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stories filed under: "corporate espionage"
Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
anti-piracy, corporate espionage, miki mullor, patents

Companies:
ancora, microsoft



Microsoft Claims Patent Holder Got A Job At Microsoft To Get Info Used In Patent Lawsuits

from the patent-espionage dept

We see all sorts of strange patent-related lawsuits around here, but this one probably qualifies for the most extreme attempt by a patent holder to come up with info for the sake of a patent lawsuit. Apparently (and this is according to Microsoft), Miki Mullor, CEO of a company called Ancora Technologies, applied for a job at Microsoft while still working for Ancora. He got the job, and then used the job to download all sorts of info unrelated to his job -- but which was helpful in allowing Ancora to sue a bunch of companies, including Dell, HP and Toshiba claiming that their use of Microsoft anti-piracy technology violated Ancora's patents on anti-piracy technology. We've seen plenty of questionable patent lawsuits... and lots of stories about corporate espionage, but not many that combined both topics. Update on 11/17/2009: The company informs us that the companies have settled.

11 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Scams

Scams

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
corporate espionage, cybercrime, espionage, organized crime, phishing



Online Criminals Move On To Corporate Espionage

from the plain-old-phishing-doesn't-pay dept

One of these days, someone will do a fascinating study or book on the evolving nature of online crime. It's a constantly changing phenomenon that would be quite interesting to study. A few years ago, we noted that the ease with which script kiddies could jump into the phishing and online extortion market meant that margins were getting squeezed for older online organized crime groups who had focused on such practices in the past. Apparently, the big money now has moved away from standard phishing and into corporate espionage. Organized crime groups are figuring out ways to hack into company networks, suck up as much data as possible, and then sell it off to the highest bidder -- whether it's competing firms or foreign governments.

7 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
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