MEP WARNS ON COMMERCIAL SPYING

[Theodor.Schlickmann@cec.eu.int]

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.