| brian carroll on 7 Mar 2001 06:36:49 -0000 |
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| <nettime> caught some big spooky fish |
cast out the hook for Halliburton/Enron in a message to Nettime
sent Wednesday, February 28, 2001 from California, referring to
the glossalalia project URL and sure enough, the big spooky fish
that is Enron took the bait. here is the info from my logfiles,
indicating 3 simultaneous hits to the glossy project URL:
<begin logfile_info>
3/5|12:08 PM|http://www.architexturez.com/glossalalia/|
outbound5.enron.com|192.152.140.9|
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)|
3/5|12:08 PM|http://www.architexturez.com/glossalalia/rbot.htm|
outbound5.enron.com|192.152.140.9|
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)|
3/5|12:08 PM|http://www.architexturez.com/glossalalia/rbot.htm|
outbound5.enron.com|192.152.140.9|
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)|
</end logfile_info>
just for accuracy sake, i entered the IP address 192.152.140.9
into swhois from namespace which returned the following info:
<begin whois_search_info>
Enron Corp, Inc. (NETBLK-EGLI-)
1400 Smith Street
Houston, TX 77002
US
Netname: EGLI-1
Netblock: 192.152.140.0 - 192.152.140.255
Coordinator:
Lovett, Steven R. (SRL19-ARIN) slovett@ENORN.COM
713-853-1434 (FAX) 713-646-3010
Domain System inverse mapping provided by:
ENEFW1.ENRONCORP.COM 192.152.140.1
ENEFW2.ENRONCORP.COM 192.152.140.2
Record last updated on 23-Jan-1998.
Database last updated on 6-Mar-2001 19:02:59 EDT.
http://name.space.xs2.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl
</end whois_search_info>
ANOTHER VERY BIG FISH which has been swimming around my
site for quite a while has been nipr.mil, which yields
the following information from a whois search for the IPs:
(two recent visits (44 hits)
3/4|12:30 AM||bu-wcs2-kelly.nipr.mil|
198.26.123.37|Mozilla/3.01 (compatible;)|
3/5|2:51 PM||bu-wcs2-sand.nipr.mil|
198.26.130.37|Mozilla/3.01 (compatible;)|
==============================================================
DLA Systems Automation Center (NETBLK-DLA-C)
3990 E. Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43216
US
Netname: NETBLK-DLA-C
Netblock: 198.25.0.0 - 198.26.255.255
Maintainer: DNIC
Coordinator:
Cassell, James (JC536-ARIN) JCASSELL@CRCC.DISA.MIL
(614) 692-9549 (FAX) (614) 692-9129
Domain System inverse mapping provided by:
AAA-KELLY.NIPR.MIL 199.252.162.251
AAA-VAIHINGEN.NIPR.MIL 199.252.154.251
AAA-WHEELER.NIPR.MIL 199.252.180.251
AAA-VIENNA.NIPR.MIL 207.132.116.60
Record last updated on 13-Jun-1997.
Database last updated on 6-Mar-2001 19:02:59 EDT.
see for bginfo: http://www.dsdc.dla.mil/geninfo/history.htm
....and from the main logfile IP address for NIPR.MIL:
DOD Network Information Center (NIPR-DOM)
7990 Science Applications Court
MS CV-50
Vienna, VA 22183-7000
Domain Name: NIPR.MIL
PLA: [None specified]
Technical Contact:
System, Administrator (AS3)
(800) 365-3642 (FAX)(703) 676-1749
ACTION@NIC.MIL
Administrative Contact:
DoD, Hostmaster (HOSTMASTER)
(800) 365-3642 (FAX)(703) 676-1749
HOSTMASTER@NIC.MIL
Record last updated on 14-Feb-2000.
