espionage

Two Silicon Valley engineers from China have been sentenced to prison for stealing chip designs and attempting to smuggle them back into their native country, the Associated Press reported.

The two men, Fei Ye and Ming Zhong, pleaded guilty two years ago. They were sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif. According to the AP, they are the first ones convicted of the most serious violations under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996.

Ye is a U.S. citizen, the AP said, and Zhong is a permanent resident of the U.S.

Prosecutors did not allege … Read more

Two U.S. congressmen who are longtime critics of China's human rights record have accused China of compromising computers that had information related to political dissidents.

Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, says four of his computers were compromised beginning in 2006. New Jersey Republican Chris Smith said two of his computers used for the global human rights subcommittee in the House Foreign Affairs Committee were compromised in December 2006 and March 2007.

"My suspicion is that I was targeted by Chinese sources because of my long history of speaking out about China's abysmal human rights record,&… Read more

You really have to hand it to the United States. After putting up a remarkable ruckus in November when a Chinese rocket annihilated an old satellite and spread undetermined amounts of debris orbiting Earth, the United States government has decided to do the same to a malfunctioning spy satellite that could rain sizable and toxic debris somewhere on the planet if not destroyed. And China's government urges caution.

The situation is hard to grasp. According to the International Herald Tribune, China and Russia have recently called for a ban on all space weapons, which the United States has opposed. … Read more

Business is booming in the field of illegal, high tech weapons export, as shown by the Department of Justice's recently released Fact Sheet of Major US Export Enforcement Actions.

The roundup offers a "snapshot" of some of the more entertaining arrests and convictions of 2007. Military night vision goggles, aviation helmets, rocket launchers, guided missiles and microwave integrated circuits all made the list of off limit items. In many cases the export related crimes were further compounded by money laundering, drugs, theft and in the case of a Florida based mother and son team, conspiracy to murder.… Read more

Read all about it. The CIA posts hundreds of pages of internal documents, plus another 11,000 pages of research. This giant cache represents some of the agency's records from 1953 to 1973.

All of these documents can be found through this CIA Web page. First, be aware there still are censored sections, even after more than 30 years.

We already know about the CIA's attempts to hire Mafia hit men to kill Cuba's Fidel Castro. We already know that President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the CIA to illegally spy on American journalists and peace groups, and … Read more

Here at Crave, we stay paranoid so you don't have to. Where else, for example, can you find cautionary notes about an eavesdropping table lamp and a spy-cam clock in one place?

The latter was brought to our attention by Chip Chick, who says the "WiLife Spy Camera" is the "only networked camera concealed in a digital alarm clock." (Talk about esoteric claims.)

So far as we can tell, it's pretty much like other Wi-Fi spy cams we've seen that send video feeds back to a remote PC or other screen. The option … Read more

The espionage community has apparently taken up some hobbies since the end of the Cold War--including interior design.

The "GSM Table Lamp" may look like an innocent accent piece from Crate and Barrel, but it doubles as an eavesdropping device that can pick up audio up to 20 meters away. But what really stands out is its global monitoring ability.

As long as it's in a region with GSM coverage, Red Ferret notes that you can call the lamp from anywhere in the world. And no one will be the wiser, as it's activated automatically and … Read more

Go ahead, take the kids to McDonald's to get their Happy Meal Robosapiens. You know you were going to have to make a trip there anyway, sooner or later. Besides, that'll give you another excuse to get a robot of your own soon--the "Spyke."

As noted when it was introduced last month, this spy bot made by France's Meccano is outfitted with a Webcam, Wi-Fi connection and Skype's latest VoIP software. And now, thanks to Uber-Review, we know its price and availability: 200 pounds in the U.K., or about $391, with an April … Read more