What's a little spying between friends?

[mea culpa <jericho () DIMENSIONAL COM>]

From: Zombie Cow <waste () zor hut fi>

http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/body/0,1634,89923-142316-981920-=0,00.html

What's a little spying between friends?=20

By PETER FORD

(September 6, 1999 12:39 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - You are not
supposed to spy on your friends. As details emerge of U.S.  intelligence
agencies eavesdropping on the e-mail, faxes, and phone calls of European
businesses, politicians in Europe are calling for better ways to safeguard
industrial secrets.

The most contentious source of trenchcoat contretemps among trans-Atlantic
allies: Internet encryption.

The United States is trying to persuade the European Union to allow only
Internet codes for which law enforcement and national security agencies
would have a "key." That would help to combat terrorists and drug
smugglers. But it would also give U.S. officials potential access to the
commercial secrets of foreign companies.

"Unless we have guarantees of safeguards, controls over who listens to
whom and what for, Europe is not going to leave the key under the doormat
so that the Americans can walk in and steal the family silver," says Glyn
Ford, a member of the European parliament.

But with no communist threat to occupy them, Western intelligence agencies
in the 1990s appear to be devoting more of their time and resources to
industrial espionage against each other. And, says Michael Hershman,
chairman of DSFX, the world's largest private investigative agency,
"Industrial espionage is going up steadily"  because of "globalization and
increased competition."

Before the end of the year, the European Parliament is due to discuss a
series of reports detailing the manner in which the U.S. National Security
Agency (NSA) intercepts international electronic communications.

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