Domain servers in listed order:
CON1.NIPR.MIL 199.252.175.234
EUR1.NIPR.MIL 199.252.154.234
PAC1.NIPR.MIL 199.252.180.234
==============================================================
interestingly, i have never had any concern about this, as
there must be _some_ public oversight of this monitoring,
yet after visiting one of their hard to find access points
(at least for me) online at http://cap.nipr.mil/, i read
info which amounts to 'the use of NIPR.MIL for official government
business only, when browsing websites'. here's the actual text:
["This is a Department of Defense (DOD) computer system. This computer
system, which includes all related equipment, software, networks, and
network devices, is provided only for official U.S. Government business.
...
DOD computer systems may be monitored by authorized personnel to ensure that
their use is authorized to manage the system, to facilitate protection
against unauthorized access, and to verify security procedures. During these
activities, information stored on this system may be examined, copied and
used for authorized security purposes, and data or programs may be placed
into this system. Use of this or any other DOD interest computer system
constitutes a consent to monitoring at all times."]
thus, while it might be a stretch of the imagination for the skeptical
but silent lurker, it is fair to say that these visits are 'official
U.S. Government Business by the Department of Defense [DoD].
these are just little Factoids regarding publishing ideas on Nettime,
and an indication of who is a part of this 'community', and listening
in at the sidelines. while public ideas are being presented, it is as
if something dangerous is being said. being a human being in a private
citizen's world today must be considered terrorism by those at the top
of the compost heap. sure enough, no response from Halliburton or Enron,
but it may be a good idea for people to start recording their logs when
writing anything challenging, not extending, status quo interpretations
that support despotic abuses of public power by those privately in power.
a wish for transparency, freedom, and public accountability in democracy.
-human being
<begin commentary>
the following was sent to me in regards to my last post on this subject.
i would like to state that i am not anti-corporate, as i do not believe
things are that simple. i am for corporate responsibility and for public
accountability and regulation of private business, so that both large
and small scale business benefits the local/global community as a whole.
it need not be stated how far this currently is from being the case-
the denial of any public accountability for 'corporate-driven public
policy' helps no one. especially when the spooks at the DoD and the
CEOs of energy companies like Halliburton and Enron are the same people
in the top administration of the United States Government. checks and
balances will not happen in government, but in forums where this marriage
of public & private interests can be dissected and analyzed. yet there
is currently no differentiation, in discourse (be it practical and-or
theoretical) that there is even a difference between what is public
and what is private. being human is just another private phantasy,
or so it seems to the status quo private citizenry. until we find a
commonality, all the big issues will be fragmented and the destruction
of a public society will continue to erode until there is total war--
and then what? what will happen on nettime when our respective
countries start to re-organize their geopolitical relations and,
most likely, end their alliances and form new ones, in opposition?
what if, for example, France and Germany were to side with Russia
on a strategic issue, and all hell broke lose in a nuclear exchange
and these countries, and peoples, went to war against one-another
in the age of the internetwork. what would happen with nettimers?
dissent? against ourselves? organizing? for what? protest? against
who, the military? what about the reality of the offline world and
how it is impacting online space? or is nettime's nova in net.art
alone and its dying star system? just another private opinion, as
some would like to believe.
</end commentary>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Corporate Spooks
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Corporate espionage is the dirty little secret of big business in America
today.
Corporations spy on other corporations. They spy on citizen groups. They
spy on governments.
To protect their reputations, corporations don't admit to spying. But they
do it.
Corporate spies call themselves "competitive intelligence professionals."
There is even a professional association of corporate spies -- the Society
for Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP).
SCIP denies that "competitive intelligence" is espionage and denies that
"competitive intelligence professionals" are spies.
"Espionage is the use of illegal means to gather information," says the
SCIP web site (www.scip.org).
And SCIP says its members do not practice espionage.
SCIP says that its members gather their information legally from public
sources and are bound by a strict code of ethics, which requires
compliance with all laws and disclosure of "all relevant information,
including one's identity and organization, prior to all interviews."
Marc Barry is out to upend SCIP's apple cart.
