What a tangled web we weave…

I imagine that most technology security readers are aware that Oracle has sued SAP for acts of industrial espionage that represent "theft on a grand scale." By using the credentials of Oracle's customers and generating SAP's own credentials on Oracle's website, SAP was allegedly involved in some blatantly subversive activity.

Now I do not want to sentence SAP before they have responded, that is not proper. But I do want to point out that it is not a stretch to think that a large legitimate company would involve itself in an illegal activity to further its success.

Oracle should be aware of this considering it was sued by J.D. Edwards in 2003 to the tune of $1.7 Billion for wrongful conduct and unfair business practices.

The fact that SAP has within its organization the Apollo Group, a self-professed “Attack Oracle” group designed to combat Oracle does not bode well for SAP’s defense.

In the past year we have seen HP executives bringing the word “pretexting” into the common vernacular. An incredibly dirty and illegal method of obtaining information under the “pretext” that you are the owner (or someone who should have access to) that data. Now it appears that KPMG is also involved in a pretexting matter.

Wal-Mart just a few days ago apologized to The New York Times for spying on TNYT by intercepting text messages and phone calls of Wal-Mart employees and journalists. A matter that I believe will get much worse by the time it is done.

HID threatened legal action by raising the specter of patent infringement when a security researcher attempted to show the vulnerabilities of their technology. This could have a stifling affect on the technology research that is performed daily to better the technology sector.

And then there is the Telecom Italia fiasco where a team of security personnel at Telecom Italia infected publishers with a Trojan and stole documentation from their laptops. Then one of the members of the group had the gall to show the publishers their documents that were stolen and offered to take over the publishers’ security so they would be better protected.

Outside of the world of technology, there are also plenty of issues: Chiquita, for example, gave $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 as protection money to Columbia’s United Self-Defense Forces, defined as a terrorist organization by the US Government.

It’s a shady world, folks. And just because you are paid well and everyone can speak proficiently on technical matters does not mean they have the moral fiber to avoid such lascivious behavior. I am constantly amazed at how smart people can be so under-handed. If you haven’t seen “Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room”, please rent it soon and observe.

Technology is truly a device of our own creation. We can either give it the ability to make our existence better or we can pollute it with that which is the worst in us.

Michael Mongold