Customer Reviews

CIA, Inc: Espionage & the Craft of Business Intelligence

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

 

 

If anyone wants to get a rapid primer on how modern espionage relates to the national and international business world, this is an excellent book to read. It is surprising what this veteran CIA officer, a highly respected core member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), has been permitted to say by the Agency about various operations. To this jaded reader/reviewer, in the profession for fifty-odd years, I particularly liked that the author told his stories in an entertaining, straight-from-the-shoulder fashion, warts and all, telling what worked, what did not work. There are no maudlin reminiscences or ego-stroking, occasionally present in personal memoirs. Rustmann makes the connection between his experiences, for example in bugging a foreign embassy, to the needed preventive and protective actions by US business. The book is recommended reading for corporate officers, but even quite apart from its message to business, it is also a public primer on the crafts of human intelligence and counterintelligence, from the recruitment of spies to collection operations and analysis, from the threat posed by foreign (or competitive) economic intelligence collection in the US (particularly from minorities with "dual" loyalties) to the protection of information and the detection of espionage operations. In the end one realizes that in business, just as with terrorism (also discussed), we are still living in an jungle, in which the uninformed and unwary may pay a heavy price. Rustmann's book is recommended reading for corporate professionals, but also for students and members of the public who want to know more about US and foreign espionage operations from a highly reputable professional.

This is a MUST READ for anyone involved in the industrial security or intelligence business as an employee or as an independent resource. It will definately put one on the right track to producing consistantly reliable intelligence research for business/industrial clients. It will also provide a running start at defining the methodology for protecting your proprietory information.

While I could not more agree with the previous reviewers as to the entertaining style of the book, I must say that after finishing it I could not shake the feeling I'd been duped by an ex-CIA agent who was looking to make a little money on the side by writing folksy recollections of his service time. If you're interested in reading about TLAs and other acronyms, this book is for you. If you want a spy novel, this might be for you, too, but don't expect any gunfire or semi-automatic weapons discharge, casinos with mixed drinks, double agent Halle Berry's, or anything remotely related. This book tells gut-level stories in a manner befitting Mark Twain, almost, and remembers once in a while to try and tie CIA-type spying into corporate intelligence by dropping short chapter sections on things like the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 and to make sure the reader is fully aware that Europe, China, and Japan have no qualms about stealing our corporate secrets. Oh, and for those of you who would like to take some tips on having a book qualify as "competitive intelligence", be sure to confuse the term business intelligence with competitive intelligence. And make sure that you watch carefully for the nepotism angle since the author's daughter gets a shot at outlining some web sites for gathering intelligence (and not many at that), though it's impossible to tell where her writing begins and his ends due to the consistency of voice in the narrative.

Finally, I'm still smirking at the jacket cover photo. Man, how serious can it get? Especially for a book that sheds such little light into competitive intelligence except to put a bug in your ear (pun intended) to watch out for bugs, how to determine if you're paranoid or really being bugged, or how to give your agents code names like the CIA does.

Rustman, an ex-CIA veteran, has written an entertaining, although not practical book, on espionage and business intelligence. My first problem with this book is the title. The topics of Espionage and Business Intelligence shouldn't be used together. Espionage is what a hostile government or a business rival does to another country or company. Business Intelligence is an all-encompassing term that includes the practices of competitive intelligence and counterintelligence. Espionage is both unethical and illegal; competitive intelligence is both ethical and legal.

This is one of many books written by an author who believes his exploits in the CIA somehow translate into practical lessons for the business world. Trouble is, they don't. If you're interest is in spies and spying, then you'll enjoy this book. If however, you have an interest in learning how to stay one step ahead of your competition, there are far better books to read than this one.

The author discusses such topics as bugs, wiretaps, and audio ops and countermeasures. These topics are better covered by persons that have a private investigative background or a technical countermeasures background rather than an intelligence background. When these topics are described in the book, the author does not tell us how to foil these attacks. A better approach would have been to describe the attack method and offer a solution.

The glossary is pretty good but the list of computer databases and information services is lacking in content.

Not a bad book, but one that is recommended only for those with an interest in spies and spying.

This book is a reasonbale first read for those who know little about spying, the world of intellegence and what it could be used for in the real (not cloak and dagger) world. The main emphasis is on how spying techniques (not illegal ones, mind you) can be applied in business, though this is not a book of tradecraft - the author repeated says that corporate human intellegence should be left to professionals. Given the serious financial reprecussions of violating one's non-disclosure agrements, I'd say that's good advice. A good read, skip the war stories if the topic at hand isn't of that much interest to you personally.

Rustmann's book is an attempt to cover the world of intelligence in business. There are numerous books out there about competitive intelligence and a few about economic or corporate espionage, but none that really do the subject justice. This book does a good job of starting to look at the subject and is recommended as an introduction. Unfortunately, the definitive work in this area has yet to be written for the public.
I found this book lagged in parts and digressed into the inevitable war stories that intelligence practitioners find so interesting. I did not find they added much to the book.

This review was forwarded to me by Roy Jonkers, Executive Director of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). Text as follows:

"If anyone wants to get a rapid primer on how modern espionage relates to the national and international business world, this is an excellent book to read. It is surprising what this veteran CIA officer, a highly respected core member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), has been permitted to say by the Agency about various operations.

This jaded reviewer, in the profession for fifty-odd years, particularly liked that the author told his stories in an entertaining, straight-from-the-shoulder fashion, warts and all, telling what worked, what did not work. There are no maudlin reminiscences or ego-stroking, occasionally present in personal memoirs. Rustmann makes the connection between his experiences, for example in bugging a foreign embassy, to the needed preventive and protective actions by US business. The book is recommended reading for corporate officers, but even quite apart from its message to business, it is also a public primer on the crafts of human intelligence and counterintelligence, from the recruitment of spies to collection operations and analysis, from the threat posed by foreign (or competitive) economic intelligence collection in the US (particularly from minorities with "dual" loyalties) to the protection of information and the detection of espionage operations. In the end one realizes that in business, just as with terrorism (also discussed), we are still living in an jungle, in which the uninformed and unwary may pay a heavy price.

Fred Rustmann's book is recommended reading for corporate professionals, but also for students and members of the public who want to know more about US and foreign espionage operations from a highly reputable professional."

I profited from studying the book. The book presented easy to follow intelligence principles and methods with unique complementary stories. The discussion of business intelligence, recruitment of spies, legal issues, source protection, CIA case officer, targeting, employee vulnerabilities, importance of in-depth background investigations and terrorism was informative, enlightening and helpful. The book showed the dangers, failures, successes and trade craft problems that exist in the intelligence and business community. It give examples from Vietnam era to present day situations. An innocent, who knew no better, would gain insightful information for survival in the world of intelligence.

The book came across as sincere and truthful.

A retired CIA couter terror operative informed me this is the real deal. The author is not using his real name. He did not know who wrote it, but that it right on.