Customer Reviews

Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Picked this up before a long flight. It's an excellent book. The stories are engaging and supremely interesting. If you would like to learn more about the world of corporate spies, this is a good book to read. I can't wait to finish it on my flight home.

An eye-opening account of corporate espionage, the book ranges from the historical antecedents to today's civilian cloak and dagger to new and groundbreaking reporting of today's CIA agents being permitted to moonlight for corporations. This book will be an introduction to many of the use and sophistication of today's corporate espionage efforts and how those efforts have become practically commonplace. The author includes many riveting interviews with corporate ex-spooks discussing their strategies and past engagements. A must-read for those interested in the intersection of business and espionage in America today.

I've always been a fan of learning about the spy game. And I had always heard stories of how it pertained to the corporate world but never anything in depth. When I heard of this book, I expected a book based on facts that would place you squarely in the modern day corporate espionage arena. What I got, though, was something entirely different.

The book is a way too condensed version about the history of private eyes and how they're being used in today's fashion, with an extremely heavy concentration on the history aspects and who's connected with who. When I say "way too condensed", it is because it feels compact and hard to follow. You can read two paragraphs and it will jump through a complicated web of 15 people to get to where the author wants you to be. At times, all the names and connections can grow confusing. It also has a disorganized feel that seems to jump all over the place. You'll learn about the Pinkertons in the 1800's, follow them through a spiderweb of contacts to modern day, then jump back to 1800, all within 10 pages.

The book can also be dry at times, as it is written by an investigative reporter and never seems to shed it's journalism feel to become an in depth, captivating story. I'm not saying all journalists who are also authors write this way but this is definitely how Mr. Javers does in this case. It feels that most of the book follows a pattern like this...for 300 pages. Interweb was owned by John. John was a former CIA detective of 30 years and had known Russ. Russ brought Fred and Hank aboard, both NSA veterans, who then recruited Steve. Steve, allegedly, worked with Aaron, best friends of Garth. Now that Garth was aboard with Interweb, they could finally recruit Bob. The men went to work in an office in Washington, DC.

If you are extremely interested in the corporate espionage world or a private investigator history buff, I'd recommend it. But outside those qualifications, it doesn't warrant the full retail price tag.

About: Javers presents a glimpse at the clandestine world of corporate spying. He presents a history of the investigation field, interviews current and former spies, profiles a few intelligence agencies and provides real-world stories of corporate spying.

Pros: Very interesting look into a world I barely knew existed. Presents a few tricky tactics corporate spies use, such as making fake [...] ads and conducting fake job interviews in order talk to employees looking to leave the company that's being spied on. Another tactic is to tell the company that they are a documentary crew working on a film and go into the company headquarters and film all they can in the guise of making a documentary. Sources cited.

Cons: Since spies are usually required to be closed mouth, one can only wonder what other stuff goes on in the espionage world that Javers' contacts wouldn't reveal. Javers' call for more openness in the field in the final chapter seems to come out of nowhere.

Grade: B

It was captivating from the beginning...starting with the conception of corporate espionage and moving into several questionable tactics used by current corporations. Very intriguing.

Your competitors might be rummaging through your trash, eavesdropping on your conversations or studying satellite images of your properties. Corporate espionage is more common than you might imagine, writes journalist Eamon Javers in this intriguing study of commercial spying. He offers an impressively thorough study of its past and present, and he doesn't shy away from the thorny issues this sort of activity raises. Javers' use of court documents and his interviews with industry players create a well-rounded look at this little-noticed corner of capitalism. getAbstract recommends this book to anyone who enjoys a good spy story as well as to users and targets of corporate espionage. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you.

After nearly thirty-five years in the trenches as a trial lawyer, I am rarely surprised. As an early adapter to information technology in pretrial investigations I have long used Google and Google Earth to gather information on my opponents. Trial lawyers know that knowledge is power and that a little bit of information revealed at the opportune moment can convince a reluctant witness to reveal more than was intended.

Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy exposes the naiveté of such limited investigations. There is in fact a new industry largely staffed by by former intelligence officers (from many countries) who use their spycraft to aid corporations in complex litigation and in making trading decisions. These techniques include using publicly available spy satellite imaging to study the consumption of coal at power-plants to predict when a plant might go offline. Such information can be useful to an energy trader since even a temporary loss of generating capacity produces spikes in prices. Effective interrogation techniques focus on verbal and non-verbal indicia of deception that can be organized systematical to gain the upper hand in depositions over even the most determined witness.

Not every technique employed by these former spies requires a big budget. Good information can be acquired on the cheap by budget limited lawyers willing to study these methods and improvise accordingly.

This is not a in-depth book but gives a overview of this industry. It does not go into debate on ethics but focuses on the bare bones. the book gives several operations that I thought were educational. If you are interested in espionage then you should like this book.

A fascinating expose on on how companies use former spies to gain competitive intelligence in their industries. Also details how the government is a partner in this business, allowing spies to moonlight, and sharing the cost of sattelites that generate images around the world. It was eye-opening.

I wanted to do some research on competitive intelligence and this book was recommended to me to read. It was a compelling read and I finished it in a couple of days. An overview of what can go on in the corporate world ... especially if you are a large, global company.