Barry is a corporate spy. He's not a member of SCIP, because he says he's
not a hypocrite.
Of course corporations spy, he says.
Of course SCIP's members spy, he says.
In fact, they hire him when they don't want to get caught doing a
company's dirty work.
In the business, he's known as a kite.
"A kite is somebody who is essentially expendable, somebody who is flown
out there, and if it hits the fan, the controller can cut the string, deny
knowledge and let the kite fly off on its own," Barry told us last week.
"I provide my clients with actionable intelligence that they either don't
know how to get themselves, or they don't want to get caught collecting
themselves," Barry said. "I provide plausible deniability to my clients.
In the event that an operation is blown and there is litigation or worse
-- a criminal charge -- they can deny all responsibility by denying
knowledge."
With plausible deniability, Barry's corporate clients "can claim ignorance
by demonstrating in court that I am in fact a consultant, that I signed
documents saying that I would abide by all ethical rules, and that they
had no idea what I was doing," he says.
Barry runs about 40 capers a year.
"I do very well for myself," Barry said. "All of my clients are Fortune
500 companies. I deal at the executive level. I'm either dealing at the
chief executive officer, or the chief operating officer level. The very
lowest would be vice president of marketing."
Recently, a SCIP board member hired Barry to run an operation against
Kraft Foods on behalf of Schwan's Sales Enterprises.
In the winter of 1997, Kraft had developed a new "rising crust" pizza
under the brand name DiGiorno. Schwan's was moving a similar pizza under
the name Tony's.
Kraft, a unit of Phillip Morris, was planning a massive advertising
campaign to position DiGiorno's as the only frozen pizza to taste like
pizza-parlor pizza.
The SCIP member phoned Barry.
He knew Barry could quickly get information on the Kraft operation.
Posing as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, as an environmentalist,
and as a graduate student, Barry collected the information Schwan's wanted
in less than two days. Job completed. Barry wrote about the operation in
a Spooked: Corporate Espionage in America (Perseus, 2000, co-authored by
Adam Penenberg).
Someone at Kraft read the book, ordered an internal investigation, and
tripped across a second espionage operation. Last month, Kraft sued
Schwan's for theft of trade secrets.
Isn't Barry concerned about the ethics of lying?
"To my knowledge, in all 50 states, it is not illegal to lie," he says.
"The only people I listen to are the United States Department of Justice
and state and local law enforcement officials."
What about dumpster diving -- going through someone's garbage?
"Dumpster diving is perfectly legal, providing there is not a sign
posted," Barry says. "The courts have held that if it is left to be
accessed by commercial carters, then it is no longer private property. It
is only private property if there is a 'no trespassing' sign and you had
to trespass to get into the dumpster."
What about using an answering machine pick -- a device used to remotely
grab someone else's message off the target's answering machine?
"That's probably a gray area," Barry says.
"Do you use picks?" we ask.
"Fine, and you?" Barry answers.
Barry wonders whether SCIP members are adhering to the organization's
"code of ethics."
"If you go to one of their functions, it looks like a sixth grade dance --
where you had all the boys on one side and all the girls on the other side
and no one would talk to each other," he says.
"At a SCIP function, on one side you have all the spooks who came out of
Defense Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the
National Security Agency. And they are all backslapping and hanging with
each other."
"And on the other side you have the librarians, the Lexis-Nexis types, the
software people. So, the white hats are on one side, and the black hats
are on the other."
Barry sees a big business in corporate espionage. His Manhattan-based
company -- C3I Analytics -- is in a joint venture with Raytheon that is
dumping $12 million to build a state-of-the art corporate espionage war
room in New York City.
The new company, to be called Intelogix, will sell services to other
corporations "intent on studying the enemy's every move."
Could it be that, as you are reading this, some Fortune 500 company is
picking the telephone messages off your answering machine?
Fine, and you?
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The
Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common
Courage Press, 1999).
(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
_______________________________________________
Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber
and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or
repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on
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