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Israeli Private Eyes Stole Corporate Secrets
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-04-29
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A private investigation firm made use of spyware to pilfer secrets from companies in Israel; four of their staffers received criminal sentences.
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The Trojan horse of Greek lore proved the vehicle of choice for a quartet of corporate spies in Israel. Members of the Modi'in Ezrahi private eye business in Israel allegedly dropped malware on several companies, including a PR agency with ties to the country's second-biggest mobile carrier.
Security vendor Sophos said the four defendants received various fines and jail terms:
Asaf Zlotovsky, a manager at the Modi'in Ezrahi detective firm, was given a 19 month jail sentence. Two other employees, Haim Zissman and Ron Barhoum, were sent to prison for 18 and nine months respectively. The firm's former CEO, Yitzhak Rett, escaped a jail sentence after admitting the allegations under a plea bargain - he has been fined 250,000 Israeli Shekels (US $72,000) and will face 10 months on parole.
London-based Michael Haephrati, who honed his computer skills during three years' military service in the Israeli army, developed the spyware Trojan horse, while his wife, Ruth, marketed it to several private investigation firms who bought the code and installed it onto the computers of its clients' rivals. The Haephratis were fined and sentenced to jail by an Israeli court for their involvement in the case in 2006.
While security pros worry, justifiably so, about espionage against government networks and systems, the threat to commercial interests with military ties makes us more uneasy. Attackers like the usual gang of provocateurs from a certain Olympics-hosting country we won't name gain just as much value from grabbing plans for technology used in a military application as they do from taking the application plans.
That's what makes corporate espionage so dangerous. All it takes is two critical but separate pieces of information and one person to tie them together to pose a threat.
View All Articles by David Utter
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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