Publisher's Synopsis
In 2006, a scandal erupted at Hewlett Packard when it was discovered that Patricia Dunn, then the company's chairwoman, had hired spies to monitor journalists covering HP and its board members. Using a technique called "pretexting," the spies posed as someone else to trace leaks. To quell public outrage, Congress passed a law banning pretexting. Yet as investigative journalist Eamon Javers shows, the incident at HP is not unique. Industrial espionage is a multibillion-dollar enterprise with tentacles reaching across the globe. Intelligence companies are setting up fake websites, trailing individuals, dumpster-diving in private and corporate trash, using ultra-sophisticated satellite surveillance, and hacking secure computer networks. Their activities raise crucial moral and legal questions for a world ever more interconnected by globalisation. Built on reporting, including exclusive interviews with some of the world's top corporate surveillance experts and unprecedented access, Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy is a shocking exposé of the sordid world of corporate espionage and its historic cast, including Allan Pinkerton, the nation's first "private eye," tycoons and playboys, presidents and FBI operatives, CEOs and accountants, Cold War veterans and military personnel, and Howard Hughes's private CIA. This book is sure to change the way readers look at business-and their own companies.
