[FYI] (Fwd) MEP WARNS ON COMMERCIAL SPYING

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           	Theodor.Schlickmann@cec.eu.int
To:             	ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk
Subject:        	MEP WARNS ON COMMERCIAL SPYING 
Date sent:      	Thu, 8 Mar 2001 11:05:59 +0100 
Send reply to:  	ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk


FYI
A senior MEP overseeing a probe into commercial espionage said on
Wednesday EU companies should beef up security measures, but added the
real scale of the problem was unknown. "Companies have to take steps
to protect themselves (against industrial espionage)" said Gerhard
Schmid, a German socialist. "A company has to ensure that its future
plans, production systems, financial data and other sensitive
information are not communicated by fax or by telephone," he said.
Schmid belongs to the Parliament's Echelon committee of inquiry
<http://www.europarl.eu.int/committees/echelon_home.htm>. He said his
committee had unearthed no concrete evidence that the U.S. or Echelon
was conducting espionage against companies in the 15-nation European
Union. "Eavesdropping by satellite communication, unlike burglary,
leaves no traces" Schmid said, adding that for this reason there were
no reliable figures on the scale of economic damage caused by
industrial espionage. But he added: "The possibilities for
eavesdropping are hopelessly exaggerated." He said that even the U.S
had to rely on its allies in the Echelon system to gather information
from many parts of the world. EU fears about alleged U.S. espionage
have recently been fuelled by the comments of a EU Commission
employee, Desmond Perkins, to the effect that the NSA regularly
checked the Commission's encryption system. The Commissionhas
reassured parliamentarians that the NSA has not acquired access to EU
codes. But some parliamentarians remain perturbed by the remarks. "The
Perkins case reveals again acute failures of managerial control in the
European Commission. We must ensure that reforms in progress just now
bring about tight controls on European secrets" said British MEP Neil
MacCormick. 




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