"How would one record this data effectively?"

 - By visiting your local Radio Shack, you can find fairly cheap
microcassette recorders from $15.00 to $150.00.

- Don't forget the microcassette's!

- While you're at Radio Shack, pick up a sound recording earpiece which 
hooks up to the microcassette recorder.

- Don't forget the batteries! 

(I won't explain how to operate the microcassette recorder/earpiece
 because that's what MANUAL'S are for.)

`-`

Now that you have the materials, the final step would be of course
finding that 800-exchange number(s).

For reasons of incrimination I will not be listing any of the 
systems/numbers that I've personally found. Besides, it wouldn't be  
fun to just give the info away. I'll let you find it yourself.

To give you a starting point, trying skanning the following INWATS
exchange prefix/suffixes:

1-800-488-7xxx
 
1-800-754-7xxx 

1-800-433-2xxx 

1-800-909-9xxx

1-800-916-1xxx

These are infact only a few numbers out of the many hundreds of 
companies with automated systems that have sensitive material so 
easily accessible without even having to have a passcode to get it.

---

Final words;

This file was meant to show what goes on in the corporate world in regards
to espionage as well how simple some of these schemes can be accomplished.
I expect companies who have read this file will better secure their
automated-telephone systems in the future so that this type "service"
will not be exploited time and time again.
 
---

Contact Info:

URL: http://nettwerk.hypermart.net 
e-mail: webmaster@nettwerk.hypermart.net


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