Thursday 31 January 2008

The Competitor Intelligence Counter Threat

Brand Killer Robots reveal::
Hiring hackers to take out a threat from other hackers is nothing new, but what is new is the motivation of the particular hackers in question. From a recent investigation we understand that there are a new breed of computer scientist on the block who deplore the acts of the many criminals, conmen and voyeurs that characterise themselves as international computer hackers. In fact, they despise them so much that they are actively forming companies to defend global corporations from attacks against their infrastructure and their brand.

We recall one particular story where a global consumer brand suffered a multiple attack by hackers hell bent on disrupting the launch of a new pharmaceutical product, on behalf of a foreign competitor (who shall remain nameless).Using a highly targeted series of sophisticated attacks, hackers seized harddisks, laptop computers and encoded transmissions.

Ordinarily, those who have ownership of the systems containing the data are usually the ones empowered by that information.

Thankfully, none of the forementioned was of any use to the competitor company, given the devices had been designed by white hats to be completely useless in the hands of anyone but their true owners. Worse still for the foreign competitor was that they were left with the realisation that the target could defend itself, even when certain confidential assets fell into the hands of others.

This for them, was a new and unwelcome phenomenon and one that they would have to contend with in the future.

Needless to say, it saved the pharmaceutical company from losing many millions of dollars and their R&D data being traded on the black market.

The Competitor Intelligence Counter Threat

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